Might

Lore & Background

The Hebrew Bible developed during the Second Temple Period, as the Jews decided which religious texts were of divine origin. The Masoretic Text, compiled by Jewish scribes and scholars of the early Middle Ages, comprises the books that they considered authoritative. The current edition of the Masoretic Text is mostly in Biblical Hebrew, with a few passages in Biblical Aramaic. The modern form of the Hebrew Bible that is authoritative in Rabbinic Judaism is the Masoretic Text, which consists of 24 books. Different branches of Judaism and Samaritanism have maintained different versions of the canon, including the Septuagint, the Syriac Peshitta, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Masoretic Text.

Reader's Guide

The Tanakh includes a variety of genres: narratives, hymns, wisdom literature, prophecy, and apocalyptic literature. A central theme is monotheism and the covenant between God and Israel. The Tanakh imposes ethical requirements including social justice and ritual purity, and condemns murder, theft, bribery, corruption, deceitful trading, adultery, incest, bestiality, and homosexual acts.

Did You Know?

• The Hebrew Bible includes small portions in Biblical Aramaic, mostly in the books of Daniel and Ezra.
• The Septuagint is a Greek translation produced by Hellenized Greek-speaking Jews of Alexandria, and it included books later identified as apocryphal.