Daniel Boyarin - The Jewish Gospels book review

I had a Facebook friend recommend this book to me, and the title certainly caught my eye, so I read it. It is called The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ. The author is Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture and rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley and a self-described Orthodox Jew.¹ Jack Miles, the Christian author of the famous God: A Biography, wrote the praising forward. The book was published by The New Press, a publisher dedicated to publishing "books that promote and enrich public discussion and understanding of the issues vital to our democracy and to a more equitable world."

As I read, I was shocked by what I was reading. Here was a Jew, not a Jew for Jesus, not a Messianic Jew, not a Christian in any way—an Orthodox Jewish talmudic scholar—claiming that Jesus legitimately fulfilled the messianic prophecies. Boyarin also argues that ideas such as the Trinity and the Incarnation, central to mainstream Christian theology, are essentially Jewish ideas, not only hinted at in the Tanakh itself, but also believed by Jews up until the first few centuries of the Common Era. Here is this Jewish scholar claiming that ideas that modern, mainstream Judaism rejects as heresy and idolatry are inherently Jewish ideas, not later Greek-influenced, Christian ideas.

These arguments, on Boyarin's part, are actually injurious to modern, mainstream Judaism. So why would a Jew be arguing such things? In reality, it seems, from reading his book, that he wished to take a stab at Christianity by arguing that Jesus and Christianity were not original, but simply took their pre-existing ideas from Judaism. So, in a way, he denigrates Christianity. At the epilogue at the end, Boyarin discredits Jesus. He says that even Jesus' extraordinary nature cannot explain the perceived 'newness' or uniqueness of Christianity: "Taking even the remarkable nature of Jesus—and I have no doubt that he wasa remarkable person—as the historical explanation for a world-shifting revision of beliefs and practices seems to me hardly plausible" (159). Rather, everything that Jesus had, Judaism had (this may be an exaggeration of the argument), and so Judaism had a pre-A.D. idea of a dying and rising messiah: he writes that "the notion that some kind of experience of the risen Christ preceded and gave rise to the idea that he would rise seems to me so unlikely as to be incredible" (159). Jesus' followers did not believe that he had risen because they saw him risen. Rather, they saw him risen, because they believed him risen. That is, they already had believed that the messiah would rise from the dead, so when their perceived messiah died, they saw him risen, even though he did not. "Perhaps his followers saw him arisen," Boyarin continues, "but surely this must be because they had a narrative that led them to expect such appearances, and not that the appearances gave rise to the narrative" (159). Boyarin, after demolishing the central tenet of Christianity, then gives a footnote trying to be kind, relegating belief in the resurrection to mere faith: "Let me make myself clear here: I am not denying the validity of the religious Christian view of matters. That is surely a matter of faith, not scholarship. I am denying it as a historical, scholarly, critical explanation" (159n). Postmodern revisions of Christianity aside, how is demolishing one's belief as ahistorical and then saying, "Oh, you can still believe it [even though it is not historically true]," supposed to make Christian believers feel any better? Also, such an argument completely ignores the Gospels' depictions of the post-resurrection witnesses as shocked and surprised, certainly not expectant and eager (NBC's New Testament-based TV show A.D.'s depiction of Mary Magdalene and John as eagerly awaiting his resurrection despite the boo-hooing of the rest of the disciples notwithstanding). Well, what should I have expected from academia?

Let us move on to the more uplifting parts of the book. The first move of Boyarin's book is to demonstrate that the Judaism of Jesus' day (called Second Temple Judaism, the history of Israel from the rebuilding of the Temple in the sixth century BCE until its destruction at the hands of General Titus in CE 70) was much more diverse and pluralistic than modern Judaism. This idea is a well-known scholarly fact by now—in fact, the Oxford Companion to the Bible, edited by Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan, titles its article on Judaism "Judaisms of the Second Temple Period." Judaisms—plural. To give you a sense of the Judaisms of Jesus' day, consider that there were apocalyptic communities such as the Essenes, innovators such as the Pharisees, secularists and assimilators such as the Sadducees and the Herodians, as well as messianic spectators and regional variations in outlook and language (e.g., Galileans versus Judeans). Thus, Judaism was far from being a monolithic entity.

