1.2.6

Tenakh & Talmud

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Tenakh and Talmud

The Tenakh and Talmud form key Jewish religious texts.

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The Hebrew Bible

  • The Hebrew Bible is called the Tenakh (‘TNK’).
  • The Tenakh is made up of:
    • T for Torah (Law)
    • N for Nevi’im (Prophets)
    • K for Ketuvim (Writings)
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The Tenakh

  • The Tenakh was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic.
  • The Tenakh is made up of 24 books divided into chapters and further sub-divided into verses.
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Divine inspiration

  • The Tenakh was formed during the post-exilic period (starting around 538 BCE),
  • Based on the divine inspiration they possessed, Jewish rabbis and scholars brought together the Scriptures that would form the Tenakh.
  • The Tenakh was used by early Christians to form the first part of their Scriptures.
    • The early Christians called it the Old Testament.
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The Talmud

  • Jewish sacred texts include the Talmud.
    • Talmud is the oral interpretation of the Law.
  • Jews believe that the Oral Torah was given to Moses at Mount Sinai at the same time he was given the written Torah.
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Mishnah and the Gemara

  • Talmud is made up of the Mishnah and the Gemara.
    • The Mishnah contains clarifications about what is in the Torah.
    • The Gemara is a commentary about the Mishnah.
  • Rabbis and Jewish scholars spend the majority of their time studying the Talmud, along with the Torah.

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1Year 7

1.1Origins of Abrahamic Faith

1.2Judaism

1.3Christianity

1.4Buddhism

1.5Disciplinary Knowledge

2Year 8

3Year 9

3.1Life & Death

3.2Extremism

3.3Equality

4Additional Concepts

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