Tanakh

The Tanakh is the canonical collection of Jewish scriptures, also called the Hebrew Bible.

The Tanakh is the canonical collection of Jewish scriptures, also called the Hebrew Bible. Its name is an acronym from its three divisions: Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim. In Jewish tradition, it is the central sacred text, organized differently from the Christian Old Testament.

Name and structure

Tanakh is an acronym made from the three traditional sections of the Hebrew Bible: Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim. These divisions reflect how the Jewish scriptural canon is organized.

Contents

The Torah consists of the five books of Moses. The Nevi'im contain historical and prophetic books, while the Ketuvim include writings such as Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and the Five Megillot.

Religious significance

In Judaism, the Tanakh is the foundational scriptural collection and a basis for later interpretation and legal tradition. It is commonly discussed alongside rabbinic literature such as the Mishnah and the Talmud. Canadian Jewish communities use the Tanakh as the foundational scripture, studied in synagogues, schools, and universities across Canada.

Relation to the Christian Bible

The Tanakh overlaps with the Christian Old Testament, but the ordering and, in some traditions, the contents are not identical. For that reason, the terms are not always interchangeable.