Week One (in a Nutshell).

This week, I read the introductory chapter of Barry Bandstra's online textbook called, Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. (FYI: From this point forward, I will refer to this book as RtOT). In this introduction, Bandstra wrote about the Bible and how it is perceived, especially in America. "Each year," Bandstra writes, "the Bible is the best-selling book, with Americans buying 25 million a year, and the market is worth more than a half billion dollars" (Bandstra 6).  As Americans, we are spending a great deal of money every year to purchase the Bible, but we don't necessarily know what to do with the Bible or what the Bible is. For example, Bandstra uses statistics from a Polling Report in 2007 showing that nearly 75% of Americans in the past 30 years believe that Bible is the literal Word of God and that we should take the Bible's text with absolute accuracy and follow it word-for-word (Bandstra 6).  These facts were surprising and not at the same time for me. I have wishful thinking that we - as a whole - would understand and know what to do with and how to utilize the Bible more accurately. On the other hand, maybe we in the church are missing the boat when it comes to teaching our members how to use the Bible. Maybe we need more congregational education about how to use the Bible?

After reading, I watched/listened to two podcasts from my professor regarding the Tanak. The Tanak is a relatively new subject to me, as I first heard about it in the Confirmation class I co-lead (and by co-lead, I mean I sit and soak in as much knowledge as I can in the hour we are together!) a couple of months ago.

The word Tanak is an acronym of sorts for the Old Testament. It stands for:

Torah (Law)

• The Torah includes the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy 
• The five books listed above are also called "The Five Books of Moses"
• The five books are also known as the "Pentateuch" 
• The Torah is written as instruction
• These books were the first to be translated into Greek

Nevi'im (The Prophets)

• The Nevi'im were later translated into Greek
• The Prophets can be divided into two sub-sections, Former and Latter Prophets
• Former Prophets: Includes historical books like Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings
• Latter Prophets: Includes books of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Habakkuk, Nahum
• The Latter prophets can be divided into two sub-sections, Major and Minor Prophets
• Major Prophets: these are long books (which is what makes them "major," not the fact that they are more important than the others), such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah; major prophets take up an entire scroll with their writings
• Minor Prophets: these are 12 shorter books (again this is what classifies them as "minor"), including Amos, Hosea, Jonah, Nahum, and Habakkuk; minor prophets' work could be added up and all 12 could fit onto one scroll

Ketuvim (The Writings)

• The Ketuvim includes the books of Psalms, Proverbs, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ruth, and Esther, to name a few
• Ketuvim writings are unique from prophets and law because they are written in genres that help us to understand what the author was trying to say.
• In these writings, usually there is not just one way to interpret what is being said 

Understanding the parts of the Tanak is important to beginning to understand the Old Testament. While we view the Old Testament (which I will refer to as OT from this point forward) as harder to understand than the New Testament (I will refer to this as NT from now on), the disciples and NT writers felt the opposite - that the OT made sense and the NT was harder to grasp. We must understand this as we read the Bible and try to make sense of the way it is written. 

As I close, I leave you with a couple questions this week: Have you heard of Tanak before? If so, how has the knowledge shaped the way you read each part (law, prophets, writings)? If not, what do you think now?

T-OOTLE-oo!

Melissa