Skip to main content

Hebrew Bible

 The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh is the canonical collection of Hebrew scriptures, including the Torah, the Nevi'im, and the Ketuvim. These texts are almost exclusively in Biblical Hebrew, with a few passages in Biblical Aramaic (in the Books of Daniel and Ezra, the verse Jeremiah 10:11, and some single words).

The authoritative form of the Hebrew Bible for Rabbinic Judaism is the Masoretic Text (7th to 10th century AD), which consists of 24 books, divided into pesuqim (verses). The contents of the Hebrew Bible are similar to those of the Protestant Christian Old Testament, in which the material is divided into 39 books and arranged in a different order. Catholic Bibles, Eastern/Greek Orthodox Bibles and Ethiopian Orthodox Bibles contain additional materials, derived from the Septuagint (texts translated in Koine Greek) and other sources.


In addition to the Masoretic Text, modern scholars seeking to understand the history of the Hebrew Bible use a range of sources. These include Septuagint, the Syriac language Peshitta translation, the Samaritan Pentateuch; the Dead Sea Scrolls collection and quotations from rabbinic manuscripts. These sources may be older than the Masoretic Text in some cases and often differ from it. These differences have given rise to the theory that yet another text, an Urtex of the Hebrew Bible, once existed and is the source of the versions extant today. However, such an Urtex has never been found, and which of the three commonly known versions (Septuagint, Masoretic Text, Samaritan Pentateuch) is closest to the Urtex is debated.

Christianity has long asserted a close relationship between the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, although there have sometimes been movements like Marcionism (viewed as heretical by the early church), that have struggled with it. Modern Christian formulations of this tension include supersessionism, covenant theology, new covenant theology, dispensationalism, and dual-covenant theology. All of these formulations, except some forms of dual-covenant theology, are objectionable to mainstream Judaism and to many Jewish scholars and writers, for whom there is one eternal covenant between God and the Israelites, and who therefore reject the term "Old Testament" as a form of antinomianism.

x-------x

Picture from Pexels.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stoichiometry

 Stoichiometry refers to the relationship between the quantities of reactants and products before, during, and following chemical  reactions. Stoichiometry was founded on the law of conservation of mass where the total mass of the reactants equals the total mass of the products, leading to the insight that the relations among qualities of reactants and products typically form a ratio of positive integers. This means that if the amounts of separate reactants are known, then the amount of the product can be calculated. Conversely, if one reactant has a known quantity and the quantity of the products can be empirically determined, then the amount of other reactants can also be calculated. This is illustrated in this example, where the balanced equation is:          CH4 + 2O4 -----> CO2 + 2H2O Here, one molecule of methane reacts with two molecules of oxygen gas to yield one molecule of carbon dioxide and two molecules of water. This particular chemical...
Post a Comment
Read more

Gospel Harmony

 A gospel harmony is an attempt to collate the Christian canonical gospels into a single account. Harmonies are constructed by some writers in order to make the gospel story available to a wider audience, both religious and secular. Harmonies can be studied by scholars to establsh a coherent chronology of the events depicted in the four canonical gospels in the life of Jesus, to better understand how the accounts relate to each other, and to critically evaluate their differences. The terms harmony  and synopsis  have been used to several different approaches to consolidating the canonical gospels. Technically, a "harmony" weaves together sections of scripture into a single narrative, merging the four gospels. There are four main types of harmony : radical, synthetic, sequential, and parallel. By a contrast, a "synopsis," much like a parallel harmony, juxtaposes similar texts or accounts in parallel format, synchronized by time, while preserving their individual iden...
Post a Comment
Read more

Narrative Conflict

In works of narrative, conflict is the challenge main characters need to solve to achieve their goals. Traditionally, conflict is a major literary element of narrative or dramatic structure that creates challenges in a story by adding uncertainty as to whether the goal will be achieved. A narrative is not limited to a single conflict. While conflicts may not always resolve in narrative, the resolution of a conflict creates closure or fulfillment, which may or may not occur at a story's end. Conflict in literature refers to the different drives of the characters or forces involved. Conflict may be internal or external--that is, it can occur within a character's mind or between a character and exterior forces (or point/s of view). Conflict is most visible between two or more characters, usually between a protagonist and antagonist/villain/enemy, but can occur in many different forms. A character may as easily find himself or herself in conflict with a natural force, such as an an...
Post a Comment
Read more