But Boyarin takes this idea a step farther. He argues that through the first three centuries of the Common Era the relationship between Judaism and Christianity was fluid and undefined. In fact, according to him, it may even be anachronistic to even speak of them as two separate religions at that point in time. People belonged to groups with a common identity, but the idea of Jewish "religion" itself, in the modern sense of a set of beliefs, a priesthood, and scriptures did not exist. "Everybody then—both those who accepted Jesus and those who didn't—was Jewish (or Israelite, the actual ancient terminology)," Boyarin writes; continuing, "Actually, there was no Judaism at all, nor was there Christianity. In fact, the idea of 'a religion,' that is one of a number of religions to which one might or might not belong," did not exist at that time (2).

Here is how Daniel Boyarin paints the Jewish religious landscape of the first few centuries: "There were no Rabbis yet, and even the priests in Jerusalem and around the countryside were divided among themselves.…Some [Jews] believed that in order to be a kosher Jew you had to believe in a single divine figure and any other belief was simply idol worship. Others believe that God had a divine deputy or emissary or even son…" Basically, Boyarin's picture allows for a broad spectrum of Jewish belief.

Buy this book on Amazon.

Amazon link

Jewish Bible

For an article-length summary of Boyarin's argument, see his article in the Jewish journal Tikkun.

---

¹For an article summary of Boyarin's work and his relationship with the Jewish and academic communities, see the article in the Jewish San Francisco Bay Area periodical JWeekly.↩

OT canon

The canon of what Christians call the Old Testament and what Jews call the Hebrew Bible or TaNaKh has an interesting history. It may be commonly accepted that the Jewish canon has 24 books divided into three sections—Torah, Nevi'im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings)—but this has not always been the case. Indeed, Jews have even had 22-book, 3-division and also 4-division canons during their history. The establishment of the 24-book, tripartite canon is a relatively new development. Christians may feel that their 39-book, quadripartite canon is inferior or less valid than the tripartite canon, but as this analysis of early canon lists shows, the quadripartite was a viable alternative to the tripartite canon for many years until the Jewish community established the tripartite canon as normative.

We will first look at the canon list of the church father Origen who lived in the third century Common Era (two hundred years after Christ). His canon is interesting because it has 22 books, not 24, and appears to support a quadripartite division rather than a tripartite, although that is not clear because he does not state the divisions himself. Another peculiarity of Origen's canon is that he only lists 21 books, even though he says there are 22 books. From comparison with the traditional canon, one realizes that Origen forgot to enumerate the single book of the Twelve Minor Prophets. (Although it may be possible that Origen intended to count Maccabees as the 22nd book, which, however, he states is outside of the rest of the books.)

Origen's Canon c. 240 CE/A.D.

From the account of Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History, vi. 25, copied from Michael D. Marlowe's Bible-Researcher.com.

