<P> The book of Sirach provides evidence of a collection of sacred scripture similar to portions of the Hebrew Bible, which dates from 180 BCE (and is not included in the Jewish canon), which includes a list of names of biblical figures (44--49) in the same order as is found in the Torah and the Nevi'im (Prophets), and which includes the names of some men mentioned in the Ketuvim (Writings). Based on this list of names, some scholars have conjectured that the author, Yeshua ben Sira, had access to, and considered authoritative, the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve Minor Prophets . </P> <P> His list excludes names from Ruth, Song of Songs, Esther and Daniel, suggesting that people mentioned in these works did not fit the criteria of his current listing of great men, or that he did not have access to these books, or did not consider them authoritative . In the prologue to the Greek translation of Ben Sira's work, his grandson, dated at 132 BCE, mentions both the Law (Torah) and the Prophets (Nevi'im), as well as a third group of books which is not yet named as Ketuvim (the prologue simply identifies "the rest of the books"). </P> <P> The Septuagint (LXX) is a Koine Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, translated in stages between the 3rd to 2nd century BCE in Alexandria, Egypt . </P> <P> According to Michael Barber, in the Septuagint, the Torah and Nevi'im are established as canonical, but the Ketuvim appear not to have been definitively canonized yet . The translation (and editing) work might have been done by seventy (or seventy - two) elders who translated the Hebrew Bible into Koine Greek but the historical evidence for this story is rather sketchy . Beyond that, according to him, it is virtually impossible to determine when each of the other various books was incorporated into the Septuagint . </P>

To be included in the official canon the books of the hebrew scriptures had to be written in hebrew