Before I get into my thoughts on the Hebrew Bible, I think I should talk about why I am reading the Bible and my Methodology for doing so.
Two years ago the thought occurred to me to read the whole Bible, as I had never done so before. Through the course of my studies, both my time in college and my private studies, I had read most of the books of the Bible. Yet I never read them all, and with the exception of when I used to study the weekly Torah portion (parashah), I never read them in any particular order.
The Bible, contrary to popular belief, is not a single book but a library or collection of them. There is not just one Bible as there is with the Quran, but many. Some contain more books than others. The largest, the Bible of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, contains eighty one, while the smallest, the Samaritan Pentateuch, contains only five. Not only are there Bibles with different books, but even Bibles that share the same books do not have them in the same order. For example the Hebrew Bible (also called the Tanak (Tanach) or the Jewish Bible) has the same books as the Protestant Christian Old Testament, but they consist of different orders and the divisions. In the Hebrew Bible, Samuel, Kings, and Ezra-Nehemiah are one book each, but in the Christian canon they are split into two. Daniel in the Hebrew Bible is grouped with the writings, while in Christians Bibles the book is found among the Prophets.1
So when choosing to read the entire Bible, it is no simple matter, because the Bible you choose will greatly impact your experience. I wanted to get the most out of this, so I decided to read the entire Bible in the most complete form possible. To reach this goal I am reading every book included in every canon that is available in English. My plan was to read the entire Hebrew Bible first, in both content and form, which I just completed. After that I plan to read all of the books included by the various Christian Old Testament canons, but that which are not found in the Hebrew Bible. Lastly I will read the New Testament including the books accepted by some, but not others, such as those found in the Ethiopian Orthodox canon.
My thoughts on the Hebrew Bible:
Starting to read the Hebrew Bible can be a bit of a daunting task, as it is much bigger than both the New Testament and the Quran combined.2 That being so there is quite a lot of ground to cover from the first verse of Genesis and the last verse of 2 Chronicles.
Over the course of this journey I experienced a lot of diversity, in many different ways. First there was the diversity of genres of the books. Genres found in the Jewish scriptures are history, narrative, law, wisdom, poetry, prophecy, apocalyptic, and romance. These disparate types of literature are not just found among the books but also within the books as well. Exodus for example contains both narratives (such as Exodus 2) and laws (Exodus 21), as well as poetry (Moses and Miriam’s song at the sea in Exodus 15:1-19). Another source of diversity are the views expressed in the Tanak. Just as the Hebrew Bible is not a monolithic book when it comes to the types of literature found in it, the texts offer different views on any given subject. A great example of this suffering. According to the Deuteronomistic history books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) following the laws of God will lead to prosperity and not following them will lead to suffering and loss. The book of Job disagrees with this quite vehemently. Job, who is a righteous and blameless man undergoes some of the worst suffering imaginable. Some may see this diversity as something negative, but I see it as a strength. There is a saying, “With two Jews, you will find three opinions.” and this is true for the Hebrew scriptures. Due to this fact we can gain insight into the diversity of Ancient Judaism.
The stories are a major aspect of the Hebrew scriptures that I love. Christian and Muslim readers will find many stories that are similar to ones in their scriptures.3 There are so many memorable stories that I cannot possibly mention them all, but some of the ones I really enjoyed are the stories of Adam and Eve, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, Solomon, Elijah, Esther, Daniel, Joshiah, Jonah, Ruth, and the very brief and mysterious story of Enoch. With in some of these stories you will find a great deal of humor. This humor ranges from very simple word plays that you will likely miss if you do not know Hebrew, such as the first man being called Adam and he is made from earth, which is called adamah in Hebrew, to the slapstick and very ironic humor of Esther. Many of the stories are very dramatic, often revolving around either family or political conflicts. The types of stories one finds ranges from those you would expect from a tribal origin story (Adam and Eve), to a novella (Joseph), to national epic (that is the epic of the founding of a nation, Moses), to historic drama (David), and even satire (The story of the Tower of Babel is believed by some to be a satire of the Sumerian idea of a Ziggurat, a pyramid like building believed to connect heaven and earth.)
The wisdom is another characteristic that I love about the Jewish Bible. Many of the narratives I mentioned above contain wisdom a discerning reader can easily extract from. For example from the Joseph story we can see the values of patience and chastity in play, as well as the fact that when God wills something it happens. Here however I want to focus more on the practical and straightforward wisdom, namely that of the wisdom books. While I cannot list every piece of wisdom that I loved, here are three gems:
Divide your means seven ways, or even eight,
for you do not know what disaster may happen on earth
-Ecclesiastes 11:2A capable wife who can find?
She is far more precious than jewels.
-Proverbs 31:10Go to the ant,
you lazybones;
consider its ways,
and be wise.
Without having any chief
or officer or ruler,
it prepares its food in summer,
and gathers its sustenance in harvest.
How long will you lie there, O lazybones?
When will you rise from your sleep?
A little sleep,
a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want, like an armed warrior.
-Proverbs 6:6-11
Lastly there are somethings that can make the Hebrew Bible a challenge to read. The common three tough parts for many people to get through are the lists of genealogies, the inventories of items and such, and the laws. Of these three, only the first two were an issue to me, I personally found the laws interesting. Truth be told, I felt tempted many times to skip the inventories and genealogies. I mean what is the deal with all of them any way? Actually something profound. Many Rabbis, scholars, and mystics hold that every word of the Hebrew Bible (especially the Torah), has a significance. Even if we do not agree with them (I personally have no issues accepting it, as it does not conflict with Islam to the best of my knowledge), there is still another way we can appreciate this. We can enjoy it as a family document that tells of the history of its members from the earliest times.4 It has been said, “the Torah of Moshe is a heritage of the children of Jacob”, and in this context one finds a greater appreciation for the text including the genealogies and inventories.
1 For a fuller description of the differences see my posts Brief Introductions To Religious Texts: The Hebrew Bible and Brief Introductions To Religious Texts: The Old Testament
2 The Quran is 6,236 verses and the New Testament is 7,959 verses, while the Hebrew Bible is 23,214 verses.
3 The Gospel of Matthew for example contains many allusions to Exodus, and many of the same stories appear in the Quran, the story of Joseph being a great example.
4 Job would appear to be an exception to this, but later Jewish traditions maintain that he married Jacob’s daughter Dinah.
Perspectives Of A Fellow Traveler 