What is the Tanak?

The Jewish Bible  is  known by many different names: Hebrew Bible (after the language in which 99% of the books are written), Jewish Scriptures, and TANAK (an acronym which is explained below). It is never correct to refer to the Jewish Bible as the Old Testament: the "Old Testament" contains the same books as the Jewish Bible, but the term "Old Testament" signifies that it must be completed by a "New Testament," and is therefore only appropriate when speaking about the Christian Bible.

The names of individual books, as we know them in English, are usually Latin forms of Greek translations (or versions) of the original Hebrew names.

For example: the first book of the Jewish Bible is Genesis, a Latin form of the Greek word that means beginning, a translation of the Hebrew words B'reshit, "In the Beginning," which is the Hebrew name for this book (after its first words)

General Information

Mostly written in an ancient Semitic language called Hebrew; parts are written in a later Semitic language (closely related) called Aramaic.

In modern English translations, it runs a couple thousand pages; traditionally, Jews count 24 books in the TANAK

The various texts of the Jewish Bible were composed, edited, and circulated over a period of roughly 1000 years; the final form we have today probably came together around 100 CE

The oldest written versions of the Jewish Bible we have come from the Dead Sea Scrolls, a library of ancient manuscripts dating from about 200 BCE-70 CE. The oldest complete Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible come from roughly 1000 CE.

There have been many important translations and versions of the Jewish Bible, such as:

1. Septuagint. A translation of the Hebrew Bible into ancient Greek (the language of education and culture in the ancient world), probably around 100 BCE - 100 CE.

2. Targumim. Various ad hoc Aramaic translations (and, often, paraphrases) of individual books of the Bible.

3. Masorah. From circa 1000 CE, the oldest attempt to create a fully "pointed" text of the Hebrew Bible (Hebrew is a language written in consonants; vowels are added as supplementary marks and dots to assist in reading)

 

Structure

The Jewish Bible is often called the TANAK, an acronym that refers to the three sections of the Jewish Bible:

Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim

This chart gives the breakdown of the three sections of the TANAK; each book is listed according to its traditional English name; an English translation of its traditional Hebrew name is given in parentheses.

The Torah ("Law" or "Teaching")

Books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

This is sometimes called the Five Books of Moses, after an ancient belief that Moses had written the entire Torah. The Torah contains the narrative history of the People of Israel from the creation of the universe through their liberation from slavery in Egypt and their formation of an eternal contract (or covenant) with God (also known by the proper name Yahweh). It contains not only historical narratives, but also the details of the covenant and how God is to be worshipped at his (eventual) Temple in the Land of Promise.

Modern scholars believe that the Torah as we possess it today was originally edited from previous sources (which no longer exist) some time during or after the catastrophic Babylonian Exile that brought an end to Israelite independence in the 500s BCE. Some of the sources may date back as far as 800 or 900 BCE, but the final, edited form of the Torah is probably no older than 500 BCE. This theory of the formation of the Torah is known as the "Documentary Hypothesis."

Since the time of the rabbis, it has been customary to read the Torah as a liturgical (i.e., regular ritual) practice in the synagogue, going through the entire Torah (or representative portions of each section) in the course of one year. The festival of Simchat Torah celebrates this annual completion of the reading of the Torah.

The Nevi'im ("Prophets")

Books: Joshua, Judges, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, The Twelve Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi)

The Prophets are traditionally broken down into two sections: the Former Prophets, which tell the history of the People of Israel from their entry into the Land of Promise, through the formation of a Kingdom (and then two Kingdoms, Israel and Judah), and the fall of these Kingdoms and the beginning of the Babylonian Exile (in all, a period of probably 600 or 700 years); and the Latter Prophets, a collection of oracles and sayings delivered by holy men (prophets) on behalf of the God of Israel in various times and places from around 800 BCE until the times after the Babylonian Exile (the latest books of the Latter Prophets may date from as late as 300 BCE).

The "Book of Twelve" (in Christian Bibles called the 12 Minor Prophets) are counted as one book (because they fit on a single scroll in antiquity), roughly equal in length to the individual "Major Prophets." In modern Jewish ritual, it is customary to read a portion of a prophetic book (called the Haftarah) after the liturgical reading of the Torah. The pairing of prophetic chapters with books of the Torah are determined by ancient rabbinic custom.

Both the Former Prophets and Latter Prophets share a perspective on the ongoing history of Israel: it is a history of covenant failure, in which the People of Israel continually break their covenant loyalty to God and are subsequently punished through political and military failure. The most heinous covenant failure results in the most shocking political and military catastrophe: the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the forced exile of the leaders of Judah to the foreign empire of Babylonia. Along with this dire, threatening moral there is also a sense of hope and promise: as completely as God can punish and destroy Israel, so too he can restore and redeem them.

It is likely that some portions of the Former Prophets and the Latter Prophets (particularly the book of Isaiah) were compiled in the wake of the Babylonian Exile, circa 500 BCE. The collection as a whole, however, did not come together in its present form until much later, perhaps 200 BCE.

The Ketuvim ("Writings)

Books: Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, 1-2 Chronicles

The Writings are the most diverse collection of books in the TANAK: songs, stories, historical books, and philosophical treatises, set in a variety of times and places. Some of the books have traditionally been ascribed to heroic figures of the past (Lamentations to Jeremiah, Proverbs to Solomon, the Psalms to David). Many of the books (particularly the Psalms) may have been circulated, in part or in entirety, before the Babylonian Exile.  The Psalms may have been used as part of the Temple services. Some books, however, were written much later: the "apocalyptic" portions of Daniel (i.e., the predictions about the end of history) were almost certainly written in the 160s BCE.

Many of the narratives of the Writings deal with situations of Exile and Diaspora, or otherwise engage in the problems of Jews as "foreigners" in a non-Jewish world. The so-called "Wisdom Literature" (Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes) deals with problems of God's justice and human philosophy in a format that stretches back to ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. The various songs--Psalms (a collection of 150 songs of praise and lament), the Song of Solomon (a collection of fragments of erotic poetry), and Lamentations (a group of acrostic songs about the destruction of Jerusalem)--are still used liturgically (in various festival settings) as well as individually.

As a collection, the Writings did not come together until after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, when the canon of the entire TANAK was being decided.