Among the authors of early-Christian canon lists,
precisely those who claim to have derived their knowledge from Jewish sources
mention the number of 22 books. We have in mind (inter al.) Melito, Origen, and
Epiphanius. Not one of them refers to Chronicles as the last book of the Bible!
In the famous »Helmed Prologue« of the Vulgate Jerome offers a canon list of 22
books which ends with Esther; he also mentions another count of 24 books,
without, however, indicating the order in which they occur. (H. G. L. Peels, “The
Blood from Abel to Zechariah (Matthew 23,35; Luke 11,50f.) and the Canon of the
Old Testament,” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 113,
no. 4 [2001], 592)
Both Melito and Origen place Chronicles after Kings. In
the canon lists of Epiphanius, Chronicles occurs in various places but never at
the end of the canon. For the rest, these lists contain numerous peculiarities:
Melito has switched Numbers and Deuteronomy around and lacks Esther and
Lamentations. Origen lists 1 and 2 Macc but lacks the dodekapropheton. Cyril of
Jerusalem has the same list as Origen but mentions also Baruch. In passing: in
not a single manuscript of the Septuagint or the Peshitto does Chronicles come
at the end of the canon. (Ibid., 592 n. 27)
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