The Hebrew Bible
An Introduction to the Canon
Some Basic Terminology

CE (the Common Era)


Use in the place of AD (Anno Domini or ‘In the year of our
Lord.’
BCE (Before the Common Era)

Use in the place of BC (Before Christ)
Canon

From the Greek word
kanon

Hebrew qaneh

Measuring stick or line
TaNaK (Tanakh)


An acronym for the three parts of the text
A total of 24 books (39 by the Christian
system of counting)
Torah (also called Books of Moses or
Pentateuch)
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Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
The Torah as a Collection

First part of the canon established

It was pulled together after the fall of
Jerusalem in 587/86 BCE.

Regarded as fixed by the 4th century BCE
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Most authoritative
Prophets (Nebi’im or Nevi’im)
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Former Prophets
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Joshua
Judges
Samuel
Kings
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Latter Prophets
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Major Prophets
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Isaiah
Jeremiah
Ezekiel
Minor Prophets
(Book of the 12)
 Hosea, Joel, Amos,
Obadiah, Jonah, Micah,
Nahum, Habakkuk,
Zephaniah, Haggai,
Zechariah, Malachi
The Prophets as a Collection

“Prophecy” does not mean telling the future; it
is about the action of God in history

This collection is far more diverse. It was
closed by the 2nd century BCE. We know
that because Daniel (c. 164 BCE) was not
included.
Writings (Kethub’im or Kethuv’im)
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Psalms
Proverbs
Job
Song of Songs
Ruth
Lamentations
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Ecclesiastes
Esther
Daniel
Ezra-Nehemiah
Chronicles
The Writings as a Collection

Different formulations existed over time
(compare Mt 7:12 to Lk 24:44)

Following the destruction of the second
temple in Jerusalem (70 CE), the pressure
rose to close the canon

Some hold the final form was declared at
Jamnia at 90 CE
The Masoretic Text (MT)

The Tanakh is written
primarily in Hebrew

We do not have any original
manuscripts; we only have
copies of copies

Codex Leningradensis is
the oldest complete Hebrew
manuscript we have. It
dates to 1008 CE
Who Copied the Texts?
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Sopherim

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From the same root as
“sepher” or book; it also can
mean “counters”
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Masoretes

Preservers of tradition
(“masorah”)

Worked from the 4th century
to the creation of the
printing press

Added notes to the text for
things like crossreferencing, clarity; added
vowels to the consonantal
text and marks for singing,
accentuation; noted
anomalies
Worked from approximately
the 5th century BCE to the
4th century CE
Updated script, added
headings and titles, made
some emendations
Dittography
Repetition of a word or phrase. “Doublewriting.” It is easy for the eye to see a
word twice – especially in a sequence
like the one below.
Example: Ezek 48:16 reads “and these shall
be its dimensions: the north side four
thousand five hundred cubits, the south
side four thousand five hundred cubits,
the east side four thousand five hundred,
and the west side four thousand five
hundred.”
If, however, you read the MT, when it gets to
the south it says: “four thousand, five five
hundred.” The Masoretes new it was
wrong and so did not add vowels to the
second “five” and made a note saying not
to read it.
Haplography
In this case, you write only one time
what should have appeared two
times.
Example: Isaiah 26:3-4 reads: “Those
of steadfast mind you keep in peace
– in peace because they trust in
you. Trust in the LORD forever, for
in the LORD God you have an
everlasting rock.”
When you look at Isaiah in the Dead
Sea Scrolls, it says something like
“in peace because in you. Trust in
the Lord.” Trust appears two times
in a row in the Hebrew, and the
scribe only wrote it once.
Homoioteleuton
When words or phrases have
similar endings, the copyist can
leave something out because
the eye skips.
Example: Gen 4:8 reads: “Cain
said to his brother Abel, ‘Let us
go out to the field.’ And when
they were in the field, Cain rose
up against his brother Abel and
killed him.”
But if you look at the MT, it leaves
out ‘let us go into the field’ – two
words (in Hebrew) missing
because of the repetition of ‘the
field’ – but it makes no sense
without them.
Confusion of Letters
Many Hebrew letters can look
alike – especially if the
copyist is sloppy. And so
misreadings can result.
Example: Gen 10:4 Rodanim
(a person) should read
Dodanim.
See how similar r and d are.
Other easily confused letters:
br
hj
nb
zw
wr
wn
tj
i/
ux
Homophony
Words often sound alike. And, if the copyist
was listening to a text being read, you
can see how errors would creep in.
Example: aO and ol are both pronounced
‘lo.’ But the first means ‘no’ or ‘not’ and
the second means ‘to him.’
Psalm 100:3 shows the confusion. In some
manuscripts (including the MT), it reads
with the first word. The KJV thus says:
“Know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is
he that hath made us, and not we
ourselves.”
The NRSV goes with other manuscripts (that
the MT notes) and says, “Know that the
Lord is God. It is he that made us, and
we are his.”
How do we get the most accurate text?