τὸν μέν γε πρῶτον ἐξηγούμενος Ψαλμόν, ἔκθεσιν πεποίηται τοῦ τῶν ἱερῶν γραφῶν τῆς παλαιᾶς διαθήκης καταλόγου, ὧδέ πως γράφων κατὰ λέξιν· «οὐκ ἀγνοητέον δ' εἶναι τὰς ἐνδιαθήκους βίβλους, ὡς Ἑβραῖοι παραδιδόασιν, δύο καὶ εἴκοσι, ὅσος ἀριθμὸς τῶν παρ' αὐτοῖς στοιχείων ἐστίν». εἶτα μετά τινα ἐπιφέρει λέγων· «εἰσὶν δὲ αἱ εἴκοσι δύο βίβλοι καθ' Ἑβραίους αἵδε· ἡ παρ' ἡμῖν Γένεσις ἐπιγεγραμμένη, παρὰ δ' Ἑβραίοις ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρχῆς τῆς βίβλου Βρησιθ, ὅπερ ἐστὶν «ἐν ἀρχῆι»· Ἔξοδος, Ουελλεσμωθ, ὅπερ ἐστὶν «ταῦτα τὰ ὀνόματα»· Λευιτικόν, Ουϊκρα, «καὶ ἐκάλεσεν»· Ἀριθμοί, Αμμεσφεκωδειμ· Δευτερονόμιον, Ελλεαδδεβαρειμ, «οὗτοι οἱ λόγοι»· Ἰησοῦς υἱὸς Ναυῆ, Ιωσουεβεννουν· Κριταί, Ῥούθ, παρ' αὐτοῖς ἐν ἑνί, Σωφτειμ· Βασιλειῶν αʹ βʹ, παρ' αὐτοῖς ἕν, Σαμουὴλ, «ὁ θεόκλητος»· Βασιλειῶν γʹ δʹ ἐν ἑνί, Ουαμμελχδαυιδ, ὅπερ ἐστὶν «βασιλεία Δαυίδ»· Παραλειπομένων αʹ βʹ ἐν ἑνί, Δαβρηϊαμειν, ὅπερ ἐστὶν «λόγοι ἡμερῶν»· Ἔζρας αʹ βʹ ἐν ἑνί, Εζρα, ὅ ἐστιν «βοηθός»· βίβλος Ψαλμῶν, Σφαρθελλειμ· Σολομῶνος παροιμίαι, Μελωθ· Ἐκκλησιαστής, Κωελθ· Ἆισμα ἀισμάτων οὐ γάρ, ὡς ὑπολαμβάνουσίν τινες, Ἄισματα ἀισμάτων, Σιρασσιρειμ· Ἡσαΐας, Ιεσσια· Ἱερεμίας σὺν Θρήνοις καὶ τῆι Ἐπιστολῆι ἐν ἑνί, Ιερεμια· Δανιήλ, Δανιηλ· Ἰεζεκιήλ, Ιεζεκιηλ· Ἰώβ, Ιωβ· Ἐσθήρ Εσθηρ. ἔξω δὲ τούτων ἐστὶ τὰ Μακκαβαϊκά, ἅπερ ἐπιγέγραπται Σαρβηθσαβαναιελ». ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐν τῶι προειρημένωι τίθησι συγγράμματι·

When expounding the first Psalm he gives a catalog of the Sacred Scriptures of the Old Testament as follows: It should be stated that the canonical books, as the Hebrews have handed them down, are twenty-two, corresponding with the number of their letters. Farther on he says: The twenty-two books of the Hebrews are the following: That which is called by us Genesis, but by the Hebrews, from the beginning of the book, Breshith, which means in the beginning; Exodus, Welesmoth, that is, these are the names; Leviticus, Wikra, and he called; Numbers, Ammesfekodeim; Deuteronomy, Eleaddebareim these are the words; Joshua the son of Nun, Iosoue ben Noun; Judges and Ruth, among them in one book, Saphateim; the first and second of Kings, among them one, Samoel, that is, the called of God; the third and fourth of Kings in one, Wammelch David, that is, the kingdom of David; of the Chronicles, the first and second in one, Dabreiamein, that is, records of days; Esdras, first and second in one, Ezra, that is, an assistant; the book of Psalms, Sfarthelleim; the Proverbs of Solomon, Meloth; Ecclesiastes, Koelth; the Song of Songs (not, as some suppose, Songs of Songs), Sir Hassirim; Isaiah, Iessia; Jeremiah, with Lamentations and the Epistle in one, Ieremia; Daniel, Daniel; Ezekiel, Iezekiel; Job, Iob; Esther, Esther. And outside of these there are the Maccabees, which are entitled Sarbeth Sabanaiel. He gives these in the above-mentioned work.

If we were to divide Origen's canon, we might count books 1–5 as Torah, books 6–11 as History, books 12–15 as Wisdom, and books 16–19 as Prophets. However, that leaves books 20 and 21 (Job and Esther) without a category. A quadripartite division seems to be the only way to subdivide Origen's canon, as a tripartite division would have to include the Prophets with the Wisdom/Writings books, which seems unprecedented throughout history. However, a tripartite understanding of Origen's canon would give Job and Esther a category. A tripartite division would count 1–5 as Torah, 6–11 as History, and 12–21 as Wisdom/Prophets/Writings. Nevertheless, such a tripartite understanding is not identical to Judaism's modern-day canon and therefore represents an alternate canon. It is possible that Origen's canon reflects a two-part (bipartite) canon, consisting of Torah, and then everything else.

Let us see if a comparison with other canon lists can help us.

