Let's try and answer some of the questions you may have been asking about this collection of ancient scrolls
that we now call the Old Testament.

HOW WERE THE ORIGINAL RECORDS MADE? 

They Were Hand-Written 

As each stage of God’s plans unfolded, those involved at the time were asked to write an account of what was happening. For example … 

   And the LORD said to Moses, “Write down all these instructions, for they represent the terms of my covenant with you and with Israel.” (Exodus 34:27).

   The LORD said to Moses … “Now write down the words of this song, and teach it to the people of Israel.” (Deuteronomy 31:16, 19).

   The LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Write down for the record everything I have said to you, Jeremiah.” (Jeremiah 30:1-2).

   During the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king in Judah, the LORD gave this message to Jeremiah: “Get a scroll, and write down all my messages against Israel, Judah, and the other nations. Begin with the first message back in the days of Josiah, and write down every message you have given, right up to the present time. Perhaps the people of Judah will repent if they see in writing all the terrible things I have planned for them. Then I will be able to forgive their sins and wrong doings.

   So Jeremiah sent for Baruch son of Neriah, and as Jeremiah dictated, Baruch wrote down all the prophecies that the LORD had given him.” (Jeremiah 36:1-4).

   Then the LORD said to me, “Write my answer in large, clear letters on a tablet, so that a runner can read it and tell everyone else. But these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.” (Habakkuk 2:2-4). 

John Thompson[1] tells us that as well as the many examples of formal writing that are known, ‘the names of individuals scratched on pots and various other examples of writing, show that the skill was widely known in ancient Israel.’ For many, writing became their primary ministry. Thompson[2] writes … 

   Professional scribes came into existence as the nation developed a centralised administration. The king’s scribes were government officials who were counsellors, secretaries of state and tax officials, as well as writers of documents. Jeremiah dictated his prophecies to the scribe Baruch, probably just as other employers used their scribes.

   There were professional guilds of scribes, just as there were other specialised workers, and they had special quarters in the temple or palace. From the description given by Ezekiel[3], it seems they carried a writing case attached to their girdle—just like the scribes in Egypt and Mesopotamia.[4]

The New Testament writers frequently made reference to ‘what is written.’ For example … 

   Herod … called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law. “Where did the prophets say the Messiah would be born?” he asked them.

   “In Bethlehem,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote … ” (Matthew 23-5) 

The records were hand-written on … 

Papyrus 

John Thompson[5] tells us that ‘most writing in ancient Israel was done on papyrus.’ He explains how this writing material was made. 

   Papyrus was manufactured from the pithy stem of the papyrus reed. Strips were laid side by side vertically, then others across them horizontally. The sheet was pressed and dried in the sun, then rubbed smooth with pumice and beaten hard. The result was a flexible sheet of creamy white writing-paper. For copying lengthy documents and books, the sheets would be pasted side by side to make a scroll. Papyrus was almost indestructible if it was kept dry. Because there is little moisture in Egypt outside the Nile valley, enormous numbers of ancient papyrus documents have survived there. Buried in the warm sand, they have turned brown and brittle and are often recovered in pieces.

   Papyrus came into use in Egypt soon after 3000 BC and was the normal writing material. Scribes sat cross-legged with the papyrus resting on their taut kilts. 

Leather 

Thompson[6] shares this interesting insight with us  … 

   From … the time of the exile, it is likely the Jews wrote their books on leather scrolls as well as on papyrus. The oldest surviving examples are those found in the caves near Qumran, the Dead Sea Scrolls. They show the form of Scriptures current in Palestine in the time of the Gospel story. This allows us to picture Jesus in the synagogue at Capernaum reading from a leather scroll of Isaiah like the famous one from a Dead Sea cave. 

Other Writing Material Was Also In Use. 

We turn to John Thompson[7] again … 

   In Babylonia another common substance used as writing material was clay. With a reed stylus scribes would impress the wedge-shaped strokes of the cuneiform script on to the soft surface of clay small enough to be held in the hand. After drying in the sun and baking in an oven these tablets became hard and durable. This Babylonian practice spread all over the Near East, and some scribes in Canaanite cities wrote in cuneiform, although there is no suggestion that the Israelites did so.

   Kings everywhere would have their deeds carved on stone monuments  and on the walls of buildings. Other people sometimes had inscriptions engraved on stone, usually for tombs. Especially after the alphabet had become widely used, many people would scratch their names or short notes on all sorts of stone and metal objects including pits and pans. 

Wooden tablets coated on one side with wax were also in use. 

What Writing Implements Were Used For Writing On The Scrolls? 

John Thompson[8] describes them for us. 

   For writing on papyrus and leather, scribes made pens from reeds and rushes sharpened with a knife. Two or three would be kept in a pen-case with cakes of ink. Black carbon from charcoal was mixed with oil or gum and dried to make the ink. The writer moistened the tip of the pen in water and then dipped it on the cake, thus mixing his ink as he wrote. 

What Alphabet Was Used In The Writing? 

An informative book explaining how alphabets came into being is THE ALPHABET MAKERS.[9] In the chapter on The Hebrew Alphabets, Scripts Of Israel, Old And New, we read … 

   The Old Hebrew alphabet, called ‘The Script of the Prophets’, was doubtless that in which most of the Old Testament of the Bible was originally written. It was the same, or nearly the same, as the original North Semitic,[10] with 22 letters—all consonants … But when the Jews returned from Babylonian exile in 538 BC,  they had become accustomed to the Aramaic speech and alphabet.

   Many Jews no longer understood Hebrew, so when Ezra the scribe (about 450 BC) read the Scriptures to them, he translated into Aramaic. “And they read from … the Law of God, translating[11] to give the sense so that they understood the reading.” (Nehemiah 8:8). Ezra is credited with starting to write Hebrew with square letter shapes, while using some features of Old Hebrew letters. This was the origin of the present Hebrew alphabet for making copies of the Old Testament, and is the script of Israel today. 

WHAT SHALL WE CALL THIS HAND-WRITTEN SELECTION OF SCROLLS? 

Jewish Scholars Divided The Selection Of Books Into Three Groups 

To the first group of five books they gave the name ‘The Torah,’ derived from a Hebrew word meaning  ‘to throw’ or ‘to shoot.’ The name Torah refers to a set of instructions designed to give direction to a people, to provide the basis for a society where law and order prevails. Edward Young[12] explains further …

   As a designation of the first five books of the Bible, the word is employed in a more restricted sense to stress the legal element which forms so great a part of these books. This usage does not exclude the narrative or historical sections, but rather includes them, since they form the fitting background or framework for the legislation. 

We often refer to these first five books as the Pentateuch. This is a name formed from two Greek words, πέντε (pente) ‘five’ and τευχοs (teuchos) ‘volume.’ Young[13] tells us that “the word teuchos properly means a tool or implement. It came to be used to designate a case for holding papyrus rolls and also for the roll itself. Hence its meaning, a volume or a book.” 

To the second group, Jewish scholars gave the name ‘The Prophets.’ The books they included in this group were those whose authors exercised the ministry of a prophet. It contains the books which we might refer to as the historical books—Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings—as well as those we would be more likely to call the prophetic books, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. 

The third group bore the name ‘The Hagiographa.’ The term combines two Greek words, άγιοs (hagios) ‘holy’ and γραφαι (graphai) ‘writings’, to give us the meaning ‘The Sacred Writings’. This group was made up of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. 

In New Testament Times The Books Were Referred To As ‘The Scriptures’ 

The word used was γραφη (graphē) ‘writing’ or γραφαι (graphai) ‘writings’, translated in our English Bibles as Scripture or Scriptures. Jesus often referred to the Scriptures, as did the apostles in their preaching and letters. For example … 

   Then Jesus asked them, “Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures? ‘The stone rejected by the builders has now become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing  and it is marvellous to see.’ ” (Matthew 21:42, Psalm 118:22-23).

   Now Paul and Silas travelled through the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he interpreted the Scriptures to the people. (Acts 17:1-2).

   That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. When they went there, they went to the synagogue. And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to check up on Paul and Silas, to see if they were really teaching the truth. (Acts 17:10-11).

   This letter is from Paul, Jesus Christ’s slave, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News. This Good News was promised long ago by God through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. (Romans 1:1-2).  

We Now Know The Selection Of Books As The Old Testament 

How did this name come to be used? The English word ‘testament’ comes from the Latin word ‘testamentum’ meaning ‘a last will and testament’. It was the word chosen for the titles of the two sections of the Bible in its Latin translation—the Vetus Testamentum (Old Testament) and the Novum Testamentum (New Testament). 

