Hebrew Bible

The heart of the biblical story is God's covenant with the nation of Israel.[17] The Tanakh begins with the Genesis creation narrative and traces Israelite origins to the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob and his family settle in Egypt where their descendants live for 430 years. After the Exodus, the Israelites wander in the wilderness for 40 years.[18]

God gives the Israelites the Law of Moses to guide their behavior. The law includes rules for both religious ritual and ethics (see Ethics in the Bible). This moral code requires justice and care for the poor, widows, and orphans. The biblical story affirms God's unconditional love for his people, but he still punishes them when they fail to live by the covenant.[19]

God leads Israel into the promised land of Canaan,[19] which they conquer after five years. For the next 470 years, the Israelites were led by judges. Afterwards, the government transitioned to a monarchy. The united Kingdom of Israel was ruled first by Saul and then by David and his son Solomon. It was Solomon who built the First Temple in Jerusalem.[20] After Solomon's death, the united kingdom split into the northern Kingdom of Israel with its capital at Samaria and the southern Kingdom of Judah centered at Jerusalem.[21]

The northern kingdom survived for 200 years until it was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE. The Kingdom of Judah survived for longer, but it was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Temple was destroyed, and many Judeans were exiled to Babylon. In 539 BCE, Babylon was conquered by Cyrus the Great of Persia, who allowed the exiles to return to Judah. Between 520 and 515 BCE, the Temple was rebuilt (see Second Temple).[22]

The inter-relationship between various significant ancient manuscripts of the Old Testament (some identified by their siglum). Mt being the Masoretic text. The lowermost text "(lost)" would be the Urtext.

The books that make up the Hebrew Bible were composed and edited in stages over several hundred years.[23] There is no scholarly consensus as to when the Hebrew Bible canon was fixed: some scholars argue that it was fixed by the Hasmonean dynasty,[24] while others argue it was not fixed until the second century CE or even later.[25]

Traditionally, Moses was considered the author of the Torah, and this part of the Tanakh achieved authoritative or canonical status first, possibly as early as the 5th century BCE. This is suggested by Ezra 7:6, which describes Ezra as "a scribe skilled in the law (torah) of Moses that the Lord the God of Israel had given".[26]

The Nevi'im had gained canonical status by the 2nd century BCE. There are references to the "Law and the Prophets" in the Book of Sirach, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the New Testament. The Book of Daniel, written c. 164 BCE, was not grouped with the Prophets presumably because the Nevi'im collection was already fixed by this time.[27]

The Ketuvim was the last part of the Tanakh to achieve canonical status. The prologue to the Book of Sirach mentions "other writings" along with the Law and Prophets but does not specify content. The Gospel of Luke refers to "the Law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms" (Luke 24:44). These references suggest that the content of the Writings remained fluid until the canonization process was completed in the 2nd century CE.[28]

According to Louis Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, the twenty-four book canon of the Hebrew Bible was fixed by Ezra and the scribes in the Second Temple period.[29]

According to the Talmud, much of the Tanakh was compiled by the men of the Great Assembly (Anshei K'nesset HaGedolah), a task completed in 450 BCE, and it has remained unchanged ever since.[30]

The 24-book canon is mentioned in the Midrash Koheleth 12:12: Whoever brings together in his house more than twenty four books brings confusion.[31]

The original writing system of the Hebrew text was an abjad: consonants written with some applied vowel letters ("matres lectionis"). During the early Middle Ages, scholars known as the Masoretes created a single formalized system of vocalization. This was chiefly done by Aaron ben Moses ben Asher, in the Tiberias school, based on the oral tradition for reading the Tanakh, hence the name Tiberian vocalization. It also included some innovations of Ben Naftali and the Babylonian exiles.[32] Despite the comparatively late process of codification, some traditional sources and some Orthodox Jews hold the pronunciation and cantillation to derive from the revelation at Sinai, since it is impossible to read the original text without pronunciations and cantillation pauses.[33] The combination of a text (מקרא mikra), pronunciation (ניקוד niqqud) and cantillation (טעמים te`amim) enable the reader to understand both the simple meaning and the nuances in sentence flow of the text.

The Tanakh consists of twenty-four books, counting as one book each 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles, and Ezra–Nehemiah. The Twelve Minor Prophets (תרי עשר) are also counted as a single book. In Hebrew, the books are often referred to by their prominent first words.

Nach, also anglicized Nakh, refers to the Nevi'im and Ketuvim portions of Tanakh.[42][43] Nach is often referred to as its own subject,[44] separate from Torah.[45]

It is a major subject in the curriculum of Orthodox high schools for girls and in the seminaries which they subsequently attend,[42] and is often taught by different teachers than those who teach Chumash.[44] The curriculum of Orthodox high schools for boys includes only some portions of Nach, such as the book of Joshua, the book of Judges,[46] and the Five Megillot.[47] See Yeshiva § Torah and Bible study.

