Part of a series on
The Bible
Biblical canons and books
Tanakh (Torah · Nevi'im · Ketuvim) Christian Bible Old Testament (OT) New Testament (NT) Hebrew Bible Deuterocanon Antilegomena Chapters and verses Apocrypha (Jewish · OT · NT)
Development and authorship
Authorship Hebrew canon Old Testament canon New Testament canon Mosaic authorship Pauline epistles Johannine works Petrine epistles
Translations and manuscripts
Samaritan Torah Dead Sea scrolls Masoretic text Targums · Peshitta Septuagint · Vulgate Gothic Bible · Vetus Latina Luther Bible · English Bibles
Biblical studies
Dating the Bible Biblical criticism Historical criticism Textual criticism Source criticism Form criticism Redaction criticism Canonical criticism Novum Testamentum Graece Documentary hypothesis Wiseman hypothesis Synoptic problem NT textual categories Historicity People · Places · Names Internal consistency Archeology · Artifacts Science and the Bible
Interpretation
Hermeneutics Pesher · Midrash · Pardes Allegorical interpretation Literalism Prophecy
Perspectives
Gnostic · Islamic · Qur'anic Christianity and Judaism Inerrancy · Infallibility Criticism of the Bible
Bible book Bible portal
v t e

11th century manuscript of the Hebrew Bible with Aramaic Targum

The Hebrew Bible (Latin Biblia Hebraica, also Hebrew Scriptures, Jewish Bible) is a term used by biblical scholars to refer to the Tanakh (Hebrew: תנ"ך‎), a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual source of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament. These texts are composed mainly in Biblical Hebrew, with some passages in Biblical Aramaic (in the books of Daniel, Ezra and a few others).

The content, to which the Protestant Old Testament closely corresponds, does not act as source to the deuterocanonical portions of the Roman Catholic, nor to the Anagignoskomena portions of the Eastern Orthodox Old Testaments. The term does not comment upon the naming, numbering or ordering of books, which varies with later Christian Biblical canons.

The term is an attempt to provide specificity with respect to contents, while avoiding allusion to any particular interpretative tradition or theological school of thought. It is widely used in academic writing and interfaith discussion in relatively neutral contexts meant to include dialogue among all religious traditions, but not widely in the inner discourse of the religions which use its text.

Usage[link]

Hebrew Bible is a term that refers to the Tanakh (Jewish canon) in relation to the many Christian biblical canons. In its Latin form, Biblia Hebraica, it traditionally serves as a title for printed editions of the Masoretic Text.

Many scholars advocate use of the term Hebrew Bible when discussing these books in academic writing, as a neutral substitute to terms with religious connotations (e.g., the non-neutral term "old testament").^[1] The Society of Biblical Literature's Handbook of Style, which is the standard for major academic journals like Harvard Theological Review and conservative Protestant journals like Bibliotheca Sacra and Westminster Theological Journal, suggests that authors "be aware of the connotations of alternative expressions such as ... Hebrew Bible [and] Old Testament" without prescribing the use of either.^[2]

Additional difficulties include:

• In terms of theology, Christianity has struggled with the relationship between "old" and "new" testaments from its very beginnings.^[3][4] Modern Christian formulations of this tension, sometimes building upon ancient and medieval ideas, include supersessionism, covenant theology, dispensationalism, and dual-covenant theology. However, 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 Israel, and who therefore reject the very term "Old Testament."
• In terms of canon, Christian usage of "Old Testament" does not refer to a universally agreed upon set of books, but rather varies depending on denomination.

Hebrew in the term Hebrew Bible refers to the original language of the books, but it may also be taken as referring to the Jews of the Second Temple era and the Diaspora, and their descendants, who preserved the transmission of the Masoretic Text up to the present day. The Hebrew Bible includes some small portions in Aramaic (mostly in the books of Daniel and Ezra), which are written and printed in the Aramaic square-script, was adopted as the Hebrew alphabet after the Babylonian exile. The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet was the Hebrew alphabet of the classical era of Solomon's Temple. Some Qumran Hebrew biblical manuscripts are written using the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet of the classical era of Solomon's Temple.^[5] The famous examples of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet are the Siloam inscription (8th century BCE), the Lachish ostraca (6th century BCE), and the Bar Kokhba coin shown above (circa 132 CE).

Biblia Hebraica[link]

The Biblia Hebraica is edited by various German publishers.