Another church father, Jerome, wrote a canon list which is more complete than Origen's. The reason I chose these two church fathers, Origen and Jerome, is that both of these church fathers were the only ones to study Hebrew. Since we are discussing the canon of a Hebrew text, I am limiting my search to those church fathers who studied Hebrew and therefore were able to learn the canon with local Jews that they met. If Jerome had not learned Hebrew, he would not have translated the Latin Vulgate from Hebrew and would not have known that almost none of the books of the Deuterocanon/Apocrypha have any Hebrew text behind them—most of the Apocryphal books were written in Greek, not Hebrew.

Jerome lived a century after Origen and almost four hundred years after Christ.

Jerome's Preface to the Books of the Kings, Circa A.D. 391, copied from Michael D. Marlowe's Bible-Researcher.com

Viginti et duas esse litteras apud Hebraeos, Syrorum quoque et Chaldeorum lingua testatur, quae hebraeae magna ex parte confinis est; nam et ipsi viginti duo elementa habent eodem sono, sed diversis caracteribus. Samaritani etiam Pentateuchum Mosi totidem litteris scriptitant, figuris tantum et apicibus discrepantes. Certumque est Ezram scribam legisque doctorem post captam Hierosolymam et instaurationem templi sub Zorobabel alias litteras repperisse, quibus nunc utimur, cum ad illud usque tempus idem Samaritanorum et Hebraeorum caracteres fuerint. In libro quoque Numerorum haec eadem supputatio sub Levitarum ac sacerdotum censu mystice ostenditur. Et nomen Domini tetragrammaton in quibusdam graecis voluminibus usque hodie antiquis expressum litteris invenimus. Sed et psalmi tricesimus sextus, et centesimus decimus, et centesimus undecimus, et centesimus octavus decimus, et centesimus quadragesimus quartus, quamquam diverso scribantur metro, tamen eiusdem numeri texuntur alfabeto. Et Hieremiae Lamentationes et oratio eius, Salomonis quoque in fine Proverbia ab eo loco in quo ait: «Mulierem fortem quis inveniet», hisdem alfabetis vel incisionibus supputantur. Porro quinque litterae duplices apud eos sunt: chaph, mem, nun, phe, sade; aliter enim per has scribunt principia medietatesque verborum, aliter fines. Unde et quinque a plerisque libri duplices aestimantur: Samuhel, Malachim, Dabreiamin, Ezras, Hieremias cum Cinoth, id est Lamentationibus suis. Quomodo igitur viginti duo elementa sunt, per quae scribimus hebraice omne quod loquimur, et eorum initiis vox humana conprehenditur, ita viginti duo volumina supputantur, quibus quasi litteris et exordiis, in Dei doctrina, tenera adhuc et lactans viri iusti eruditur infantia.	That the Hebrews have twenty-two letters is testified also by the Syrian and Chaldean languages, which for the most part correspond to the Hebrew; for they have twenty-two elementary sounds which are pronounced the same way, but are differently written. The Samaritans also write the Pentateuch of Moses with just the same number of letters, differing only in the shape and points of the letters. And it is certain that Esdras, the scribe and teacher of the law, after the capture of Jerusalem and the restoration of the temple by Zerubbabel, invented other letters which we now use, for up to that time the Samaritan and Hebrew characters were the same. In the book of Numbers, moreover, where we have the census of the Levites and priests [Num. 3:39], the same total is presented mystically. And we find the four-lettered name of the Lord [tetragrammaton] in certain Greek books written to this day in the ancient characters. The thirty-seventh Psalm, moreover, the one hundred and eleventh, the one hundred and twelfth, the one hundred and nineteenth, and the one hundred and forty-fifth, although they are written in different metres, are all composed [as acrostics] according to an alphabet of the same number of letters. The Lamentations of Jeremiah, and his Prayer, the Proverbs of Solomon also, towards the end, from the place where we read Who will find a steadfast woman? are instances of the same number of letters forming the division into sections. Furthermore, five are double letters, viz., Caph, Mem, Nun, Phe, Sade, for at the beginning and in the middle of words they are written one way, and at the end another way. Whence it happens that, by most people, five of the books are reckoned as double, viz., Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Jeremiah with Kinoth, i.e., his Lamentations. As, then, there are twenty-two elementary characters by means of which we write in Hebrew all we say, and the human voice is comprehended within their limits, so we reckon twenty-two books, by which, as by the alphabet of the doctrine of God, a righteous man is instructed in tender infancy, and, as it were, while still at the breast.
