Tanakh
For information on the musical collective, please see Tanakh (band).Tanakh [תנ״ך] (also
Tanach,
IPA: or ), is an
acronym that identifies the
Hebrew Bible. The acronym is based on the initial
Hebrew letters of each of the text's three parts:
#
Torah [תור"] meaning "Instruction". Also called the
Chumash [חומש] meaning: "The five"; "The five books of Moses". Also called the "
Pentateuch".#
Nevi'im [נביאים] meaning "Prophets"#
Ketuvim [כתובים] meaning "Writings" or "Hagiographa".
The Tanakh is also called [מקרא],
Mikra or
Miqra.
The threefold division reflected in the acronym Tanakh is well attested to in documents from the
Second Temple period and in
Rabbinic literature. During that period, however, the acronym Tanakh was not used; rather, the proper term was
Mikra ("Reading"). The term
Mikra continues to be used to this day alongside
Tanakh to refer to the Hebrew scriptures. (In modern spoken
Hebrew,
Mikra has a more formal flavor than
Tanakh.)
Because the books included in the Tanakh were predominantly written in Hebrew, it may also be called the
Hebrew Bible. Parts of
Daniyel and
Ezra, as well as a sentence in
Yir'm'yahu (Jeremiah) and a two-word toponym in
B'reshit (Genesis), are in
Aramaic " but even these are written in the same
Hebrew script. Perhaps these portions were written by the original Hebrew prophets, who knew that they were intentionally speaking to an Aramaic audience, as an aside.
Main article: Jewish canon
.
According to the Jewish tradition, the Tanakh consists of twenty-four books (enumerated below). The Torah has five books, Nevi'im contains eight books, and Ketuvim has eleven.
These twenty-four books are the same books found in the
Protestant Old Testament, but the order of the books is different. The enumeration differs as well: Christians count these books as thirty-nine, not twenty-four. This is because Jews often count as a single book what Christians count as several. However, the term
Old Testament while common, is often considered pejorative by Jews as it implies that validity of a
New TestamentAs such, one may draw a technical distinction between the Jewish Tanakh and the similar, but not identical, corpus which Protestant Christians call the
Old Testament. Thus, some scholars prefer
Hebrew Bible as a term that covers the commonality of Tanakh and the Old Testament while avoiding sectarian bias.
The
Catholic and
Orthodox Old Testaments contain six books not included in the Tanakh. They are called
deuterocanonical books (literally "canonized secondly" meaning canonized later).
In Christian Bibles, Daniel and the Book of Esther sometimes include extra
deuterocanonical material that is not included in either the Jewish or most
Protestant canons.
 |
11th century Targum |
The Hebrew text originally consisted only of
consonants, together with some inconsistently applied letters used as
vowels (
matres lectionis). During the early middle ages, the
Masoretes codified the oral tradition for reading the Tanakh by adding two special kinds of symbols to the text:
niqud (vowel points) and
cantillation signs. The latter indicate syntax, stress (accentuation), and the melody for reading.
The books of the Torah have generally-used names which are based on the first prominent word in each book. The
English names are not translations of the Hebrew; they are based on the Greek names created for the
Septuagint which in turn were based on
Rabbinic names describing the thematic content of each of the Books.
The
Torah ("Law") [also known as the Pentateuch] consists of:#
Genesis [בראשית / B'reshit] #
Exodus [שמות / Sh'mot] #
Leviticus [ויקרא / Vayiqra]#
Numbers [במ"בר / B'midbar]#
Deuteronomy ["ברים / D'varim]
The books of
Nevi'im ("Prophets") are:: 6.
Joshua [י"ושע / Y'hoshua]: 7.
Judges [שופטים / Shophtim]: 8.
Samuel (I & II) [שמואל / Sh'muel]:9.
Kings (I & II) [מלכים / M'lakhim]:10.
Isaiah [ישעי" / Y'shayahu]:11.
Jeremiah [ירמי" / Yir'm'yahu]:12.
Ezekiel [יחזקאל / Y'chezqel]:13. The Twelve Minor Prophets [תרי עשר]:: I.
Hosea ["ושע / Hoshea]:: II.
Joel [יואל / Yoel]:: III.
Amos [עמוס / Amos]:: IV.
Obadiah [עוב"י" / Ovadyah]:: V.
Jonah [יונ" / Yonah]:: VI.
Micah [מיכ" / Mikhah]:: VII.
Nahum [נחום]:: VIII.
Habakkuk [חבקוק /Chavaquq]:: IX.
Zephaniah [צפני" / Ts'phanyah]:: X.
Haggai [ח'י]:: XI.
Zechariah [זכרי"/ Z'kharyah]:: XII.
Malachi [מלאכי/ Malakhi]
The
Kh'tuvim ("Writings") are::14.
Psalms [ת"לים / T'hilim]:15.
Proverbs [משלי / Mishlei]:16.
Job [איוב / Iyov]:17.
