SONSINO'S BLOG: HOW MANY BOOKS IN THE BIBLE? WHOSE BIBLE?

SONSINO'S BLOG: HOW MANY BOOKS IN THE BIBLE? WHOSE BIBLE?:   Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D When someone, looking for an authoritarian source, tells you, “It is written in the Bible, “ you should ask, w...

HOW MANY BOOKS IN THE BIBLE? WHOSE BIBLE?

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

When someone, looking for an authoritarian source, tells you, “It is written in the Bible, “ you should ask, whose Bible?

Bibles are different; some have more texts than others.

The Samaritan Bible (c.1^st cent CE) has only the Pentateuch, namely, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy. It is also quite different from the Pentateuch in the Hebrew Bible we have today.

Josephus, the Jewish historian, (1^st cent. CE), mentions only 22 books in the Bible  (See. Against Apion I, 37-43), but does not identify them. 2 Esdras 14:45, an apocryphal book written around 1 or 2 cent. CE, mentions 24 books, but does not list them.

According to Jewish (rabbinic) tradition the Hebrew Bible has 24 books, and is divided into three sections: Pentateuch (5 books), Prophets (8 books), and Writings (11 books) (See discussion in the Talmud, BB14 b/15a and Taanit 8a; also Midrash Rabba to Numbers 7, in 14:18). Yet, the Jewish Publication Societies’ Hebrew and English Bible, contains 39 books. (Here, some books are listed separately, and not combined as in the traditional Hebrew Bibles). It is estimated that the Pentateuch was canonized by 400 BCE, the Prophets by 200 BCE and the Writings by 90 CE (See, The Anchor Bible Dict. I , p. 841). The ancient Rabbis , who , according to tradition, finally closed the canon of the Hebrew Bible at the end of the 1sr cent CE in the city of Yavneh, had serious concerns about the inclusion of a number of books, such as Esther and Ecclesiastes, but finally accepted them as holy scriptures (See m Yad 3:5).

The Protestant Bible has 66 books: 39 for the “Old Testament” (a Christian term) and 27 for the New Testament. The Catholic Bible, on the other hand, has 73 books: 46 for the Old Testament and 27 for the New Testament. There are a number of books called Apocryphal Books, such as Tobit, Judith, I and II Maccabees, written between 400 BCE and 1 cent. CE, that are not part of the Hebrew Bible and the Protestant Bible, but are included in the Catholic Bible.

It is in the Bible, you say! Whose Bible?

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