Hebrew Bible (term): Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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{{dablink|This article is about the term "Hebrew Bible". For the Jewish scriptures see [[Tanakh]]. For the various Christian canons see [[Old Testament]].}}

[[Image:Targum.jpg|right|thumb|265px|11th century manuscript of the Hebrew Bible with [[Targum]]]]

The term '''''Hebrew Bible''''' is a description used to refer to the [[Bible]] or used in [[Judaism]], the [[Tanakh]], to distinguish it from the [[Christian]] [[Bible]]s. There is no work by that name. It is a generic term used predominantly in academic circles when referring to the [[Jewish]] [[Bible]]{{fact}}. The only significance to the use of the term "Hebrew", as an adjective, is that originally it was predominantly written in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]{{fact}}. However, the same term is used for a translation of the Tanakh into any language {{fact}}, and even to the [[Old Testament]]. In non-academic usage, the description "Jewish Bible" is more commonly used.{{fact}}

The Hebrew Bible, the [[Tanakh]], closely corresponds to contents of the Protestant [[Old Testament]]{{fact}}, but does not include the [[deuterocanonical]] portions of the [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] and [[Eastern Christian]] Old Testament{{fact}}. The term does not imply naming, numbering or ordering of books, while both [[Tanakh]] and [[Old Testament]] do.

==Usage==

''Hebrew Bible'' is a term that refers to the common portions of the [[Tanakh|Jewish canon]] and the [[Bible#Christian Bible|Christian canons]].{{fact}} In its Latin form, ''[[Biblia Hebraica]]'', it traditionally serves as a title for printed editions of the [[Masoretic Text|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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/scriptures.html |title=From Hebrew Bible to Christian Bible: Jews, Christians and the Word of God |author=Mark Hamilton |accessdate=2007-11-19 |quote=Modern scholars often use the term 'Hebrew Bible' to avoid the confessional terms Old Testament and Tanakh.}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book | title=The SBL Handbook of Style | publisher=Hendrickson Publishers | location=Peabody, Mass. | date=1999 | author=Patrick H. Alexander et al., Eds. | id=ISBN 1-56563-487-X | pages=p. 17 (section 4.3) |url=http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/SBLHS.pdf}}</ref>

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[[Image:Bar_Kokhba_Coin.jpg|thumb|left|Coin from Bar-Kokhba Revolt demonstrating Paleo-Hebrew]]

''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]], who preserved the transmission of the text up to the age of printing {{fact}}. The Hebrew Bible includes some small portions in [[Biblical Aramaic|Aramaic]], mostly in the books of [[Book of Daniel|Daniel]] and [[Book of Ezra|Ezra]]), which are nonetheless written and printed in the [[Hebrew alphabet]] and script. Some [[Qumran]] Hebrew biblical manuscripts are written using the [[Paleo-Hebrew alphabet]] of the ''classical era'' of [[Solomon's Temple]].{{fact}}

==Confessional term==

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==Meaning of ''old'' in Old Testament==

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Another important issue relevant to use of ''Hebrew Bible'' rather than ''Old Testament'' is the documented misunderstanding of the sense of ''old'' in ''Old Testament''. In Christianity ''old'' in ''Old Testament'' essentially refers to time. In French it is ''[[:fr:Ancien Testament|Ancien Testament]]'', in Latin ''Vetus Testamentum'' (like ''Vetus Latina'' [[Old Latin]]), in Greek ''hē palaia diathēkē'' ({{polytonic|Ἡ Παλαιὰ Διαθήκη}}, ''palaios'' gives several English prefixes like ''[[palaeography]]''). There is additional, confessional implication, but the semantics of this is non-trivial.{{fact}}

Christian commentary on the New Testament understanding of the relationship between the Testaments became controversial in the [[2nd century]]. Consensus was eventually achieved, well before the Catholic-Orthodox division, so all major divisions of Christianity have inherited that consensus.

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Both Gnosticism (with its [[Pseudepigraphy|pseudepigraphal]] gospels) and Marcion stimulated early Christian efforts to find consensus regarding a canon of scripture. Ultimately consensus excluded Gnostic books and included the Hebrew scriptures (most often the Greek Septuagint translation of them), but remained elusive regarding some New Testament books. The continued use of the Hebrew scriptures as scripture was a deliberate and significant decision. It was a decision that meant they were accepted as authoritative on matters of doctrine and normative for matters of everyday life.

The word ''testament'' is a traditional English translation of the Hebrew word ''berit'' {{fact}} ([[covenant]], contract or deal). The [[Jewish Encyclopedia]] notes several covenants between God and man in the Tanakh, including: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Aaron and David.<ref>'Covenant', in ''Jewish Encyclopedia'', 1906, [http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=837&letter=C&search=Covenant online link]</ref> It also discusses Jeremiah's prophecy of a [[New Covenant|"new covenant"]] (''berit hadash'' in Hebrew, [[Book of Jeremiah|Jeremiah]] 31:31) and comments, "Christianity . . . interpreted the words of the prophet in such a way as to indicate a new religious dispensation in place of the law of Moses ([[Book of Hebrews|Hebrews]] 8:8-13)."<ref>''Ibid'', [http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=837&letter=C&search=Covenant#2888 The Old and the New Covenant], [http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=245&letter=N&search=New%20Testament New Testament]</ref>

Christians of all traditions could be cited that would acknowledge the understanding the Jewish Encyclopedia expresses in this article. However, just as the Jewish Encyclopedia acknowledges a series of covenants, that are nonetheless in some sense united, so in fact does ecumenical Christianity. The term ''[[dispensation]]'' is common in English language Christian theology in addressing the complicated issues Christians have found in understanding the relationships between the covenants in the Hebrew scriptures, and between those covenants and what the [[New Testament]] (often associated with the [[New Covenant]]) says about its own relationship to prior covenants.{{fact}}

In [[covenant theology]] (a theological framework distinctive of, but not exclusive to, the [[Reformed churches]]), the scriptures are interpreted as teaching that God's original purpose was to create for himself one covenant people, which was to be found in the people of Israel in the years before the [[Messiah]], and later expanded to universal salvation through the Messiah.<ref>Romans 9:6ff; 11:1-7 are often quoted.</ref> Under this interpretation, ''old'' in ''Old Testament'' refers to the age before expansion of the covenant through the Messiah.

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==Specific canons==

Because "Hebrew Bible" refers to the ''common'' portions of the Jewish and Christian biblical canons {{fact}}, it does not encompass the [[deuterocanonical books|deuterocanonical]] or [[Biblical apocrypha|apocryphal books]], which were preserved in the [[Koine Greek|Greek]] [[Septuagint]] (LXX), and are part of the [[Old Testament]] in the canons of the [[Roman Catholic]] and [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] churches {{fact}}. Thus the term "Hebrew Bible" corresponds most fully to the [[Old Testament]] in use by [[Protestantism|Protestant]] denominations (adhering to [[Jerome]]'s ''Hebraica veritas'' doctrine), and less fully to canons that are based closely on the [[Septuagint]] (adhering to [[Augustine]]'s 393 [[Synod of Hippo]] and 397-419 [[Councils of Carthage]]).

Because the term implies a favoritism towards the Masoretic text, however, critics of the Masoretic text also tend to avoid using this term. The Orthodox Church specifically endorses the Septuagint (Greek) text of the Old Testament, not only because they believe it to be more complete, but also because it is most likely the text used by the [[Early Christianity|earliest Christians]], appears to be the most widely quoted text in the New Testament, and in many places is more christological than the Masoretic text.