The Sequence of the Hagiographa (Part 1)

This post starts a series, but it also continues a theme on this blog. I have recently been posting on the sequence of the Hagiographa (a.k.a., the Ketuvim, a.k.a., the Writings = third section of Hebrew Bible) in printed Hebrew Bibles (here and here), and before that I looked at how Roger Beckwith argues that the order of the Hagiographa in b. B. Bathra 14b derives from Judas Maccabeus in 164 BCE. Before that I did a couple posts on whether there is any hermeneutical significance to the order of the Hagiographa (1 and 2).

In this post and the next couple, I'm going to look at ch. 5 in Beckwith's book, which chapter is titled "The Order of the Canonical Books" (pp. 181-222, with notes on pp. 222-34). What I am really interested in is how Beckwith knows that the order of b. B. Bathra 14b is the original order, when so many other orders are attested in ancient Jewish and Christian sources. In this post I'll survey the primary sequences attested in Hebrew sources that deserve discussion. In the next post I'll give some consideration to how Beckwith rules out all the Greek evidence for the sequence of books, and after that I'll look at how Beckwith eliminates all the Hebrew orders other than the one in Baba Bathra.

[I will mention here several times the columns in Beckwith's second appendix (pp. 450-64) where he has collected seventy different orders for the Hagiographa in manuscripts and other sources (and nine different orders for the Latter Prophets).]

As for Jewish sources, my posts on printed Hebrew Bibles have highlighted two major sequences for the Hagiographa, neither of which is the one mentioned in the Talmudic baraita. I'll call the order printed in early Hebrew Bibles and still today in the Jewish Study Bible and other places the "Traditionally Printed Sequence." I put spaces before and after the Five Megilloth just for convenience, to see them easily.

The Traditionally Printed Sequence (col. LIX of Beckwith's app. 2, p. 462)

Psalms
Proverbs
Job

Song of Songs
Ruth
Lamentations
Qoheleth
Esther

Daniel
Ezra-Nehemiah
Chronicles

Beckwith says this sequence is found in a "defective" German manuscript of the thirteenth century (De-Rossi 379) and five early printed editions. Presumably he omits from consideration here those printed editions that actually do follow this sequence but extract the the Five Megilloth as a unit and place them after the Pentateuch (i.e., the first four editions of the Hebrew Bible, noted here). So, it doesn't have a whole lot of ancient authority, despite its popularity since printing. 

The other major order highlighted in that other post is the one familiar from BHK-3 and BHS, but it is not one I'll include in the three sequences I discuss here because it is not actually found in the Leningrad Codex, the base text for both BHK-3 and BHS. The order of these two editions of Biblica Hebraica is, to be sure, found in some Masoretic manuscripts (see col. LIV in Beckwith's app. 2, p. 461, where he notes that this sequence is found in, inter alia, some twelfth century Spanish manuscripts). But it is too similar to the "Traditionally Printed Sequence" to merit independent inclusion, so I'll discuss instead the actual order of the Leningrad Codex itself, which is the same as that found in the Aleppo Codex. I'll call this the "Aleppo-Leningrad Sequence". This will be reflected in the new BHQ, as I mentioned last time.

The Aleppo-Leningrad Sequence (col. XXXII of Beckwith's app. 2, p. 458)

Chronicles
Psalms
Job
Proverbs

Ruth
Song of Songs
Qoheleth
Lamentations
Esther

Daniel
Ezra-Nehemiah

Beckwith says this sequence is found in:

Many MSS of C.10-15 [i.e., tenth-fifteenth centuries], esp. Spanish, but also Italian etc., including the following very early MSS: Aleppo Codex (defective, C.10? Tiberian?), Cairo Codex of Prophets (C.10? Tiberian?), Sassoon 1053 (C.10), Leningrad B 19a (C.11 Egyptian), 2 Firkovich 34 and 94 (both defective, C.11 Egyptian); and the following C.12 or 13 MSS: Harley 5710f., Earl of Leicester's Codex, Kennicott 31 and 682, Schiller Szinessy 13, Taschereau 105 (defective), Cassuto 9, Copenhagen 1; Ben Uzziel, Kitab al-Khilaf (C.12? Egyptian/Palestinian); Joseph of Constantinople, Adath Deborim (C.12?). (p. 458)

I find the question marks very interesting especially in relation to the Aleppo Codex. Is there a serious question about whether this manuscript is tenth century? I have consistently seen the date of about 925 CE given for this manuscript. The Aleppo Codex website gives the date "about 930". And is there really a question about whether it was produced in Tiberias?

The third order I'll note in this post is the one in the baraita of b. B. Bathra 14b. I have previously given the passage in full on this blog. Now I'll just list the books. I'll call this the "Talmudic Sequence".

The Talmudic Sequence (col. I of Beckwith's app. 2, p. 452)

Ruth
Psalms
Job
Proverbs
Qoheleth
Song of Songs
Lamentations
Daniel
Esther
Ezra-Nehemiah
Chronicles

According to Beckwith, this sequence is found in the following sources:

Bab. Baba Bathra 14b (C.5-6 Babylonian); Anonymous Chronicle (Neubauer's no. 6, C.11? Italian?); Babylonian MSS Ec1 (or or. qu. 680, defective), Ec 19 (or Or. 2373, defective, C.13-14?); many MSS of C.12-15, Italian, German, Franco-German, Spanish, Yemenite, including the following C.12 MSS: Add. 21161, Kennicott 201 and 224, Schwarz 4, Modona 5b; Ben Uzziel, Kitab al-Khilaf (C.12? Egyptian/Palestinian); Joseph of Constantinople, Adath Deborim (C.12?). (p. 452)

So, now we have listed all three of the major orders for the Hagiographa attested in Jewish sources (leaving out of consideration, for now, Josephus, Against Apion, 1.37-43). Once again I'll note that Beckwith actually lists 70 different orders, so these three are in one sense just a drop in the bucket. On the other hand, these three sequences seem to be the most significant today, so I'm somewhat justified in limiting the discussion to just these.

But, of course, even the 70 different orders listed by Beckwith in his second appendix does not exhaust the arrangements for the OT books in antiquity. We haven't even touched on the arrangement reflected in Greek sources. We'll look at them next time.