Canon and text grew together: the same evidence that preserves the Masoretic Text also confirms a stable Old Testament canon we can confidently trust.
Textual Evidence and Canon Formation: Implications for Trustworthiness
The Old Testament and Its Canon: Origin, Recognition, and the Rejection of the Apocrypha
The Old Testament canon was recognized, not invented—fixed before Christ, preserved by Israel, affirmed by Jesus, and never expanded by the Apocrypha.
