Please note – we list the order of the Books of the Hebrew Bible according to their Jewish order, the order Yeshua cites in Lk. 24:44.
Christian translations follow the Septuagint, known as the LXX for short, the Greek translation done by Jewish sages about 200-250 years before Yeshua’s earthly time. Scholars are unsure as to why the order of the books is different except that perhaps it was seen as more “logical” to group the “historical” writings together.
We have elsewhere delved into why Christian translations follow the Septuagint order of the Hebrew Bible, which we will not do so here, except to say we follow the Jewish order in our listing – which is also again, the order of Yeshua Lk. 24:44, cf. v. 27 also.
We put the Hebrew names of the Books of the Torah as they are known in Hebrew, in parentheses. We use here the Greek-English based names as they are the names commonly known, out of consideration for our primary audience.
The Names of the Books of the Bible as Follows
Genesis (Gen.) (Hebrew “Bresheet” “In (the) Beginning”)
Exodus (Ex.) (Hebrew “Shemot” “Names” cf. Ex. 1:1. “Exodus” from the Greek “Ek Odos” “Way Out”)
Leviticus (Lev.) (Hebrew “Vayikra” “And Called” cf. Lev. 1:1)
Numbers (Nu. or Num.) (Hebrew “Bamidbar” “Wilderness”)
Deuteronomy (Dt.) (Greek “Copy-Second Law” Hebrew “Devarim” “Words” Dt. 1:1.)
The Greek name leads to a common misunderstanding in Western Teaching that “Deuteronomy” is a “Second Law”. This is from the combination of “Deutero” “second”, or “copy” and “nomy” from the Greek “nomos” “law”. As we explain in our teaching “nomos” also means “customary way of doing something”. The significance-impact of this loss of the definition of “nomos”, leaving the Torah to be seen as “Law” in the West, we explain in our teaching on the Torah and elsewhere as the need arises.
Joshua (Josh.)
Judges (Judg.)
1 Samuel (1 Sam.)
2 Samuel (2 Sam.)
1 Kings (1 Ki.)
2 Kings (2 Ki.)
Isaiah (Ish.)
Jeremiah (Jer.)
Ezekiel (Ezk.)
Hosea (Hos.)
Joel (Joel)
Amos (Am.)
Obadiah (Ob.)
Jonah (Jonah; rather than use, say, “Jon.”, well spell out the name so you don’t think we’re referring to “John”. As we explain, we refer to “John” by his original Hebrew name Yochanon “God is gracious”. The abbreviation for Yochanon is Ychn.).
Micah (Mic.)
Nahum (Nah.)
Nehemiah (Neh.)
Habbakuk (Hab.)
Zephaniah (Zep.)
Zechariah (Zech.)
Malachi (Mal.)
Psalms (Ps.)
Proverbs (Prov.)
Job (Job)
Song of Songs (Song.)
Ruth (Ruth)
Lamentations (Lam.)
Ecclesiastes (Eccl.)
Esther (Esth.)
Daniel (Dnl.)
Ezra (Ez.)
1 Chronicles (1 Chron.)
2 Chronicles (2 Chron.)
Please Note: what are called in Hebrew the Twelve Prophets are sometimes unfortunately mistakenly referred to as the “Minor Prophets”. As one Orthodox Rabbi – very correctly – put it, there is no such thing as a “Minor Prophet”. The only difference between them and the three listed immediately above, who are sometimes referred to as the Major Prophets, is the quantity of the Word spoken through them by God – not the quality!
No one refers to Paul’s shorter Letters or the Letter of Judah (not “Jude”) as the “Minor Letters”!
NOTE: the rabbis correctly point out that a Prophet does not speak or write through inspiration of the Ruach Hakodesh, but in short serves as a channel through whom God speaks.
The rabbis also correctly point out that there were Prophets who spoke to the Jewish People, but did not write anything. Those who spoke to the Jewish People but did not write anything, were those who were speaking only to the Jewish People, who needed at the time to hear what God was speaking through the Prophet.
The Written Prophets in context of course do very much address the Jewish People but the Word that God speaks through them is intended and has a purpose to be known to all!
The Writings, i.e. the Psalms etc., are correctly seen as written under the inspiration of the Ruach Hakodesh. Daniel did not prophesy in the Land of Israel and so Daniel was included in the Writings section of the Hebrew Bible.
The RCS is written completely under the inspiration of the Ruach Hakodesh, with the exception (arguably) of Revelation. In Rev. 1:1, Yochanon does not say it was a revelation of or to him directly. Rev. 1:1 in KG begins with the emphasis that it is the revelation of Yeshua Hamashiach (that) was given over to him by the God. This was then communicated to an angel who communicated it to Yochanon. The reference to Yochanon, is put last in KG for emphasis,
Matthew (Mt.)
Mark (Mk.)
Luke (Lk.)
Yochanon (“John” English) (Yochanon – “God is gracious”)
Acts (Acts)
Romans (Rom.)
1 Corinthians (1 Cor.)
2 Corinthians (2 Cor.)
Galatians (Gal.)
Ephesians (Eph.)
Philippians (Phpn.)