Primus apud eos liber vocatur Bresith, quem nos Genesim dicimus; secundus Hellesmoth, qui Exodus appellatur; tertius Vaiecra, id est Leviticus; quartus Vaiedabber, quem Numeros vocamus; quintus Addabarim, qui Deuteronomium praenotatur. Hii sunt quinque libri Mosi, quos proprie Thorath, id est Legem appellant.	The first of these books is called Bresith, to which we give the name Genesis. The second, Elle Smoth, which bears the name Exodus; the third, Vaiecra, that is Leviticus; the fourth, Vaiedabber, which we call Numbers; the fifth, Elle Addabarim, which is entitled Deuteronomy. These are the five books of Moses, which they properly call Thorath, that is, Law.
Secundum Prophetarum ordinem faciunt, et incipiunt ab Iesu filio Nave, qui apud eos Iosue Bennum dicitur. Deinde subtexunt Sopthim, id est Iudicum librum; et in eundem conpingunt Ruth, quia in diebus Iudicum facta narratur historia. Tertius sequitur Samuhel, quem nos Regnorum primum et secundum dicimus. Quartus Malachim, id est Regum, qui tertio et quarto Regnorum volumine continetur; meliusque multo est Malachim, id est Regum, quam Malachoth, id est Regnorum dicere, non enim multarum gentium regna describit, sed unius israhelitici populi qui tribubus duodecim continetur. Quintus est Esaias, sextus Hieremias, septimus Hiezecihel, octavus liber duodecim Prophetarum, qui apud illos vocatur Thareasra.	The second class is composed of the Prophets, and they begin with Jesus the son of Nave, which among them is called Iosue ben Nun. Next in the series is Sophtim, that is the book of Judges; and in the same book they include Ruth, because the events narrated occurred in the days of the Judges. Then comes Samuel, which we call First and Second Kings. The fourth is Malachim, that is, Kings, which is contained in the third and fourth volumes of Kings. And it is far better to say Malachim, that is Kings, than Malachoth, that is Kingdoms. For the author does not describe the Kingdoms of many nations, but that of one people, the people of Israel, which is comprised in the twelve tribes. The fifth is Isaiah; the sixth, Jeremiah; the seventh, Ezekiel; and the eighth is the book of the Twelve Prophets, which is called among them Thare Asra.
Tertius ordo αγιογραφα possidet, et primus liber incipit ab Iob, secundus a David, quem quinque incisionibus et uno Psalmorum volumine conprehendunt. Tertius est Salomon, tres libros habens: Proverbia, quae illi Parabolas, id est Masaloth appellant, et Ecclesiasten, id est Accoeleth, et Canticum canticorum, quem titulo Sirassirim praenotant. Sextus est Danihel, septimus Dabreiamin, id est Verba dierum, quod significantius χρονικον totius divinae historiae possumus appellare, qui liber apud nos Paralipomenon primus et secundus scribitur; octavus Ezras, qui et ipse similiter apud Graecos et Latinos in duos libros divisus est, nonus Hester.	To the third class belong the Hagiographa, of which the first book begins with Job; the second with David, whose writings they divide into five parts and comprise in one volume of Psalms. The third is Solomon, in three books: Proverbs, which they call Parables, that is Masaloth; Ecclesiastes, that is Coeleth; and the Song of Songs, which they denote by the title Sirassirim. The sixth is Daniel; the seventh, Dabre Aiamim, that is, Words of Days, which we may more descriptively call a chronicle of the whole of the sacred history, the book that amongst us is called First and Second Paralipomenon [Chronicles]. The eighth is Ezra, which itself is likewise divided amongst Greeks and Latins into two books; the ninth is Esther.
Atque ita fiunt pariter veteris legis libri viginti duo, id est Mosi quinque, Prophetarum octo, Agiograforum novem. Quamquam nonnulli Ruth et Cinoth inter Agiografa scriptitent et libros hos in suo putent numero supputandos, ac per hoc esse priscae legis libros viginti quattuor, quos sub numero viginti quattuor seniorum Apocalypsis Iohannis inducit adorantes Agnum et coronas suas prostratis vultibus offerentes, stantibus coram quattuor animalibus oculatis retro et ante, id est et in praeteritum et in futurum, et indefessa voce clamantibus: «Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus Dominus Deus omnipotens, qui erat et qui est et qui futurus est».	And so there are also twenty-two books of the Old Law; that is, five of Moses, eight of the prophets, nine of the Hagiographa, though some include Ruth and Kinoth (Lamentations) amongst the Hagiographa, and think that these books ought to be reckoned separately; we should thus have twenty-four books of the ancient Law. And these the Apocalypse of John represents by the twenty-four elders, who adore the Lamb and offer their crowns with lowered visage, while in their presence stand the four living creatures with eyes before and behind, that is, looking to the past and the future, and with unwearied voice crying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and will be.

