TANAKH

[Dr Nancy's Sweetie]

------- Forwarded Message from James Kiefer

Lou Nunez asks when the Hebrew Scriptures began to be called
Tanakh. He notes that this is an acronym for the Torah (Teaching),
the Neviim (Prophets), and the Ketuvim (Writings).

When the acronym began to be used, I do not know, but if the
question is: "When did the Hebrew Scriptures come to be spoken of as
Torah, Prophets, and other writings?" Then I have a comment.

At one time, only the Torah was regarded as sacred. We find traces
of this in that
(1) the Samaritans accepted (and to this day accept) only the
Torah;
(2) the Sadducees accepted only the Torah. Since references to
life after death in the Torah are few and vague, they rejected
belief in the resurrection, the immortality of the soul, etc. Thus,
when Jesus is arguing with the Sadducees about the afterlife (M
22:23-33 = P 12:18-27 = L 20:27-38), He argues from the Torah,
pointing out that God, speaking to Moses out of the bush (Ex 3:6),
says: "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob." He points out that this use of the present tense implies an
unbroken relationship between God and the partriarchs. (To get the
point, consider a scenario in which a man has died, leaving an
orphaned son ten years old. The father's business partner, after the
funeral, says to the son: "Timmy, I was your father's best friend,
and...." We would think it odd to hear him say, "I am your father's
best friend." But God says: "I am the God of Abraham." Not the God
that Abraham used to trust, but the God that he still trusts.)
(3) The Torah still occupies a far more exalted position than
the rest of the Scriptures. In the synagogue, the Torah is solemnly
carried in procession, and worshippers reach out to touch it, not
with the hand, but with a prayer-book or the corner of a
prayer-shawl, which is then kissed. Nothing similar is done with the
other portions of the Scriptures. The Torah is read through every
year (or every three years) in the Sabbath services. The rest of the
Scriptures are read more spottily. I was conversing with a learned
Jewish scholar, whom I consider it a privilege to know, and was much
taken aback when I asked his view on a certain passage not in the
Torah, and he replied that he had never read it. Again, Orthodox
Jews believe that the Torah contains no error, but at least some of
them do not believe this about the other Scriptures.

The second stage was the acceptance of the Prophets along with the
Torah. The "Prophets" here does not mean what it would to a
Protestant, who is likely to mean "everything from Isaiah through
Malachi." For a Jew, the Prophets include Judges, Samuel, and Kings,
but omit Daniel (and perhaps Lamentations), which are placed in the
third category. In the New Testament, we find the term, "the Law and
the Prophets" being used to refer to the Scriptures (M 5:17; 7:12;
11:13; 22:40; L 16:16; (16:29,31;) 24:27; J 1:45; A 13:15; 24:14;
26:22; 28:23; R 3:21). Once only, as far as I know (L 24:44), the
standard formula is expanded to "the Law, the Prophets, and the
Psalms." I conjecture that the third division of the Tanakh, what
are called "The (Other) Writings," was sometimes called "the
Psalms," the name of the first book of the collection standing in
for the entire collection. Thus we see the reference to "Law and
Prophets" in transition to "Law and Prophets and Third Group".
Probably the change in terminology did not occur until after the
acceptance of the third group as in some sense worthy to be counted
as Scripture was pretty well accomplished.
We may note that a disproportiate number of quotations in the
New Testament from the Old are taken from Deuteronomy (Torah),
Isaiah (Prophets) and the Psalms (Writings). The same three books
are disproportionately represented among the manuscripts found at
Qumran.

Lou asks about the translation of "Torah" as "Law." This translation
goes back to the LXX, which translates it as "nomos" (law), and we
find it consistently called "nomos" in the New Testament (presumably
in imitation of the LXX), except when the term "Moses and the
prophets" is used. Jews today, however, point out that the regular
word for law is "din." A law court is a "beth din" or "house of
law." "Torah," they say, means "teaching." What the etymology of the
word is, I do not know.

As for the canon, Bishop Melito of Sardis (west coast of Turkey,
across the Aegean Sea from Greece--see Rev 3:1) in the second
century made a trip to Palestine to determine for himself which
books the Jews there accepted as sacred. His list was the usual
Protestant (and Jewish) one, minus the book of Esther.

Yours,
James Kiefer

------- End of Forwarded Message

[Steven Carr]

on Sat, 31 May 1997 12:44:27 -0400, "Dr Nancy's Sweetie"
<kil...@copland.rowan.edu> wrote :

<skip>

>As for the canon, Bishop Melito of Sardis (west coast of Turkey,
>across the Aegean Sea from Greece--see Rev 3:1) in the second
>century made a trip to Palestine to determine for himself which
>books the Jews there accepted as sacred. His list was the usual
>Protestant (and Jewish) one, minus the book of Esther.

Melito gives the list as follows :-'Their names are as follows: Of
Moses, five books: Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy;
Jesus Nave, Judges, Ruth; of Kings, four books; of Chronicles, two;
the Psalms of David, the Proverbs of Solomon, Wisdom also,
Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Job; of Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah; of
the twelve prophets, one book ; Daniel, Ezekiel, Esdras.'

He excludes Esther and includes the Wisdom of Solomon.

It is almost certain that he includes Nehemiah with Esdras (Ezra),
and Lamentations with Jeremiah.

Jesus Nave, is obviously Joshua.

4 books of Kings from the Septuagintal naming.