Song of Songs [שיר "שירים / Shir Hashirim]:18.
Ruth [רות]:19.
Lamentations [איכ" / Eichah]:20.
Ecclesiastes [ק"לת / Qohelet]:21.
Esther [אסתר]:22.
Daniyel ["ניאל]:23.
Ezra-
Nehemiah [N'chemyah /עזרא ונחמי"]:24.
Chronicles (I & II) ["ברי "ימים / Divrey Hayamim]
The chapter divisions and verse numbers have no significance in the Jewish tradition. Nevertheless, they are noted in all modern editions of the Tanakh so that verses may be located and cited. The division of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles into parts I and II is also indicated on each page of those books in order to prevent confusion about whether a chapter number is from part I or II, since the chapter numbering for these books follows their partition in the Christian textual tradition.
The adoption of the Christian chapter divisions by Jews began in the late middle ages in
Spain, partially in the context of forced clerical debates which took place against a background of harsh persecution and of the
Spanish Inquisition (the debates required a common system for citing biblical texts). From the standpoint of the Jewish textual tradition, the chapter divisions are not only a foreign feature with no basis in the
mesorah, but also open to severe criticism of two kinds:
* The chapter divisions often reflect Christian
exegesis of the Bible.
* Even when they do not imply Christian exegesis, the chapters often divide the biblical text at numerous points that may be deemed inappropriate for literary or other reasons.
Nevertheless, because they proved useful " and eventually indispensable " for citations, they continued to be included by Jews in most Hebrew editions of the biblical books. For more information on the origin of these divisions, see
chapters and verses of the Bible.
The chapter and verse numbers were often indicated very prominently in older editions, to the extent that they overshadowed the traditional Jewish
masoretic divisions. However, in many Jewish editions of the Tanakh published over the past forty years, there has been a major historical trend towards minimizing the impact and prominence of the chapter and verse numbers on the printed page. Most editions accomplish this by removing them from the text itself and relegating them to the margins of the page. The main text in these editions is unbroken and uninterrupted at the beginning of chapters (which are noted only in the margin). The lack of chapter breaks within the text in these editions also serves to reinforce the visual impact created by the spaces and "paragraph" breaks on the page, which indicate the traditional Jewish
parashah divisions.
These modern Jewish editions present Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles (as well as Ezra) as single books in their title pages, and make no indication inside the main text of their division into two parts (though it is noted in the upper and side margins). The text of Samuel II, for instance, follows Samuel I on the very same page with no special break at all in the flow of the text, and may even continue on the very same line of text.
:See:
Oral law in Judaism.
Rabbinical Judaism believes that the Torah was transmitted side by side with an oral tradition. Other groups, such as
Karaite Judaism and the
Christians, do not accept this claim. Many terms and definitions used in the written law are undefined within the Torah itself, and the reader is assumed to be familiar with the context and details. This fact is presented as evidence to the antiquity of the oral tradition. An opposing argument is that only a small portion of the vast rabbinic works on the oral tradition can be described as mere clarifications and context. These rabbinic works, collectively known as "the oral law" [תור" שבעל פ"], include the
Mishnah, the
Tosefta, the two
Talmuds (Babylonian and Jerusalem), and the early
Midrash compilations.
Tanakh, English translation, Jewish Publication Society,
1985, ISBN 0827602529
Jewish Study Bible, using NJPS (1985) translation, Oxford U Press,
2003, ISBN 0195297547
Tanach: The Stone Edition, Hebrew with English translation, Mesorah Publications,
1996, ISBN 0899062695
*
Jewish English Bible translations*
Bible*
Biblical canon*
Mikraot Gedolot*
Rabbinic literature*
Septuagint*
Samaritan Pentateuch*
Books of the Bible for a side-by-side comparison of
Jewish,
Catholic,
Orthodox and
Protestant canons.
*
613 mitzvot, the formal list of all 613 commandments that Jewish sages traditionally identify in the
Torah*
Table of books of Judeo-Christian Scripture*
Non-canonical books referenced in the BibleOnline texts
*
Mikraot Gedolot (Rabbinic Bible) at
:Wikisource in
English (sample) and
Hebrew (sample)*
TanakhML (
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and
King James Version)
*
Unicode/XML Westminster Leningrad Codex - A transcription of the electronic source maintained by the Westminster Hebrew Institute. (
Leningrad Codex)
*
Mechon Mamre - The Hebrew text of the Tanakh based on the
Aleppo codex, edited according to the system of Rabbi
Mordechai Breuer. Hebrew text comes in four convenient versions (including one with
cantillation marks) and may be downloaded. The
JPS 1917 English translation is included as well (including a parallel translation).
*
Tanach on Demand - Custom
PDF versions of any section of the Bible in Hebrew.
Reading guides
*
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.
*
A detailed chart of the major figures and events in the Tanakh*
Judaica Press Translation (online translation of Tanakh and
Rashi's entire commentary)
