How the Bible Came to Us, part 2

The Bible is a collection of books which record each author’s inspired revelation in the form of history, prophecy, songs and poetry, instructions, and wise sayings. Through its pages the divine plan is revealed progressively, first through prophecy of things to come, and then—where possible—the historical account of prophecy fulfilled.

Because there are things yet to be fulfilled, it is possible that more will need to be written to complete the record of God’s plan. Yet I would not expect such to be written until the second coming of Christ has occurred, for this is when such authors would be qualified to do such work. Not only will the actual events at that time prove which eschatological views are correct, but the manifestation of the sons of God will create immortal and incorruptible saints who are capable of setting forth a complete revelation.

Will, then, our present 66 books of the (Protestant) Bible be increased to 100? No one knows for sure at this point. We only know that clarity must yet be given to us in order to bring unity to the church, for at the present time, virtually every biblical doctrine is interpreted in different ways in different denominations and even within those denominations.

Moses laid the foundations of truth in the Torah, but the people themselves either rejected it, misunderstood it, or misapplied it by their carnal minds. The prophets gave greater clarity, but only a minority of the people took heed to what they said. The prophets applied the law to the nation as necessary, often giving clarity through what I call Supreme Court decisions.

The New Testament was written by those who were inspired through the Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This was a greater level of spiritual inspiration than had been given to Israel previously in the time of Moses. Moses lived in a Passover Age (from the Exodus to the Cross). The apostles were sent out with a Pentecostal anointing and wrote the gospels and epistles with that greater anointing.

Hence, when the final outpouring of the Holy Spirit is sent out under the power of the feast of Tabernacles, will we not receive an even greater anointing to clarify the word and bring real unity to the church?

Ezra the Priest and Scribe

Ezra lived at the time of Judah’s restoration after the decree of Cyrus, the Persian. Having diligently studied the law, he compiled the sacred writings from the past into the body now commonly known as the Old Testament. The Jewish Encyclopedia tells us that he lived to be 120 years old and was buried “near the point where the Tigris flowed into the Euphrates.” However, in the first century A.D., Josephus contradicted this, telling us that he died in Jerusalem and was buried there (Antiquities of the Jews, 11, V, v).

Ezra was also said to have written the books of the Chronicles, along with his memoirs known to us as the book of Ezra. Nehemiah 8:2 refers to him as “Ezra the priest,” but he was also called “Ezra the scribe” (Nehemiah 8:4). Nehemiah 8:9 speaks of “Ezra the priest and scribe.” In the first migration to Jerusalem, Ezra remained behind, probably so as not to compete with Joshua, the high priest during the building of the second temple. But decades later, as an old man, he went to Jerusalem with Nehemiah, who was commissioned to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem.

The canon of the Old Testament was completed and settled by the time of Ezra’s death. It is clear that he also added comments here and there, most notably in the last few verses of the book of Deuteronomy. Moses’ death probably was recorded by Eliezar, who succeeded his father Aaron as high priest. Then Ezra wrote Deuteronomy 34:10-12 as a final notation. Verse 10 says,

¹⁰ Since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.

“Since that time” would be meaningless, if some time had not passed already. No doubt Ezra was referring to Deuteronomy 18:15, where Moses gave a messianic prophecy,

¹⁵ The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.

Ezra informs us in Deuteronomy 34:10 that this prophecy had not yet been fulfilled in his day. It is only in Acts 3:22 that Peter boldly says that the prophecy had been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

The Bible often uses the phrase “unto this day,” each time referring to the day of the author’s writing. Moses used the phrase often in the book of Genesis to refer to his own day. So also Ezra says that no prophet like Moses had risen “since that time.”

The Apocrypha

Books continued to be written in the four centuries after Ezra’s death. They were important from a historical standpoint, but there was no authoritative reason to add them to the canon that Ezra had compiled. There are seven that are classed as The Apocrypha, “doubtful writings.” They are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees. In addition, there are portions of books in Esther and Daniel, which apparently were written at a later time and rejected by the Jewish priests.

Ivan Panin reported that he tried without success to find numeric patterns in the books of the Apocrypha. Without those numeric patterns, we find no fingerprints of God that would suggest divine inspiration. Just because a book is old (or even historically valuable) does not mean it ought to be included in the canon of Scripture.

Enoch, Jubilees, and Jasher

In addition to these, there was the book of Enoch, which scholars say was written by a Jew during the Babylonian captivity. It was common in those days, for marketing purposes, to write under the name of a more famous person from the past, who, being safely dead, could not verify or repudiate the book being written in his name. Yet scholars who have studied Babylonian religious literature saw that most of the book of Enoch was strikingly similar in its angelology.

In my view, only the first part of Enoch, quoted in Jude 14 can be relied upon as being true. The quotation is from the first chapter of Enoch. Even so, there is no evidence that Ezra knew of its existence in his day, but if he did, he saw fit to exclude it from the canon.

Another is the book of Jubilees, which scholars date around 150-160 B.C. This book was known to many in the first century, but there is no evidence that the apostles relied upon it or that they considered it canonical in any way. Its chronology and Jubilee system differs somewhat from that given in the book of Jasher.

I have more confidence in Jasher than in the book of Jubilees. The 1840 edition of Jasher, translated into English from the 1613 manuscript found in Venice, remarkably supports the concepts of Cursed Time (414-year cycles) that I wrote about in my own book, Secrets of Time. Nonetheless, in spite of its historical value, I do not think that Jasher ought to be included in the canon. There are two passages in Jasher that are incompatible with Scripture: the age of Serug when he became the father of Nahor (Genesis 11:22), and the age of Moses (Exodus 7:7) when he led Israel out of Egypt.

Jasher is remarkably helpful in clarifying some of the obscure biblical statements, as I explained in Secrets of Time.

Whether or not Ezra knew of the book of Jasher, we know that he excluded it from the canon of Scripture, even though it was mentioned twice (Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18).