Tanakh



The Hebrew Bible, also called the Tanakh (/tɑːˈnɑːx/;[1] תַּנַ"ךְ‬,  pronounced  [taˈnaχ] or [təˈnax]; also Tenakh, Tenak, Tanach) or Mikra, is the canonical collection of Jewish texts, which is also the textual source for the Christian Old Testament. These texts are composed mainly in Biblical Hebrew, with some passages in Biblical Aramaic (in the books of Daniel, Ezra and a few others). The form of this text that is authoritative for Rabbinic Judaism is known as the Masoretic Text (MT) but this text is not the Urtext of the Hebrew Bible which is lost.

Modern scholars seeking to understand the history of the Hebrew Bible use a range of sources not only the Masoretic Texts. These sources include early Greek (Septuagint) and Syriac (Peshitta) translations, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Dead Sea Scrolls and quotations from rabbinic manuscripts. Most of these sources are older than the Masoretic text and often contradict it. Which of the three commonly known versions (Septuagint, Masoretic Text, Samaritan Pentateuch) is closest to the original text (Urtext) is not fully determined.

The Masoretic Text is divided into twenty-four books. Protestant Bible translations which consist basically of the same text as the Masoretic Text divide it into 39 books.