Bible Israel. A collection of articles about God's Israel. Origin of the Tanakh, language and historical development
The word “Tanakh” itself is an abbreviation of three words: Torah(Pentateuch of Moses, Humash), Neviim(Prophets), Ketuvim(Scriptures).
The first part, the Torah, was given to the Jewish people in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt.
6 sivan 2448 g. According to the Jewish calendar (corresponding to 1314 BC), the entire Jewish people experienced the Sinai revelation.
Over the course of 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moshe wrote down the knowledge, commandments and laws received from the Almighty on parchment.
Sewn together into one scroll, these manuscripts made up the very first part of the Tanakh - the Torah.
The word itself "Torah" in Hebrew means "Teaching". It consists of 5 books, so in Hebrew it is often called Humash (from "hamesh" - "five"). The Russian-language equivalent is the Pentateuch.
It is important to know that often the word “Torah” also means the entire Torah in its broad sense, that is, both the Written and Oral Torah together.
The remaining books were written during the period from 2516 year according to the Jewish calendar, which corresponds to 1244 BC. (Book of Joshua), and until about 3425, aka 335 BC. (Book of Nehemiah).
The five books of the Torah were received by the prophet Moshe directly “from the Mouth” of the Almighty. All other books were written down either by the prophets or their followers. All of them were instilled in people through Divine Revelation.
Books that are not included in the Jewish canon and are included in the “holy books” of other religions (for example, in the so-called “Old Testament”) do not contain any holiness and, at best, represent the testimony of contemporaries - with varying degrees of reliability - about certain events of ancient history.
According to statistics, the Bible is one of the most published and sold books in the world. It combines many written monuments from different regions and times. One of the most important sections of the Bible is In the tradition of Judaism, it is called the Tanakh. We will talk about what it is, what the composition and content of the Tanakh are, in this article.
Hebrew Bible
It is known that there are two Bibles - Christian and Jewish. The first, in addition to the Old Testament, includes a corpus of texts, which is called But the Hebrew Bible is limited only to the Old. Of course, the very definition of “old”, that is, outdated, is not recognized by the Jews and considers it somewhat offensive towards them. The Jews call their canon the word “Tanakh”. This is actually an abbreviation that comes from the words “Torah”, “Neviim”, “Ketuvim” - components of the Jewish Bible. We will talk about them in more detail, but for now let’s turn to history.
Origin of the Tanakh, language and historical development
As mentioned above, the Tanakh is a collection of texts that had different authors who lived at different times and in different places. The oldest layers of Scripture are approximately 3,000 years old. The youngest ones were written a little over two thousand years ago. One way or another, the age is quite impressive and respectable. According to the most common version, the formation of the Old Testament began in the 13th century BC. e. in the Middle East and ended by the 1st century BC. e. The language of scripture is Hebrew. Some parts are also written in later Aramaic. In the 3rd century BC. e. In Alexandria, a Greek translation was made for the Jews of the Diaspora, called the Septuagint. It was in vogue among Greek-speaking Jews until the new Christian religion entered the world stage, whose followers began to actively translate sacred texts into all languages of the world, considering them all equally sacred. Supporters of Judaism, although they use translations, recognize only the authentic Jewish text as canonical.
The books of the Old Testament are very diverse in their content. But first of all, the Tanakh is a narrative about the history of the Israeli people and their relationship with God the Creator, who bears the name Yahweh. In addition, the Hebrew Bible contains religious instructions, hymnographic material and prophecies aimed at the future. Believers believe that the entire Tanakh is a divinely inspired complete text in which not a single letter can be changed.
Components of the Tanakh
There are 24 books in the Hebrew Scriptures. In essence, they are almost identical to the Christian canon, but differ in the nature of their classification. In addition, some books that are considered different texts by Christians are combined into one in the Tanakh. Therefore, the total number of books among Jews is 24 (sometimes they are even reduced to 22 in order to justify the correspondence of the books of the Tanakh to the letters of which, as is known, there are 22), while among Christians it is at least 39.
As already mentioned, all books of the Tanakh are divided into three classes: Torah, Neviim, Ketuvim. The first of them - the Torah - is the most important. This part is also called the Pentateuch because it consists of five books whose authorship is attributed to the prophet Moses. However, this is a religious attribution, which is dubious from a scientific point of view.
