Reading the Tanach in synagogue

The word Tanach, in Yehudit, is an accronym for Torah (the Five Books of Mosheh), Neviyim (History and Prophets), and Ketuvim (Literature), these being the three parts that make up what is generally misnamed "The Hebrew Bible" (though this is not as bad, and please stop using it, as "The Old Testament").

Since Biblical times, it has been traditional for Jews to read the Torah (the Five Books of Law: Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy) in an annual cycle in synagogue.

This cycle begins in the autumn with a celebration known as Simchat Torah (שמחת תורה) - the Joy of the Torah. On the eve of the festival the last section of Deuteronomy is read; the following morning the first fragment of Genesis - though many Reform synagogues in America, absolutely confident of a large gathering in the evening but equally confident of an empty house the following morning, will read both texts before the ice cream and pizzas (the orthodox do whisky; Simchat Torah and Purim are the two occasions in the year when Jews are officially licensed to party).

The reading of the Law takes place on Mondays and Thursdays, because those were market-days in Yeru-Shala’im, when Ezra ordered the public reading to take place, and Saturdays, because that is the Shabat (Sabbath), as well as on festivals. The full reading takes one lunar year, beginning and ending on Simchat Torah, after the end of the festival of Sukot; though some modern Conservative synagogues have developed a triennial cycle.

To achieve this, the Torah is subdivided into fifty-four weekly sedrot (סדרות) or portions, each of which is then further broken down into seven parashot. 

With each weekly "Parasha" a "Haftarah" (or Haf-Torah in the modern European mispronunciation) is read, a relevant or at least a connected fragment from one of the other books of the Tanach. The word "Haftarah" looks and sounds as though it is etymologically connected to the word "Torah", hence the modern mis-pronunciation; but this is not in fact the case. It comes from the verb "le-haftir" (להפטיר) which means "to bring to a conclusion"; the final portion of the Torah read in synagogue is known as the "Maftir", precisely because it leads into the Haftarah. 

In earliest times there was no Haftarah, though when and why it was introduced remains a matter of dispute among the Rabbis and scholars. Almost certainly it was a response to the ordinance of a conqueror, banning the recitation of Torah as a means of suppressing the religion; by selecting another piece of scripture that had at least some connection with the Torah portion for that week, it became possible to fulfil the commandment to read and study Torah, while not actually breaking the despotic law. What is disputed is whether this happened at the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, and was introduced by the Maccabees, or later, under the Romans, or both.

Under the rule of the Greeks (332-168 BCE), the reading of the Law was forbidden; it became the practice to read another section of the Tanach in its place, selecting on each occasion a fragment that related to the Torah fragment that should have been read that day. These surrogate readings were called Haphtarah (הפטרה). Although the reading of the Law was reinstituted many centuries ago, the Haphtarah continues to be read as a supplement. 

Note that the chapter divisions do not coincide with those in most English versions; this is because the chapter headings are a relatively modern and entirely artificial addition (attributed to Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury in the early 13th century). Hand-written Torah scrolls have paragraph divisions, but are not subdivided into either chapters or verses.

The full cycle of readings by Sedra:

Sedra	Chapters	Haphtarah
Bere'shit	Gen 1:1-6:8	Isaiah 42:5-43:10
No'ach	Gen 6:9-11:32	Isaiah 54:1-55:5
Lech Lecha	Gen 12:1-17:27	Isaiah 40:1-41:16
Va Yera	Gen 18:1-22:24	2 Kings 4:1-37
Chayey Sarah	Gen 23:1-25:18	1 Kings 1:1-31
Toldot	Gen 25:19-28:9	Malachi 1:1-2:7
Va Yets'e	Gen 28:10-32:3	Hosea 12:13-14:10
		(Sephardim use Hosea 11:7-12:2 as their Haphtarah for Va Yets'e)
Va Yishlach	Gen 32:4-36:43	Hosea 11:7-12:12
		(Sephardim use The Book of Obadiah as their Haphtarah for Va Yishlach)
Va Yeshev	Gen 37:1-40:23	Amos 2:6-3:8
Mi Ketz	Gen 41:1-44:17	1 Kings 3:15-4:1
Va Yigash	Gen 44:18-47:27	Ezekiel 37:15-28
Va Yechi	Gen 47:28-50:26	1 Kings 2:1-12
Shemot	Ex 1:1-6:1	Isaiah 27:6-29:23
		(Sephardim use Jeremiah 1:1-2:3 as their Haphtarah for Shemot)
Va Ayra	Ex 6:2-9:35	Ezekiel 28:25-29:21
Bo	Ex 10:1-13:16	Jeremiah 46:13-28
Be Shalach	Ex 13:17-17:16	Judges 4:4-5:31
Yitro	Ex 18:1-20:23	Isaiah 6:1-7:6 + 9:5/6
Mishpatim	Ex 21:1-24:18	Jer 34:8/22+33:25/26
Terumah	Ex 25:1-27:19	1 Kings 5:26-6:13
Tetsaveh	Ex 27:20-30:10	Ezekiel 43:10-27
Ki Tisa	Ex 30:11-34:35	1 Kings 18:1-39
Va Yakhel	Ex 35:1-38:20	1 Kings 7:40-50
		(Sephardim use 1 Kings 7:13-26 as their Haphtarah for Va Yakhel)
Pekudey	Ex 38:21-40:38	1 Kings 7:51-8:21
Va Yikra	Lev 1:1-5:26	Isaiah 43:21-44:23
Tsav	Lev 6:1-8:36	Jer 7:21-8:3+38:25/26
Shemini	Lev 9:1-11:47	2 Samuel 6:1-7:17
Tazri'a	Lev 12:1-13:59	2 Kings 4:42-5:19
Metzora	Lev 14:1-15:33	2 Kings 7:3-20
Acharey Mot	Lev 16:1-18:30	Ezekiel 22:1-19
Kedoshim	Lev 19:1-20:27 9:7-15	Amos
		(Sephardim use Ezekiel 20:2-20 as their Haphtarah for Kedoshim)
Emor	Lev 21:1-24:23	Ezekiel 44:15-31
Be Har	Lev 25:1-26:2	Jeremiah 32:6-27
Be Chukotai	Lev 26:3-27:34	Jeremiah 16:19-17:14
Be Midbar	Num 1:1-4:20	Hosea 2:1-22
Naso	Num 4:21-7:89	Judges 13:2-25
Be Halotecha	Num 8:1-12:16	Zechariah 2:14-4:7
Shelach Lecha	Num 13:1-15:41	Joshua 2:1-24
Korach	Num 16:1-18:32	1 Sam 11:14-12:22
Chukat	Num 19:1-22:1	Judges 11:1-33
Balak	Num 22:2-25:9	Micah 5:6-6:8
Pinchas	Num 25:10-30:1	1 Kings 18:46-19:21
Matot	Num 30:2-32:42	Jeremiah 1:1-2:3
Masey	Num 33:1-36:13	Jer 2:4-28+3:4+4:1/2
Devarim	Deut 1:1-3:22	Isaiah 1:1-27
Va Etchanan	Deut 3:23-7:11	Isaiah 40:1-26
Ekev	Deut 7:12-11:25	Isaiah 49:14-51:3
Re'eh	Deut 11:26-16:17	Isaiah 54:11-55:5
Shoftim	Deut 16:18-21:9	Isaiah 51:12-52:12
Ki Tets'e	Deut 21:10-25:19	Isaiah 54:1-10
Ki Tav'o	Deut 26:1-29:8	Isaiah 60:1-22
Nitsavim	Deut 29:9-30:20	Isaiah 61:10-63:9
Va Yelech	Deut 31:1-30	Shabbat Shuvah
Ha'azinu	Deut 32:1-52	2 Samuel 22:1-51
Ve Zot Ha Beracha	Deut 33:1-34:12	Joshua 1:1-18

The following Haphtarot are read on the First Day and the Shabat of Festivals, and on certain other occasions in the year, such as New Moon:

Shabat Shuva: Hosea 14:2-10 + Micah 7:18-20 + Joel 2:15-27

Shabat Rosh Chodesh: Isaiah 66:1-24

Erev Rosh Chodesh: 1 Samuel 20:18-42

Rosh Ha Shana (Day 1):1 Samuel 1:1-2:10

Rosh Ha Shana (Day 2): Jeremiah 31:2-20

Yom Kippur (morning): Isaiah 57:14-58:14

Yom Kippur (afternoon): Jonah + Micah 7:18-20

Sukot (Day 1): Zechariah 14:1-21

Sukot (Day 2):1 Kings 8:2-21

Sukot (Shabat): Ezekiel 38:18-39:16

Shemini Atseret: 1 Kings 8:54-66

Simchat Torah: Joshua 1:1-18

Shabat Chanukah (Week 1): Zechariah 2:14-4:7

Shabat Chanukah (Week 2): 1 Kings 7: 40-50

Pesach (Day 1): Joshua 5:2-6:1 + 6:27

Pesach (Day 2): 2 Kings 23:1-9 + 21-25

Shabat Pesach: Ezekiel 37:1-14

Shavuot (Day 1): Ezekiel 1:1-28 + 3:12

Shavuot (Day 2): Habakuk 2:20-3:19

Tisha Be Av: Jeremiah 8:13-9:23

Shabat Shekalim: 2 Kings 11:17-12:17

Shabat Zachor: 1 Samuel 15:1-34

Shabat Parah: Ezekiel 36:16-38

Shabat Ha Chodesh: Ezekiel 45:16-46:18

Shabat Ha Gadol: Malachi 3:4-24

Pesach (Day 7): 2 Samuel 22:1-51

Pesach (Day 8): Isaiah 10:32-12:6

All Fast Days: Isaiah 55:6-56:8

Copyright © 2019 David Prashker

All rights reserved

The Argaman Press

The Yehudit (Hebrew) Aleph-Bet (alphabet)

Modern Ivrit keyboard

The collection of letters used for writing is known in Yehudit (modern Ivrit; which we should not, but do call: "Biblical Hebrew") as the Aleph-Bet, these being the first two letters in the list; it is called the "alphabet" in English for the same reason, though it would be more obvious if we called it, as children do, the "a-b-c"; Alpha and Beta are the first two letters in the Phoenician alphabet, which became the Greek alphabet, which became the Roman alphabet, which is still the alphabet of most European countries, and those which use European languages. As we shall see, the two words are the same, or at least stem from the same root, as both Greek and Yehudit are developments of the Ugaritic alphabet, created by the Phoenicians in what is today the Lebanon.