In the Greek Bible, the Greek word (translated as ‘testamentum’ in the Latin Bible) is διαθηκη (diathēkē). It has a further component in its meaning. F. F. Bruce[14] explains … 

   So we have to consider this Greek word diathēkē. It is, we discover, a word which can bear more meanings than one. It may mean ‘testament’ (in the sense of ‘last will and testament’), but it may also mean ‘covenant’. It is used frequently in the Greek Bible—both in the Greek Septuagint) translation of the Old Testament and in the original Greek of the New Testament—and its regular Biblical meaning is ‘covenant’ … We may, therefore, replace the word ‘Testament’ by the word ‘Covenant’ in the titles of the two parts of the Bible, and call them respectively, ‘The Books of the Old Covenant,’ and ‘The Books of the New Covenant’. 

It is interesting to note that the name ‘book of the covenant’ or ‘book of the law’ is used several times by the Biblical writers. When Moses returned to the people after his time with the Lord on Mount Sinai, we read that … 

   … he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They all responded again, “We will do everything the LORD has commanded. We will obey.” (Exodus 24:7).  

The reference here is to all that the Lord had taught Moses on the mount—‘all the teachings and regulations the LORD had given him.’ (Exodus 24:3). 

We come across the name later in Israel’s history. Temple renovations were under way. People were busy raising money to pay for the work. There was much religious fervour. The level of integrity and goodwill was so high that the construction workers were not required to give an account of how the money was spent.[15] But in their enthusiasm for the work of the Lord the people’s love for him had waned. Some were even turning to other religions, mixing those beliefs with what remained of their own. Once again, just as it had been at the time King Asa took the throne in Judah, ‘Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach them, and without God’s law.’[16] But then in the midst of all the ruins a discovery was made which changed everything. 

    Hilkiah the High Priest said to Shaphan the court secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the LORD’s Temple!” Then Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan, and he read it …

   Then the King summoned all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went up to the Temple of the LORD with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, and the priests, and the prophets—all the people from the least to the greatest. There the king read to them the entire Book of the Covenant that had been found in the LORD’s Temple … King Josiah then issued this order to all the people: “You must celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God , as it is written in the Book of the Covenant.” (2 Kings 22:8, 23:1-2, 21). 

The Book of the Covenant referred to here would have included all that Moses had written—the Pentateuch. 

In our understanding then, we may think of the selection of books as being a record of the times of The Old Covenant, but we will no doubt continue to refer to them as The Old Testament. This was the title by which they were known to Augustine (AD 354-430) who was bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia in Northern Africa and remembered as the ‘greatest of the Latin Fathers’.[17] It was Augustine who first said, “The New Testament lies hidden in the Old; The Old Testament is revealed in the New.” 

HOW WERE THE BOOKS SELECTED? 

As Solomon once observed, “Of making many books, there is no end …” (Ecclesiastes 12:12b NIV). How did it come about that just thirty nine were chosen for the Biblical record we now know as the Old Testament? Paul wrote of this selection in one of his letters to the young pastor Timothy. 

   You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do. (2 Timothy 3:15-17). 

But how did the people know which of the many scrolls circulating were those ‘inspired by God’? An actual selection process cannot be identified. But it is clear that over time those that were inspired by God were recognised as such as they were read and discussed. Could we say that the books spoke for themselves—that those that were of God had a ring of truth about them. After discussing the question at length, Edward Young[18] concludes … 

   To sum up, we may say that the books of the Old Testament, being immediately inspired by God, were recognised as such by His people from the time when they first appeared. That there may have been questions and minor differences of opinion about certain books does not at all detract from this fact.

   It is well known that in the later Jewish schools there were certain disputes as to the canonicity of particular books, notably, Esther and Ecclesiastes. However, it is questionable whether these disputes were really more than academic. It is questionable whether they really represented the attitude of the people to any great extent.

   How the books were gathered we are not told. Apparently, no religious council in ancient Israel ever drew up a list of divine books. Rather in the singular providence of God, His people recognised His word and honoured it from the time of its first appearance. Thus was formed the collection of inspired writings which are known as the canonical books of the Old Testament. 

Jesus had no doubts about the authenticity of each of the books in the collection he knew as ‘The Scriptures’. He quoted often from them. Max Anders writes … 

   For the Old Testament, it is not clear to us on what grounds the authority of a writing was accepted. That it was accepted, however, is clear. Jesus Himself stamped his approval on the thirty-nine books that make up our Old Testament …

   References by the Jewish historian Josephus, whose life overlapped that of the apostles, indicate that the thirty-nine books which we recognise today as the Old Testament were recognised as Scripture then. Other facts support this conclusion, giving us good reason to believe that all the books of our Old Testament were accepted by devout Jews as Scripture by the time of Jesus.[19] 

If we accept its authenticity the question then arises … 

DOES THE OLD TESTAMENT HAVE ANY RELEVANCE FOR US TODAY? 

