Jewish Perspective
For Jews, the Bible means...
- Torah - The five books of Moses. The word Torah literally means instruction. It is also called Chumash (Hebrew for "five") and Pentateuch (Greek for "five books").
- Neviim - The books of the Prophets
- Ketuvim - All the other books of the Bible (literally: "Writings").
Judaism has traditional held that along with the Torah God revealed a series of instructions on how to interpret and apply the Torah. The Torah is referred to as the written law, while the additional instructions were known as the Oral law. By the second century C.E. Jewish sages began writing down interpretations of the Bible; Orthodox Jews consider these writings to embody the "oral law." These writings take several forms:
- Mishnah - An analysis of the laws and meaning of the Bible, containing information from the oral law.
- Tosefta - A set of teachings that in many ways are similar to the Mishnah. It may be an early commentary on the Mishnah, or it may be an independent attempt to codify the oral law.
- Braitot - A genre of rabbinic literature from the same time period as the Mishnah and Tosefta that no longer exists. The only quotes still extant from this literature are found as quotes within the Mishnah and Tosefta.
- Midrash - A genre of rabbinic literature that is an elaboration of, and commentary on, Biblical narrative.
- Talmud - An authoritative commentary on the Mishnah
Read more about this topic: Names For Books Of Judeo-Christian Scripture
Famous quotes containing the words jewish and/or perspective:
“I marvel at the resilience of the Jewish people. Their best characteristic is their desire to remember. No other people has such an obsession with memory.”
—Elie Wiesel (b. 1928)
“I know that you, ladies and gentlemen, have a philosophy, each and all of you, and that the most interesting and important thing about you is the way in which it determines the perspective in your several worlds.”
—William James (1842–1910)