How was the OT handed to 1rst Century Christians?

[Andrew]

Did they just take the Apostles word for it or did they already have the Old Testament available to them in a non Hebrew language?

 

[RichWh1]

Did they just take the Apostles word for it or did they already have the Old Testament available to them in a non Hebrew language?

The Jewish people lost the Hebrew language when they had been taken captive in Babylon.
Later the Greek language was the trade language of that day and most Jews knew the language so 70 Hebrew scholars translated the Hebrew into Greek, called the Septuagint or LXX which is how the Jewish people were able to have and read their Scriptures.

 

[Josiah]

Did they just take the Apostles word for it or did they already have the Old Testament available to them in a non Hebrew language?

It seems all Jews accepted FIVE books unquestionably as canonical. The Five Books of Moses.

SOME Jews accepted SOME others..... perhaps up to 50 others..... or perhaps just a dozen others..... sometimes seen as UNDER and LESS authoritative than the Books of Moses. All this was undetermined, it was all pretty loose.

The Jews addressed this for the first (and last) time in 90 AD at a meeting in Jamnia. At that meeting, the Jews embraced 39 books (well, the material in them - not numbered or grouped as we do) and from 90 AD, the Jews have had the identical same Bible, word-for-word, and all the other books once read among the Jews (HOW so varied a LOT) fell out of use and disappeared among them.

It is unknown what impact this Jewish meeting had on Christians.

There is no evidence that Jesus or any Apostle had anything to say on this point of what is and is not canon for the Jews. They just never said a word about it. Nor has ANY Ecumenical Council (although around 400 AD, some regional non-authoritative synods ruled on what books could be read in the Lectionary).