Ugaritic alphabet

A Brief History of the Alphabet

Hieroglyphs and cuneiform and the picture-words of the ancient Chinese were the earliest known method of expressing language in a visual form; but none of these can be called alphabets.

Not earlier than 2,000 BCE: The first alphabet in a form that resembles the one we know was probably invented in Mitsrayim (Egypt) as a simplification of hieroglyphs; perhaps by soldiers who were formally illiterate, or by clerks needing a more colloquial mode.

Not earlier than 1000 BCE: Properly developed by the Phoenicians of Tsur (Tyre) and Tsidon (Sidon) around the time of King David, and immediately adopted by the Beney Yisra-El. The Aramaic language replaced the Hurrian pre-Yehudit from 586 BCE, but continued to use the same alphabet, simultaneously travelling east into the Brahmic scripts of India and Burma, and the Devanagari scripts that fed Cambodian and other south east Asian variations. The arrival of the alphabet in Bav-El (Babylon), with the exiles from Yehudah, was the likely cause of the end of cuneiform.

800 BCE: The Greeks adopted the Phoenician (now called the Ugaritic, from another Lebanese town, close to Byblos, itself the much more likely "real" site of the Tower of Babel). Unlike the Beney Yisra-El, who took the meanings of the Phoenician words as well as their letters, the Greeks ignored their meanings for the most part, and made some minor variations of pronunciation. Nevertheless we can see how the Phoenician spawned both alphabets, and how the Greek then spawned both the Roman and Cyrillic alphabets that we use today. Residual too are the names of the letters: alpha, beta, gamma, delta etc in the one; aleph, bet, gimmel, dalet etc in the other.

700 BCE: The Etruscans adopted the Greek, again with some minor variations.

600 BCE: The Romans adopted the Etruscan, again with some minor variations. It is the Roman alphabet that we still use today in English, French, Spanish, German etc.

300 BCE: The Celts developed their Runic alphabet from the Etruscan.

900 CE: The Greek alphabet, in its last flowering, gave birth to the Cyrillic alphabet still used in Russia.

*

Indo-European Languages


"The Common Source" of William Jones (1746-1794) includes Sanskrit and Pali from India, Singhalese from Ceylon, Persian, Armenian, Albanian and Bulgarian; Polish, Russian and other Slavic tongues; Greek, Latin and all European languages except Estonian, Finnish, Lapp, Magyar and Basque. Similarly the Vedic pantheon echoes the Eddic of Iceland and the Olympian Greek: both Vedic hymns and Homeric hymns.

*

THE YEHUDIT ALPHABET

There are in fact two (see * below) Yehudit alphabets, with some letters repeated but others entirely different. The alphabet that is used in the Tanach, and today in books and newspapers - the one on the computer keyboard illustrated at the top of this page - is called, logically enough, the Print Alphabet, and is the one used throughout TheBibleNet. For daily use, modern Ivrit has developed a second alphabet known as "Cursive", curiously enough a development back from late Aramaic - curiously because Aramaic originally used the Yehudit Print Alphabet, which evolved into the original Arabic alphabet, which was then replaced by the Persian alphabet, which was then adopted as the late Aramaic.

*(two should really be five, because the ways of writing have gone through many changes down the centuries, and scholars today need to be able to read a Qumran scroll and a Rashi commentary, a Tel Aviv newspaper and a Masoretic Torah)

The Roman alphabet that we use does the same - one alphabet for Upper Case and another for Lower Case, with some identical letters (C/c, I/i, O/o, W/w etc), some that are recognisable as variants (B/b, F/f, K/k etc) and others that seem to bear no resemblance (E/e, G/g, T/t etc). The difference between the Roman and the Yehudit is that Roman actually uses both alphabets simultaneously, where the Yehudit uses only one at a time, changing by purpose - a scribbled preparatory note in cursive, the final document in print.

The Yehudit alphabet consists of twenty-two letters, some of which may be called "consonants", others "vowels", although this Latin distinction does not properly exist in the Semitic languages; strictly all twenty-two are consonants. Of these twenty-two, five (Kaf/כ, Mem/מ, Nun/נ, Pay/פ and Tsadi/צ) change their form when they appear as the last letter of a word (thus כ/ך, מ/ם, נ/ן, פ/ף, צ/ץ) and six (Bet/ב, Gimmel/ג, Dalet/ד, Kaf/כ, Pay/פ, Tav/ת), have an alternate "soft" form (Vet, Kimmel, Talet, Chaf, Phay, Sav), although only three of these (Vet, Chaf and Phay) are still retained in contemporary usage; and in normal writing the difference is not made clear. The letters Sheen (ש) are Seen (ש) are closely related, and written identically without "pointing", but are in fact distinct letters; in Aramaic the Sheen was interchanged with Tav and vice versa (as in Yehudit Shemesh/שמש, Aramaic Tammuz/תמוז, Greek Thomas; all meaning "the sun"). 