The word “Torah” means a law that must be known and followed exactly. These books tell about the creation of the world, people, their fall, the history of ancient humanity, the birth and election of the Jewish people by God, the conclusion of a covenant with them and the path to Israel.
The Nevi'im section literally means "prophets". But, in addition to the prophetic books, it includes some historical narratives. Within itself, Nevi'im is divided into two parts: the early prophets and the late prophets. The early category includes works attributed to Joshua, the Prophet Samuel, etc. In general, they are more historical in nature than prophetic. The later prophets include the books of three so-called great prophets - Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel - and twelve minor ones. Unlike the Christian tradition, the latter are combined into one book. In total, there are 8 books in Neviim.
Ketuvim is the section that concludes the Tanakh. In Russian it means "scriptures". It includes prayer and hymnographic texts, as well as wisdom literature - instructions of a religious and moral nature, the authorship of which is attributed to the sages of Israel, for example, King Solomon. There are a total of 11 books in this section.
Tanakh in Christianity
The entire Tanakh is accepted as Holy Scripture in Christendom, with the exception of some heterodox movements such as the Gnostics. However, if the followers of Judaism included in the canon only texts that have a Hebrew original, then Christians recognize as sacred some other scriptures, the Hebrew original of which either has not been preserved or did not exist at all. All such texts go back to the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Tanakh. They are included in the Orthodox Bibles as sacred texts. In Catholicism they are recognized conditionally and are called deuterocanonical. And in Protestantism they are completely rejected. In this sense, the Protestant canon is more similar than other Christian versions of the Tanakh to the Jewish one. In fact, the Protestant version of the Old Testament is simply a translation of the later Jewish canon. All three Christian traditions have changed the classification of books. Thus, the three-part structure was replaced by a four-part one, borrowed from the same Septuagint. It includes the Pentateuch, historical, educational and prophetic books.
In this article we will try to figure out who Israel is, touch on issues of the New Testament, consider why the Messiah came and why he died and then rose again.
So, a question for Christians: tell me, what is the Bible written about?
I would formulate it this way: The entire biblical story can be compared to a description of family life. The Bible tells the story of the Creator and his archenemy fighting over a bride. One tries to force the bride to keep her marriage vows, and the second tries to force her to break them.
Before you tell me this is some nonsense, let's look at this in more detail.
The husband in this story is God himself. The wife is a type of His people. But who are these “His people”?
Throughout history, God has had people who honored His commandments and did His will (the so-called righteous). But we first meet a group of people, like a people whom God would call his own, shortly after the universal flood. In the Bible this people is called Israel. The ancestor of the people was Abraham, who abandoned other gods in favor of the one living God. He listened to the voice of the Almighty, left his polytheistic country and settled in Canaan, professing monotheism. For this, God blessed Abraham, promising him that his family would multiply. And that this family will be a blessing to the whole world.
Genesis 12:2-3
I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you... and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.
Genesis 22:17-18
I will multiply your seed like the stars of heaven and like the sand on the seashore; and your seed shall take possession of the cities of their enemies; and through your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
God's promise is a serious thing. And as part of our study of this people, let's look at some of the incredible achievements of the Jews and find out for sure whether the Abrahamic covenant really works so flawlessly.
Did you know that Jews make up only a quarter of one percent of the world's population, that is, 13 million people? However, of the 660 Nobel Prize winners, 160 were Jewish.
Here are just some of the most famous names. Karl Marx, Franz Kafka, Theodor Herzl, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Adam Sandler. Barbara Strisand, Bob Dylan, David Copperfield, Dustin Hoffman. Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley, George Michael, Harrison Ford, Henry Kissinger, Jerry Lewis. Kirk Douglas, Levi Strauss, Marilyn Monroe, The Marx Brothers, Mel Brooks, Neil Diamond. Paul Newman, Sean Penn, Steven Seagal, Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen.
During Obama's presidency, Ben Bernanke was chairman of the Federal Reserve; White House Chief of Staff - Rome Emanuel; Political Advisor to the President - David Axelrod; The leading expert on the Middle East at the National Security Council is Dan Shapiro. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a member of the US Supreme Court, and Jack Lewis is the Secretary of the Treasury. All these people are Jews.
