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Here Joshua probably added the account of Moses' death, which closes the book of
Deuteronomy.
The next reference is found in the first book of Samuel, after Saul had been chosen
king.
"Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it (literally
`continued the writing') in the book, and laid it up before the Lord" (I Sam. 10: 25).
Coming to the days of David, we have abundant testimony in the Psalms that the law
of the Lord was believed and honoured by this man who was after God's own heart, and,
accordingly, in I Kings 2: 1-4, we find him impressing their value upon his son and
successor, Solomon.
In the reign of Jehoshaphat, the king sent the Levites "and they taught in Judah, and
had the book of the law of the Lord with them" (II Chron. 17: 8, 9).
After the dark days of Athaliah, Joash was made king, and we read "Then they
brought out the king's son, and put upon him the crown, and gave him the testimony, and
made him king" (II Chron. 23: 11). Not the crown only, but both "crown" and
"testimony" were necessary to "make him king". So the story proceeds to tell how
Amaziah spared the children of his father's murderers according to what was "written in
the law in the book of Moses' (II Chron. 25: 4).
Hezekiah kept the Passover in the second month, as it was written, which reveals that
Numb. 9: 6-14 was in his possession.
Josiah is the next link in the royal chain, and in his reign we learn that Hilkiah the
high priest "found the book of the law in the house of the Lord" (II Kings 22: 8).
After the carrying away into captivity, we find Daniel referring to that which had been
"written in the law of Moses the servant of God" (Dan. 9: 11), and Nehemiah in his
prayer concerning the desolation of Jerusalem refers to the statutes and judgments He
gave by Moses (Neh. 1: 7-9). When the people returned under Nehemiah and Ezra,
and the walls of the city had been repaired, a most solemn assembly met in the street that
was before the watergate, while Ezra "read in the book in the law of God distinctly"
(Neh. 8: 1-8).
There is a suggestion in II Chron. 29: 30, that the Psalms had by this time taken
their place in the sacred canon, for the singers praised the Lord "with the words of David,
and of Asaph the seer". In Neh. 10: we have the names of those who formed "the great
Synagogue", which lasted from Nehemiah to Simon the Just, a period of 110 years.
Among other things, its main purpose was "to collect and preserve the canonical
scriptures". Its work being accomplished it became known as the Sanhedrin and
continued into N.T. times. According to the Talmud, Neh. 8: 8 means, "They read in
the book of the law" (i.e. the Hebrew text of the Pentateuch), "distinctly", which would