Books of the Hebrew Scriptures
Contents:
1. The Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament.
2. Biblical Books in Hebrew and their commonly accepted English Names.
3. The Masoretic Text.
4. The Septuagent.
5. Origins of the Septuagent.
6. Additions (Apocrypha) found in the Septuagent.
7. More Items.
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1. The Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament.
The Hebrew Bible is referred to by Christians as the "Old Testament."
[Sources: Wikipedia articles supplemented by generally accepted information].
It consists of 24 books when the Twelve Minor prophets are counted as one book.
These texts are almost exclusively in Biblical Hebrew, apart from some passages in Biblical Aramaic in the books of Daniel and Ezra, the verse Jeremiah 10:11, and some single words in other books.
The contents of the Hebrew Bible are similar to those the Protestant Christian Old Testament, in which the material is divided into 39 books and arranged in a different order. Catholic Bibles and Eastern / Greek Orthodox Bibles contain additional materials, derived from the Septuagint (texts translated into Koine Greek) and other sources.
The Hebrew Bible is Hebrew is called the Tanakh. This word is an acronym, made from the first Hebrew letter of each of the three traditional divisions: Torah, Neviim, Ketuviim.
Torah means literally 'Instruction' or 'Law.' These are the fist five books of the Bible ascribed to Moses and known in English as the Pentateuch. The word "Torah" can also mean all valid relgious teaching in general. it all depends on the context in which the word is used. The Torah is also known as the "Chumash" ("Humash") meaning "Five."
Nevi'im ('Prophets')
Ketuvim ('Writings')
From Torah, Neviim, Ketuvim we obtain the acronym "TaNaKh."
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2. Biblical Books in Hebrew and their commonly accepted English Names.
Torah (Pentateuch) also called "Chumash" [Five]: These five books were written by Moses.
Bereshit ("In the beginning") - Genesis.
Shemot ("The names [of]")-Exodus.
Vayiqra ( "And He called")- Leviticus.
Bemidbar ( "In the desert [of]") - Numbers.
Devarim ("Things" or "Words") - Deuteronomy.
The Former Prophets (Nevi'im Rishonim):
Yehoshua- Joshua
Shophtim - Judges
Shmuel - Samuel
Melakhim - Kings
The Latter Prophets (Nevi'im Aharonim):
Yishayahu - Isaiah
Yirmiyahu - Jeremiah
YeHezqiel - Ezekiel
The Twelve Minor Prophets (Trei Asar, "The Twelve"), which are considered one book:
Hoshaya - Hosea
Yoel - Joel
Amos-Amos
Ovadhyah - Obadiah
Yonah - Jonah
Mikhah - Micah
Nahum - Nahum
Havakuh - Habakkuk
Tsephanyah - Zephaniah
Haggai - Haggai
Zekharyah - Zechariah
Malakhi - Malachi
Ketuvim (Writings):
The three Poetic Books:
Tehillim (Psalms)
Mishlei (Book of Proverbs)
Iyyov (Book of Job)
The Five Megillot (Hamesh Megillot) i.e. the Five Scrolls:
Shir Hashirim (Song of Solomon)
Ruth (Book of Ruth)
Eikhah (Lamentations)
Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes)
Ester (Book of Esther)
Other books
Daniel (Book of Daniel)
Ezra (Book of Ezra - Book of Nehemiah)
Divrei ha-Yamim (Chronicles)
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3. The Masoretic Text is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Tanakh in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocalization and accentuation known as the masorah. It was primarily copied, edited and distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoretes between the 600s and 900s of the Common Era (CE).
The Masoretic Text was used as the basis for translations of the Old Testament in Protestant Bibles such as the King James Version and American Standard Version and (after 1943) for some versions of Catholic Bibles.
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4. The Septuagent. This is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible with a few additional books.
Brit-Am will seldom if ever refer to the Septuagent though some researchers may find value in referring to it.
The Septuagent is "the earliest extant Koine Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible, various biblical apocrypha, and deuterocanonical books. "
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5. Origins of the Septuagent:
The first five books of the Hebrew Bible, known as the Torah or the Pentateuch, were translated into Greek in the 250s -300 BCE. The remaining books of the Greek Old Testament are presumably translations of the 100s BCE.
The Septuagent was intended from Jewish speakers of Greek in the Diaspora. Manistream Judaism tended to distance itself from this work. Its importance lies more in the use early Christian scholars made of it.
# The text of the Greek Old Testament is quoted more often than the original Hebrew Bible text in the Greek New Testament (particularly the Pauline epistles) by the Apostolic Fathers, and later by the Greek Church Fathers. #
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6. Additions (Apocrypha) found in the Septuagent:
# These [additional] books are estimated to have been written between 200 BCE and 50 CE. Among them are the first two books of Maccabees; Tobit; Judith; the Wisdom of Solomon; Sirach; Baruch (including the Letter of Jeremiah), and additions to Esther and Daniel. The Septuagint version of some books, such as Daniel and Esther, are longer than those in the Masoretic Text, which were affirmed as canonical by the rabbis. The Septuagint Book of Jeremiah is shorter than the Masoretic Text. The Psalms of Solomon, 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, the Letter of Jeremiah, the Book of Odes, the Prayer of Manasseh and Psalm 151 are included in some copies of the Septuagint.
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Also of importance are traditional Aramaic Translations, Talmudic Writings including Midrashim, Rabbinical Commentaries, and other works. Future articles in this series will (G-d willing) briefly discuss all these matters.