Compare all of the
ancient manuscripts we
have – whether they
are in Hebrew or not.
(More on that later)
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Some important
traditions: Septuagint,
Dead Sea Scrolls,
Targums, Peshitta,
Vulgate.
Septuagint
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Greek translation of the
Hebrew Bible
Done in Alexandria,
Egypt
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Letter of Aristeas
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Also known as the LXX
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Included the Apocrypha
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3rd century BCE
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Greek was the lingua
franca of the region
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15 “hidden” books
Written between 200-100
BCE
Written in Greek
Included in the early
Christian canon
Dead Sea Scrolls

Discovered in 1947 in
caves near Qumran

Date from the 2nd
century BCE to the 1st
century CE
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Include part of every
book of the Tanakh
except Esther
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11 caves with 95,000
texts or text fragments
Targums
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Aramaic (and other)
language translations for
the people who spoke
different languages
Every book in the Tanakh
has one except Ezra,
Nehemiah, and Daniel.
These books already had
Aramaic sections
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First Targums were from
Bablylon. Later were in
Palestine.
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Targum Onkelos –
Pentateuch and Targum
Jonathon – prophets were
big in the 3rd century CE
Peshitta
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Tanak and NT in Syriac – a
dialect of Aramaic used in
Syria and much of the east
Term meaning “simple”
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All books translated separately
between the 1st and 3rd
centuries CE
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Tanakh translated mostly from
Hebrew, but some from
Targums and LXX.
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Work was done by both Jews
and Christians
Vulgate

Jerome’s translation of the
Tanakh and NT into Latin

Commissioned by Pope
Damascus in 382 or 383 CE
to produce an authoritative
Latin version

Word means “common” or
“common translation.”

Jerome knew Greek, but
learned Hebrew, Aramaic,
Syriac, and Arabic to
translate from as many
different manuscripts as
possible
Words We Do Not Understand
Sometimes, words occur that we do not understand. Often, they are
hapax legomenon which means words occurring only one time.
Example: Amos 7:14 rq@ob (boqer). It is similar to a word for ‘cattle’
and so people often translate ‘herdsman.’ But that makes no sense
given the fact that he refers following the flock in the next verse. So
many texts emend it to dq@on (noqed) and say ‘shepherd.’
How We Get The Text We Have
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MT is an eclectic text
When variations arise,
scholars assess them
according to some
basic principles
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Older readings are
preferred to newer ones
More difficult readings
are preferred to easier
ones
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Shorter readings are
preferred to longer ones
The reading that explains
the most variants is most
likely to be the original
Look for a reading
attested widely
geographically
Should conform to the
book in style, diction,
outlook
No doctrinal or partisan
bias from the copyist
Some Important Things to Consider
When Reading the Tanakh
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The process of canonization
took over 600 years

It was written mostly in
Hebrew; some in Aramaic

The texts themselves were
written and edited over
more than 1000 years

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The stories and laws cover
a period of more than 2000
years
To get to the most original
form of the text, you should
also understand Greek,
Syriac, Latin, and probably
a few other languages

Translation is always
interpretation
Translation
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Formal Correspondence
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Maintain the vocabulary,
grammar, structure of the
original as closely as possible
RSV, NRSV, NIV, NKJV, NJPS
are all examples
Dynamic Equivalence
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More emphasis on creating
coherence in the receptor
language
JB, NJB, NEB, TEV or Good
News are all examples
Compare the NRSV and TEV
translations of Ruth 3:9b:
NRSV: And she answered, “I am Ruth,
your servant; spread your cloak over
your servant, for you are next-of-kin.”
TEV: “It’s Ruth sir,” she answered.
“Because you are a close relative, you
are responsible for taking care of me.
So please marry me.”
MT:
la@g{ yK! ;t=m*a&-lu^ ;p#n`k= T*c=r~p*W ;t#m*a&
tWr yk!n{a* rm#aT)w~
English Bibles

First English translation
by John Wyclif in the
14th century
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First English translation
from the Hebrew by
Wm Tyndale in 1526
King James Version

In 1604, King James I of England decided to commission an Authorized
Version of scripture for the Anglican Church (Church of England)

54 scholars were to be divided into 6 panels (we only have 47 names);
2 groups met at Oxford, 2 at Cambridge, and 2 at Westminster

They were assigned the task of revising the Bishops’ Bible; with
Tyndale, Coverdale, and other bibles used where their wording was
good

The king ran out of money for the project and needed help from the
church

It was published in 1611
Important Modern Translations

The Revised Standard Version (1952) was designed
to update and revise the KJV. It uses formal
correspondence and translates from the Hebrew
and Greek for a modern English reader. The NRSV
(1992) updates it by getting rid of archaic language,
using new textual data and being gender inclusive.

The New International Version (1978) was done by
Protestant evangelicals . Also uses formal
correspondence.