As a Christian, the term Torah was vaguelly familiar to me because I had heard the term rather loosely bantered about in my studies when I was a child. I just never understood what it meant until I started to explore it.
So--here's the basics of it. The Hebrew or Jewish bible (known as the Tanakh) is traditionally seen as being broken into 24 Old Testament books. The Torah is the first 5 books of the Hebrew bible, and they are known as the Books of Moses. The books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
According to tradition, the books were given to Moses in the 40 days he spent with God on Mount Sinai during the Exodus period--the same time in which he was given the 10 commandment tablets.
In the Hebrew the books of the Torah are pronounced and spelled entirely differently.
1.Genesis--Bereshit (בְּרֵאשִׁית, literally "In the beginning")
2. Exodus--Shemot (שִׁמוֹת, literally "Names")
3.Leviticus--Vayikra (ויקרא, literally "He called")
4.Numbers--Bamidbar (במדבר, literally "In the desert")
5.Deuteronomy--Devarim (דברים, literally "Things" or "Words")
The other sections of the Jewish bible include the Nevi'im, and the Ketuvim.
The Nevvi'im includes the following 21 books:
Joshua, Judges,Samuel (I & II, Kings (I & II),Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
The Ketuvim has 13 books: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles (I and II).
It is interesting to note that the Jewish tradition does not break books like Samuel into two books but rather, sees it as one book, and so the Jewish number of books, although it shows the same content, shows a different count as to how many books are in the bible.
So--here's the basics of it. The Hebrew or Jewish bible (known as the Tanakh) is traditionally seen as being broken into 24 Old Testament books. The Torah is the first 5 books of the Hebrew bible, and they are known as the Books of Moses. The books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
According to tradition, the books were given to Moses in the 40 days he spent with God on Mount Sinai during the Exodus period--the same time in which he was given the 10 commandment tablets.
In the Hebrew the books of the Torah are pronounced and spelled entirely differently.
1.Genesis--Bereshit (בְּרֵאשִׁית, literally "In the beginning")
2. Exodus--Shemot (שִׁמוֹת, literally "Names")
3.Leviticus--Vayikra (ויקרא, literally "He called")
4.Numbers--Bamidbar (במדבר, literally "In the desert")
5.Deuteronomy--Devarim (דברים, literally "Things" or "Words")
The other sections of the Jewish bible include the Nevi'im, and the Ketuvim.
The Nevvi'im includes the following 21 books:
Joshua, Judges,Samuel (I & II, Kings (I & II),Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
The Ketuvim has 13 books: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles (I and II).
It is interesting to note that the Jewish tradition does not break books like Samuel into two books but rather, sees it as one book, and so the Jewish number of books, although it shows the same content, shows a different count as to how many books are in the bible.