Both the Jewish and Christian faith revolves around the same writings known as the Bible. It is venerated in both religions as their sacred scripture, and it is the starting point for examining the Judeo-Christian faith.
Firstly, what is the bible?
The bible is more aptly described as a library. An anthology of writings, that were written and edited over a time span of approximately 3000 years dating back to approximately 2000BCE. Each section of the bible was written by different people in different situations to respond to different issues, all of each in different genres.
The tome that is commonly referred to as the “Bible” today contains 66 “books”. These 66 books are usually divided into the “Old Testament”(39 books) and the “New Testament” (27 books)
Because of Christianity’s association with the Jewish tradition (which served as the birthplace for Christianity) Christianity inherited the Hebrew Bible into their canon of scripture. This Hebrew portion is commonly referred collectively as the “Old Testament”. Hence also the name “Judeo-Christian” because they share the same set of Sacred Scripture, and derive a common set of beliefs from the same scripture.
The Hebrew Bible was the collection of 24 “books” revered by the Jewish community, and thus common to both Jewish and Christian bibles. Largely written in Hebrew. And then a minority in Aramaic. Known as the Tanakh – TNKH with an ‘a’ vowel between each consonant to make it pronounceable.
T = Torah = instruction or teaching
N = Nevi’im = prophets
K = Ketuvim = writings.
There were even different “types” of bibles across history, with each community modifying and adapting it as they responded to issues. These issues cover philosophical, moral to political dimensions. One of the examples, discussed will be the Greek translation known as the Septuagint. This bible was created to meet the needs of Greek-speaking Jews who lived in Alexandria, Egypt in the Hellenistic period somewhere around the third or second century BCE (Hayes, 2006). These scriptures played a cardinal role in both the religions of Judaism and Christianity, which we will examine in greater detail in the next section.
References:
Hayes, C. (2006). Lecture 1 – The Parts of the Whole. Lecture. Retrieved from March 27, 2017, from http://oyc.yale.edu/transcript/968/rlst-145
Hayes, C. (2006). Lecture 3 – The Hebrew Bible in Its Ancient Near Eastern Setting: Genesis 1-4 in Context . Lecture. Retrieved March 27, 2017, from http://oyc.yale.edu/transcript/945/rlst-145
Pritchard, James B. 1965. The Ancient Near East, vol. 1, ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press.