12. The Canon of the Bible Timeline Some have wondered about the order of the books of the Bible, when were the books known, what group(s) knew what the best texts of the Bible were, as well as who gave the world the Bible. Order of the Books of the Bible As far as the order of the books go, the order we see the books in the Bible currently traditionally listed in was put together by the Catholic saint and doctor of their church, Jerome. Jerome put together what is now considered to be the ‘traditional order’ as his order has been kept for many centuries. He seems to have been influenced by the order in the Septuagint (a Greek, not Hebrew, language OT Bible). Jerome’s order does not change the fact that neither he nor his church actually came up with the books, though it took the Church of Rome many centuries to finalize their ‘canons’ of scripture — and when they did so, they added books in the Old Testament that Jerome opposed, but was essentially forced to put in his Latin Vulgate Bible. Jerome’s order, however, does not appear to have been the completely truly traditional order, as his was from a later tradition. Here is what the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906 says about the sequence: Sequence The classical passage for the sequence of the books is the Baraita in B. B. 14b. With the exclusion of interjected remarks chronicled there, it runs as follows: “The sequence of the Prophets is Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, the 12 [minor] prophets; that of the Hagiographa is Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations, Daniel, Esther, Ezra, Chronicles. Who wrote the books? Moses wrote his book, the section of Balaam and Job; Joshua wrote his book, and the last eight verses of the Torah; Samuel wrote his book, Judges, and Ruth; David wrote the Psalms, by the hand of the ten Ancients; namely, through Adam (Psalm cxxxix. 16, perhaps also xcii.), through Melchizedek, Ps. Cx.: through Abraham, Ps. Lxxxix. ( explained to = Abraham); through Moses, Ps. Xc.-c.; through Heman, Ps. Lxxxviii.; through Jeduthun, Ps. Lxii.; perhaps lxxvii.; through Asaph, Ps. L., lxxiii.-lxxxiii.; and through the three sons of Korah, Ps. Xlii. Xlix., lxxviii., lxxxiv., lxxxv., lxxxviii. [The question whether Solomon should be included among the Psalmists is discussed in Tosafot 15a.] Jeremiah wrote his book, the Book of Kings, and Lamentations; King Hezekiah, and his council that survived him, wrote Isaiah, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes; the men of the Great Synagogues wrote Ezekiel, the Twelve Prophets, Daniel, and Esther; Ezra wrote his book and the genealogy of Chronicles down to himself.” From the fact that in this account of the authors Moses is mentioned as the author of the Torah, it may be inferred that in the collection from which the Baraita is cited the sequence also of the five books of the Torah was probably given. (Bible Canon. Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906)