• The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text: A New Translation with the aid of Previous Versions & with the Constant Consultation of Jewish Authorities was published in 1917 by the Jewish Publication Society. It was replaced by their Tanakh in 1985
• Tanakh, Jewish Publication Society, 1985, ISBN 0-8276-0252-9
• Tanach: The Stone Edition, Hebrew with English translation, Mesorah Publications, 1996, ISBN 0-89906-269-5, named after benefactor Irving I. Stone.
• Tanakh Ram, an ongoing translation to Modern Hebrew (2010–) by Avraham Ahuvya (RAM Publishing House Ltd. and Miskal Ltd.)
• The Living Torah and The Living Nach, a 1981 translation of the Torah by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan and a subsequent posthumous translation of the Nevi'im and Ketuvim following the model of the first volume
• The Koren Jerusalem Bible is a Hebrew/English Tanakh by Koren Publishers Jerusalem and was the first Bible published in modern Israel in 1962

Hebrew bible (Tanakh) in the collection of the Jewish Museum of Switzerland, printed in Israel in 1962.

The major commentary used for the Chumash is the Rashi commentary. The Rashi commentary and Metzudot commentary are the major commentaries for the Nach.[48][49]

There are two major approaches to the study of, and commentary on, the Tanakh. In the Jewish community, the classical approach is a religious study of the Bible, where it is assumed that the Bible is divinely inspired.[50] Another approach is to study the Bible as a human creation.[51] In this approach, Biblical studies can be considered as a sub-field of religious studies. The latter practice, when applied to the Torah, is considered heresy[52] by the Orthodox Jewish community.[53] As such, much modern day Bible commentary written by non-Orthodox authors is considered forbidden[54] by rabbis teaching in Orthodox yeshivas. Some classical rabbinic commentators, such as Abraham Ibn Ezra, Gersonides, and Maimonides, used many elements of contemporary biblical criticism, including their knowledge of history, science, and philology. Their use of historical and scientific analysis of the Bible was considered acceptable by historic Judaism due to the author's faith commitment to the idea that God revealed the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai.

The Modern Orthodox Jewish community allows for a wider array of biblical criticism to be used for biblical books outside of the Torah, and a few Orthodox commentaries now incorporate many of the techniques previously found in the academic world,[55] e.g. the Da'at Miqra series. Non-Orthodox Jews, including those affiliated with Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism, accept both traditional and secular approaches to Bible studies. "Jewish commentaries on the Bible", discusses Jewish Tanakh commentaries from the Targums to classical rabbinic literature, the midrash literature, the classical medieval commentators, and modern-day commentaries.

Christianity has long asserted a close relationship between the Hebrew Bible and New Testament.[56] In Protestant Bibles, the Old Testament is the same as the Hebrew Bible, but the books are arranged differently. Catholic Bibles and Eastern Orthodox Bibles contain books not included in the Hebrew Bible (see Deuterocanonical books).[57]

The ancient translations of the Hebrew Bible currently used by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches are based on the Septuagint, which was considered the authoritative scriptural canon by the early Christians.[58] The Septuagint was influential on early Christianity as it was the Hellenistic Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible primarily used by the 1st-century Christian authors.[59]

• 613 commandments, formal list of Jewish 613 commandments
• 929: Tanakh B'yachad
• Hebrew University Bible Project
• Mikraot Gedolot
• New Jewish Publication Society of America Tanakh
• Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible
• Weekly Torah portion

Footnotes

Sources

• Johnson, Paul (1987). A History of the Jews (First, hardback ed.). London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-79091-4.
• Kuntz, John Kenneth. The People of Ancient Israel: an introduction to Old Testament Literature, History, and Thought, Harper and Row, 1974. ISBN 0-06-043822-3.
• Leiman, Sid. The Canonization of Hebrew Scripture (Hamden, CT: Archon, 1976).
• Levenson, Jon. Sinai and Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1985).
• Minkoff, Harvey. "Searching for the Better Text". Biblical Archaeology Review (online). Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
• Noth, Martin. A History of Pentateuchal Traditions (1948; trans. by Bernhard Anderson; Atlanta: Scholars, 1981).
• Schmid, Konrad. The Old Testament: A Literary History (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012).

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Tanakh

Hebrew Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Tanakh (Hebrew source)

• Judaica Press Translation of Tanakh with Rashi's commentary Free online translation of Tanakh and Rashi's entire commentary
• Mikraot Gedolot (Rabbinic Bible) at Wikisource in English (sample) and Hebrew (sample)
• A Guide to Reading Nevi'im and Ketuvim – Detailed Hebrew outlines of the biblical books based on the natural flow of the text (rather than the chapter divisions). The outlines include a daily study-cycle, and the explanatory material is in English, by Seth (Avi) Kadish.
• Tanakh Hebrew Bible Project—An online project that aims to present critical text of the Hebrew Bible with important ancient versions (Samaritan Pentateuch, Masoretic Text, Targum Onkelos, Samaritan Targum, Septuagint, Peshitta, Aquila of Sinope, Symmachus, Theodotion, Vetus Latina, and Vulgate) in parallel with new English translation for each version, plus a comprehensive critical apparatus and a textual commentary for every verse.