Jewish and Christian Bibles: A Comparative Chart

Catholic Resources ^ | Felix Just, S.J.

[NYer]

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Introduction:
Although the "New Testament" contains the same twenty-seven books for almost all Christians, there are some major and important differences between the "Hebrew Bible" (HB) used by Jews and different versions of the "Old Testament" (OT) used by various Christian churches and denominations:

• The foundational texts are different:
  • Jewish Bibles are based on the HB;
  • the OT section in Christian Bibles is arranged according to the order of books in the "Septuagint" (LXX), the ancient Greek version of the Jewish scriptures;
  • however, the translations of individual OT books in Christian Bibles are now usually based on the texts of the HB.
• The total number of biblical books is different:
  • Jews count 24, Protestants 39, Catholics 46, Orthodox Christians up to 53;
  • certain books of the HB are subdivided in the LXX; e.g., "The Twelve" minor prophets are considered one book in the HB, while the LXX and Christian Bibles count these as twelve separate books;
  • the LXX contains several additional books not found in the HB; Orthodox and Catholic Christians regard these additional books as part of the OT canon (calling them the "Deuterocanonical Books"), while Jews and most Protestant Christians do not (calling them the "Apocrypha").
• The arrangement of the categories of books is different:
  • e.g. the "Latter Prophets" come before the "Writings" in the HB, but all the "Prophets" come after the "Wisdom" literature in the Christian OT.
    the order of the "Prophets" is also different between the LXX and the Catholic and Protestant OT.
• The titles of some of the books are different:
  • e.g. "Samuel" of the HB is split up into "1 Kingdoms" and "2 Kingdoms" in the LXX, which are renamed "1 Samuel" and "2 Samuel" in most Christian Bibles.
• The categorization of some books is different:
  • e.g. several of the books categorized as "Writings" in the HB are placed among the "Historical Books" or the "Prophets" in LXX and the Christian OT; the displacements of Ruth and Esther, Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles (1&2), and Lamentations and Daniel are indicated with highlighted colors in the chart below.

Notes:

• HB = Hebrew Bible; LXX = Septuagint; OT = Old Testament; see my Biblical Glossary for detailed explanations of all these terms.
• Books in CAPITALS are found in Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Bibles, but not in most Jewish or Protestant Bibles.
• Books in Italics are also in the LXX and considered biblical by various Orthodox Christians, but NOT by Jews or most other Christians.

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Comparative Chart:
 

HEBREW BIBLE (a.k.a. Mikra or TaNaK/Tanakh)	ORTHODOX BIBLES (based on larger versions of LXX; exact contents & editions vary)	CATHOLIC BIBLE (based on Alexandrian canon of LXX; with seven Deuterocanonical books)	PROTESTANT BIBLE (retains Catholic order, but seven Apocrypha removed)
Torah / Books of Moses 1) Bereshit / Genesis 2) Shemot / Exodus 3) VaYikra / Leviticus 4) BaMidbar / Numbers 5) Devarim / Deuteronomy	Pentateuch 1) Genesis 2) Exodus 3) Leviticus 4) Numbers 5) Deuteronomy	Pentateuch (Law) 1) Genesis 2) Exodus 3) Leviticus 4) Numbers 5) Deuteronomy	Law (Pentateuch) 1) Genesis 2) Exodus 3) Leviticus 4) Numbers 5) Deuteronomy
Nevi'im / Former Prophets 6) Joshua 7) Judges 8) Samuel (1&2) 9) Kings (1&2)	Historical Books 6) Joshua 7) Judges 8) Ruth 9) 1 Kingdoms (= 1 Sam) 10) 2 Kingdoms (= 2 Sam) 11) 3 Kingdoms (= 1 Kings) 12) 4 Kingdoms (= 2 Kings) 13) 1 Chronicles 14) 2 Chronicles 15) 1 Esdras 16) 2 Esdras (=Erza + Nehemiah) 17) Esther (longer version) 18) JUDITH 19) TOBIT   20) 1 MACCABEES 21) 2 MACCABEES 22) 3 Maccabees 23) 4 Maccabees	Historical Books 6) Joshua 7) Judges 8) Ruth 9) 1 Samuel 10) 2 Samuel 11) 1 Kings 12) 2 Kings 13) 1 Chronicles 14) 2 Chronicles 15) Ezra 16) Nehemiah 17) TOBIT 18) JUDITH 19) Esther (longer version) 20) 1 MACCABEES 21) 2 MACCABEES	Historical Books 6) Joshua 7) Judges 8) Ruth 9) 1 Samuel 10) 2 Samuel 11) 1 Kings 12) 2 Kings 13) 1 Chronicles 14) 2 Chronicles 15) Ezra 16) Nehemiah 17) Esther (shorter version)
Nevi'im / Latter Prophets 10) Isaiah 11) Jeremiah 12) Ezekiel 13) The Book of the Twelve:        Hosea, Joel,        Amos, Obadiah,        Jonah, Micah,        Nahum, Habakkuk,        Zephaniah, Haggai,        Zechariah, Malachi
Khetuvim / Writings 14) Psalms (150) 15) Proverbs 16) Job 17) Song of Solomon 18) Ruth 19) Lamentations 20) Ecclesiastes 21) Esther (shorter version) 22) Daniel (12 chapters) 23) Ezra-Nehemiah 24) Chronicles (1&2)	Poetic Books 24) Psalms (151) 25)    Odes (w/ Prayer of Manasseh) 26) Proverbs 27) Ecclesiastes 28) Song of Solomon 29) Job 30) WISDOM of Solomon 31) SIRACH, a.k.a. Ecclesiasticus 32) Psalms of Solomon	Wisdom Books 22) Job 23) Psalms (150) 24) Proverbs 25) Ecclesiastes 26) Song of Solomon 27) WISDOM of Solomon 28) SIRACH, a.k.a. Ecclesiasticus	Wisdom Books 18) Job 19) Psalms (150) 20) Proverbs 21) Ecclesiastes 22) Song of Solomon
.	Prophets 33) Hosea 34) Amos 35) Micah 36) Joel 37) Obadiah 38) Jonah 39) Nahum 40) Habakkuk 41) Zephaniah 42) Haggai 43) Zechariah 44) Malachi   45) Isaiah 46) Jeremiah 47)     BARUCH 48)     Lamentations 49)     LETTER of JEREMIAH 50) Ezekiel 51) Daniel (2 chapters listed separately): 52)     SUSANNA 53)     BEL and the DRAGON	Prophets 29) Isaiah 30) Jeremiah 31) Lamentations 32) BARUCH (incl. LETTER of JER.) 33) Ezekiel 34) Daniel (14 chapters) 35) Hosea 36) Joel 37) Amos 38) Obadiah 39) Jonah 40) Micah 41) Nahum 42) Habakkuk 43) Zephaniah 44) Haggai 45) Zechariah 46) Malachi	Prophets 23) Isaiah 24) Jeremiah 25) Lamentations   26) Ezekiel 27) Daniel (only 12 chapters) 28) Hosea 29) Joel 30) Amos 31) Obadiah 32) Jonah 33) Micah 34) Nahum 35) Habakkuk 36) Zephaniah 37) Haggai 38) Zechariah 39) Malachi

