Biblical Eras Of Creation, The Patriarchs, And The Ketuvim

“The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the lord said, ‘I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created-people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord.”(Genesis 6:5-8)

The Tanakh is the collection of the scriptures of Judaism. It is commonly referred to as the Jewish Old Testament or the Jewish Bible, however these names are not the ones used by the Jewish people. Their Scripture that is comparable to that of the Christian Bible is the Tanakh. The name is made from an acronym of the Hebrew names of the three components of Jewish

Although it is argued that rabbis began work on compiling the oral histories prior to the fall of the Second Temple, there was a definite resurgence in documentation of the important history and moral laws of Judaism after the fall. The most important of these written documents in the Jewish faith is the Hebrew Bible. This bible is comprised of the Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim, these three components combine to make up the Tanakh. The Torah is the core of the Hebrew Bible and contains the story of creation, as well as directions on daily conduct and religious rituals. The Nevi’im contains the stories of prophets. The prophets were people that spoke on behalf of God to the Jewish people. Lastly, the Ketuvim is comprised of mostly imaginative literature such as psalms, proverbs and poetry (Molloy, 294). Shifting the focus from priests and temple to a written work that is accessible to all regardless of location was the main adaptation of Judaism and certainly saved the faith. Although the historical accuracy of the Hebrew Bible is debatable, as some stories may have morphed from their origination to when they were assembled in writing, the bible still remains at the core of Judaism today.

The Jews use a book of scripture known as TANAKH. It consists of three parts. The Torah is the first 5 books. The Nevi’im is the books of the prophets. Ketuvim are the remaining writings.

The book of Genesis tells the story of the beginning of the world. Genesis answers some of life’s biggest questions- why are we here, how did everything come to be, how do I relate to others around me. Through this story, God’s unchanging nature is revealed. We are exposed to man’s shortcomings and failures, but we are also offered the hope of one to come who will be the savior of all. The first eleven chapters of Genesis provide a foundation for a Biblical worldview- an explanation of how a Christian should view the natural world, human identity, human relationships, and civilization.

Before I read this chapter I had absolutely no idea that the Jewish religion had their own bible. The main differences that I came across after reading and doing research are the number of books, the arrangement of the books, the primary language that the Bibles are read or studied in, the content of the two Bibles, and the importance that is given to the oral and the written traditions in making of the two holy books. The word ‘Bible’ comes from the Greek word ‘biblia’ which means ‘books’ and both religions call their religious scripture ‘Bible’ (Frigge 1). Judaism dates back to the 2nd century BCE and the Jewish Bible is called Tanakh. It consists of 24 books which are in Hebrew and Armanic (Hayes 3). It is divided into three parts, the

The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. As the book’s name suggests, (transliterated from Greek, meaning “origin”), Genesis details the creation narrative for both Judaism and Christianity. The book also contains several stories that detail the subsequent development of the world, including the fall of man, the gradual corruption of the world due to sin, Noah, and the great flood, and the story and genealogy of Abraham and his descendants. Due to the nature of the inception of the Book of Genesis, the various stories contained within differ in theme and textual traditions in the creation narrative and subsequent stories. One such instance is the Jahwist source to the creation and the subsequent

     The Jewish Bible or Tanakh, is the sacred book that interprets history as the Jews have experienced it. Although it is proper to think of the Bible as a single book of scriptures, it is more accurate to describe it as a library of books assembled under three major headings. The most important is the Torah, which means “devine instruction and guidance.” Torah is also known as the Five Books of Moses; the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The second portion is the Nevi’im meaning writings of the Prophets. The third section of Tanakh is referred to as Kethuvim or “the Writings.”

The book of Genesis (the first book of the Torah) was written in 1445 BC and was originally thought to be written by Moses until the eighteenth century. Genesis is a combination of historical narrative and law. In the first two chapters of Genesis, “God creates the world. God created human beings in his image. In the image of God he created them. He created them male and female” (1:27). “In Chapter three, major crises for the newly created world comes when Adam and Eve sin” (Hindson & Towns, 2013, p38). The following two chapters trace the ancestry of Adam and Eve and how their sin continued to cumulate (4-6:6). God sends a flood to destroy his creation, but spares Noah, who offers hope for a future generation and a new beginning (6:1-9:29). Noah’s decedents continue to grow and nations are divided in the

Comprehending scriptures literally can be easily achieved by anyone, however, it is also important for people to understand the scriptures morally and allegorically because faith influence our behavior, morals, and lifestyle. Jewish scriptures are divided into three sections: Torah (The Law), Nevi'im (The Prophets), and Ketuvim (The Writing). The book of Genesis can be found in Torah which "has the foundational stories of Judaism" (“Hebrew Bible”, Bond) and Rabbi David L. Locketz further interprets the scriptures literally and allegorically.

God described Noah as “a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time” (Gen 6:5-12). God destroyed the Earth with a flood, but forewarned Noah and requested he build a Ark to save himself and the animals of the Earth. The rules of the covenant with Noah were as follows: “be fruitful and increase in numbers” (Gen 9:1, 9:7), “eat meat or fruit of the ground, but not blood” (Gen 9:2-5), “murder punished by death” (Gen 9:5-6), “covenant with all creatures marked by the rainbow” (Gen 9:13-16) and “never again will God destroy all life by water” (Gen 9:8-17). These rules still comfort and are followed by many people of the Christian church today.

The custom of Judaism grounded in the religious, moral and the social law as they enunciated in the Torah that was the first book in the Hebrew Bible. The Jewish consecrated content incorporates the Bible that they call Tanakh; an acronym for the Torah, composing and prophet, the Talmud and the Midrash. The last is a consideration of rabbinic, lawful and story elucidation of Torah. There are four developments in the Judaism religion; they incorporate customary, moderate, change and Reconstructionist. The four branches ranges from the customary too liberal to religious dynamic in their application

In most of this chapter, the author gives us an extensive overview of the Hebrew bible. We learn that the Hebrew Bible is divided into three sections: Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim. Torah is the most sacred one since it contains stories of creation and others about Hebrew ancestors. Nevi’im focuses on the stories of different prophets during the Israelite Kingdom. Ketuvim contains short stories and reflections about life.

The Pentateuch is a collection of books, written by Moses, which consist of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These books form the basis for the Jewish and Christian Bible, as the first five books for both of these bibles are the same (The Pentateuch). The Tanakh is an acronym, where the “t”, “n”, and “k” stand for sections of the Written Torah; the “t” stands for Torah, meaning “the law”, the “n” for Nevi’im, meaning “the prophets”, and the “k” for Kethuvim, meaning “the writings” (Torah). The Old Testament is the beginning of the Christian Bible, which is based on the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament).

The Qur’an is the holy book for Muslims, it has over 100 chapters that are written in Arabic dialect. The Torah is a section of the Jewish Bible, which includes five chapters, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The Christian Bible has two components, the New Testament and the Old Testament written by many different authors and has over 60 chapters. The New Testament was written by Christians within the first century AD (Drane, 2011).