The Old Testament: The Tanakh

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The word Bible is taken from the Greek word "ta biblia or the books" and became the foundation of Judaism and Christianity. The Old Testament or the Tanakh is the first and the oldest section of the Holy Bible with the New Testament added at a later date. The Old Testament consists of several individual books written, compiled and edited by various authors over a period of centuries. These several books were divided into three groups with the first group being the Torah, the Teachings or the Law, Neviim, or the Prophets, is the second group and Ketubim, or the Writings, is the third group. The first letter in of each of these divisions such as T for Torah, N for Neviim and K for Ketubim makes an acronym of the name TaNaKh. The actual number …show more content…

While the Judeans were held captive in Babylonia, from 586 to 539BC, the writing of the Book of Isaiah continued, Jeremiah began, Obadiah and Ezekiel were written along with the completion of the Books of Hosea, Amos, Micah, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings and Zephaniah. Following the return of the Judeans to Kingdom of Judah from their Babylonian Exile, 538 to 330BC, the writing of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah were created, the Books of Deuteronomy and Isaiah continued, the Books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Jeremiah were completed, the Books of Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi and Chronicles were written and added. During the Greek occupation of the region, from 323 to 164BC, the books of Job, Ecclesiastes, Jonah and Psalms were written and added to the Old Testament. Then, in 167BC, after to successful rebellion against the Greeks the books of Daniel, Esther, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees and 3 Maccabees were …show more content…

The Supplementary Hypothesis claims that, from 700 to 400BC, there were just three different groups of authors the Deuteronomist, Yahwist, Priestly and Redactor sources that wrote the five books of the Torah. With the Fragmentary Hypothesis the belief is, from 1003 to 716BC, a collection of different laws along with various authors who put together the narratives of the Torah. Of these three different theories of who wrote the Torah it is the Source Hypothesis or the Documentary Hypothesis that is the oldest and most detailed. The Documentary Hypothesis concluded that, from 850 to 200BC, there were four different groups authors the Jahwist, Elohist, Priestly, Deuteronomist and Redactor sources who wrote the five books of the Torah. More information concerning this subject can be found in the following

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