Front Matter -- Copyright page -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Introductory Note -- A Status Quaestionis on the Formation of the Canon of the Hebrew Bible -- Some Preliminary Clarifications -- Methodology and Structure -- The Twenty-Two Books of the Jews According to Josephus -- Introductory Note -- The Passage of the Against Apion -- The Twenty-Two Books outside the Against Apion -- Josephus and Some Books on the Borderline of the Canon -- The Ninety-Four Books of the Torah According to 4 Ezra -- Introductory Note -- Introduction to 4 Ezra -- Coordinates for a Comprehensive Understanding of 4 Ezra -- The Characterization of Ezra -- Function and Meaning of the Ninety-Four Books -- Historical Context and Social Function of 4 Ezra -- Fourth Ezra and the Canon of the Hebrew Bible -- Comparison and Conclusions -- Introductory Note -- A Short Comparison between Josephus and 4 Ezra on the Books -- Elements for an Hypothesis -- Back Matter -- Bibliography.

In The Origins of the Canon of the Hebrew Bible: An Analysis of Josephus and 4 Ezra , Juan Carlos Ossandón Widow examines the thorny question of when, how, and why the collection of twenty-four books that today is known as the Hebrew Bible was formed. He carefully studies the two earliest testimonies in this regard—Josephus’ Against Apion and 4 Ezra—and proposes that, along with the tendency to idealize the past, which leads to consider that divine revelation to Israel has ceased, an important reason to specify a collection of Scriptures at the end of the first century CE consisted in the need to defend the received tradition to counter those that accepted more books.