Colossians (Col.)
1 Thessalonians (1 Thess.)
2 Thessalonians (2 Thess.)
1 Timothy (1 Tim.)
2 Timothy (2 Tim.)
Titus (Titus)
Philemon (Phm.)
Hebrew (Heb.)
Jacob (Jacob)
Haggai (Hag.)
Note – Jacob and Judah were changed by Christian translators to “James” and “Jude”. In KG their names are “Iakobus” for the Hebrew “Ya’akov” “Jacob” and “Iouda” for the Hebrew “Y’hudah” “Judah”. We have explained this in more detail in our teaching, including the “re-casting” of “Mariam” in KG to transliterate the Hebrew “Mir’yam” “Miriam”, as “Mary”.
“Mary” “James” and “Jude” obviously sound far less Jewish than “Miriam” “Jacob” and “Judah”. There is no etymological, “word root” basis, to translate their names otherwise. It was not done “incidentally” or because there was a “question” about how to translate their names. It was done deliberately as part of the deliberate break from any and all things Jewish, by post-Biblical Gentile leadership. Though it is not the thrust of the website, please see our The Western Religious System window for more detail.
1 Peter (1 Pet.)
2 Peter (2 Pet.)
1 Yochanon (1 Yochanon) (“John” in English. We use Yochanon, again basically “God is gracious”. He is!!)
2 Yochanon (2 Yochanon)
3 Yochanon (3 Yochanon)
Judah (Judah, as explained above)
Revelation (Rev.)
Revelation is from the KG “apokalupsis” “apo” “from, separate off from” and, “to reveal what is inside”. In KG there is no “the” at the beginning. It also should be noted that it is not “Revelations – plural – but “Revelation” – singular. This shows the Father’s Hebraic thought/expression, since though there are obviously multiple revelations, they are seen as a “whole”, “Revelation”.
This is completely characteristic of Hebrew’s “wholeness” rather than KG’s “separation and compartmentalization”.
“Key” Note:
Another “key” reason for using the Jewish order of the Hebrew Scriptures: again, the order Yeshua uses with his beloved “Taught Ones” – after his Resurrection – is as follows.
Some followers of Yeshua have been very incorrectly taught that “the OT ends in a curse”. We have a separate teaching explaining in more detail how and why this is incorrect – in multiple ways.
Our concern is not for being “academically correct”; it is the negative impact this has on followers who mean the very best but are simply unaware of what has been taken from them, by thinking of the Hebrew Scriptures as “OT” or, “the OT ends in a curse”.
In short for here:
The above is based on the Septuagint order of the Hebrew Scriptures which ends with the Prophet Malachi.
Malachi however does not end with a “curse” in Hebrew. The word in question “cherem” (guttural sound at the beginning not “ch” as “cha cha”) does not mean “curse”, it means “devoted to destruction (for the LORD)”, “under a ban”, “dedicated” in the specific sense of “dedicated to the LORD” as in Lev. 27:28-29 and Josh. 6:18, “consecrated property”.
If “curse” was meant by Malachi he, or rather the LORD speaking through the Prophet, would have probably used the word meaning “state of lifelessness, isolation”. The LORD used this – very significantly – as the second word “curse” in Gen. 12:3 regarding those who “take lightly, are a material reduction” to Abraham.
Yeshua in his divinity as the angel of the LORD uses 2 forms of this word back-to-back to “curse” those who did not come to the aid of the LORD in battle against enemies of the Jewish People Judg. 5:23.
As a quick sidenote the form of “blessed of women” of Yael in Judg. 5:24 for killing an enemy king, is used with Miriam (not “Mary”!) Yeshua’s mother, by her cousin Elisheva (“Elizabeth”) in Lk. 1:41-42 v. 42.
Here is the other “key”:
The Jewish order of the Hebrew Bible is the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings, cf. again Lk. 24:44. In this order the Hebrew Bible ends with, in Hebrew, “Second Words (of the) Days” known in English as “2 Chronicles”.
2 Chronicles ends with a very positive optimistic encouragement – 2 Chron. 36:23. Here, Cyrus of Persia (ancient Iran) says “the totality in an encompassing way of the Kingdoms of the Earth, has been given over to me by (the) LORD God of the Heavens”.
Cyrus goes on to say in Hebrew that he has been “invested with the responsibility” – the same idea in the original Peter speaks of regarding having seen the Transfiguration (technically the “mega glory”) seen of Mashiach 2 Pet. 1:16 – building a House to the LORD in Jerusalem, in Judea.
Cyrus, in the context of the Jewish People being in Exile, finished with an encouragement that those among “the People of the LORD, (the) LORD his God (be) with him – and let him ascend up”!
Thus, the last word in the Hebrew order is “and – in connection – “let him ascend up”! A very different ending than “dedicated for destruction to the LORD” at the end of Malachi!
Why is this “key” – why bring this up in what is supposed to be just a list of the Biblical books and their abbreviations?
