Books of the Bible

Transliterated Hebrew Names

Torah (Teaching)

Nevi’im (Prophets)

Nevi’im Rishonim (Early Prophets)

Nevi’im Acharonim (Later Prophets)

Shneim-‘Asar (The Twelve)

K’tuvim (Writings)

The Five Megillot (Scrolls)

History

Deterocanonical (Apocryphal) Books

(Not in the Canon)

Ketuvei HaShalichim
(The Apostolic Writings)

The Good News of the Kingdom

History

Cepherim (Letters)

Rav Sha’ul’s Cepherim to Communities

Rav Sha’ul’s Cepherim to Individuals

General Cepherim

Prophecy

It should be noted that the breaking of Shmuel (Samuel), Melachim (Kings), and Divrei Hayamim (Chronicles) into two parts is strictly an artifact of the Christian printers who first issued the books. They were too big to be issued as single volumes. Because everyone who came later followed these de facto standards, the titles of Volume 1 and Volume 2 were attached to the names. The division of the Tanakh into chapters was also done by medieval Christians, and only later adopted by Jews.

However, very early on, at least as early as the the time of the Babylonian captivity (6th century BCE) the Torah was “divided” into 54 weekly portions, or parashot, [singular, parshah] and each was referred to by the first word or words of the section, much as we now refer to sections by chapter and verse. These parashot were read and studied during the Shabbat worship service — along with a section from the Prophets that is thematically linked with that week’s parshah — on an annual reading cycle corresponding to the lunisolar Hebrew calendar, which contains up to 55 weeks, the exact number varying between leap years and regular years. One week is always Passover and another is always Sukkot, and the final parshah, V'Zot HaBerachah, is always read on Simchat Torah along with the first verse of B'resheet (Genesis) so the cycle is never-ending. Therefore, there are in practice up to 53 available weeks for 53 portions. In years with fewer than 53 available weeks, some readings are combined to achieve the needed number of weekly readings.

Thus, every child born into Israel had heard the entire Torah read and studied through no less than twelve times before reaching the age of adulthood (bar/bat mitzvah). This explains the decision of the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) to not require Gentiles coming to faith in Yeshua to either go through a formal “conversion” process to be assimilated into Jewish society or to immediately assume the entire “yoke of Torah” immediately upon conversion, “Because from the earliest times, Moshe has had in every city those who proclaim him, with his words being read in the synagogues every Shabbat.” (Acts 15:21) After a few years of faithful synagogue attendance they would become familiar with the requirements of the entire Torah.

For Shabbat services, each parshah (also referred to as “Torah portion”) is further divided into eight sections called aliyot (literally, “ascent”), to be read by individual readers during synagogue worship. I have include these indications in my version .

Many Christian Bibles have expanded versions of several of books (Ester, Ezra, Daniel, Jeremiah, and Chronicles), including extra material that is not accepted as canonical in Judaism. This extra material was part of the ancient Greek translation of the Tanakh, but was never a part of the official Hebrew Tanakh. Jews regard this extra material as apocryphal.

Among Christians, there is a difference of opinion. Catholics regard this material as canonical, while most Protestant denominations regard this material as Apocrypha. Some of the most famous Apocryphal stories are closely associated with the book of Daniel, and indeed are printed as part of that book in some English Bibles. These stories include: Susan and the Elders, The Song of the Three Children, and Bel and the Dragon.