Some Russian and Ukrainian names of famous Jews: Leonid Agutin, Leonid Utesov, Anzhelika Varum, Larisa Dolina, Oleg Gazmanov, Tamara Gverdtsiteli, Jasmine, Lolita, Boris Moiseev, Maxim Leonidov, Mikhail Turetsky (“Turetsky Choir”), Mikhail Shufutinsky, Uman and Bortnik (Bi-2), Klara Novikova, Maxim Galkin, Vladimir Vinokur. Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Victor Pinchuk, Vadim Rabinovich, Leon Trotsky, Igor Kolomoisky, Gennady Bogolyubov. These are just a few; a complete list is simply impossible to fit into this article.
According to Vanity Fair magazine in 2010, of the hundred most powerful people on earth, 51 were Jews. Just imagine: a quarter of a percent of the world's population! Do you understand? Thirteen million out of six and a half billion! And such a small percentage became the most influential on earth. Twenty percent of the world's richest people are Jewish.
Sergey Brin is the founder of Google. Mark Zuckerberg is the founder of Facebook. Larry Ellison is the co-founder and head of Oracle Corporation. Michael Bloomberg is the mayor of New York. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Famous fashion designer Ralph Lauren. Russian presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov. All of them are Jews.
The authors of the rating note that 165 Jewish billionaires make up 11 percent of all billionaires on the planet. And if we consider that Jews make up only 0.25% of the world's population, then the share of Jews among the richest people in the world is 44 times higher than the share of Jews among the world's population. The total wealth of the 165 members of the list amounts to $812 billion.
And now - some inventions given to us by the Jewish people. Incandescent light bulb, lasers, pacemaker, defibrillator, genetic engineering. Stainless steel. How about the formula E=mc2? This is very important. Vaccines against cholera and bubonic plague, polio vaccine, nuclear weapons, capitalism. Endoscopic capsule. Did you know that your jeans were invented by Jews? Praise God for Levi Strauss. Lipstick, ballpoint pen, contraceptives, instant coffee, traffic lights. Scotchguard, cocktail straws. All of Hollywood... Comedy television series, long-playing records, the Woodstock festival. Sound films, videotapes, color television. And that's not all. In my opinion, the Jews almost invented the whole world. Instant photography, holography, walkie-talkies, the airship, the fax machine, fiber optics, computer flash memory - all of this was invented by the Jews. And, of course, according to all the husbands in all the families, the most important of all Jewish inventions of all time is the remote control.
So, the conclusion is this: the Jewish people, without a doubt, are the most blessed people of all living on earth. On a per-person basis, they have brought more blessings to society than any other ethnic group in modern history. This is certain. The physical guarantees of covenant blessings are not dependent on any spiritual conditions. Christianity cannot replace what has already been proclaimed and established as immutable. God said this, we believe it, and it is better for us not to interfere. God blesses those He chooses to bless. Amen?
Let's go back to history again. It is no coincidence that the Bible is written about Israel. It was these people who honored the true God, starting from the very first day of their existence. Yes, they periodically departed from truth and righteousness and were punished for this, but even in the worst times there were always righteous people in this people. It is Israel that is called the bride of God in the Bible. Not a church, as many people think. The far-fetched postulate that the Church is the “Bride” leads many believers to the impossibility of correctly understanding many key passages of the Bible. For example, nowhere in the Word does it say that the Lord will “marry” the Church. His Bride is the New Jerusalem, including the Jewish people who remain faithful to Him. The Church is His body.
Speaking of the New Testament, have we ever wondered why it was called that? What kind of new covenant is this? And an even more important question: Covenant of whom with whom?
There is no better place in Scripture to answer this question than in Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah New Testament, not such a covenant as I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; They broke that covenant of mine, although I remained in covenant with them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law within them, and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And they will no longer teach each other, brother to brother, and say: “Know the Lord,” for they will all themselves know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, because I will forgive their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.
Notice here the Lord says that He will not make a covenant with the house of the Gentiles, but with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
And here is another interesting fragment of Scripture, this time from the New Testament, which describes the future kingdom of the Messiah:
Revelation 21:9-12
And one of the seven angels came to me, who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues, and said to me: Go, I will show you a wife, the bride of the Lamb. And he carried me away in spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, holy Jerusalem, which came down from heaven from God. He has the glory of God. It shone like a most precious stone, like a crystalline jasper stone. It has a large and high wall, has twelve gates and twelve Angels on them; On the gate are written the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.
