What are the different books in Judaism?

Question

I heard that Judaism has many different books, rather than one Bible like Christianity. What are they called, who wrote them, and what message/purpose does each fulfill?

Answer 1

The organization of the Jewish Scriptures can be remembered by the mneumonic device "TaNaKh".

T = Torah, which is the Five Books of Moses: Bereisheit (Beginning = Genesis), Shemot (Names = Exodus), Vayikra (And He Called = Leviticus), BaMidbar (In the Wilderness = Numbers), Devarim (Words = Deuteronomy).

N = Nevi'im = Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hoshea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micha, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zakkariah, Malachi.

K = Ketuvim = Writings: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles.

There were apparently many more writings that could have been included in the above list, but after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, Judea and Israel in 70 C.E., the great Jewish sages that survived convened and "cannonized" the scriptures. This means that they decided then and there that only the above list would be included in Jewish Bible, and there are writings that are well known, but didn't make it into the list, such as the apochryphal Book of the Maccabbes.

The Romans scattered the Jews to the four corners of the earth. The great Jewish sages "cannonized" the scriptures to ensure that wherever the Jews were taken, they would all be learning from the same writings, organized in the same fashion.

It's quite amazing that today, when you compare a version in a museum that was written by a scribe 2000 or 1000 years ago, it's the same letter-for-letter scriptures that are found in our printed books today!

After the Jewish scriptures were "closed", a new period of Jewish writings and commentaries were opened. It began with the first ever writing down of the Jewish "Oral-Law" which is called the Mishna.

In the 200 to 300 hundred years after the Mishna was written down, commentaries were added to it. These commentaries are called "Gemara".

The Mishna and Gemara put together forms the Talmud.

During the time of the Mishna, another very important aspect of Oral traditions pertaining to the Torah was written down. This is known as Midrash, and it contains "side-stories" to each of the incidents that occur in the Bible.

When the Talmud was completed (around the year 500), an enormous body of Jewish literature began to be produced, in areas such as Jewish Law, Mysticism and Jewish Thinking and Philospophy.

Jewish writings through the ages were almost exlusively written in the Hebrew or Aramaic Languages (that's Aramaic, not Arabic!). Since the beginning of the 20th century, many of these important writings have been translated into English and other languages.

If you visit a Jewish library, you will be amazed at the huge volume of Jewish literature that has been produced over the last few thousands of years.

That is why the Jews earned the title "The People of the Book", and have always had the highest literacy rate of any peoples on the Earth.

Hope that begins to explain things for you! I don't have enough space here to explani exactly who wrote each, and the message/purpose of each, but now that you have the names and organization, I hope you can look it up on the Internet.

Answer 2

no. it is different to movements like Reform, Liberal, Reconstructionist and other new movements, but orthodox judaism is exactly as it was given at Mount Sinai, except for the rabbinic decrees to safeguard the torah's rules (eg. OT says no milk and meat eaten/ cooked together, Rabbis say dont use the same dishes for both to remind you) which are rare, and the customs that obviously came later.

Answer 3

The Christian Bible also has a lot of books...remember, Bible means 'Biblia' which is Greek for 'Books'! But I know they have the Torah (first 5 books of the OT), the Talmud, and the Tanakh...these all contain most of the books of the OT.

Answer 4

Chrisianity has many books also. You must understand the Bible is made of many books. If you want to read the Jewish books then just read the old testament of the Bible. That is what it is.