Book Arrangement/Order: TaNaKh & Christian Old Testament
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JacobMartinMertens
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Book Arrangement/Order: TaNaKh & Christian Old Testament
What is the reason for the differences in the arrangement or order of books in the TaNaKh as compared with the Christian Old Testament?
John 1:41, 49 NASB - 41 He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which translated means Christ). 49 - Nathanael answered Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel."
Re: Book Arrangement/Order: TaNaKh & Christian Old Testament
When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.
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JeffreyLong.net
Jesusna.me
@30thirteen
Re: Book Arrangement/Order: TaNaKh & Christian Old Testament
I think the main reason why there are various orderings is that these individual books were made as scrolls and then kept in a collection (rather than being bound together into 1 volume). As scrolls laid alongside each other, there was no 'right' way to order them. This being the case, there were various Jewish orderings of the Old Testament books (though one ordering is most common today).
The Jewish Old Testament goes Law, Prophets, Writing (Tanakh is an acronym of sorts for those 3 sections). The Christian Old Testament goes Law, History, Writings, Prophets. The Christian division of the prophets as 'history' and 'prophets' does create quite a bit of chronological confusion for Bible novices, no doubt. But basically the reason for the division seems to be that the history section has a clear chronological order and is more focused on political leaders (in general) whereas some of the prophets aren't necessarily easy to place chronologically and are focused more on the prophetic individuals.
Ruth might be a good example to show different approaches to ordering the books. The Jewish orderers put it in the 'writing section' as a short story of sorts. The Christian orderers recognized that it took place during the Judges, so they placed it directly after that historical book (maybe realizing people would need a happy story after the miserable sequence of events in Judges!).
I don't think there's necessarily a 'right' way to order it.
The Jewish Old Testament goes Law, Prophets, Writing (Tanakh is an acronym of sorts for those 3 sections). The Christian Old Testament goes Law, History, Writings, Prophets. The Christian division of the prophets as 'history' and 'prophets' does create quite a bit of chronological confusion for Bible novices, no doubt. But basically the reason for the division seems to be that the history section has a clear chronological order and is more focused on political leaders (in general) whereas some of the prophets aren't necessarily easy to place chronologically and are focused more on the prophetic individuals.
Ruth might be a good example to show different approaches to ordering the books. The Jewish orderers put it in the 'writing section' as a short story of sorts. The Christian orderers recognized that it took place during the Judges, so they placed it directly after that historical book (maybe realizing people would need a happy story after the miserable sequence of events in Judges!).
I don't think there's necessarily a 'right' way to order it.