Everything hinges on the answers to 2 “key” questions. One, as we open up deeply we hope in our essay and oral teaching “Who Do You – Plural – Say That I Am” Mt. 16:14-20, is whether Peter – and we – see Yeshua as Yeshua Hamashiach, or as “JC”? Is God “Living”, i.e. more of an idea of “idea, concept, or, as in the original Mt. 16:15 “Lives” – “real, concrete, present tense, so to speak “continuous process” i.e., “Be”?
The other “key” question is whether one takes a “half empty – half full” approach to the Hebrew Scriptures. That is, are they seen as “OT ends in a curse” or “let him ascend up!”?
It will color one’s entire view of the Bible! Our “mission – function – purpose” in part is to open up those beautiful, rich “colors” in the Word of God.
For those who will invariably ask “is there a Bible with the Hebrew order of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Renewed Covenant Scriptures with it”, and “is there a translation you might then recommend?”, we suggest the following.
We would highly recommend David Stern’s (a Jewish brother) “Complete Jewish Bible”. It has both the Hebrew Bible and the RCS plus very “key”, the removal of traditional anti-Semitic anti-Hebrew/Aramaic biases in the translations of the Renewed Covenant.
It is not as literal as we would have preferred, Stern stating in his Introduction that it is a “dynamic equivalent”, as is the NIV, meaning basically a little more of a paraphrase than literal.
That said, the correcting of anti-Semitic de-Hebraicized names and passages that unfortunately plague all Western Tradition translations we have seen is well worth it!
That Stern’s work could not be found to be flawed is evidenced to us by an attempt in the last couple of years to “spin” Western Tradition translations – rather than condemning or criticizing Stern’s translation.
His accompanying “Jewish NT Commentary” we have very much used and examined very closely. In his KG explanations as to why he translates or states something as he does, we have yet to find where he is incorrect.
A personal note if we might. Part of the impetus and desire that drove us 2 decades + ago to learn KG and intensely study the KG RCS, was to be sure we were not going “too far the other way”. That is, to ensure we were not, or that Stern was not, anachronistically revising the Text or its interpretation “Jewish-Hebrew”, where it was not.
The study of the RCS in KG, having a solid Jewish-Hebrew background, showed us much much much more that in fact is Hebrew-Jewish than we saw in English – regardless of translation.
Stern, as we have, has “no ax to grind”. That is, he is not beholden – obviously – to Western Tradition for support nor to the Jewish brethren in Jerusalem or the West. In other words, he and we are free to be as objective as humanly possible since we do not owe nor are beholden to any “organization” Christian or Jewish, that would constrain or force what we produce. Unfortunately, too many times organizations do constrain what you can produce.
In our case, it comes with a very very very high financial and personal cost. Please see our “Letter” for details. It is, though, the only way we can present an unvarnished truth. The only thing we have to hold back is, frankly, a truth that might be more truth than we feel some can hear.
As of this writing, Sivan 5776 in Hebrew June 2016 in English, we have not only never met we have never spoken to or had any communication with our Jewish brother David Stern.
Part of our “mission – function – purpose” is driven by seeing Stern’s commentary as a very necessary “first step”; but one that the Jewish brethren very very very badly need to produce “much more” of in Hebrew, “substance”, and a richer-deeper i.e., an Orthodox Jewish perspective rather than a Conservative or Reform Judaism perspective.
In short, an Orthodox Jewish approach is much much closer to the first century than a Conservative or Reform approach, which are early 19th and early 20th century developments.
For those who might say “aha, but you are anachronistically revising the RCS text to be “Jewish”, may we simply point out Paul’s Pharisee background, Acts 22:1-3, 23:6, Phpn. 3:5. Cf. also Acts 21-28 as a whole.
We have never met or even communicated with Stern as of this writing.
Lastly, we will not be selling any books we do not produce ourselves, in order to maintain integrity. We will in time recommend some other resources such as Professor Marvin Wilson’s “Our Father Abraham” and his recent, long-awaited follow-up “Exploring Our Hebraic Heritage” subtitled “A Christian Theology of Roots and Renewal”.
Dr. Wilson was honored a couple of years ago on the anniversary of his 50th year of teaching, with a series of essays on Abraham by both Christian and Jewish scholars.
We hope sooner than later, LORD willing, to humbly include some additional in-depth insight into Abraham from the perspective of being both a Jew and a follower of his “son” Yeshua Mt. 1:1.
If the “Mashiachanity” (i.e., “Christianity”) of Dr. Wilson as well as some of the other great 20th century scholars and philosophers such as Oswald Chambers, Krister Stendahl, James Parkes, Karl Barth Sr., Karl Barth Jr., Gleason Archer Jr., Walter Kaiser, Reinhold Niebuhr, Francis Schaeffer, and others, was brought to the fore, the World would be much better off and could learn a great deal!
Our website is an attempt as short as it will no doubt fall, to do the level of work of some of the great Jewish and Christian scholars, to make it accessible and worthy to both the scholar and those “without evil in their hearts” (Rom. 16:18).
First and foremost, to honor the LORD in the name of the Mashiach by serving others and to try to more “fill full” the substantive work badly needed from, the Jewish brethren.
If you haven’t already, please also refer to the article titled “Glossary – Brief Explanations”.