The Torah and Tanach

Is there 5 books that make up the Torah ?

Shalom!

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The Jewish Bible in its entirety is known as the “Tanach” which is an acronym for the three sections of the Bible: Torah, Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings). There are 24 books to the Tanach.

The Torah, also known as the Five Books of Moses, makes up the first five books of Tanach . The Torah is the most authoritative text in all of Judaism. It is the word of G-d as dictated and written down by Moses. It describes the Creation of the world, the Jewish people and their role in the world, and what G-d wants us to do in this world. The commandments and most of all Jewish belief are derived from the Torah alone.

The books of Nevi’im , or Prophets, contains eight books and is divided into two sections. The first section is the “Early Prophets,” spanning a time period from the time the Jewish people entered the Land of Israel until the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile. The second section is the “Later Prophets,” are the words of prophets who came to encourage the Jewish people to remain loyal to G-d and the Torah. Much of the sources for the Messianic era are found in the Later Prophets.

The status of the books of Tanach (besides the Torah) is that they are prophetic and Divinely inspired transmitted to us by means of a number of authors. For example, Samuel wrote the books of Judges, the book of Ruth, and much of the book of Samuel. David wrote most of the book of Psalms. Jeremiah wrote his book, as well as the books of Kings and Lamentations. Hezekiah and his colleagues compiled the book of Isaiah. King Solomon authored Proverbs, the Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes but were actually written down by Hezekiah and his colleagues.