We must presume that the similarity of the written letters was a late development after the interchange of the sounds, as the script form is totally different from the "printed" form. Probably what is now the "script" for both represented one of the letters, and what is now the "printed" form represented the other. It is also possible, indeed likely, that the letter Seen (ש), which does not appear in Aramaic or Assyrian, was an equivalent of Samech (ס); since we know that the script forms of the letters Samech (ס) and Ayin (ע) became interchanged, and that Samech became a circle-shape or full-moon shape, it seems reasonable to connect the moon-shape of Samech with the meaning of Sin, who was the Egyptian moon-god. This would suggest the Seen was an Egyptian letter introduced at a later stage; the fact that it has no numerical value further strengthens this thesis. 

Other letters have likewise become interchanged, or are in other ways interconnected. The pronunciation of Bet (ב) is extremely similar to the correct pronunciation of Pay (פ), to the degree that Arabic speakers as opposed to European Jews have great difficulty in distinguishing the two. In the same way Tet (ט) and Tav (ת), Ayin (ע) and Aleph (א), Chet (ח) and Chaf (כ), Kaf (כ) and Kuph (ק) are often difficult to distinguish aurally (as in English a hard "c" is difficult to distinguish from a "k", and a soft "c" from an "s"). 

In ancient Yehudit manuscripts Nun (נ) is represented by what is now the letter for Lamed (ל), Tet (ט) by Tav (ת), Lamed (ל) by Tet (ט), and Samech (ס) by Ayin (ע); it is not clear when the transitions took place. All Yehudit letters have both script and "printed" forms; newspapers, books, texts of the scriptures etc all invariably use the "printed" form - whence its name. The script, again from its name, is used today, as it was historically, for brief notes, letters etc.


THE YEHUDIT LANGUAGE


As a language, both classical and modern Yehudit are known and understood by only a tiny number of people; yet hundreds of millions live their lives through the belief in doctrines and creeds whose roots are in the Yehudit Tanach. It may seem incomprehensible that, during two thousand years of Christianity, virtually no one has gone back to the original Yehudit and tried to understand Christianity through the authentic text, rather than relying on translations (which are frequently, and sometimes crucially, mis-translations); the rare exceptions, like Fra Roger Bacon in the 13th century, were incarcerated as heretics for their trouble. An understanding of the Ezraic Tanach makes Christianity very clear in its sources, beliefs and history; the Christianity of Jesus, which did not survive, as well as that of Paul, which did. Recognising that readers will find the Yehudit inaccessible, TheBibleNet has presented the Yehudit text at all times in transliteration as well as in the original, using a system of phonetics of its own creation.


A Note on the Yehudit:

The Yehudit language is a dialect of Amoritic or Kena'anite, and is very closely related to a number of other Semitic languages. Written Yehudit, which post-dates spoken Yehudit by many years, was originally pictographic, but developed, through the Ugaritic, into a letter-form. Each letter has a meaning. As is still the case today, Yehudit was written down without what we would consider vowels (let alone stress or even punctuation marks!); although much later, in composing the Masoretic text, a system known an "nekudot" or "pointing" was developed; one version intended as a guide to pronunciation, the other as "trope", a guide for singing the text in religious service. Each of the "nekudot" also has a meaning, and throughout the textual commentaries attention is paid to the "nekudot", rendering them when relevant in the given text, frequently questioning or challenging them in the annotations (see, and more importantly hear the "nekudot" here). 

To see how difficult the process is, imagine the following text, familiar enough in its full version, but written here without vowels or punctuation, as an English equivalent of a typical phrase in the Tanach:

T B R NT T B THT S TH QSTN WHTHR TS NBLR N TH MND T SFFR TH SLNGS ND RRWS F TRGS FRTN R T TK RMS GNST S F TRBL

which of course is the opening of Hamlet's most famous soliloquy: "To be or not to be, that is the question? Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles."

At some point in history, combinations of any two of these letters were developed, in a system of "mishkalim" or weights. It is probable that the meanings of the letters were combined as well as the sounds, and it may be possible to read the meanings of two-letter roots by the meanings of their two root letters.

Fully developed classical Yehudit, while retaining many two-letter roots, is usually triliteral, combining three letters as sounds, and less often because more complicated the meanings of the three combined letters (endless puns and poems can be found that do precisely this). In modern Yehudit some four letter roots have been developed, always using the same process of "mishkalim" (leshachpetz, letagber etc); this did occasionally happen in classical Yehudit, but was extremely rare. Words containing four-letter roots in classical Yehudit can usually be reckoned to be of non-Yehudit origin, or signify two words abbreviated into one (eg Avram from Av-Ram).

