Did our Lord accept the threefold division of the Old Testament canon?

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 1997.

Certainly, it is a very important point that our Lord himself accepted the threefold division of the canon; and, secondly, to note the very strong evidence that all three parts of the canon were already closed long before the birth of Christ.

However, this latter point is much disputed, particularly by liberal scholars nowadays. I think, moreover, that, before we make any theological deductions from the threefold structure in the canon and the order of the books within each of those three parts, it is good to survey what historical evidence we have for how the canon came to be thus structured, and why the different books were apportioned to their different parts of the structure.

On these historical matters, I find very helpful the large work by Roger Beckwith, entitled The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church, and its Background in Early Judaism. The whole topic is an enormously complicated and detailed affair.

I take one particular question: our Lord himself referred to Daniel as Daniel the Prophet. Why, then, we might ask, is Daniel not grouped in the second division of the Jewish canon along with the other Prophets, but in the third division called the Writings? This is certainly an interesting question, and Beckwith suggests various answers; but it would be important to investigate these answers, if one holds that the order of the books within the canon was controlled providentially by God.

Yours very sincerely in Christ,