Some Say No! 

Their reasoning is that the old covenant has been replaced by the new covenant and is therefore no longer needed. Under the old covenant forgiveness of sin and restoration of a right relationship with God was obtained through a system of animal sacrifice, whereas this is now provided for us in the sacrificial death of Christ, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29b). For, as Paul came to understand, “Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrifice for us.” (1 Corinthians 5:7b). This is the central element of the new covenant, which God said would replace the old. 

   “The day will come,” says the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the LORD.

   But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day,” says the LORD. “I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. And they will not need to teach their neighbours, nor will they need to teach their family, saying, ‘You should know the LORD.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will already know me,” says the LORD. “And I will forgive their wickedness and will never again remember their sins.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34). 

The author of a treatise written especially to explain Christ’s priestly ministry speaks of him as the one who has brought this new covenant into being. 

   You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which graciously forgives instead of crying out for vengeance as the blood of Abel did. (Hebrews 12:24). 

Jesus himself confirmed this as he shared the Passover meal with his disciples. 

   As they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread and asked God’s blessing on it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples saying, “Take it and eat it, for this is my body.” And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, for this is my blood, which seals the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out to forgive the sins of many. Mark my words—I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.” (Matthew 26:26-29). 

And so, say some, the Old Testament is now obsolete, we need only the new. The idea is not new. Marcion, the founder of a religious sect in the second century AD held this view. F. F. Bruce[20] tells us of Marcion's view.

   His distinctive doctrine was that the Old Testament was inferior to the New and had been rendered obsolete by Christ.  Marcion stressed the contrast between the two Testaments so far as to say that the God revealed in the one was quite a different being from the God revealed in the other. The righteous God, the Creator, Israel’s Jehovah, revealed in the Old Testament, was a different and inferior deity to the good God revealed by Jesus under the name ‘Father’ … Marcion, therefore, repudiated the authority of the Old Testament, and defined the Christian canon as consisting of one Gospel and a collection of ten Pauline epistles.

We often hear the same thoughts expressed today. As Solomon once said, “History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Many, like Marcion, still maintain that the Old Testament is no longer relevant. But … 

Others Say Yes 

Let’s go forward to New Testament times for a moment. People then found the Old Testament to be relevant. The scrolls were in everyday use. People carried selections with them as they travelled. We read of the treasurer in the government of Ethiopia for example, reading one such selection on his way home after a visit to Jerusalem. 

   As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, “Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he did, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.

   The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”

   Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah; so he asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

   The man replied, “How can I, when there is no one to instruct me?” And he begged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him. The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this:

   “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. And as a lamb is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”[21]

   The eunuch asked Philip, “Was Isaiah talking about himself or someone else?” So Philip began with this same Scripture and then used many others to tell him the Good News about Jesus. (Acts 8:26-35). 

And further back into the times of the Old Testament itself—to the time when the people of Israel had rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem. Teaching from the Scriptures guided the people’s celebrations. 

   They asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had given for Israel to obey. So on October 8 Ezra the priest brought the scroll of the law before the assembly, which included the men and women and all the children old enough to understand. He faced the square just inside the Water Gate from early morning until noon and read aloud to everyone who could understand. All the people paid close attention to the Book of the Law … Now the Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, and Pelaiah—instructed the people who were standing there. They read from the Book of the Law of God and clearly explained the meaning of what was being read, helping the people understand each passage. (Nehemiah 8:1-3, 7-8). 

No question then as to its relevance. But for us now? There are two ways in which it becomes meaningful for us in our lives today. 

Firstly we find that the more we understand the Old Testament story, the more we come to appreciate the New. The Old Testament contains the promises, the New their fulfilment. F. F. Bruce[22] comments … 

   The books of the Old Covenant, then, tell how God made the necessary preparation for the sending of His Son to inaugurate the New Covenant. The books of the New Covenant tell how he came to do this and set forth the implications of this New Covenant. Both collections speak alike of Christ; it is He who gives unity to each and to both together. The former collection looks forward with hope to his appearance and work; the latter tells how that hope was fulfilled …

   The general belief of the Christian Church is expressed in the opening words of Article VII in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion of the Church of England:

   ‘The Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and Man, being both God and Man.’ 

Another reason for its relevance comes when we find ourselves identifying with so much of what happened in the lives of the people then. Paul reminds us … 

   Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. They give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises. May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other—each with the attitude of Christ Jesus toward the other. Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:4-6).

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