The Tanakh
The Tanakh is a Jewish term for what we Christians typically call the Old Testament. It is an acronym for the three most common divisions made of the Hebrew Scriptures:
- The T comes from Torah, which means Law and consists of the five books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy.
- The N comes from Nevi'im, which means prophets and consists of Isaiah through Malachi.
- The Kh comes from Ketuvim, which means writings and consists of the remaining books. These are also sometimes divided into history and poetry.
Obviously, Jews who are not Christians are never going to refer to the Hebrew Scriptures as the Old Testament because they don't believe there's been a New Testament. Thus, the term Tanakh (or Tanach) is their shortened refernce to the Hebrew Scriptures.
It's not bad terminology for Christians to adopt. Jesus himself referred to the Hebrew Scriptures as "the Law and the Prophets" (e.g., Matt. 5:17). We know that there has been a new covenant to replace God's covenant with fleshly Israel (Jer. 31:31-34), but the covenants and the writings produced under those covenants should not be confused.
The Tanakh and the writings of the apostles are not actual contracts. God made covenants with Israel and with the church, and the terms of those contracts are covered in our Bible. However, the writings themselves consist of prophecies to Israel, letters to the churches, histories, etc. These are inspired by God and useful, but they are not the actual covenants themselves.
The one exception is the Torah, the five books of Moses, which may legitimately be said to be the covenant between God and Israel. The rest of the Tanakh is the history of Israel, inspired poetry and psalms, and prophecies to Israel mostly given when they wandered from the covenant.
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