Let us compare the canons of Origen and Jerome.

Origen's Canon*	Jerome's Canon
Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Joshua Judges + Ruth 1, 2 Samuel 1, 2 Kings 1, 2 Chronicles Ezra—Nehemiah Psalms Proverbs of Solomon Ecclesiastes the Song of Songs Isaiah Jeremiah–Lamentations—Baruch Daniel Ezekiel Job Esther ? (?Maccabees?) *missing the Twelve	Torah Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Prophets Joshua Judges + Ruth* 1, 2 Samuel 1, 2 Kings Isaiah Jeremiah + Lamentations* Ezekiel The Twelve Hagiographa = Holy Writings Job Psalms of David Proverbs of Solomon Ecclesiastes Song of Songs Daniel 1, 2 Chronicles Ezra—Nehemiah Esther total = 22 *some put Lamentations and Ruth in Hagiographa = 24 books

It should be noted that Jerome's canon is exactly the same as today's Jewish 24-book tripartite canon, especially when one places Ruth and Lamentations in the Hagiographa. Origen's canon seems to be a melding of the Greek quadripartite canon and the Hebrew tripartite canon.

The first-century Jewish writer Josephus mentions a canon in his works but does not enumerate the books, so we are left to guess the order.

Josephus, Against Apion, I.8, copied from University of Chicago, translated by William Whiston.

For we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us, disagreeing from, and contradicting one another: [as the Greeks have:] but only twenty-two books: which contain the records of all the past times: which are justly believed to be divine. And of them five belong to Moses: which contain his laws, and the traditions of the origin of mankind, till his death. This interval of time was little short of three thousand years. But as to the time from the death of Moses, till the reign of Artaxerxes, King of Persia, who reigned after Xerxes, the Prophets, who were after Moses, wrote down what was done in their times, in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God; and precepts for the conduct of human life. ’Tis true, our history hath been written since Artaxerxes very particularly; but hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers; because there hath not been an exact succession of Prophets since that time. And how firmly we have given credit to these books of our own nation, is evident by what we do. For during so many ages as have already passed, no one has been so bold, as either to add any thing to them; to take any thing from them; or to make any change in them. But it is become natural to all Jews, immediately, and from their very birth, to esteem these books to contain divine doctrines; and to persist in them: and, if occasion be, willingly to die for them. For ’tis no new thing for our captives, many of them in number, and frequently in time, to be seen to endure wracks, and deaths of all kinds, upon the theatres; that they may not be obliged to say one word against our laws, and the records that contain them. Whereas there are none at all among the Greeks who would undergo the least harm on that account: no nor in case all the writings that are among them were to be destroyed. For they take them to be such discourses as are framed agreeably to the inclinations of those that write them. And they have justly the same opinion of the elder writers: since they see some of the present generation bold enough to write about such affairs, wherein they were not present; nor had concern enough to inform themselves about them from those that knew them. Examples of which may be had in this late war of ours: where some persons have written histories, and published them, without having been in the places concerned; or having been near them when the actions were done: but these men put a few things together, by hearsay; and insolently abuse the world; and call these writings by the name of Histories.

