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The Number of Books
By dividing Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles into two books
each, and by individually enumerating Ezra, Nehemiah, and
the twelve minor prophets, English Bibles usually list 39 books.
This reckoning, however, is not traditional, for the twelve were
written on a single scroll and counted as one; Ezra and Nehemiah
were likewise treated as a unit, and the convenient
bisection of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles was unknown in
Hebrew Bibles before the Bomberg edition of 1521 (see Editions,
below). In this way the traditional total of 24 books is
obtained.
This number is consistently specified in the literature
of the amoraim (cf. Ta’an. 5a) and is implicit in the tannaitic
listing of the biblical books (BB 14b). It must be quite ancient
for it is expressly mentioned as something well understood
n IV Ezra 14:45, a passage deriving from about 100 C.E. From
about this same period derives a variant tradition of Josephus
limiting the canon to 22 books (Apion 1:39–41). It is possible
that the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes were not yet included
in Josephus’ Bible. More likely, however, the difference is
to be explained by the practice of attaching Ruth to Judges
or Psalms, and Lamentations to Jeremiah. Since many of
the Church Fathers also mention a 22-book canon (cf. Origen
in Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica 6:25, 1), it must be assumed
that the observation of Josephus reflects a fairly widespread,
if minority, Jewish scribal tradition that persisted for several
centuries. Either way, the specified number really refers to
the sum of separate scrolls used in transcribing the corpus of
canonized literature. The artificiality of the number 24 and
the absence of any authentic tradition to explain its origin
are clear from the homiletics of the amoraim, who variously
connected it with the like number of ornaments in Isaiah
3:18–24 (Ex. R. 41:5; Song. R. 4:11; Tanḥ. B., Ex. 111–117), of
priestly and levitical courses in I Chron. 23:28; 24:4 (Num.
R. 14:18; Eccles. R. 12:11; PR 3:9), and of the bulls brought as
dedicatory offerings by the chieftains of the tribes (Num. 7:88;
Num. R. 14:18).
It has been suggested, but with little probability, that Jewish
practice may have been influenced by the pattern set by
the Alexandrian division of the Odyssey and Iliad of Homer
into 24 books each, an innovation itself dictated as much by
the practical consideration of avoiding the inconvenience of
handling a scroll containing more than 1,000 verses as by the
desire to create a correspondence with the number of letters
in the Greek alphabet. The 24-book division may have been
regarded as a model for the national classics, especially because
it is a multiple of 12, a number which was charged with
special significance in the ancient world, even in the literary
sphere. This is evidenced by the 12-tablet division of the Gilgamesh
Epic, the 12 sections of the Theogony of Hesiod and
the Laws of the Twelve Tablets. The 22-book division might
well have been an adaptation of Greek practice to the Hebrew
alphabetic enumeration.
The Order of the Books
In considering the arrangement of the biblical books in a spe-
cific sequence, two distinct problems have to be differentiated.
The first relates to the very meaning of “order,” the second to
the underlying rationale of the diverse arrangements found
in literary sources and manuscripts. The earliest list of biblical
books is that preserved in an anonymous tannaitic statement
(BB 14b):
Our Rabbis taught: the order of the Prophets is Joshua, Judges,
Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the Twelve…; the
order of the Ketuvim is Ruth, the Book of Psalms, Job, Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, Lamentations, Daniel, the Scroll
of Esther, Ezra, and Chronicles.
The question of “order” would normally apply to books
produced as codices, rather than scrolls. However, the abovecited
baraita cannot be later than the end of the second
century C.E., whereas the codex was not accepted by Jews
until many centuries later. Sarna seeks the solution in the
library practices of the Mesopotamian and Hellenistic
worlds.
The steady growth of collections, whether of cuneiform
tablets or papyrus rolls, necessitated the introduction of
rationalized and convenient methods of storing materials in
ways that facilitated identification and expedited usage. At the
same time, the requirements of the scribal schools engendered
an established sequence in which the classic works were to
be read or studied. This combination of library needs and
pedagogic considerations would then be what lies behind
the fixing of the order of the Prophets and Ketuvim as recorded
in the list above. The reference would be to the order in
which the individual scrolls in these two corpora were shelved
and cataloged in the Palestinian archives and schools. Haran
has challenged Sarna’s theory on the grounds that the small
number of the books of the Bible made literary cataloguing
unnecessary. It would have been simple to follow Roman
practice and lay out the scrolls on shelves divided by panels.
Alternatively, scrolls might have been tagged as they were
The Order of the Latter Prophets
1.
Talmud and
three mss.
2.
Two mss.
3.
Eleven mss.
4.
Five Early
Editions
Jeremiah Jeremiah Jeremiah Jeremiah
Ezekiel Ezekiel Ezekiel Ezekiel
Isaiah Isaiah Isaiah Isaiah
The Twelve The Twelve The Twelve The Twelve
1. (1) The Babylonian Talmud; (2) 1280 C.E. Madrid, National Library, ms. no. 1;
(3–5) London, British Museum, mss. Orient. 1474, Orient. 4227, Add. 1545.
2. (1) 1286 C.E. Paris, National Library; (2) London, British Museum, Orient.
2091.
3. (1) 916 C.E. Leningrad codex; (2) 1009 C.E. Leningrad ms.; (3–11) London,
British Museum, mss. Orient. 1246 C.E., Arund. Orient. 16, Harley 1528, Harley
5710–11, Add. 1525, Add. 15251, Add. 15252, Orient. 2348, Orient, 2626–8.
4. (1) The first printed edition of the entire Bible, 1488 Soncino; (2) The second
edition, 1491–93 Naples; (3) The third edition, 1492–1494 Brescia; (4) The first
edition of the Rabbinic Bible, edited by Felix Pratensis, 1517 Venice; (5) The
first edition of the Bible with the Masorah, edited by Jacob b. Ḥayyim, 1524–25
Venice.
580 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3