Hebrew Bible (term)

This article is about the term "Hebrew Bible". For the Hebrew Bible itself, see Tanakh (Jewish tradition) or Old Testament (Christian tradition).

11th century manuscript of the Hebrew Bible with Targum

Hebrew Bible is a term that refers to the common portions of the Jewish and Christian biblical canons. In its Latin form, Biblia Hebraica, it traditionally serves as a title for printed editions of the masoretic text.

Many scholars advocate use of the term Hebrew Bible when discussing these books in academic writing, as a neutral substitute to terms with religious connotations.

• Christian use of Old Testament may allude to various theological notions, among them supersessionism, covenant theology and dispensationalism. Any of these notions makes use of the term "Old Testament" problematic for Jews and even for some Christians. Additionally, Christian usage of "Old Testament" is not universally defined, but refers to different sets of books depending on denomination.
• The Jewish term Tanakh is a Hebrew acronym that is likely to be unfamiliar to those outside the Jewish faith. It refers to the particular arrangement of the biblical books as found in the masoretic text. This arrangement was not preserved in Christianity.

Hebrew in the term Hebrew Bible likely refers to the original language of the books, but it may also be taken as referring to the Jewish or Hebrew people, who originally wrote the books.

Confessional terms

The expression confessional term refers to terms that do more than objectively identify a particular referent, additionally assuming a subjective stance toward that referent. For example, rebels and freedom fighters may be used to refer to the same people. The terms are "confessional" in that they also express distinct stances towards those people. The expression confessional term is normally, but not exclusively, used in religious contexts. It is also used in self-referential contexts, to imply one's own stance towards a controversial issue.

• Nobody can declare someone else to be a womanist. It is a confessional term. In claiming it, one says that one starts by standing with Black women's reality.

In the case of Tanakh and Old Testament, these are confessional terms in the sense that a writer may be using them as more than an objective reference to a set of books. In ecumenical and international theological journals, writers often wish to present arguments that depend on premises independent of traditional conclusions, or that challenge them. Writers will sometimes use non-confessional terms so their particular argument can be evaluated, without reference to whatever confessional position they may or may not hold.

The meaning of old in Old Testament

Another important issue relevant to use of Hebrew Bible rather than Old Testament is the documented misunderstanding of the sense of old in Old Testament. In Christianity old in Old Testament essentially refers to time. There is additional, confessional implication, but the semantics of it is non-trivial.

Christian commentary on the New Testament understanding of the relationship between the Testaments became controversial in the 2nd century. Consensus was eventually achieved, well before the Catholic-Orthodox division, so all major divisions of Christianity have inherited that consensus.

The controversy arose when Marcion and his followers held the Hebrew scriptures to be superceded. So strong were Marcion's views that even New Testament books that quoted the Old were excluded from his canon. He was not entirely consistent in applying this rule, because nearly every book of the New Testament makes such quotations. Along with Gnosticism, this view has the dubious distinction of being one of the first to be classed as heretical by the early Christian "peer review" process. The Catholic encyclopedia notes, "they rejected the writings of the Old Testament," and claims, "they were perhaps the most dangerous foe Christianity has ever known."

Both Gnosticism (with its psuedepigraphal gospels) and Marcion stimulated early Christian efforts to find consensus regarding a canon of scripture. Ultimately consensus excluded Gnostic books and included the Hebrew scriptures, but remained elusive regarding some other books. The inclusion of the Hebrew scriptures in Christian Bibles was a deliberate and significant decision. It was a decision that meant they were accepted as authoritative on matters of doctrine and normative for matters of everyday life.

The word testament is a traditional English translation of the Hebrew word berit (covenant, contract or deal). The Jewish Encyclopedia notes several covenants between God and man in the Tanakh, including: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Aaron and David. It also discusses Jeremiah's prophecy of a "new covenant" (berit hadash in Hebrew, Jeremiah 31:31) and comments, "Christianity . . . interpreted the words of the prophet in such a way as to indicate a new religious dispensation in place of the law of Moses (Hebrews 8:8-13)."

Christians of all traditions could be cited that would acknowledge the understanding the Jewish Encyclopedia expresses in this article. However, just as the Jewish Encylopedia acknowledges a series of covenants, that are nonetheless in some sense united, so in fact does ecumenical Christianity. The term dispensation is common in English language Christian theology in addressing the complicated issues Christians have found in understanding the relationships between the covenants in the Hebrew scriptures, and between those covenants and what the New Testament (literally meaning "New Covenant") says about its own relationship to prior covenants.

In covenant theology (a theological framework distinctive of, but not exclusive to, the Reformed churches), the scriptures are interpreted as teaching that God's original purpose was to create for himself one covenant people, which was to be found in the people of Israel in the years before the Messiah, and later expanded to universal salvation through the Messiah. Under this interpretation, old in Old Testament refers to the age before expansion of the covenant through the Messiah.

The New Testament documents themselves present Jesus and his followers as being opposed for preaching this message of gentile (non-Jewish) inclusion. Essentially, the New Testament appropriates the Jewish tradition the benefit of Christians. This is a serious matter for believers in both faiths, and a matter that scholars of those faiths often wish to leave out of contention when co-operating on projects of common interest, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. This is another reason non-confessional terms like Hebrew Bible suit themselves to academic, and other, discourse.

Usage

Using the term Hebrew Bible, then, is an attempt to provide specificity with respect to contents, while avoiding allusion to any particular interpretative tradition or theological school of thought.

On the one hand, the term is not much used among adherents of either Judaism or Christianity. On the other hand, it is widely used in academic writing and interfaith discussion. In short, the term 'Hebrew Bible' is mostly to be found employed in relatively neutral contexts that are meant to include dialogue amongst all religious traditions, but not widely found in the inner discourse of the religions which use its text.

Specific canons

Because "Hebrew Bible" refers to the common portions of the Jewish and Christian biblical canons, it does not encompass the deuterocanonical or apocryphal books, which were preserved in the Greek Septuagint (LXX), and are part of the Old Testament in the canons of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. Thus the term "Hebrew Bible" corresponds most fully to the Old Testament in use by Protestant denominations (adhering to Jerome's Hebraica veritas doctrine), and less fully to canons that are based closely on the Septuagint.

Usage of the term in contexts that refer to the deuterocanonical or apocryphal books is thus inaccurate.

See also

• Books of the Bible for the differences between Bible versions of different groups, or the much more detailed Biblical canon.
• Greek Scriptures
• Masoretic Text, the standard Hebrew text recognized by most Judeo-Christian groups.
• Society of Biblical Literature, creators of the SBL Handbook which recommends standard biblical terminology.
• Table of books of Judeo-Christian Scripture
• Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible
• Torah

Further reading

• Johnson, Paul (1987). A History of the Jews (First, hardback ed.). London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-79091-9.
• Kuntz, John Kenneth. The People of Ancient Israel: an introduction to Old Testament Literature, History, and Thought, Harper and Row, 1974. ISBN 0-06-043822-3