As you can see, Josephus states that the Jews held to a 22-book canon, of which 5 were Torah, 13 comprised the Prophets, or History books, and the remaining 4 were Writings. By comparing the various canon lists, we can deduce what Josephus' canon consisted of. Obviously, the Torah is the same in all of them. Since it was a 22-book canon, we know that two books were combined, namely Ruth with Judges, and Lamentations with Jeremiah, instead of being in the Writings. Since there are only 4 in the Writings, we will assume that Chronicles, Ezra—Nehemiah, and Daniel will assume their alternate position in the Prophets, not the Writings. Since Josephus says the Writings is composed of hymns to God and precepts for human conduct, we can assume that his Writings is mainly Wisdom books, namely, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs (or Job). I am leaning towards the three Solomonic works being together in the Writings, and Job being in the Prophets. For the rest of the books, we can start placing them in their hypothetical order:

1. Torah
1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5. Deuteronomy
2. Prophets
1. Joshua
2. Judges + Ruth
3. 1, 2 Samuel
4. 1, 2 Kings
5. 1, 2 Chronicles
6. Ezra—Nehemiah
7. Esther
8. Job
9. Isaiah
10. Jeremiah + Lamentations
11. Daniel
12. Ezekiel
13. The Twelve
3. Hagiographa = Holy Writings
1. Psalms of David
2. Proverbs of Solomon
3. Ecclesiastes
4. Song of Songs

It is interesting to see the various canon lists because it shows how the ordering of the canon has changed over the years. Note that except for Origen's mention of Maccabees as outside the rest, all the books are the same, it's only the order that is different. In Josephus, we see a sort of hybrid canon—it is tripartite and has 22 books, but its categorization of those books bears more resemblance to the quadripartite system. Origen's canon is a representative of a 22-book quadripartite system, although it is hard to tell exactly where his boundaries are between the subdivisions. Finally, Jerome's canon is the precursor to the modern Jewish Tanakh canon. Therefore, we know that by Jerome's day, a 22-book (or 24-book, depending on how you count Ruth and Lamentations) tripartite system was in the process of normalization. For the 1600 years since Jerome's day, Jews have maintained their Hebrew canon, deciding to count Ruth and Lamentations as Writings.

Near that time, Judaism codified the tripartite system of its Scriptures in order to differentiate itself from Christianity. (Or Christianity might have differentiated itself from Judaism.) Even though that is what Judaism decided on, they could have just as easily decided on the quadripartite canon, with Chronicles, Ezra–Nehemiah, Job, Esther, and Daniel finding their place earlier in the biblical narrative, as in the modern-day Christian canon. It is unfortunate that Judaism has latched on to the tripartite system and that Christianity has latched onto the quadripartite system, when in fact, both canons were authentically Jewish. The quadripartite system probably arose among Greek-speaking Jews and is divided into a more straightforward, chronologically intact order. The tripartite system separates the books from their narrative order and places them in a thematic or genre-oriented order. It is possible that the tripartite system is more ancient and that it captures the order of the admissions of the books into the canon.

As the Jewish Study Bible states, The time of the origin of the name Tanakh is not clear. Rabbinic texts recognize a tripartite canon, where the names we know of, Torah, Neviʾim and Kethuvim, are used for each part of the canon (2073).

It continues,

The origin of the tripartite canon has been a topic of recent dispute, with several scholars suggesting that a two-part canon, the Torah and other works, was the original form, and that only later was it divided into three parts. It is more likely, however, that the tripartite canon is primary, and evidence for it appears in such sources as the prologue to the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach, which says that many great teachings have been given to us through the Law and the Prophets and the others (or, other books) that followed them and Luke 24.44, which refers to the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms, and in parallel expressions in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The tripartite canon likely reflects the gradual nature of the canonization process, with Neviʾim canonized before Kethuvim. This would explain why the Kethuvim contain the book of the prophet Daniel (dating from the 2nd century BCE), and several late historical books, such as Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles, which would seem more appropriately to belong with similar works such as Joshua and Kings. The tripartite canon most likely suggests, therefore, that Torah was canonized in the Persian period, followed by the canonization of the Neviʾim in the late Persian or early Greek period, while the Kethuvim were canonized last, around the time of the destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE). (page 2074)

I disagree with the later dating for canonization (I would move it back several centuries), but I agree with the insights discussed in this paragraph. The information continues to discuss the quadripartite canon:

