Tanakh

Occurrence in Scripture

The word "Tanakh" does not appear in the Bible. It was formed by adding vowels to T, N, and K, the initial consonants of the three parts of the Hebrew Bible: the Torah (Law), the Nevi'im (Prophets), and the Ketuvim (Writings). The term came into use in later Judaism.

The New Testament contains expressions that suggest this threefold division. The risen Jesus says that "all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me" (Luke 24:44). Some hold that "the psalms" here represents the Writings as a whole. The two-part designation "the law, or the prophets" (Matthew 5:17) is also common.

Structure

• Torah: The five books from Genesis through Deuteronomy, that is, the Pentateuch. "Torah" means "instruction" or "law."
• Nevi'im: Divided into the Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings) and the Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve Minor Prophets).
• Ketuvim: Includes Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra–Nehemiah, and Chronicles.

Judaism counts Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles each as a single book. The Twelve Minor Prophets and Ezra–Nehemiah are likewise each counted as one book, for a total of twenty-four. The contents are the same as those of the thirty-nine books of the Protestant Old Testament; only the method of counting differs.

Background

The Christian Old Testament arranges its books in the order of Law, Historical Books, Poetic Books, and Prophets. This order is generally understood to derive from the arrangement of the Septuagint tradition, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. In the Tanakh, Daniel is placed among the Writings rather than the Prophets, and the final book is Chronicles rather than Malachi. Chronicles ends with the decree of the Persian king Cyrus permitting the return to Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 36:23). The Jewish Bible today follows the Masoretic Text.

Significance for Scripture as a Whole

The books of the Tanakh are the books that the New Testament writers called "the scriptures" and quoted. Jesus speaks of "the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias" (Luke 11:51). Some interpret this as spanning the Tanakh from Abel in Genesis, its first book, to Zechariah in Chronicles, its last book (2 Chronicles 24:20-22). However, because Matthew 23:35 calls him the "son of Barachias," others identify him as a different person.

Interpretation and Debate

• Extent of the canon: Protestants accept the same books as the Tanakh as the Old Testament canon. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church add certain books found in the Septuagint tradition and therefore count a larger number of Old Testament books. The Catholic Church calls these books "deuterocanonical," while Protestants classify them as the "Apocrypha."
• Date of closure: A widely circulated account holds that the extent of the canon was settled at a "Council of Jamnia" in the late first century. Scholars, however, disagree about whether any such formal decision was ever made.
• Naming: Some use the names "Hebrew Bible" or "Tanakh" out of respect for its character as the Scripture of Judaism. Those who emphasize its continuity with the New Testament use the name "Old Testament."

In the Korean Church

The Protestant Bibles used by Korean churches, such as the New Korean Revised Version and the New Korean Standard Version, follow the thirty-nine-book system and the order derived from the Septuagint tradition. The term "Tanakh" appears mainly in introductions to the Bible and in theology lectures, rather than in sermons, when explaining the Jewish division of the Scriptures.