Since the publication of the BHK in 1906, biblical scholars have read the Writings/Ketuvim with Psalms at the beginning and Chronicles at the end. The BHK/BHS arrangement is a mix of the order of the MT and the Rabbinic tradition found in baba bathra 14b. Actual manuscripts with the BHS order come from Spanish manuscripts from the 12-15th centuries (Stone, 107, Beckwith, 461). The BHQ, when completed, will begin the Ketuvim with Chronicles not the Psalms. According to T. Stone, there ought to be “a recalibration” of our observations about the significance of order in the Ketuvim (74) and also the structure/theology of the Tanak. This entails rethinking what difference that Chronicles makes at the head of the collection (not Psalms) and its implications for understanding the Tanak.
Main Questions:
• What are the structural implications of Chronicles as first in the Writings? How does Chronicles relate to the Psalms immediately after it and Ezra-Nehemiah at the end?
• How does Chronicles shape the thematic core for reading the Writings, similar to and different from the Psalms?
• How does the Ketuvim relate to the Tanak as a whole? With Chronicles at the start, does the Ketuvim provide a Synoptic version of the Law and Prophets, covering the instruction of the Lord from creation to the post-exile?
Beckwith, Roger T. The Old Testament canon of the New Testament church: And its background in early Judaism. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2008.
Stone, Timothy J. The compilational history of the Megilloth: canon, contoured intertextuality and meaning in the writings. Mohr Siebeck, 2013.