• Between 1906 and 1955 Rudolf Kittel published 9 editions of it.
• 1966, the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft published the renamed Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia in six editions until 1997.
• Since 2004 the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft publishes the Biblia Hebraica Quinta including all variants of the Qumran manuscripts as well as the Masorah Magna.

See also[link]

Judaism portal

• Biblical canon
• Books of the Bible
• Christianity and Judaism
• Development of the Hebrew Bible canon
• Judeo-Christian
• Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible
• Torah
• List of major biblical figures

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Brueggemann, Walter. An introduction to the Old Testament: the canon and Christian imagination (Westminster John Knox Press, 1997).
• Charlesworth, James H., ed. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. (2 vols.; Garden City: Doubleday, 1985).
• Hamilton, Mark (April 1998). "From Hebrew Bible to Christian Bible: Jews, Christians and the Word of God". From Jesus to Christ. PBS.org/Frontline. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/scriptures.html. Retrieved 9 June 2011. 
• Johnson, Paul (1987). A History of the Jews (First, hardback ed.). London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-79091-9. 
• Kugel, James. The Bible as It Was. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997).
• Kugel, James. In Potiphar's House: The Interpretive Life of Biblical Texts. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990).
• Kuntz, John Kenneth. The People of Ancient Israel: an introduction to Old Testament Literature, History, and Thought, Harper and Row, 1974. ISBN 0-06-043822-3
• Leiman, Sid. The Canonization of Hebrew Scripture. (Hamden, CT: Archon, 1976).
• Levenson, Jon. Sinai and Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible. (San Francisco: HarperSan Francisco, 1985).
• Minkoff, Harvey. "Searching for the Better Text". Biblical Archaeology Review (online). http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/searching-for-better-text.asp. Retrieved 9 June 2011. 
• Noth, Martin. A History of Pentateuchal Traditions. (1948; trans. by Bernhard Anderson; Atlanta: Scholars, 1981).
• Schniedewind, William M (2004). How the Bible Became a Book. Cambridge. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=tCTVc8_2vVQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=How+the+Bible+Became+a+Book#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Vermes, Geza, ed. The Dead Sea Scrolls in English. (3d ed.; New York: Penguin, 1987).

 id:canvas  value:rgb(0.97,0.97,0.97)
 id:white  value:rgb(1,1,1)
 id:subtitle  value:gray(0.8)
 id:grid1   value:gray(0.7)
 id:grid2   value:gray(0.88)
 id:black   value:rgb(0,0,0)
 id:events value:rgb(0.75,1,0.75)
 id:mark1   value:rgb(0,0.7,0)
 id:mark2    value:rgb(0.7,0,0)
 id:years    value:gray(0.5)
 id:lives    value:gray(0.5)
 id:mediterr    value:rgb(0.8,0.6,0.4)
 id:eba  value:rgb(0.45,0.4,0.25)
 id:mba  value:rgb(0.67,0.6,0.375)
 id:lba  value:rgb(0.9,0.8,0.5)
 id:eia  value:rgb(1,0.6,0.5)
  

 bar:periods
 bar:egypt
 bar:mesopot
 bar:assyria
 bar:canaan
 bar:anatolia
 bar:mediterr

 barset:events

 mark:(line,black)
 fontsize:S
 shift:(5,-6)

 barset:events
 barset:break
 width:8
 at:-3300 text:Kish tablet
 at:-3100 text:Warka Vase
 at:-3050 text:Narmer Palette
 from:-2620 till:-2560 color:lives shift:(25,-6)  text:Great Sphinx
 from:-2400 till:-2350 color:lives shift:(17,-6)  text:Ur-Nanshe
 from:-2285 till:-2250 color:lives shift:(12,-6) text:Enheduanna
 from:-2144 till:-2124 color:lives shift:(10,-6) text:Gudea
 at:-2050 text:Code of Ur-Nammu
 from:-1970 till:-1830 color:lives shift:(46,-6) text:Kültepe texts
 at:-1900 text:Linear A 
 at:-1800 text:introduction of chariot warfare
 at:-1700 text:Code of Hammurabi
 at:-1500 text:Proto-Sinaitic alphabet
 at:-1457 text:Battle of Megiddo
 from:-1352 till:-1335 color:lives shift:(10,-6)  text:Akhenaten
 at:-1312 text:Mursili's eclipse
 at:-1274 text:Battle of Kadesh
 from:-1250 till:-1150 color:lives shift:(35,-6)  text:Bronze Age collapse
 at:-1190 text:Troy VIIa
 from:-1186 till:-1156 color:lives shift:(14,-6) text:Ramesses III
 from:-1115 till:-1076 color:lives shift:(14,-6)  text:Tiglath-Pileser I
 at:-1050 text:Phoenician alphabet
 from:-884 till:-859 color:lives shift:(10,-6) text:Ashur-nasir-pal II
 at:-813 text:Carthage
 at:-750 text:Greek alphabet
 from:-745 till:-727 color:lives shift:(10,-6) text:Tiglath-Pileser III
 at:-612  shift:(-75,-6)  text:Fall of Nineveh