Please note, no Gentile tribes. No tribes of Ukrainians or Russians or Americans... Only 12 tribes of Israel. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure that among those saved there will be Ukrainians, Russians, and Americans too - let’s look at this a little later, but for now let’s return to history.
Abraham's grandson (Israel) had 12 sons who founded the 12 tribes of Israel. Much time passed, and the people became very numerous. There were 12 tribes in the territory of modern Israel. After the reign of King Solomon, Israel was divided into two opposing camps: the Southern Kingdom, consisting of two tribes and called Judah, and the Northern Kingdom, consisting of 10 tribes and called Israel.
I. P. Lipovsky
Biblical Israel: a story of two nations
Preface
For the first time, this book gives the reader the opportunity to become acquainted with unknown chapters of biblical history, to look into the innermost secrets of the Old Testament, which were hidden from people for thousands of years. Representing a completely new presentation of biblical history, it does not replace the Old Testament traditions, but significantly complements and explains them. The need to write it was caused by the obvious inconsistency of scientific theories of the 20th century, which tried to interpret the darkest periods of Old Testament history on the basis of modern archaeological data. Instead of the traditional emphasis on the contradictory results of archaeological discoveries, the author concentrated his main attention on the “archeology” of the Bible itself, on the analysis of biblical texts and on their comparison with the written monuments of the Ancient East. It was this approach that led to the unraveling of many Old Testament mysteries, for, as it turned out, the keys to them were already contained in the Bible.
But can the Bible be a reliable source for the history of the ancient Near East, in other words, how historical is it? Biblical historians give the most contradictory answers to this question: from an unconditional “yes” to a categorical “no.” There are still two diametrically opposed poles in the world of biblical scholarship. On one side are the “orthodox”, who insist on the complete authenticity of all books of the Holy Scriptures. On the other are “nihilists” who deny the historicity of the Bible, considering it to be the writings of Jewish authors of the Hellenistic period. Many historians take intermediate positions between these extreme points of view, with some leaning more towards the first opinion, and others towards the second. Well, what about modern archeology, whose side does it take? Unfortunately, despite the fact that the soil of the biblical countries is literally dug up, even in the 21st century. archeology can neither confirm the authenticity of biblical history nor refute it. Noteworthy is the recognition of the famous Israeli archaeologist Amichai Mazar, the author of one of the best monographs on the archeology of Palestine: “Can archeology shed light on the question of the origin of Israel? The answer to this is negative, since the interpretation of the available archaeological evidence is by no means clear-cut.”
Whether we admit it or not, we still have no alternative to the Bible. All the discoveries of archaeologists of the 19th–21st centuries, including the famous written monuments of the Ancient East, in their significance cannot even remotely compare with the biblical books - the most fundamental work of a religious, historical and literary nature ever created by people. However, the Bible is not a history textbook; its authors were not interested in history, but in theosophy and the relationship between people and God. They used the past of their people for purely edifying purposes - as instructive material for future generations - therefore the biblical books are not so much historical as didactic in nature. In assessing the degree of historicity of the Bible, we should not forget about the huge gap in time between the events themselves and their recording. For example, before the traditions of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were recorded in writing, they were passed down orally from generation to generation for 800–1000 years. In addition, no matter how divinely inspired the biblical books were, they were written down and then rewritten over many centuries by completely earthly people who tended to make mistakes. Therefore, the Bible as a whole, and especially the earliest part of the Old Testament, inevitably contains historical distortions and errors.
However, the main problem with the biblical books is not that they are not historical enough, but that they are too fragmentary. Analysis of biblical texts indicates that already in ancient times the initial part of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch of Moses, was subjected to serious editing and a significant part of the story was removed from it, without which the Old Testament narrative is not always clear and consistent. How did these white spots arise, who, when and why removed part of the original history?
