The idea of canonization began when God commanded His laws to be written on two stone tablets. Exo 32:16; Deut 4:13; 10:4. The tablets were deposited in the ark of the covenant and constituted the terms of the covenant between God and His people. After the death of Moses, Joshua added to the words of Moses, writing them in the book of the law. Josh 24:26.
Joshua 24:26: “Joshua recorded these things in the Book of God’s Instructions. As a reminder of their agreement, he took a huge stone and rolled it beneath the oak tree beside the Tabernacle of the Lord.”
This might sound as directly disobeying the command not to add to the Words of the Lord which is noted in Deut 4:2; 12:32. To have added to the words of Moses, Joshua must have been fully convinced that the words he added were not his but God’s own Words. Later, the prophets also wrote additional Words of God. To estimate the date the OT canon’s writing process came to an end, we must find out the time some of these prophets lived. If we date Haggai to 520 B.C, Zechariah to 520-518 B.C (with more materials added after 480 B.C) and Malachi around 435 B.C, we can find the approximate dates of the last Old Testament prophets. Coinciding with this period are the last books of the OT history; Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. After this period, there was no further addition to the Old Testament canon. The subsequent history of the Jewish people was recorded in other writings such as the books of the Maccabees, but these writings were not thought worthy to be included with the collections of God’s Words from earlier years.
Extra-biblical sources such as Jewish literatures particularly the Maccabees, attest to the fact that divinely authoritative words from God had ceased. (This is the period after the last book of the OT was written)
1 Macc 4:45-46; So, they thought it best to tear it down, so that it would not be a lasting shame to them that the Gentiles had defiled it. And they tore down the altar and stored the stones in a convenient place on the temple hill until a prophet should come to tell what to do with them.
The fact that the Jewish people were waiting on a prophet to tell them what to do confirms the fact that, the Old Testament canon was closed and inspiration had ceased. There was no prophet who was inspired by the Spirit of Yahweh to guide them.
Josephus a Jewish historian, as noted in Against Apion (a defense of Judaism and the authority of the Hebrew Scriptures against critics in the Greco-Roman world). explained that in time past many texts have been produced but they were not deemed worthy as compared to what was already written. This confirms that he had knowledge of the Apocrypha however says they were not authoritative like the canon (Old Testament Scriptures). Rabbinic literature like the others, also attest to the fact that the canon is authoritative. In the Midrash Rabbah of Songs of Solomon and the Babylonian Talmud, it reveals that the Holy Spirit departed after the last book of the Old Testament canon was written. After the latter prophets, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachai had died, the Holy Spirit departed from Israel. This implied that after the last book was written, inspired words from God ceased. Any book that is produced after this period is considered as not authoritative and not inspired. This preserved the authenticity and the authoritativeness of the Old Testament canon. Jesus Christ and the New Testament authors quote various parts of the Old Testament several times as divinely authoritative over the Apocrypha. Apart from Jude, they do not cite any statement from the books of the Apocrypha or any other writings as having divine authority. The absence of any frequent references to literatures as divinely authoritative, and the extremely frequent references to hundreds of places in the Old Testament as divinely authoritative, gives strong confirmation to the fact that the New Testament authors agreed that the established Old Testament canon was God’s Word.
What about Jude and the Apocrypha?
Written by Jude who is identified as the brother of James. This Jude is widely believed to be one of Jesus’ half-brothers (Matthew 13:55). Scholars place its writing between A.D. 60–80, around the same time as 2 Peter, with which it shares themes and wording. The main theme of the book is to warn Christians against false teachers who were twisting the faith and leading people astray. His letter emphasizes holding firmly to the truth and living faithfully in anticipation of God’s judgment. However, in Jude 1:14-15, he cites a prophecy attributed to Enoch, the seventh from Adam. The quote was taken from the book of Enoch, an ancient Jewish text that was widely read in Jude’s time but never included in the Hebrew bible or the Christian canon. The plausible question will be; Why did Jude quote a line from the Apocrypha?. Early Jewish and Christian communities were familiar with Enoch’s writings, so Jude used it to strengthen his warning against false teachers. While Enoch was respected, it was not considered Scripture by most Jewish or Christian traditions. Jude’s use shows that biblical authors sometimes referenced non-canonical works to make a point.
It should be noted that Jude did not endorse the Book of Enoch as Scripture, but he does treat it as a respected source his audience would recognize.
The Apocrypha are collection of books included in the canon by the Roman Catholic church but excluded from the canon by Protestantism. These books were never accepted by the Jews as scripture, but throughout the early history of the church there was a divided opinion on whether they should be part of scripture or not. However, the use of the Apocrypha increased in some parts of the church until the time of the Reformation. The fact that these books were included by the church Father-Jerome in his Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, gave support to their inclusion even though Jerome himself said they were not books of the canon, but merely books of the church useful and helpful for believers. The wide use of the Latin Vulgate guaranteed the continued accessibility of the Apocrypha, even though it held no authority. The earliest list of the Old Testament books that exist today did not include the books of the Apocrypha. For instance, Eusebius (Bishop) quotes Origen (Christian Theologian) as affirming most of the books of our present Old Testament canon including Esther, but no book of the Apocrypha is affirmed as canonical. In A.D 367, when the church Father Athanasius wrote in his pascal letters, he listed all the books of our present New Testament and Old Testament canon except Esther. He mentioned some books of the Apocrypha and said they were not included in the canon but appointed by the Fathers to be read by those who newly joined the church, who wished for instruction in the word of godliness.
What becomes of the Apocrypha?
The reasons why the writings of the Apocrypha should not be regarded as part of scripture include;
1.They do not claim for themselves the same kind of authority as the Old Testament writings;
2.They were not regarded as God’s Word by the Jewish people from whom they originated.
3.They were not considered to be scripture by Jesus or the New Testament authors.
4.They contain teachings inconsistent with the rest of the Bible.
For instance, the Gospel of Thomas which for a time was held by some to belong to canon notes this account in saying 114.
“Simon peter said to them; “let Mary go away from us, for women are not worthy of life.” Jesus said, “ I shall lead her, so that I may make her a male, that she too may become a living spirit, resembling you males. For every woman wo makes herself a male will enter the kingdom of heaven.”
We must conclude that they are merely human words, not God-breathed words like the words of scripture. They have value for historical research, and they contain many helpful stories about the courage and faith of many Jews during the period after the Old Testament, but they have never been part of the Old Testament canon. Therefore, they have no binding authority for the life of Christians today.