Yehudit letters also have numerical values, and regularly bi-literal, and occasionally tri-literal words, are built from the combined numerical values of the letters (e.g. the goddess Yah, from the letters Yud + Hey which makes 15, which is the date in the month at which the moon is full; i.e. the principal holy day of the Bnwy Yisra-El moon-worshiping calendar; the verb "lehiyot" = to be, evolves likewise from this. Because the name of the goddess cannot be pronounced or written down, it is frequently altered to Tu = Tet/9 + Vav/6 = 15. The name Tuval (as in Tuval-Kayin) probably derives from this, as Tu + Ba'al, in the same manner as Avram from Av-Ram).

From these two or three-letter roots all Yehudit grammar is established, again according to "mishkalim". There is no real concept of time, but only of actions, all of which stem from the Creation itself, some of which have been finished, some of which have not yet: the proper explanation for the past tense being presented in the forms of Imperfect, Perfect and Pluperfect. From this come the "binyanim", the structures that break action down into simple active, simple passive, intensive, causative, reflexive and so on; similarly nouns and adjectives are formed according to set patterns, and all have the two or three letter root as their base. To understand any Yehudit word, one needs only to unhitch the "mishkalim", whether prefix, suffix or interposed letter, and, like a detective, deduce the meaning from whichever "mishkalim" and "binyanim" have been appended to the root. 

Thus, for example, the word "Yitkatvu" - יתכתבו. The opening yud (י) is a prefix indicating third person masculine singular of the imperfect; but the suffix vav (ו) re-weights this into a plural of the same type; therefore we can read the "mishkal" as "they will"; the Tav (ת) second letter after a Yud tells us that the "binyan" is "hitpa'el" or reflexive ("to each other" or "to themselves"), leaving the root-word Katav (כתב) = "to write". Put this together and we have "They will write to each other", or "they will correspond". No other meaning of "Yitkatvu" is possible, and one may always approach Yehudit in this manner, solving a meaning like a mathematician and noting quod est demonstrandum at the end. All explanations in this work are based on such mathematical detective work, an empirical method which is, so to speak, infinitely verifiable.

It should be noted that some argument exists today as to whether two-letter roots may also be grouped together in weights, with the third letter then added as a later development of the language. This is in fact highly likely, and the theory is applied throughout this work, though never assuming it to be proven correct.

At different phases in its history the language underwent considerable changes, and by the Ezraic period Aramaic had replaced Yehudit as the principal spoken language of the people, with Classical Yehudit serving much as Latin did in late mediaeval Europe. Much Aramaic appears in the Tanach, especially in the book of Ezra himself. It is therefore reasonable to deduce that differences between the two languages may have crept into the texts, particularly the interchanging of letters such as Sheen and Tav and the addition of Alephs at the beginning to make a four-letter root out of a three-letter Yehudit root (anyone familiar with the Kaddish, which is entirely in Aramaic, will recognise this distinction).
It is important for students to understand that Yehudit ceased to be a spoken language, by anyone in the world, at the time of the Babylonian exile, between 586 and 536 BCE. From then on Aramaic replaced Yehudit as the language of the Yehudim of Kena'an, so that, by the time of Jesus and the Talmudic Rabbis, Yehudit was to them what Latin is to us today, a language that we might feel it useful, even in some circumstances necessary to know, but not for daily use. Today huge numbers of Jews will sit in synagogue, reciting prayers and listening to the readings from the Tanach, with no comprehension whatsoever - and this has been the case amongst all but the most religious for centuries. Jews have spoken whatever language their host-nation spoke, or developed their own languages, such as Yiddish and Ladino, mixing some Yehudit with that host-tongue. Indeed, when Eliezer ben Yehudah set about resurrecting Yehudit as a spoken language, in Palestine in the 1880s, he was initially mocked, and told he was wasting his time. Yehudit was regarded as a dead language, even among Jews, even among the most committed Zionists. Yet today Ivrit is the national language of Israel - though there are still many who insist on Yiddish and Ladino.

Copyright © 2015 David Prashker

All rights reserved

The Argaman Press

The Books of the Tanach (Hebrew Bible)

The Bible is known in Yehudit (Hebrew) as "The Tanach" (תנ"ך), an acronym which stands for Torah (תורה) = Law; Neviyim (נביאים) = Prophets; and Ketuvim (כתובים) = Literature; these being the three principal sections.

The Torah, the five books attributed to Mosheh (Moses), were probably written, at least in the form that we now have them, several hundred years after him, by one Baruch ben Neri-Yah, a secretary to the Guild of Prophets whose leader at the time was Yirme-Yahu (Jeremiah).

The Five Books of Law (Torah) are read on a weekly basis in the synagogue, with accompanying passages from elsewhere in the Tanach - click here for the full background and cycle.