The tripartite order is not the only one known in antiquity, nor is the number of twenty-four books the only number mentioned in ancient Jewish sources. Josephus, the Jewish historian of the 1st century CE, refers to twenty-two biblical books (Against Apion 1.42). It is not clear if he simply had a smaller canon or if, instead, his canon had the texts in a different order, combined in different ways. Some traditions put Ruth after Judges and Lamentations after Jeremiah, treating these smaller books as appendices to the ones they follow, rather than independent works. Such an arrangement of would yield twenty-two books, a number which conveniently corresponds to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet; some early Christian sources also cite this as the number of books in the Bible. … According to this originally Jewish tradition, mentioned in some early church fathers and reflected in the arrangement of the earliest comprehensive Septuagint manuscripts (4th century CE), the Hebrew Bible is divided into four parts: Torah, Histories, Poetical and Wisdom books, and Prophets. This order continues to be used by Christians in their organization of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) materials. Older scholarship spoke of this four-part, twenty-two book arrangement as the Alexandrian canon, in contrast to the tripartite, twenty-four book Palestinian canon, but scholars now recognize that such a clear dichotomy never existed and therefore avoid the use of those terms. (page 2074)

Whichever canon is original or current, the canon should not be used as a polemic against other faith communities or as a hammer to beat people with. As we can see, there are historical reasons why certain orderings and categorizations took place. We should not disparage other's canons by claiming that ours is more authentic (e.g., the Jewish 24-book or the Christian four-part canon). As we saw, there were many variations and re-arrangements and it took many years for the canon to normalize into its present forms.

What follows is a chart of the books of the canon, with their Hebrew names, English names, and the names that Origen and Jerome provided for them. The list follows Origen's order. It is interesting to see the linguistic changes from Hebrew to Greek to Latin and then the English names we have today.

English Name	Hebrew Name	Hebrew Transliteration	Origen's Name	Jerome's Name
Genesis	בְּרֵאשִׁית	Bĕrēšīt̲ (B'reshith)	Brēsith	Bresith
Exodus	וְאֵלֶּה שְׁמוֹת	Wĕʾēlleh Šĕmôt̲ (W'elleh Shemoth)	Ouellesmōth	Hellesmoth
Leviticus	וַיִּקְרָא	Wayyiqrāʾ	Ouikra	Vaiecra
Numbers	בְּמִדְבַּר	Bemidbar	Ammesfekōdeim	Vaiedabber
Deuteronomy	אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים	ʾēlleh haddb̲ārîm (W'elleh hadvarim)	Elleaddebareim	Addabarim
Joshua	יְהוֹשֻׁעַ	Yehōshuʿa	Yōsoue-ben-noun	Iosue Bennun
Judges Ruth	שֹֽׁפְטִים רוּת	Shōphtim Ruth	Sōphteim Routh	Sopthim Ruth
I and II Samuel	שְׁמוּאֵל	Shemuʾēl	Somouēl	Samuhel
I and II Kings	מְּלָכִים	Melakim	Ουαμμελχδαυιδ Wamellech Dawid	Melachim
I and II Chronicles	דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים	Divrei hayamim	Δαβρηϊαμειν Dabrēyamein	Dabreiamin
Ezra + Nehemiah	עֶזְרָא נְחֶמְיָה	ʿEzraʾ Nĕḥemyāh	Ezra	Ezras
Psalms	תְּהִלִּים	Tĕhillîm	Sfarthelleim (contraction of sefer tehillim, book of psalms)	Psalms of David
Proverbs	מִשְׁלֵי	MišlêMishlei	Melōth	Masaloth (parables)
Ecclesiastes	קֹהֶלֶת	Qōheleṯ	Kōelth	Coeleth
The Song of Songs	שִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים	Shir haShirim	Sirassireim	Sirassirim
Isaiah	יְשַׁעְיָהוּ	Yĕshaʿyāhû	Iessia	Esaias
Jeremiah + Lamentations	יִרְמְיָהוּ אֵיכָה	Yirmĕyāhû ʾEicāh	Ieremia	Hieremias + Kinoth
Daniel	דָּנִיֵּאל	Dāniyyēʾl	Daniēl	Danihel
Ezekiel	יְחֶזְקֵאל	Yĕḥezqēʾl	Iezekiēl	Hiezecihel
The Twelve (Minor Prophets)	תרי עשר	Trei ʿAsar	N/A	Thareasra
Job	אִיּוֹב	ʾIyyôv	Iōb	Iob
Esther	אֶסְתֵּר	ʾEstēr	Esthēr	Hester

Sources:

Brettler, Marc Zvi. The Canonization of the Bible. In The Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation, edited by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, 2072-2077. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.