The TaNaKh is the Hebrew acronym which refers to the Jewish Bible. The Jewish Bible consists of three parts: Torah (sometimes called the Five Books of Moses), Nevi’im (the books of the Prophets), and Ketuvim (or „Writings“). Various translations of the TaNaKh are provided for comparison. Just as there are a variety of ways to translate the Tanakh, so are there a variety of approaches or methodologies to read and study it. Some Jews believe the text of the Torah, for instance, is a fully divine document, handed down from God on Mount Sinai. Others believe that the text was inspired by God but written over time by a single or even multiple authors. The Talmud and Midrash found in the compendium are post-biblical literatures that function as „tradition literature“ in Judaism. They reflect the ideas, beliefs and traditions handed down by the sages or rabbinic scholars. A number of approaches to their study have been developed over the centuries, and they have been applied to these as well as biblical texts to arrive at varieties of Jewish religious and moral-ethical practice. In addition to expanding our library of rabbinic texts, we will be providing articles that will describe how these religious texts are read and analyzed by traditional and modern scholars.
- The Talmud (partial)
- The Complete Talmud (downloadable in PDF form)
- English Translations of the Hebrew Bible
- The Bible in Arabic
An acronym in Hebrew that reference the Jewish Bible is TaNaKh. This is the first letter of the Masoretic Text’s subdivisions, of which there are three.
The Three books
The Jewish Bible has three parts. The Torah, which occasionally is called the Five Books of Moses. The Nevi’im, also known as the books of Prophets, and the Ketuvim, or Writings.
The Torah
The five books that are a feature of the Torah are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
The Nevi’im
The Nevi’im is the book of prophets and is split up into 21 sections such as Joshua, Samuel, Micah, Obadiah, and Amos.
Writings
The Writings is divided up into 13 parts. These elements include Ruth, Job Lamentations, Proverbs, and Psalms.
General information
There are numerous translations that have been carried out on the TaNaKh, and these are extremely useful to make comparisons between the meanings of the different texts, which can be interpreted in many different ways.
Along with the various translations of the TaNaKh, there are a number of different methodologies that are utilised when it comes to the in-depth study of what is written. This canonical collection of Jewish texts is a textual source, which was originally composed in Biblical Hebrew with some of the sections also being written in Biblical Aramaic. The time-honoured text that is written in Hebrew is also called the Masoretic Text
It is a belief in some Jewish circles that the writings of the Torah, for example, is a document that is fully divine, and has been given by God to the Jewish people on Mount Sinai. The other belief about these ancient writings says that even though it is a fact that the text was ‚inspired‘ by God, the words themselves were written and evolved over the years by the authors. This could be a single or multiple writers that were interpreting in their own way, the words of God and their significance.
The Midrash and Talmud that can be found in the compendium are writings that are post-biblical and serve a unique function of being Judaism „tradition literature.“ The outline the strong traditions and beliefs that have been handed down through the generations by rabbinic scholars and sages. Several approaches to studies have been created over the centuries, and they have been used to not only these but also biblical texts to arrive at various moral-ethical and Jewish religious practices.
As well as growing the rabbinic and library texts, there will also be articles describing how religious writings can be assessed and analysed by both modern and traditional scholars.