 width:15
 bar:periods
 from:-3300 till:-3000 shift:(10,-3) color:eba text:EBA I
 from:-3000 till:-2700 shift:(10,-3) color:eba text:EBA II
 from:-2700 till:-2200 shift:(10,-3) color:eba text:EBA III
 from:-2200 till:-2000 shift:(10,-3) color:eba text:EBA IV
 from:-2000 till:-1750 shift:(10,-3) color:mba text:MBA I
 from:-1750 till:-1550 shift:(2,-3) color:mba text:MBA II-III
 from:-1550 till:-1400 shift:(10,-3) color:lba text:LBA I
 from:-1400 till:-1200 shift:(10,-3) color:lba text:LBA II
 from:-1200 till:-1000 shift:(10,-3) color:eia text:Iron Age I
 from:-1000 till:-586 shift:(10,-3) color:eia text:Iron Age II

 bar:egypt
 from:start till:-3200 shift:(2,-2) color:yellow text:Pre-,
 from:-3200 till:-3000 shift:(0,-2) color:yellow text:Protodynastic
 from:-2920 till:-2686 shift:(2,-2) color:yellow text:Early Dynastic
 from:-2686 till:-2183 shift:(10,-2) color:yellow text:Old Kingdom
 from:-2030 till:-1650 shift:(10,-2) color:yellow text:Middle Kingdom
 from:-1650 till:-1540 shift:(0,-2) color:yellow text:Hyksos
 from:-1540 till:-1077 shift:(10,-2) color:yellow text:New Kingdom
 from:-1070 till:end shift:(10,-2) color:yellow text:3rd Intermediate Period

bar:mesopot
 from:-3300 till:-2900 shift:(2,-2) color:orange text:Uruk III-IV
 from:-2900 till:-2334 shift:(2,-2) color:orange text:Early Dynastic Sumer
 from:-2333 till:-2150 shift:(2,-2) color:orange text:Akkad
 from:-2150 till:-2050 shift:(0,-2) color:orange text:Gutian
 from:-2050 till:-1940 shift:(2,-2) color:orange text:Ur III
 from:-1894 till:-1595 shift:(2,-2) color:orange text:Old Babylonian
 from:-1595 till:-1155 shift:(2,-2) color:orange text:Kassites
 from:-1155 till:-1025 shift:(2,-2) color:orange text:Isin
 from:-911 till:-626 shift:(-4,-2) color:red text:
 from:-626 till:end shift:(0,-2) color:orange text:Kaldu

bar:assyria
 from:-2400 till:-2240 shift:(2,-2) color:red text:Ebla
 from:-1900 till:-1600 shift:(2,-2) color:red text:Old Assyrian
 from:-1600 till:-1240 shift:(2,-2) color:red text:Hurrians
 from:-911 till:-612 shift:(2,4) color:red text:Neo-Assyrian

bar:canaan
 from:-1800 till:-1600 shift:(4,-2) color:purple text:"Amorites"
 from:-1450 till:-1200 shift:(4,-2) color:purple text:Ugarit
 from:-1030 till:-587 shift:(4,-2) color:purple text:Israel and Judah

bar:anatolia
from:-2100 till:-1950 shift:(4,-2) color:green text:Troy IV
from:-1750 till:-1550 shift:(4,-2) color:green text:Old Hittite
from:-1400 till:-1160 shift:(4,-2) color:green text:New Hittite
from:-1160 till:-700 shift:(4,-2) color:green text:Syro-Hittite polities, Urartu

 bar:mediterr
from:-1900 till:-1700 shift:(2,-2) color:mediterr text:Protopalatial
from:-1700 till:-1450 shift:(2,-2)  color:mediterr text:Neopalatial
from:-1450 till:-1100 shift:(2,-2)  color:mediterr text:Mycenaean Greece
from:-1100 till:-750 shift:(2,-2)  color:mediterr text:Greek Dark Ages
from:-750 till:end shift:(2,-2)  color:mediterr text:Archaic Greece