TaNaK: The Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew Bible is a collection of 39 books, written from at least as early as Solomon's court until sometime around the defeat of Antiochus Epiphanes in 165 BCE. All the works are composed, at least in the main, in Hebrew, with some parts in Aramaic (a related language).

The books of the Hebrew Bible were then copied carefully over the course of centuries -- no originals are available today, but the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has provided copies from before the start of the Common Era, and the copies the Masoretes passed on in the eleventh century are remarkably close in detail to those from eleven hundred years before.

Below are the first verses of the 23rd Psalm:

The first word (far right, as Hebrew reads right-to-left) on the second line is "YHWH"--the name God revealed to Moses in Exodus 3. The marking below the first letter that looks like a colon, and the marking under the third letter that looks like a "T" are vowels. Originally, Hebrew had no written vowels, but the Masoretes, recognizing that Hebrew was no longer a spoken language, developed a system of vowels so the words could be pronounced by those who did not otherwise speak Hebrew. The vowels for "YHWH", however, are actually the vowels for another Hebrew word, adonai. The actual vowels for "YHWH" are no longer known, although most biblical scholars believe the name was probably pronounced "Yahweh." Click for an excursus on the Divine Name.

The Jewish term for the Bible is "TaNaK" -- the T, N and K are the first letters of Torah, Nebi'im (="Prophets"), and Ketubim (="Writings"). The acronym thus reflects the contents of and general order in which the collection is arranged.

Click for The Beginnings of the Hebrew Bible