The Encyclopedia of World Religions

414 S scriptures, Hebrew

to the perspective of these books as “deuteron omistic” because they view the history of Israel in terms of distinctive ideas in the book of Deu teronomy, especially the idea that God will bless Israel for keeping the covenant but punish and even destroy it for violating the covenant. The second kind of prophets are called “Lat ter Prophets.” These include the books known as I SAIAH , J EREMIAH , E ZEKIEL , and the Twelve. From a Jewish perspective these prophets describe how God was active in their time. Christians have gen erally seen them as foretelling the future, espe cially events concerning Jesus. A verse from Isaiah can provide a good example of the difference. The Jewish Publication Society’s translation of Tanakh renders Isaiah 7.14: “Assuredly, my Lord will give you a sign of His own accord! Look, the young woman is with child and about to give birth to a son. Let him name him Immanuel.” The King James version translated the same verse, “There fore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Modern scholars tend to agree that at the time Isaiah was giving a sign of hope by referring to a pregnant woman in the king’s court, perhaps the queen. Ketuvim The Writings comprise a variety of sacred books, such as P SALMS , Proverbs, Ezra-Nehemiah, Chron icles, J OB , and D ANIEL . Of these, perhaps the most important is the book of Psalms; the psalms or poems that it contains have been used by Jews and Christians in worship since ancient times. Chroni cles retells the story of Israel’s history down to the exile in Babylon, while Ezra-Nehemiah tells about the return from Babylon and the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. Proverbs and Job are exam ples of WISDOM LITERATURE . Proverbs gives advice for living, while Job wrestles with the problem of undeserved suffering. The book of Daniel is a well known story written in the time of the Maccabean revolt (168–164 B . C . E .) but set in the time of the Babylonian exile. It urges Jews to remain faithful to the covenant and predicts that the Maccabees will be successful in their revolt.

By the time of J ESUS , the Hebrew Bible was not yet complete. Jesus refers to Torah (“the law”) and the Prophets and sometimes the Psalms (for example, Matthew 5.17; 22.40; Luke 24.44) but never to Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings. Instrumental to the collection of the Writings and the closing of the “canon” or authoritative list of books was a council of rabbis led by Johannan ben Zachai at Jamnia in the year 90 C . E . Although not all of the rabbis wanted to include all of the books now in the Writings, they eventually decided on a canon of 24 books because there are 24 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Torah Torah means “teaching”; it has sometimes also been translated as “law.” The books of Torah are called teaching, because in them God teaches his people how he wants them to live. These teachings are given in mitzvot, commandments. The rabbis have identified 613 mitzvot in Torah. Torah comprises the first five books of the Bible, traditionally attributed to M OSES . The first book, Genesis, provides a universal prehistory or mythology, followed by stories about ances tors of the people of Israel: A BRAHAM and S ARAH , I SAAC and R EBEKAH , and J ACOB , his wives, and his children. The other four books, Exodus to Deuter onomy, center on Moses. They tell of the freeing of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, the giving of the commandments on a mountain that Exodus calls Sinai and Deuteronomy calls Horeb, and the wandering of the Israelites in the desert for 40 years. Nevi’im Judaism recognizes two kinds of prophets. The first, called “Former Prophets,” include the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. Christians often refer to these books as “historical.” Calling the books prophets highlights how they differ from history as we know it: Their goal is not to record human deeds and events but to identify how God was active in the past. Modern scholars often refer CONTENTS OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES