A short note on Hebrew Scriptures

At the turn of the era, when BCE dawned into CE (2nd century BCE-2nd century CE), there were approximately four million “Hebrews” (Jews and Samaritans) in the world out of a then global human population of around three hundred million.  One million of these Hebrew humans lived in Egypt.  Roughly half of these four million overall were Judeans and half were Samarians.

With the Samarians/Samaritans making up half of the four million, adding the Judean/Jewish sect of the Sadducees to that number leaves a clear majority of Hebrews in Palestine and in the Diaspora held no writings sacred except those called the Torah, or Pentateuch: the five writings commonly known in English as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

By contrast, the predominant version among Jews world-wide of the Tanakh at this time, what Christians call the Old Testament, was the Greek Septuagint.  For example, all the quotes from the Tanakh in the Christian New Testament come from the Septuagint, which contains all the books currently recognized by Jews plus the additional books sometimes called the Apocrypha, which Hellenistic Jews regarded as sacred.

The Septuagint was superceded among both Christians and Hebrews by a translation by a Jewish scholar in Ephesus named Theodotion in 150 CE, which is quoted in the Shepherd of Hermas and in Justin Martyr’s Trypho.  Theodotion’s version of the Book of Daniel replaced the Septuagint’s and the Hebrew translations upon which it was based in popularity and scholarly esteem, as did his versions of the Book of Jeremiah and the Book of Job.  The Karaite Masoretes whose version of the Tanakh now dominates Judaism and is favored by Protestant Christians, especially in the American South, based their version largely on his work.

The Septuagint, and its Greek-speaking Hellenistic Jewish and Christian readers counted as sacred several books and parts of books which never made it into the Palestinian canon.

Among the Jews in more conservative Palestine at the turn of the era, Hebrew translations were used, with an Aramaic targum, or translation into the common language of the people, since the Canaanite language of Hebrew had long been a dead language.  The Pharisees and other sects held many other writings as sacred.  At the time only the Torah (Law) and the Nevi’im (Prophets) were standardized, while the Ketuvim (Writings) still being collated, at least in Palestine.   

In addition to the written Tanakh, the Pharisees (and only the Pharisees) followed the Mishna, or Oral Law, which had not yet been codified and written down.  A small Jewish sect called the Bene Sedeq, the forerunners of today’s Karayim or Karaite Jews, accepted the whole Tanakh but rejected the Mishna.  The sect at Qumran, probably the Essenes, seemed to have some of its own texts, such as the Manual of Discipline, the Damascus Document, and the War of the Sons of Light and Sons of Darkness.

In addition, apocalyptic literature (of which Daniel is a prime example) and pseudepigraphic literature (of which Daniel is also a prime example) flourished in the 2nd century BCE through 1st century CE.  Some of the more prominent examples, in addition to those found at Qumran specifically of the Essenes, include the Assumption of Moses, the Testament of the Twelve Patriachs, 1 Enoch, 2 Enoch, the Apocalypse of Abraham, Jubilees, the Sibylline Oracles, and the Martyrdom of Isaiah.  These books were widely popular at the time, some quoted directly or referenced implicitly in the New Testament as well as being found at Qumran and Nag Hamadi.

Regardless of translation, edition, redaction, collection, etc., none of these supposedly sacred writings were dictated by a superior being and all are the product of the hand of each copyist, scribe, translator, editor, redactor, forger, fabricator, etc., kind of like what they said in the early days of the AIDS epidemic that when you have sex with someone you are also having sex with everyone that person has already had sex with.

Septuagint

(originally completed c. 132 BCE)

The first collection of Hebrew scripture was the Septuagint.  In fact, collecting and editing the religious writings of the Hebrews (politically divided into Samerina and Yehud) for the Library at Alexandria is probably how the five books of the Torah came into being (as we have them today) in the first place.  Though superceded in Jewish circles and among some Christian circles by the translation of Theodotion, the Septuagint remained a primary edition and remains the official translation for the Eastern churches.

Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy

Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
1 Esdras
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther

Judith
Tobit
1 Maccabees

2 Maccabees

3 Maccabees

4 Maccabees

Psalms (incl. Psalm 151)
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Songs
Job
Wisdom of Solomon
Ecclesiasticus

Hosea

Amos

Micah

Joel

Obadiah

Jonah

Nahum

Habakkuk

Zephaniah

Haggai

Zechariah

Malachi
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Baruch
Lamentations
Letter of Jeremiah
Ezekiel
Daniel (with “additions”)

Some ancient editions of the Septuagint included Odes of Solomon, Psalms of Solomon, and 1 Enoch, all three of which are considered canon by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Vulgate

In the West, Latin was the common language of the people while Greek was the language of the educated.  Therefore, the Western Church produced a Latin translation differing somewhat in its ordering of books and leaving out 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, and Psalm 151.

Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy

Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Kings
2 Kings
3 Kings
4 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
1 Esdras (Ezra)
2 Esdras (Nehemiah)
Tobit
Judith
Esther

Job
Psalms (minus Psalm 151)
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Songs
Wisdom of Solomon
Ecclesiasticus

Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Baruch
Ezekiel
Daniel (with “additions”)

Hosea

Joel

Amos

Obadiah

Jonah

Micah

Nahum

Habakkuk

Zephaniah

Haggai

Zechariah

Malachi

1 Maccabees

2 Maccabees

Note in the two lists above that although the Torah, or Pentateuch, books are in order at the beginning, the remaining books (considered noncanonical by Samaritans and Sadducees) were mixed up, or not separated according to genre and degree of sacredness assigned them by their Jewish users.

Hebrew Canon

It is in the Hebrew Canon, formulated over about two or three centuries by the Masorete scholars of the Karaite sect and published a little over a millennium after the turn of the era, that the books are first divided into three separate genre, with descending degrees of sacredness.

