JEWISH BIBLE, is there one? (please read question)?

Question

Hi, please tell me a couple of things, (I am not Jewish, so I dont know) is the "Torah" a jewish bible or no? Also, the "regular "holy bible", do jewish people use this along with the "torah?"

**I am looking for an EASY TO READ and EASY to understand book about the jewish religion. Or even better an easy to understand Jewish 'bible" if in fact there is one. Please and thank you. I'm heading to borders in a bit, and would like some opinions on what to look for. thanks

Answer 1

Jews believe in the Old Testament, they just don't believe that Jesus was the son of God, they believe that he was just a man.

Answer 2

If you go to e-Sword.org.  You can download it for free.  It has complete KJVR (red letter) and KJV+ (Stong's dictionary).  A great Bible study download.  Then for a small amount you can pay to download the Complete Jewish Bible and many other things are available too.

Peace be with you.

Answer 3

The Torah isn't the entire Hebrew Bible, but it holds the most important writings. The Tanakh is the entire Hebrew Bible, and later Christians changed it and called it the Old Testament.

If you're looking for a book on Judaism, Choosing a Jewish Life by Anita Diamant is a good start.

Answer 4

OK--for an easy-to-understand book, I recommend "Judaism for Dummies", by Ted Falcon and David Blatner.

The Torah is the first five books of the Bible, from Genesis through Deuteronomy.  The entire Bible is often called the Tanakh, an acronymic word, consisting of the Torah (the "T"); Nevi'im, the books of the prophects (the "N"); and Ketuvim (the historical books, like Chronicles and Kings; the "K").

As far as an easy way to understand our Bible--there isn't one.  The Bible has been poorly translated by many people, including *all* of the Christian translators.  What you probably want is a good translation of the Torah.  One of the best that I've seen is "Commentary on the Torah", by Friedman.  It is a new translation by one of the foremost Jewish scholars on the Bible and it's phenomenal.

The books I've recommended are available or can be ordered at any bookstore.

Answer 5

I think the Torah is the first 5 books of the old testament.

Answer 6

OK, Jewish Bible.

Roughly speaking, the Jewish Bible -- it's usually called the Hebrew Bible, by the way, is the same as the first part of the Christian Bible, which you probably know as the Old Testament ( a name that rankles Jewish people, so use it with care. When in doubt, say the Hebrew Bible, as this is more respectful to your Jewish friends, and means almost the same thing.

There is a slight difference. The order of the books in the Hebrew Bible and the "Old Testament" are different.

Two terms have come up here:

Torah and Tanak.

The Torah is the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

The word Tanak is not actually a word at all: it's often spelled TaNaKh, which is an abbreviation for the three parts of the Hebrew Bible:

Torah -- the Law, the first five books

Neviim -- the prophets

Ketuvim -- "writings"

The Jewish Publication Society has put out a modern translation of the TaNaKh, and I highly recommend it. This is different from all other translations in two ways: The TaNaKh is translated very similarly to the Christian Bible. Multiple sources are used, including many different languages, and the translators give the best rendering they can from these sources. However, when the Hebrew is not seen as the best translation, but it differs from the translation, this fact is clearly expressed, so that those who only wish to follow the Hebrew will have difficultly in doing so. Also, when the Hebrew is not understandable (and this is often the case), a mark is put around the text to indicate this.

A lot of folks who just go along with the idea of a literal text have no idea just how damaged our original sources sometimes are.

If you are looking for some easy to read information about Judaism, I would suggest that you google something like basic Judaism, and see what comes up.

Right now, Jews are concerned about their young people becoming assimilated, and they are trying to make it as easy as possible to be an observant Jew. This is great for you, because you can go to these web sites and get in on the ground floor.

I also recommend talking to a local rabbi. They are, after all, teachers, and if they have time, they will point you in good directions. Today, many in Judaism view all of us as God's children, so they are more welcoming than used to be the case. Jews disliked proselytizing, but that is slowly changing, if only to bring their young back home to Judaism.

May God bless your quest!!!

Answer 7

The Jewish bible is called the Tanach and contains the same books as the Christian O.T. but they are in a different order and translated slightly different. Torah usually refers only to the first 5 books.  The two best known versions are JPS and Artscroll Stone Edition. Both of these are fairly modern translations and are easy to read.

As someone else pointed out "The Complete Jewish Bible"  is a Christian translation used by some Messainic congregations and should not be considered a Jewish bible.

Answer 8

OK, here's what you want to know:

You know the 'old testament' that Christians read?

Well, that was compiled after Christianity was already established. It's a mistranslated, Church-revised version OF the Jewish bible. And the Jewish bible is called the TANAKH.

The Torah,  is part of the TANAKH.

Now, if you want to get hold of a Jewish bible, then I would suggest you start with this great book first:

Torah For Dummies by Arthur Kurzweil.

No offence meant by the title! It's a really colourful introduction to the Jewish scriptures. Once you've read that, you might then want to get an English translation either of the Torah by itself OR of the entire Tanakh. Either way, look out for the STONE edition of either. It's a very highly thought of translation.

Meanwhile, you can find a lot of good information here:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/

http://www.askmoses.com

http://www.whatjewsbelieve.org/

http://www.ajewwithaview.com

Hope that helps :)

Answer 9

I have the complete Jewish bible  but I am not sure  many Jews  would  read it

its the christian  bible  but written with the jews in mind  as the bible  was written for the jews.

Answer 10

The 'Old Testament' is called the TANACK.  It stands for Torah, which is the first five books, the books of Moses-- and the writings, and the prophets.  I think the one you want is called 'Artscroll'. (I have been told by people who study these things)

Answer 11

It is called the Torah, I think...consists of mostly the old Testament books but i think they give special emphasis to the Books of Moses.  Look it up. we ae probably a bunch of goofs here

Answer 12

The Torah is the Old Testament from the Bible.

Well, actually the Old Testament is the Torah. Christians use it because that's basically what they were before Mr. Jesus came along.