Ancient Christian Lists of Jewish “Canonical” Texts

Up to the third century CE, Jews were not particularly concerned with producing lists of canonical texts. However, as Christians began to grapple with the question of their own canon, they began to produce secondhand accounts of the library of texts Jews considered scripture. These accounts suggest the continued relative fluidity of the contents of the collection. The church historian Eusebius, from the third to fourth centuries CE, quotes a letter written by Melito, the bishop of Sardis (d. ca. 190 CE), that outlines “the books of the Old Testament,” about which he learned after a visit to the East, likely a reference to Palestine. His list does not mention Nehemiah, Lamentations, or Esther and designates the first section as the “five books of Moses” and a final grouping as “the Prophets.” The middle section, however, lacks a title altogether.

Eusebius’ writings also preserved the canonical book list of the church father Origen (ca. 185–254 CE). In his commentary on Psalms, Origen recounts that twenty-two books were considered canonical by “the Hebrews.” Curiously, though, the text includes only twenty-one books, perhaps indicating an accidental error or a damaged manuscript on the part of Eusebius.

The church father Jerome (347–420 CE), known for his translation of the Bible into Latin (see “Latin: The Vulgate”), begins his prologue to the books of Samuel and Kings with a list of twenty-two books, corresponding to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. He concludes, however, with a list of twenty-four books, including Ruth and Lamentations, which corresponds, he says, to the number of elders in the Apocalypse of John (also known as Revelation).