The Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew Bible is not one book. It’s a collection of many books – like a library!

Contains books of law, wisdom writings, poetry, philosophy, and history.

How Did We Get the Hebrew Bible?

It’s complicated.

It was probably “written” over the course of 1,000 years.

Mostly written in ancient Hebrew after centuries of being passed down orally from generation to generation.

Probably began to be written down about 3,000 years ago (about 1000 BCE)

Oral tradition was another 1000 years old

Even less is known about the historical origins of the Books of the Prophets and Writings.

Written down in present form about 400 BCE

Became the “official” list of sacred books around 90 BCE

• The Torah and parts of the Prophets were likely “canonized” after the Babylonian exile when Israelites were conquered by Babylon and taken into captivity.

Oldest texts are the Torah

First five books of the Hebrew Bible

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

Probably not completed until about 400 BCE

Very close to what we have now

Mgn rdng ths bk wtht vwls. Sn’t tht dffclt t cmprhd? Myb ftr whl cld fll n sm f th blnks nd fgr t mst f t. Ftr ll , ts smple nglsh. Bt nw,mgn ts prt f n ncnt lngg tht hs fln nt dss vr svrl cntrs.Tht s hw th Bibl nc pprd.

How Did You Do?

Imagine reading this book without vowels. Isn’t that difficult to comprehend? Maybe after a while you could fill in some of the blanks and figure out most of it. After all, it’s simple English. But now, imagine it’s part of an ancient language that has fallen into disuse over several centuries. That is how the Bible once appeared.

Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters

All consonants, no vowels

Written right to left