Regarding the Jewish Bible (a timely question as Simchat Torah, the
celebration of having finished the Torah reading cycle takes place tonight
and tomorrow.) :
The Hebrew Bible consists of:
Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Number, Deuteronomy
Prophets: Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel (the three major prophets), Hosea, Joel, Amos,
Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah
Malachi (the twelve minor prophets)
Writings (for which the order may vary): Psalms, Proverbs, Job,
Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel,
Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 and 2 Chronicles.
All books of the Maccabees along with other favorites such as
Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon and Ben Sira are part of what
is popularly called the Septuagint (LXX) but are more accurately,
following Bob Kraft and others, part, of what is called the LXX/Old Greek,
as the Septuagint technically refers to the translation of the Pentateuch.
These are the Apocrypha (Prot.) and Deuterocanonical (Cath.)
Whatever can be said about the final status and arrangement of these
texts as a collection, they were all individually Jewish texts and were
revered as important, even sacred, writings by Jews. Multiple copies of Tobit
were found in both Hebrew and Aramaic at Qumran. Ben Sira is mentioned
in the Talmud and a Hebrew version was found in a synagogue in Cairo last
century .
Naturally, early Christians, of whom many identified as Jews, included
these among their sacred writings. Geographical, political (e.g. regarding
the Maccabees), religious viewpoints, or random events may account for
the absence of any given book in what later became the Jewish canon
(a late, gradual and somewhat mysterious development).
Naomi Jacobs
Brandeis University
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