The Torah is divided into "Parashot" or sections, and the "Parashot" are themselves collected into what might be called chapters, were that not to cause confusion with the Christian chapters created by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury in the early 13th century. Seven Parashot make one chapter, and the chapters take their names from the opening phrase, one chapter for each of the fifty-four weeks of the Jewish year (there being thirteen months in intercalatory years; double-Parashot resolve the conundrum in normal years). It was from this division that the Greek and Latin versions took their chaptering, though somehow the organisation became lost in modern European versions – the English versions manage fifty chapters for the Book of Bere'shit (Genesis) alone! 

The Chumash, from the word for "five", is a specially created version of the Torah in which the Haftarot are placed next to their appropriate Parasha for convenience, and with all relevant Rabbinic commentaries appended, usually as footnotes. Most B'nei Mitzvah "graduates" are presented with their first Chumash by the Rabbi or a community elder at the end of their first service as an adult - or at least, that was still the custom in my youth. It is an edition of the Chumash that you will find on your seat if you attend worship at your local synagogue.

The order of the text being used in TheBibleNet is that of the Masoretic Text, the traditional Yehudit canon. Most English translations follow a slightly different order; generally these fail to distinguish the three sections, redistribute the five scrolls or Megillot to other parts of the whole, and alter the order of both the major and the twelve minor Prophets. The earliest Masoretic Text dates from around the 4th century CE and are attributed to Dosa ben Eleazar, but the final version, the one in use today, was probably not completed before the 10th century CE.

The proper name for the Jewish Bible is the "Tanach", not the "Old Testament", which was an intentional insult and derogation. This term was used by Christians to demonstrate that Judaism had passed into history as an anachronism, replaced by the "New Testament" of Jesus Christ (Islam makes the same claim for the Qu'ran in relation to both Judaism and Christianity). The terminology has now been abandoned by most Christians, and is not used in TheBibleNet as it is both offensive and incorrect. The Jewish sections are referred to as the Yehudit Bible or "Tanach", the Christian sections as the Christian Bible.

✡

PART ONE: THE TORAH/תורה:


The Book Of The Laws Of The Beney Yisra-El; also known as the Pentateuch or The Five Books of Mosheh


BERE'SHIT/בראשית/Genesis: Properly "The Book Of Origins". 

1/5: Creation - 6/11: The Flood - 12/26: Av-Raham and Yitschak - 27/36: Ya'akov and Esav - 37/50: Yoseph.


SHEMOT/שמות/Exodus: Properly "The Book Of Names", though it is also referred to as "The Book Of Mosheh" 

1/9: In Mitsrayim (Egypt) - 20/24 Sinai - 25/40 The Ark of the Covenant.


VA YIKRA/ויקרא/Leviticus: "The Book Of The Priesthood". "Va yikra" means "and he called"; this is the opening word of the text and, as with most ancient texts, its name is derived thereby.

1/7: Sacrifices & Offerings - 8/10: The Priesthood - 11/15: Purity & Impurity - 16: The Day of Atonement - 17/27: Worship.


BA MIDBAR/במדבר/The Book of Numbers; and even that is a bad translation: "The Book Of The Numbering of the Tribes" would have been better, or just "The Book of the Tribes". Properly "In the Wilderness" from the opening phrase.


DEVARIM/דברים/Deuteronomy: "The Book Of The Repetition Of The Law". Properly "The Words" from the opening word of the text. The book offers the revised text of the Law according to King Josiah, with still later emendations by both Ezra and Yechezke-El (Ezekiel).



PART TWO: THE BOOKS OF THE PROPHETS/נביאים

(in three parts)


A. The Judges and Early Prophets/Neviyim Rishonim (נביאים ראשונים)


THE BOOK OF YEHOSHU'A/JOSHUA/יהושע

1/12 The conquest of Kena'an (Canaan )- 13/22 The settlement of Kena'an - 23/24 The death of Yehoshu'a.


THE BOOK OF JUDGES/Shophtim/שופטים

1/4: Yehoshu'a's legacy - 5: Devorah - 6/7: Gid'on - 8/12: Judges - 13/16: Shimshon - 17: Miychah (Micah) - 18/21: Anarchy.

THE FOUR BOOKS OF THE KINGS/Melachim/מלכים

1 SHMU-EL/Samuel/שמואל: Covering the period 1075-975 BCE 

1/8 Shmu-El the last Judge - 9/15 Sha'ul - 16/30 David and Sha'ul - 31 The death of Sha'ul.


2 SHMU-EL: The kingship and death of David


3 KINGS (1 KINGS)/Melachim/מלכים: Covering the period 975-587 BCE, compiled from court records during the exile 587-539 BCE 1/11: King Shelomoh (Solomon) - 12/22: Two kingdoms

4 KINGS (2 KINGS): 

1/17 Eli-Yahu (Elijah) and Eli-Shah - 18/25: The One Kingdom.


B. Neviyim Acharonim (נביאים אחרונים): The Three Major Prophets


THE BOOK OF YESHA-YAHU/ISAIAH/ישעיה 

In three parts: 1/39: Yerushala'im 8th century BCE, during the threat from Ashur (Assyria) - 40/55: Yehudah in Bav-El (Babylon) - 56/66 Yerushala'im post-exile.


