The Hebrew Bible, called the Tanakh in Judaism, is the collection of sacred Hebrew scriptures that forms the foundation of Jewish religious life. It is made up of three parts whose initials give the name Tanakh: the Torah (the Teaching, or the Five Books of Moses—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), the Nevi'im (the Prophets), and the Ketuvim (the Writings). The Torah is the first and most central part, read aloud in synagogues on a yearly cycle. The texts were composed in Hebrew, with a few passages in Aramaic, over a long span of time, and reached their traditional written form in the Masoretic Text maintained by Jewish scribes through the early Middle Ages.
The English text represented and quoted on this page is the New JPS translation, published as Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures by the Jewish Publication Society in 1985. It was produced over about three decades by a committee of scholars and rabbis working from the traditional Hebrew (Masoretic) text, and it is widely used as a standard Jewish English Bible. The same writings make up most of the Christian Old Testament, though the two traditions order and group the books differently and use different names for them. Across Judaism, the Hebrew Bible is the source of law, narrative, prophecy, and poetry, and it has shaped Jewish practice, commentary, and identity for more than two thousand years.
Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Deuteronomy 6:4–5 (New JPS translation, 1985)
First lines
When God began to create heaven and earth—the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water—God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. (Genesis 1:1–3, New JPS translation, 1985)
Contents
Torah (Teaching) — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
Nevi’im (Prophets) — Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings
Nevi’im (Prophets) — Latter Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel
Nevi’im (Prophets) — The Twelve Minor Prophets (Hosea to Malachi)
Ketuvim (Writings) — Psalms, Proverbs, Job
Ketuvim (Writings) — The Five Scrolls: Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther
Ketuvim (Writings) — Daniel, Ezra–Nehemiah, Chronicles
Reception
The Hebrew Bible is among the most studied texts in history, examined within Judaism through centuries of rabbinic commentary and in modern universities through textual criticism, archaeology, and comparative study. Its transmission is unusually well documented: the Masoretic Text, fixed by the Masoretes between roughly the 7th and 10th centuries CE, is the basis of nearly all printed Hebrew Bibles, and older witnesses such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Greek Septuagint let scholars trace its development. Questions of authorship and dating are debated: traditional Jewish belief attributes the Torah to Moses, while much modern scholarship argues the text combines several sources edited over centuries, a conclusion that is contested and not accepted within all religious communities. The 1985 JPS translation represented here is regarded as a standard scholarly English rendering, though some readers prefer more literal or more traditional translations.
Frequently asked
What is the difference between the Torah and the Hebrew Bible?
The Torah is the first five books—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, also called the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses. The Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, is the larger collection that contains the Torah together with the Nevi'im (Prophets) and the Ketuvim (Writings). The Torah is the central first part of the Hebrew Bible, not a separate book.
Who wrote the Torah and the Hebrew Bible?
There is no single author. Traditional Jewish belief attributes the Torah to Moses, while the other books are linked to various prophets and writers. Much modern scholarship holds that the texts were composed and edited by many hands over several centuries. Because authorship is multiple and largely traditional, the index records the author as "Various".
Is the Hebrew Bible the same as the Christian Old Testament?
They share most of the same writings, but they are arranged differently. The Hebrew Bible groups the books into Torah, Prophets, and Writings and follows the traditional Hebrew order, while Christian Old Testaments use a different order and grouping, and some Christian canons include additional books that the Hebrew Bible does not.