especially true in regard to the closing of the third part of the HB—still, in its broadest terms the notion of a threefold development of the biblical canon is not as unreasonable as some recent scholars suppose.7 The dates for this development are clearly beyond demonstration, but the gradual expansion of the scriptural collection that eventuated in a three-part scriptural collection is reasonable, and is supported by the development of literary canons.8 The collective summation of the whole of