The Tanakh in One Article

Tanakh is the Hebrew Bible: Torah, Nevi’im, Ketuvim. Twenty-four books, one canon, the foundation of everything else.

By The EditorsEssential

Torah & Texts · 2 minute read

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Summary. The Tanakh is the Hebrew Bible, named for the initial letters of its three sections: Torah (the Five Books of Moses), Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings). The traditional count is twenty-four books (the Christian Old Testament counts the same material as thirty-nine). The Torah is the foundation; the Nevi’im are the prophetic literature; the Ketuvim include the Psalms, Job, the Five Megillot, and the historical books of Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles. The Torah is read in its entirety in synagogue each year.

Torah (The Five Books of Moses)

Bereshit (Genesis) — creation, the patriarchs, the descent into Egypt.

Shemot (Exodus) — the Exodus, the giving of the Torah at Sinai, the building of the Mishkan.

Vayikra (Leviticus) — the laws of the priests, the offerings, the holiness code.

Bamidbar (Numbers) — the wandering in the wilderness, the rebellions, the census.

Devarim (Deuteronomy) — Moshe’s final discourses; the recapitulation of the Law before entry into the Land.

Nevi’im (Prophets)

Eight books traditionally counted (the Twelve Minor Prophets are counted as one): Yehoshua, Shoftim, Shmuel, Melachim (the Former Prophets, often called the historical books), Yeshayahu, Yirmeyahu, Yechezkel, and Trei Asar (the Twelve: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi). The haftarah, the prophetic portion read in synagogue after the Torah reading each Shabbat, comes from Nevi’im.

Ketuvim (Writings)

Eleven books: Tehillim (Psalms), Mishlei (Proverbs), Iyov (Job), the Five Megillot (Shir HaShirim, Rut, Eichah, Kohelet, Esther — each read on a specific holiday), Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Divrei Hayamim (Chronicles).

How the Torah Is Read

The Torah is divided into 54 parshiyot (portions); one is read each Shabbat, with some weeks doubling parshiyot to complete the cycle in years that have fewer Shabbatot before Simchat Torah. The cycle resets on Simchat Torah, when the last verses of Devarim and the first verses of Bereshit are read in immediate succession — a graphic affirmation that the Torah has no end. See the companion Calendar.xlsx for the full parshah list and the Calendar chapter for the year’s rhythm.

Where Denominations Diverge

All denominations accept the twenty-four-book canon. The full parshah is read every Shabbat in Orthodox synagogues and throughout Israel; most American Conservative and Reform congregations follow the modern triennial cycle enacted by the Conservative movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards in 1988, which reads one third of each parshah each year and so completes the Torah every three years while still reaching the end of Devarim by Simchat Torah. The Christian “Old Testament” reorganizes and re-counts the same texts; the Catholic and Orthodox Christian canons additionally include the Apocrypha (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, etc.), which Judaism does not include in its canon.

Sources

Talmud, Bava Batra 14b–15a — the baraita on the order and authorship of the books of Tanakh.

Mishnah Yadayim 3:5 and Tosefta Yadayim 2:6 — on which books “defile the hands” (the technical criterion of canonicity).

Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Sefer Torah.

The Structure of Tanach — Chabad.org.

Yearly Parsha (Torah Reading) Cycle — Aish.

The Tanakh — Jewish Virtual Library.

Bava Batra 14.b (Steinsaltz elucidated Talmud) — Steinsaltz Center.