THE BOOK OF YIRME-YAHU/JEREMIAH/ירמיה 

Circa 650-580 BCE, before and during the exile.


THE BOOK OF YECHEZKE-EL/EZEKIEL/יחזקאל

Before and during the exile (pre-586 BCE until not later than 536 BCE)



C. The Twelve Minor Prophets/Trey-Asar/תרי עשר


THE BOOK OF HOSHE'A/HOSEA/הושע

8th century BCE in Yisra-El, while 1st Isaiah was in Yehudah; up to the fall of the 10 tribes of the northern kingdom in 722 BCE.

THE BOOK OF YO-EL/יואל 

Probably post-exile (after 536 BCE)


THE BOOK OF AMOS/עמוס

Reign of Yerav-Am (Jeroboam), 8th century BCE; he was a Beney Yehudah based in Yisra-El.


THE BOOK OF OVAD-YAH/OBADIAH/עובדיה 

One of the remnant in Yehudah during the exile.


THE BOOK OF YONAH/JONAH/יונה 

Probably a Persian story brought back after the exile and adapted (though the Persian was itself a late adaptation of a much older Hittite tale, which had also been adapted in the meanwhile as a Babylonian tale); it may have been the original version of Sinbad the Sailor.


THE BOOK OF MIYCHAH/MICAH/מיכה 

Yehudah and Yisra-El, 8th century BCE.


THE BOOK OF NACHUM/NAHUM/נחום 

Written circa 612 BCE.


THE BOOK OF CHAVAKUK/HABAKKUK/חבקוק 

Written at the end of the 7th century BCE while Yirme-Yahu (Jeremiah) was in Yeru-Shala'im.


THE BOOK OF TSEPHAN-YAH/ZEPHANIAH/צפניה 

Written in Yehudah during the reign of King Yoshi-Yahu (Josiah), 640-609 BCE; he was an elder contemporary of Yirme-Yahu (Jeremiah).


THE BOOK OF CHAGAI/חגי 

Written around 420 BCE, after the conquest of Bav-El (Babylon) by the Persians.


THE BOOK OF ZECHAR-YAH/ZECHARIAH/זכריה

Chapters 1 to 8 areprophecies delivered in Yeru-Shala'im 520-518 BCE; chapters 9 to 14 may be by a different author.


THE BOOK OF MALA'CHI/מלאכי 

Written after the completion of the Second Temple, 516 BCE.



PART 3. KETUVIM/כתובים: An Anthology of Beqney Yisra-El Literature

(in three parts)


A: Wisdom Literature


THE BOOK OF PSALMS/Tehilim/תהלים

A collection of liturgical hymns, mostly rewritten by the Rabbis, but based on the temple liturgy of Kena'anite gods and goddesses, most notably the moon-goddess Yah.


THE BOOK OF PROVERBS/Mishley/משלי

Wise saws and platitudes, attributed to King Shelomoh, though this should be read as royal patronage not royal authorship.


THE BOOK OF IYOV/JOB/איוב 

Almost certainly an ancient Chaldean folk story brought back by the Babylonian exiles; it contains some of the oldest known pre-Yehudit language (a dialect of Hurrian) of any book in the Tanach but also has significant sections in Aramaic.


B: The 5 Megillot


THE SONG OF SONGS/Canticles/Shir Ha Shirim/שיר השירים

Again attributed to King Shelomoh, Robert Graves has shown that it was originally a Kena'anite liturgical drama used as part of the New Year wedding ceremonies of the sun-god and moon-goddess.


THE BOOK OF RUT/RUTH/רות 

Originally a Mo-Avi (Mo'abite) liturgical drama, connected to the harvest festival.


THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS/Eycha/Threni/איכה 

A mourning song over the fall of Yeru-Shala'im in 587 BCE.


KOHELET/ECCLESIASTES/קהלת 

Properly this belongs with the wisdom literature; Kohelet means "preacher".


THE BOOK OF ESTER/ESTHER/אסתר 

Brought back from Persia, it was originally the Persian tale of Marduk and Ishtar/Astarte and of the overthrow of the false sun-god - known in the Bible (Leviticus 26:30 et al) as a Chaman, but rendered in the Purim tale as a human being, Haman - told as part of the Persian spring new year ceremonies.


C. Other literature


THE BOOK OF DANI-EL/דניאל 

A story of the Babylonian exile, the mystical content (the book is dense with Zoroastrianism) suggests that it was written very much later, possibly as late as the 2nd century BCE, probably as a political satire against the Greeks.


THE BOOK OF EZRA/עזרא 

Covering the period 538-433 BCE 

1/2: Zeru-Bavel - 3/6: The Temple - 7/10: Ezra. No other book has as much Aramaic in it as this one.


THE BOOK OF NECHEM-YAH/NEHEMIAH/נחמיה

Sometimes called "The Second Book of Ezra", it was probably written around 430 BCE. 

