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Tough Topics - Bible
The Hebrew word for Bible is TaNaH (which can also be transliterated as ‘TaNaCh’, ‘TaNaKh’ and so on). It is an acronym for its three sections:
- Torah (meaning the Written Torah, the first five books)
- Nevi’im (prophets)
- Ketuvim (writings)
The TaNaH, therefore, is literally and metaphorically the book of books. It is the name of the most ancient, most authoritative and most meaningful of all classical Jewish sources. There are at least four important differences between the TaNaAH (Jewish Bible) and the Christian Bible:
- The Christian Bible has an extension called the ‘New Testament’ and calls the ‘Jewish’ part of the Bible the ‘Old Testament’. For Jews, the TaNaH is not old but eternal and ever-new. Some Christian Bibles have another section, between the Old and New Testaments, called the ‘Apocrypha’. Although the texts in the Apocrypha are of Jewish origin from the pre-Christian era, they are not included in the TaNaH.
- The structure of the Old Testament varies from that of the TaNaH and the books appear in a different order
- The names of the books in the Old Testament are not always translations of the names of the books in the TaNaH.
- Some Christian translations into English of the Old Testament differ in some important respects from Jewish translations of the TaNaH.
Torah
This is the first Five Books of the TaNaH and is sometimes called the ‘Five Books of Moses’. ‘Pentateuch’ is the name in the Christian Bible for this section.
‘Torah’ means ‘teaching’ or ‘instruction’. It does not mean ‘law’: it does contain laws but also many other kinds of material, including songs, prayers, genealogies and various kinds of stories. Across the Jewish spectrum, weekly Torah readings are drawn from this section of the TaNaH.
Nevi’im
This section of the TaNaH contains those books that are written by or attributed to prophets and also those books that refer to the work and words of prophets although not bearing the prophet’s name. In addition to Shabbat and festival Torah readings from a scroll, there are readings from a book, drawn from this section of the TaNaH.
Ketuvim
Scholars of the English Bible call this section the ‘hagiographia’ (meaning, ‘sacred writing’). The Five special scrolls and the Psalms, which feature in Jewish worship, are drawn from this section.
Dating
The TaNaH covers events in the period 1800—400 BCE but there are varying opinions about when it was written down. Most of the TaNaH is in Hebrew but, in ancient times, the TaNaH was translated into various languages—for example, Aramaic and Greek. These translations give us some idea as to how the TaNaH was understood in that period. Guides to understanding are also provided by commentaries down the centuries.
BOOKS IN THE TANAH, according to the traditional Jewish structure but using the names given in the Christian bible.