Torah (or “Law”)

Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy

Nevi’im (or “Prophets”)

Joshua
Judges
Samuel
Kings
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Ezekiel
Minor Prophets*

*(Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi)

Ketuvim (or “Writings”)

Psalms
Job
Proverbs
Ruth
Song of Songs
Ecclesiastes
Lamentations
Esther
Daniel
Ezra-Nehemiah
Chronicles

Note that in the Hebrew canon Samuel, Kings, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles are each one book rather than two each, and that the canon concludes with Chronicles.  Also worthy of note is the fact that the Masoretes placed the book of Daniel so beloved by fundamentalist Christians in with the Writings rather than the Prophets.

Noncanonical books referenced in the Old Testament

In the Tanakh, or Old Testament, quite a few noncanonical writings are referenced, some of which are explicitly cited as the basis for what is written in the canonical literature.  As a matter of fact, the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles state so explicitly.

Book of Jasher

Book of the Wars of Yahuweh

Chronicles of the Kings of Israel

Chronicles of the Kings of Judah

Book of Shemaiah

Manner of the Kingdom

Acts of Solomon

Annals of King David

Book of Samuel the Seer

Book of Nathan the Prophet

Book of Gad the Seer

Prophecy of Ahijah

Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel

Book of Jehu

Story of the Book of the Kings

Acts of Uziah

Visions of Isaiah

Acts of the Kings of Israel

Sayings of the Seers

Laments for Josiah

Chronicles of King Ahasuerus

Wisdom of Ahikar

Aesop’s The Two Pots

The Egyptian Satire of the Trades

Memoirs of Nehemiah

The 5 books of Jason of Cyrene

Protestant Old Testament

During the Protestant Reformation, many new sects of Christians threw out books from their Old Testament which were not recognized by the Masoretes.  Anglicans, Lutherans, and Continental Reformers considered these books inspired if not sacred and collected them into the Apocrypha, which they placed between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy

Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther

Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Songs
Job
Hosea

Amos

Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel

Micah

Joel

Obadiah

Jonah

Nahum

Habakkuk

Zephaniah

Haggai

Zechariah

Malachi

Protestant Apocrypha (Anagignoskomena)

Tobit

Judith

Additions to Esther

Wisdom of Solomon

Wisdom of Jesus ben Sira (or Sirach or Ecclesiasticus)

Baruch

Letter of Jeremiah

Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children

Susanna

Bel and the Dragon

1 Maccabees

2 Maccabees

Take note that in the original translation ordered by King James I of England and VI of Scots these books, the Apocrypha, were placed together in between the Old Testament and the New Testament, and that any copy of the Bible not containing the Apocrypha which calls itself the King James Version is lying, unless it calls itself the King James Version, Abridged.

Deuterocanonicals

There are a number of books considered canon by the Eastern churches yet not by the Roman church which is the anatagonist of the Protestants, often called Deuterocanonicals.  The book 1 Enoch is counted as canon only by the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox.

3 Maccabees

4 Maccabees

Psalm 151

Prayer of Mannasseh

Odes of Solomon

2 Esdras
1 Enoch

Qumran Writings

In addition to copies of several canonical books of the Tanakh/Old Testament and known pseudepigraphal writings, the Essene center at Qumran held a number of sect-specific works.

Great Isaiah Scroll

War of the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness

Community Rule

Pesher on Habakkuk

Thanksgiving Hymns

Genesis Apocryphon

Book of Mysteries

Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

In the 2nd century BCE through 1st century CE, quite a number of forgeries in the name of worthies mentioned in the Tanakh appeared and became popular.  Four of these are referenced and/or alluded to in the Christian New Testament.

1 Enoch

2 Enoch

3 Enoch

2 Baruch

3 Baruch

4 Baruch

3 Esdras

4 Esdras

5 Ezra

6 Ezra

5 Maccabees

6 Maccabees

7 Maccabees

8 Maccabees

1 Meqabyan

2 Meqabyan

3 Meqabyan

Adam Octipartite

Adjuration of Elijah

Apocalypse of Abraham

Apocalypse of Adam

Apocalypse of Elijah

Apocalypse of Ezekiel

Apocalypse of Sedrach

Apocalypse of the Seven Heavens

Apocalypse of Zephaniah

Apocryphon of Ezekiel

Apocryphon of Jacob and Joseph

Apocryphon of Melchizedek

Apocryphon of the Ten Tribes

Ascension of Moses

*Assumption of Moses

Book of Assaf

Book of Noah

Cave of Treasures

Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan

(Coptic) Apocryphon of Jeremiah

Eldad and Modad

Enochic Book of Giants

Epistle of Rehoboam

(Greek) Apocalypse of Daniel

(Greek) Apocalypse of Ezra

History of Joseph

History of the Rechabites

Jannes and Jambres

Joseph and Aseneth

Jubilees

Ladder of Jacob

Letter of Aristeas

Life of Adam and Eve

Lives of the Prophets

Manual of Discipline

Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah

Prayer of Jacob

Prayer of Joseph

Psalms of Solomon

Questions of Ezra

Revelation of Ezra

Rule of the Congregation

Rule of the Blessing

Sibylline Oracles

Signs of the Judgement

Sword of Moses

Testament of Abraham

Testament of Adam

Testament of Isaac

Testament of Jacob

Testament of Job

Testament of Solomon

Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs

Treatise of Shem

Vision of Ezra

Visions of Heaven and Hell

Words of Gad the Seer

Old Testament Pseudepigrapha mention in the New Testament

Assumption of Moses
1 Enoch
Martyrdom of Isaiah
Life of Adam and Eve