The 39 books that make up the Tanakh (Bible in Hebrew) were chosen from a very large group of works that existed at the time when the selection was made. The selection was a process that required five centuries. For example, the Torah with its five books, acquired its status as a sacred book in the fourth century before the current era. The books of the prophets were collected and organized in the period of the Second Temple. And the decision of which books were to form the third part of the Tanakh, the Ketubim, was made after the destruction of the Second Temple, possibly in the second century of our era. The decision of which books were to be included was not easy. There was much controversy especially with five books: Ezekiel, Proverbs, the Song of Songs, Esther and Ecclesiastes, which were finally admitted.

When the Biblical Canon, the group of books that make up the Bible, was closed, many were left out. One of them, for example, was the Book of Maccabees. Comparing those that did make it to those that did not, we can deduce that three criteria were used to select them. The first is that they had to be written in Hebrew. The Book of Daniel was hastily translated from Aramaic into Hebrew, in order to be included. The second condition is that they had to have been written in the period before “prophecy ceased in Israel,” roughly in the fifth century BCE. The third condition is that the book met the religious standards set by the rabbis.

At that time, Hebrew was written only with consonants, just as the Torah scroll is written. Vowel points were invented in the post-Talmudic era, roughly in the seventh century, and biblical texts with their vowels were finally determined in the tenth century. In Hebrew, a group of consonants can mean different things depending on the vowel points that are placed. For example, the consonants HRB can be HoReB, the name of a mountain, or it can be HeReB, which means sword. HLB can be HaLaB, milk, or HeLeb, fat. Putting the wrong vowels can completely change the meaning of a commandment or a story. It was finally in the tenth century that the definitive text, known as Masorah or Masoretic, was developed. It is the one we use to this day. And the division of the Bible into chapters and verses was even later than the Masoretic era.

The books of the Bible were not written by a single person or in the same era. It took many centuries to write it. The Torah was written by Moses and the books of the later prophets by each of them. The books of Proverbs, the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes are attributed to King Solomon and the book of Psalms to King David.

The Bible, in the end, is the historical and collective experience of a people seeking to learn and understand the ways and will of God. This is what makes the Bible, in a broad sense, the book of the Jewish people. The Bible is more than an extraordinary book; it is the document of incorporation of Judaism.

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Article The Eternal Book, by Abraham J. Feldman in the book The Jewish People’s Almanac, edited by David C. Gross.