The Book of all BooksThe Book of all Books

Dr. Azila (Tzili) Talit ReisenbergerHead of Hebrew

University of Cape Town

Order of lectures

1. The Canon2. What’s in the Name3. The Book as ‘Record/Reflection of life’ 4. History vs. story5. The Word (Language, bias, code… etc)

The Name of The Book

• Bible – Bibliotheca (bibliothèque) – library• Hebrew Bible (in French? German?)• Old Testament (passé?)• TaNaK (Torah/ Nevi’im/Ketuvim)

The Bible

Size of ‘The TaNaK/Bible’

304,901 Hebrew words

23,145 verses

Division into books and chapters

• The ‘Canon’ includes 39 books (orthodox Jews count it as 24, as they count some books together)

• Some books never made it to the ‘Canon’ (redactor’s choice or Apocrypha)

• Division into chapters by a monk in the 16th century.

Time frame

• From creation of the world? Primordial

Or: the Forefathers and Foremothers• From about 2000 BCE• To about 333 BCE

What is primordial History

Genesis chapters 1-11

raison d’être of this section

Time-line

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob Egypt Moses (Exodus)

I I2000 BCE 400 Years 1500 BCE

Time-line

Joshua (Conquest) Judges (Saul) David

I I+1400 BCE 400 Years 1000 BCE

Time-line

Solomon (Temple) Split into North and South Kingdom

I I965 BCE +40 Years 928 BCE

Time-lineNorthern Kingdom Southern Kingdom Samaria Jerusalem10 tribes Judah (+Simon, Levi)Variety of dynasties House of DavidAssyria Babylon

I I

721 BCE 586 BCE

Interesting fact:

How many Tribes of Israel?

Answer: 1310 - Northern Kingdom; 3 – Judaea

But Jacob had 12 sons? For Joseph (1) we have 2 tribes:

Ephraim and MenasheWhy: idiom “12 Tribes of Israel”?

as Simeon was swallowed into Judah

Time-line

Fate of the HebrewsNorthern Kingdom disappeared (Samaritans?)

Judaea was exiled to Babylon; then falls into Persian hands;

In 538 BCE Cyrus permits them to return to the Holy Land and build 2nd Temple.

End of the Bible

So, time frame of the biblical history:

I I_2000 BCE 333 BCE

Where do we find all this information?

T N KT orahN evi’imK etuvim

T N KT orahN evi’imK etuvim

The Torah

is the first section,

is the holiest section

Torah

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob GenesisSlavery in Egypt beginning of ExodusMoses’ laws and historyfrom Exodus to death 5 books of Moses

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

2000 BCE 1500 BCE

Nevi’im (means: Prophets)

2 sections in the ‘Prophets’:

1.First section (Early Prophets) which is history2.Second section (Later Prophets) which is ‘prophecy’

Early Prophets

The History

Into the Holy Land and out to Exile

• The conquest Joshua• The rulers Judges• Beginning of Kingship

Saul and David Samuel 1-2• Solomon and the

split of kingdoms Kings 1-2• Exiles end of Kings 2

Later Prophets

• Isaiah• Jeremiah• Ezekiel

• 12 Minor: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah, Malachi

Ketuvin

Wisdom and historiography:• Psalms• Proverbs• Job• 5 “megilot” (scrolls): Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther• Daniel• Ezra and Nehemiah• Chronicles 1-2

Why should I bore you with the geography of the Bible?

5 (Megilot) scrolls

• Song of Songs• Ruth• Lamentations• Ecclesiastes• Esther

Jewish Order rather than logical order

so now, when we know what is the Bible,

In the course we will get “closer”…

We start tomorrow with the power of words and names:

from names of books, people places… etc

Thank you.

I would like to thank Jutta Schoof for editing these notes