The Origins of the Canon of the Hebrew Bible: An Analysis of Josephus and 4 Ezra

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In The Origins of the Canon of the Hebrew Bible: An Analysis of Josephus and 4 Ezra, Juan Carlos Ossandón Widow examines the thorny question of when, how, and why the collection of twenty-four books that today is known as the Hebrew Bible was formed. He carefully studies the two earliest testimonies in this regard—Josephus’ Against Apion and 4 Ezra—and proposes that, along with the tendency to idealize the past, which leads to consider that divine revelation to Israel has ceased, an important reason to specify a collection of Scriptures at the end of the first century CE consisted in the need to defend the received tradition to counter those that accepted more books. The Origins of the Canon of the Hebrew Bible: An Analysis of Josephus and 4 Ezra Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Introductory Note 1 A Status Quaestionis on the Formation of the Canon of the Hebrew Bible 1.1 The Date of Origin of the Jewish Canon 1.1.1 The Evidence of Qumran 1.1.2 Other Evidence of the First Century CE 1.2 The Problems Concerning Yavneh 2 Some Preliminary Clarifications 2.1 The Codex 2.2 The Printing Press 2.3 “Hebrew Bible” 2.4 “Canon” 3 Methodology and Structure Part 1: The Twenty-Two Books of the Jews According to Josephus Introductory Note 4 The Passage of the Against Apion 4.1 The Text 4.2 Possible Identification of the Twenty-Two Books 4.3 The Prophets and Their Succession 4.3.1 The Cessation of Prophecy? 4.3.2 Priests, Philosophers, and Historians 4.3.3 The Interruption of the Prophetic Succession 4.3.4 The Prophet Josephus? 4.4 Assimilation of the Books to the Sacredness of the Torah 4.5 Summing-Up 5 The Twenty-Two Books outside the Against Apion 5.1 The Scriptures in the Jewish War 5.2 The Jewish Antiquities 5.2.1 The Twenty-Two Books 5.2.2 The Succession of Prophets 5.3 The Life 6 Josephus and Some Books on the Borderline of the Canon 6.1 Daniel 6.2 First Esdras, Ezra, and Nehemiah 6.3 Esther 6.4 Tobit and Judith 6.5 Letter of Aristeas, 1 Maccabees, and 2 Maccabees 6.6 The Book of Jubilees and the Temple Scroll 6.7 The Apocalyptic Literature and the Case of 1 Enoch Part 2: The Ninety-Four Books of the Torah According to 4 Ezra Introductory Note 7 Introduction to 4 Ezra 7.1 Title, Literary Genre, and Jewish Character 7.2 Text and Transmission 7.3 Date and Place of Composition 7.4 Fourth Ezra and 2 Baruch 7.5 Structure and Summary of the Content 7.6 The Unity of the Work and the Importance of the Seventh Section 8 Coordinates for a Comprehensive Understanding of 4 Ezra 8.1 The Debate on the Position of the Author 8.1.1 The Distinction between Narrator and Author 8.1.2 From Gunkel to Stone 8.1.3 From Harnisch to Hogan 8.2 The Planes of the Narrative Point of View 8.3 The Psychological Plane and the Psychologizing Interpretation of 4 Ezra 8.4 The Ideological Plane of the Narrative Point of View 8.4.1 The Various Expressions of the Point of View of God 8.4.2 What God Says about Ezra 9 The Characterization of Ezra 9.1 The Presentation (4 Ezra 3:1–2) 9.1.1 The Allusion to Ezek 1:1 9.1.2 “I, Salathiel, who am also called Ezra” 9.2 Ezra in the Dialogues 9.3 The Visions and the Transformation of Ezra 9.3.1 Ezra in the Fourth Section 9.3.2 Ezra in the Fifth Section 9.3.3 Ezra in the Sixth Section 9.4 Ezra in the Seventh Section: The Scribe of the Most High 10 Function and Meaning of the Ninety-Four Books 10.1 The Teachings Reserved for the Wise: Is 4 Ezra an Esoteric Book? 10.1.1 The “Few” in 4 Ezra 10.1.2 The Wise, the Secret Teachings, and the Esoteric Character of 4 Ezra 10.1.3 “In Characters Which They Did Not Know” (4 Ezra 14:42) 10.2 The Torah in 4 Ezra 10.2.1 The Torah in the Dialogues (and the Problem of Universalism) 10.2.2 The Torah in the Part with the Visions 10.2.3 The Torah in the Seventh Section (4 Ezra 14) and Its Written Expression 10.3 Salvific Value of the Ninety-Four Books 11 Historical Context and Social Function of 4 Ezra 11.1 Why Ezra? 11.1.1 The Figure of Ezra in the Literature of the Second Temple 11.1.2 Ezra’s Functionality for the Message of 4 Ezra 11.1.3 Excursus: Ezra in Rabbinic Literature 11.2 Possible Identification of the Seventy Books 11.2.1 Symbolic Value of the Number Seventy 11.2.2 Contents of the Collection 11.3 Possible Identification of the Twenty-Four Books 11.3.1 “Biblical” Books Quoted or Alluded to in 4 Ezra 11.3.2 Symbolic Value of the Number Twenty-Four 12 Fourth Ezra and the Canon of the Hebrew Bible 12.1 Synthesis of the Message of 4 Ezra 12.2 The Resistance to a Collection of Twenty-Four Books Part 3: Comparison and Conclusions Introductory Note 13 A Short Comparison between Josephus and 4 Ezra on the Books 13.1 Number and Characteristics of the Books 13.2 Historical Moment in Which the Collection is Constituted 13.3 The Torah 13.4 Role of Ezra 13.5 Text Transmission 13.6 The Interruption of the Prophetic Succession 13.7 Conclusion 14 Elements for an Hypothesis 14.1 On the Definition of the Biblical Canon 14.2 On the Date of the Canon 14.3 The Reorganization after the War, the Pre-Masoretic Text, and the Synagogal Readings 14.4 The Idealization of the Past 14.5 The Defense of Tradition in Contrast to Other Groups Bibliography Index of Modern Authors Index of Primary Texts