As you know, the main characters in the Old Testament are the ancient Jews. However, they - and this is the biggest secret of biblical history - initially represented not one, but two peoples, more precisely, two tribal groups - northern and southern, and each of them had its own past, its own genealogy and, moreover, its own religion . Northerners and southerners came to Palestine at different times and left at different times for the Nile Delta. They spent far from the same amount of time in Egypt (the northern group - 250 years, and the southern group - 430), and most importantly, they occupied completely different positions there. And again, these tribal groups both returned from Egypt and reclaimed their place in Palestine at different times, without the help of each other. Therefore, when modern archaeologists try to find traces of the events described in the Bible, they quite naturally come across insoluble contradictions that cast doubt on the truth of the Old Testament narrative. For where they are looking for the history of one people, in reality the past of two, although related, but different peoples, which have been separated from each other for a long time, is hidden. For a whole century (XI-X centuries BC), the northern and southern tribal groups were forced to unite in one kingdom in order to repel the onslaught of common enemies. However, different backgrounds, histories and political interests could not help but prevail, and both of these tribal groups, later known as “Israelites” and “Jews,” parted forever, creating their own separate states.
However, it was their short-lived union that caused the appearance of blank spots in the initial books of the Old Testament. In the 10th century BC BC, during the reign of the Israelite-Jewish kings David and Solomon, the first editors of the earliest biblical books known today as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers were given a very difficult task: without changing anything in the traditions of both tribal groups, they were compiled general genealogy and history. This goal was dictated both by the political interests of the united Kingdom of Israel and Judah, and by the aspirations of the Yahwist clergy to strengthen the cult of the one God among both tribal groups. The southern Davidic dynasty, which ruled at that time, was also very interested in the version of the common origin of the northern and southern Hebrew tribes. This is how the initial version of the Pentateuch appeared (which then consisted of only four books), which was a mixture of traditions and genealogies of the Israelites and Jews. It also included manuscripts from Moses himself, who was the first to record the history of his people (the southern tribal group). In recognition of the special role of Moses, the editors of the Bible gave his name to the entire collection of manuscripts. Of course, the first books could not be written without vast gaps in the general history, since it turned out to be very difficult to unite the destinies of the northern and southern tribes. These difficulties are best seen in the book of Exodus, where several centuries of the ancient Hebrews' presence in Egypt were passed over in almost complete silence.
It happened to Jacob after his mysterious struggle with God at night (Gen. XXXII, 28). After this event, the names Jacob and I. are indifferently attached to it, but the latter later received a broader meaning, so that it sometimes means the entire Jewish people, as descended from the 12 sons of Jacob - I., as well as the Christian Church, as spiritual I. (Rom. IX, 6).
Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron. - S.-Pb.: Brockhaus-Efron. 1890-1907 .
See what “Israel in the Bible” is in other dictionaries:
ISRAEL (Israel), in the Bible the second name of Jacob (see JACOB) ... Encyclopedic Dictionary
State of Israel, in the West. Asia, to the east Mediterranean coast. Established in 1948 on the basis of a decision of the UN General Assembly of November 29, 1947. The name of the Jewish state that existed approximately in these... ... Geographical encyclopedia
Israel (ישראל) Hebrew Gender: male. Patronymic: Izrailevich Izrailevna Other forms: Israel (obsolete) Produced. forms: Izya, Raya, Srul Foreign language analogues: English. ... Wikipedia
I Israel Israel, in the Bible the second name of Jacob. II Israel (State of Israel), a state in Western Asia, on the Mediterranean coast. 20.8 thousand km2. Population 5.5 million people (1996); Jews (82%), Palestinian Arabs and others (18%).… … Encyclopedic Dictionary
Israel, State of Israel. I. General information I. state in the Middle East. Located in Western Asia, on the southeastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders on the north with Lebanon, on the northeast with Syria, on the east with Jordan, on the southwest with Egypt.... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- (Heb. Israel, from sarah to fight and el God). 1) fighter of the Lord, nickname of Jacob. 2) the name of the Jewish people. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. ISRAEL Heb. Jisrael, from sarah, to fight, and el, God. A)… … Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
- (Israel), (And capital), Israel, plural. no, husband (ancient Hebrew Israel, nickname of Jacob, lit. fought with God) (church, history). In the Bible, the Jewish people. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
- (Israel), in the Bible the second name of Jacob... Modern encyclopedia
- (Israel) in the Bible is the second name of Jacob... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Israel (Biblical)- ISRAEL (Israel), in the Bible the second name of Jacob. ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
Books
- Guide to the Bible (set of 2 books), Isaac Asimov. Famous science fiction writer, world-famous scientist, great popularizer of science, author of about 500...
- Old Testament. A Guide to the Bible, Isaac Asimov. Asimov’s book is a real guide to the ancient biblical world, which is already about three thousand years old,…
