Overview of the Hebrew Bible

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The Hebrew Bible, for Christians, forms the first and largest part of The Holy Bible. For Jews, the Hebrew Bible is the complete and timeless revelation of God for their lives and the substance of their faith and practice. 

Very different from the Christian New Testament, the Hebrew Bible was compiled in stages over hundreds of years — beginning with the five books of Moses, followed by the prophets, and concluding with the writings. There is a very important reason behind this three-fold division of the books, and that is that they represent three distinct kinds of divine revelation:

• Torah/Five Books of Moses

God spoke directly to Moses in front of the entire nation of Israel at Mt. Sinai and Moses wrote down everything that God told him to write. The Torah is considered the "gold standard" as far as authority in Scripture.

• Prophets

God spoke to individuals directly but not in the hearing of the nation. These prophets were confirmed as true prophets by the leading sages and judges of their day as per the instructions that were given to Israel at Mt. Sinai for determining who is a true prophet. In contrast to the approximately 1 million true prophets of Israel whose writings were not included in the Hebrew Bible, the messages of these particular prophets were chosen because they were considered to have eternal relevance.

• Writings

Individuals wrote under divine inspiration, but were not delivering a specific message from God to the people as the prophets were commissioned to do. The "divine" nature of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs was hotly debated when the books to be included in this section were finalised.

Evidence in the New Testament for the Three-Fold Hebrew Book Order

As we will look at a little further down the track, the Christian Old Testament maintains a somewhat different order and grouping of books to the Hebrew Bible, although the exact same set of books are included (except for the Catholic Bible, which also includes the Apocryphal books). 

However, in the first century, when the events of the Christian New Testament took place, the order of the books appears to have conformed to the same three groupings used by Jews today:

He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." Luke 24:44, NIV

Hebrew Bible Table of Contents

For both Jews and Christians, learning the books of the Hebrew Bible in their original order and groupings helps to bring us closer to both the Hebrew mindset and to the context in which Christianity began.

Book Number	Hebrew Name	Pronunciation		Meaning	English Name		Meaning
תּוֹרָה			Torah			The Five Books of Moses
1	בְּרֵאשִׁית	Bereshit		“In the beginning”	Genesis		“Beginning”
2	שְׁמֹות	Shemot		“The names [of]”	Exodus		“Departure”
3	וַיִּקְרָא	Vayikra		“And he called”	Leviticus		“Concerning the Levites”
4	בְּמִדְבַּר	Bemidbar		“In the desert [of]”	Numbers
5	דְּבָרִים	Devarim		“Words”	Deuteronomy		“Repetition”
נְבִיאִים			Nevi’im			The Prophets
נביאים ראשונים			Nevi'im Rishonim			The Former Prophets
6	יְהוֹשֻעַ	Yĕhôshúa‘			Joshua
7	שֹׁפְטִים	Shophtim			Judges
8	שְׁמוּאֵל	Shmû’ēl			1 Samuel 2 Samuel
9	מְלָכִים	M'lakhim			1 Kings 2 Kings
נביאים ראשונים			Nevi'im Rishonim			The Latter Prophets
10	יְשַׁעְיָהוּ	Yĕsha‘ăyāhû			Isaiah
11	יִרְמְיָהוּ	Yirmyāhû			Jeremiah
12	יְחֶזְקֵאל	Yĕḥezqiēl			Ezekiel
תרי עשר			Trei Asar			The 12 Minor Prophets
13	הוֹשֵׁעַ יוֹאֵל עָמוֹס עֹבַדְיָה יוֹנָה מִיכָה נַחוּם חֲבַקּוּק צְפַנְיָה חַגַּי זְכַרְיָה מַלְאָכִי	Hôshēa‘ Yô’ēl ‘Āmôs ‘Ōvadhyāh Yônāh Mîkhāh Naḥûm Ḥăvaqûq Tsĕphanyāh Ḥaggai Zkharyāh Mal’ākhî			Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi
כְּתוּבִים			Ketuvim			The Writings
סִפְרֵי אֶמֶת			Sifrei Emet			The Three Poetic Books
14	תְהִלִּים	Tehillim		“Praises”	Psalms
15	מִשְׁלֵי	Mishlei			Proverbs
16	אִיּוֹב	Iyyôbh			Job
חמש מגילות			Ḥamesh Megillot			The Five Scrolls
17	שִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים	Shīr Hashīrīm			The Song of Songs
18	רוּת	Rūth			Ruth
19	אֵיכָה	Eikhah		“How” (from the first word)	Lamentations
20	קֹהֶלֶת	Qōheleth			Ecclesiastes		“Assembly”
21	אֶסְתֵר	Estēr			Esther
Other Books
22	דָּנִיֵּאל	Dānî'ēl			Daniel
23	עֶזְרָא	‘Ezrā			Ezra-Nehemiah
24	דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים	Divrei ha-Yamim		“The Matters [of] the Days”	1 Chronicles 2 Chronicles

Having seen the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible in overview, let's dive into each of these sections in more depth and discover their beauty, timelessness, and role in living a life of faith.

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References:

1. Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Bible Hub, accessed 14 Feb 2021

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