1/7: rebuilding Yeru-Shala'im - 8/10: Ezra's "Book" - 11/13: as governor of Yehudah.


DIVREY HA YAMIM/1 CHRONICLES/The Book of Days/דברי הימים

1/9: Genealogy - 10/29: The Yisra-Elite (northern kingdom) version of King David; the version in Shmu-El and Kings is from Yehudah. 

Chronicles remains controversial because it is not always in agreement with other Biblical books as to names, order of events, places and other details. But it is also vital to our investigation - and for precisely this reason.


2 CHRONICLES - 1/9: King Shelomoh - 10: the revolt of Yerav-Am (Jeroboam) - 11/36: The kingdom of Yehudah.



D. THE MISSING BOOKS


Reference is made in the Tanach to other texts of the Biblical period, apparently known then but lost now.

The Book of the Wars of YHVH (cf Numbers 21:14)

The Book of Yashar (cf Joshua 10:14; 2 Samuel 1:18)

The Book of the Cities of Canaan (cf Joshua 18:9)

The Book of the Generations of Adam (cf Genesis 5:1)

The Book of YHVH (cf Isaiah 34:16)

The Acts of Solomon (cf 1 Kings 11:41)

The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah (cf 1 Kings 14:29)

The Chronicles of the Kings of Yisra-El, also known as The Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel (cf 1 Kings 14:19, 16:14, 16:20, 2 Kings 1:18), all of which may simply be allusion to the official archives of the reign.

The Chronicles of the Sons of Levi: probably a misreading of Nehemiah 12:23, and actually a reference to the biblical Books of Chronicles.

The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (apocryphal)

The Book of Razi-El the Angel (Sepher Razi-El ha Malach): Cut on a sapphire, written down in dictation from the deity to Chanoch (Enoch), given by the angel Razi-El to Adam, from whom it passed by way of No'ach, Av-Raham, Ya'akov, Levi, Mosheh and Yehoshu'a to Shelomoh, who used it in his own writings. The Book of Chanoch (Enoch), chapter 32, also makes reference to it.

E. The Apocryphal Books


Besides the "Lost Books", listed above, a significant number of other texts do exist, and these have appeared as "apocrypha" in various editions of the Bible. The King James Version includes:

1 Esdras ( 3 Esdras in the Latin Vulgate)

2 Esdras ( 4 Esdras in the Latin Vulgate)

Tobit

Judith ("Judeth" in the Geneva edition)

Rest of Esther (Esther 10:4-16:24 in the Latin Vulgate )

Wisdom

Ecclesiasticus (also known as Sirach)

Baruch and the Epistle of Jeremy ("Jeremiah" in the Geneva edition)

Song of the Three Children or Song of the Three Young Men (Daniel 3:24-90 in the Latin Vulgate); also known as The Prayer of Azaz-Yah (Azaziah)

Story of Susanna ( Daniel 13 in the Latin Vulgate)

The Idol Bel and the Dragon (Daniel 14 in the Latin Vulgate)

Prayer of Manasseh (follows 2 Chronicles in the Geneva edition)

1 Maccabees

2 Maccabees

These however are not the same as the books that are published in standard Hebrew apocrypha. That list, based on the Septuagint, the Greek translation made by the Rabbis of Alexandria in the 2nd century BCE, is known as the Anagignoskomena (ἀναγιγνωσκόμενα = "things that are read"), rather than Apocrypha (ἀπόκρυφος = "hidden things"). The Septuagint includes:

Tobit:

Judith:

Wisdom of Solomon:

Wisdom of Jesus ben Sira (Sirach):

Baruch:

Epistle of Jeremy (in the Vulgate this is chapter 6 of Baruch):

additions to Daniel (The Prayer of Azarias, Susanna and Bel and the Dragon)

additions to Esther:

1 Maccabees:

2 Maccabees:

3 Maccabees:

1 Esdras, i.e. all the Deuterocanonical plus 3 Maccabees and 1 Esdras.


Some editions, following the 15th century Alexandrian Codex, add Psalm 151; Eastern Orthodox Christian Bibles usually include a section called "The Odes", which is a compilation of prayers excerpted from the biblical books, including the Prayer of Manasseh (or Menasses); 2 Esdras is added as an appendix in Slavonic Bibles; 4 Maccabees is added as an appendix in modern Greek editions.

Finally there are books which have never been included in any Apocrypha or Anagignoskomena, but whose existence is either known (because we have the text) or at least known of. This includes:

The First Book of Adam and Eve
The Second Book of Adam and Eve
The Book of the Secrets of Enoch
The Psalms of Solomon
The Odes of Solomon
The Letter of Aristeas
Fourth Book of Maccabees
The Story of Ahikar
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
Testament of Reuben
Testament of Simeon
Testament of Levi
The Testament of Judah
The Testament of Issachar
The Testament of Zebulun
The Testament of Dan
The Testament of Naphtali
The Testament Of Gad
The Testament of Asher
The Testament of Joseph
The Testament of Benjamin

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