Friday, July 26, 2024

Andrew W. Steinmann on Bryennios List

  

The Bryennios List

 

An ancient list of the OT canon was first published by Bryennios and later by Audet. Audet dates this list to the second century. Audet also demonstrated that the Bryennios List shared a common tradition with the later canonical lists of Epiphanius (d. AD 403). The list preserves two names for each book: a Hebrew or Aramaic name in Greek transliteration and the Greek name. The list reads:

 

Genesis

Exodus

Leviticus

Joshua son of Nun

Deuteronomy

Numbers

Ruth

Job

Judges

Psalms

1 Kingdoms [1 Samuel]

2 Kingdoms [2 Samuel]

3 Kingdoms [1 Kings]

4 Kingdoms [2 Kings]

1 Chronicles

2 Chronicles

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes

Song of Songs

Jeremiah [including Lamentations?]

The Twelve Prophets

Isaiah

Ezekiel

Daniel

Ezra

Nehemiah

Esther

 

The number and order of the books in this list is peculiar. The Pentateuch is interrupted by Joshua, and Numbers and Deuteronomy are inverted. Katz proposes that this was caused by an error in copying from a manuscript that was originally written in boustrophedon. (Peter Katz, “The Old Testament Canon in Palestine and Alexandria,” ZNW 47 [1956] 206. Boustrophedon was a form of writing in which the lines are written alternately right to left and left to right. [Like the plowing of furrows with an ox [Greek: bous]) Thus, the second line was written “Joshua—Deuteronomy—Numbers” but was intended to be read “Numbers-Deuteronomy—Joshua.” But the rest of the list is peculiar with only a few groups of books in familiar order: Samuel—Kings—Chronicles is common enough as is Proverbs—Ecclesiastes—Song of Songs. The order Ezekiel—Daniel—Ezra matches Melito’s list and since it is followed by Esther, the Bryennios list may confirm that Eusebius’ account of Melito’s list may have been defective in omitting Esther.

 

The number of books in the list is twenty-seven. Clearly this list could not have been derived from the twenty-four book tripartite arrangement of the canon. The Writings are scattered too widely within this list for that to be possible. However, it is entirely possible that this list is related to the twenty-two book mode of arranging the canon. Samuel, Kings, Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah clearly are presented as two books each. If Ruth was then united to Judges (through it is not next to it in the list) the count would be twenty-two. Therefore, this list has more in common with the twenty-two book mode of arranging the canon and probably is related to it. (Andrew E. Steinmann, The Oracles of God: The Old Testament Canon [Saint Paul, Miss.: Concordia Publishing House, 1999], 150-51)

  

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