Q&N category: Old Testament

Transliterations of Hebrew book names are debatable. Names left uninterpreted are either initial Hebrew words of the books, or alternatives to the transliterated personal names used in Christian Bibles.

Tanakh is a Hebrew acronym for the three major subdivisions: Torah, Nevi’im, Kethuvim (Teaching or Law, Prophets, Writings).

The LXX version of Esther, used by Catholic and Orthodox Christians, contains six additions, displaced in the Vulgate to the end of the book. These include: Mordecai’s dream and a plot against the king; the king’s letter; prayers of Mordecai and Esther; Esther received by the king; the decree of Artaxerxes; Mordecai’s dream fullfilled, and a postscript.

LXX Psalms includes one extra, numbered 151 and included in the Orthodox canon.

The Vulgate version of Baruch includes the Letter of Jeremiah as an added chapter.

The LXX version of Daniel, used by Catholic and Orthodox Christians, contains three additions: the prayer of Azariah and the song of the three Jews; Susanna; and Bel and the dragon.

The twelve Minor Prophets were traditionally treated as a single Hebrew book.

Ben Sirach is a shortened reference to The Wisdom of Jesus son of [Eleazar son of] Sirach, also known as Ecclesiasticus.

The original appendices to the Vulgate are generally omitted from modern editions.

I Esdras, the Prayer of Manasseh, and 3 Maccabees are Deuterocanonical in the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches.

2 Esdras appears as 3 Esdras in the Slavonic Bible.

4 Maccabees appears in an appendix to the Greek Bible.

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This index describes the content and book-order of originally Hebrew scripture in various Bibles.

The modern Jewish canon (Tanakh) is common to all. Most additional content derives from the Septuagint, a pre-Christian Greek translation. Some additions are recognized as “Deuterocanonical” by some Christian churches. As that term applies only to some cases, and the common Protestant label “Apocrypha” is also inexact, the Protestant column labels them “Intertestamental.”

Book names in brackets are cross-reference links, reflecting variations in order. Reading down a column from heading to end-mark and ignoring these links yields a standard-order list of the Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish canon. The Intertestamental books and Vulgate appendices are non-canonical supplements to their respective Bibles. Some notes (attached, somewhat arbitrarily, to the Protestant entries) describe differences in Orthodox (Greek or Russian) Bibles and canons.

Non-bracketed links in the Protestant column lead to my collected quotes from the books.

Abbreviations:

LXX - standard shorthand for the Septuagint.
(D) - Deuterocanonical (in cross-references to Catholic versions).
(I) - Intertestamental (in cross-references to Protestant listings of non-canonical items).

Hal’s Quotes & Notes: Old Testamentstructural index

Hal’s Quotes & Notes: Old Testament
structural index