Additional Resources:

• Old Testament Statistics
• Glossary of Biblical Terms
• Jewish Publication Society Bible
• The Septuagint Online
• Porównanie: Biblia Hebrajska - a Polish translation of this webpage

[NYer]

Hopefully, this chart will clarify the distinct differences in our understanding of scripture during interfaith discussions.

[seeker41]

Bookmarked! Thanks

[NYer]

You might find this interesting, ping!

[Rappini]

Don’t get me started I’m still pissed because years ago someone said I could now eat meat on Friday.

[stonehouse01]

Very good - many thanks.

I have a very hard time understanding how 2 Timothy 3:16

All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice.

can be reconciled with the Protestant bible that discarded 7 books as “apocrypha” after the 1500’s simply because they didn’t fit with Luther’s sola fide.

It just isn’t logical.

Many thanks for the clear lay out.

[knarf]

We had swordfish every Friday ... I loved it.

Saturday was hot dogs and beans, Sunday roast beef and green beans and potatoes ...

These three days NEVER changed.

[Tzfat]

Judaism disregarded those texts long before Luther. We don’t even give most of them “apocryphal” status.

[knarf]

If the apocrypha is not scripture .. what's the problem ?

Everything is a decision and one's decision has it's blessings and consequences over another's.

Adults rarely go back on a decision they've made ... whether yesterday or 50 years ago ... it just is, that's all.

[NYer]

I’m still pissed because years ago someone said I could now eat meat on Friday.

Canon law (Canon 1251) still asks us to abstain from meat or other food on Fridays. Rather than impose a meatless Friday diet on catholics, VCII gave catholics the option to substitute some other personal sacrifice. Nothing has changed. More importantly, abstaining from meat on Fridays is now a personal choice that one can adopt, out of love for Christ. Essentially, that is a more adult approach rather than imposition.

[NYer]

PS - an excellent and tasty Italian dish is pasta and rappini. Give it a try!

[knarf]

Prior to that, it was law ... with, I assume, ('cause I was just a kid), the force of God backing the law.

What?

Did men appeal ?

[knarf]

crude ... very crude

[stonehouse01]

“...Judaism disregarded those texts...”

Judaism also disregards the entire new testament.

Mark 2:22

...New wine must be put into new bottles ...

[Tzfat]

But you attempted to blame Luther, when we beat him to it by 1600 years. Give credit where credit is due. BTW, you are welcome for the TaNaKh.

[NYer]

Prior to that, it was law ...

It still is!

I assume, ('cause I was just a kid), the force of God backing the law.

The first mention of meatless Fridays comes in the Didache, a first-century compilation of Christian teachings. There, Christians are enjoined to fast on Wednesday and Fridays. The Wednesday fast soon fell out of fashion, but the Friday fast continued for nearly two millennia, with Christians commemorating the day of the Lord’s death through prayer, fasting and abstinence from meat and fowl.

The reason for that is that “the Church has always understood that every week is a microcosm of the liturgical year. Every Friday is a little Lent, and every Sunday a little Easter. The two are inseparably linked.”

The Church’s teaching on that point hasn’t altered. It has never changed its insistence upon Friday as a day of penance any more than it has changed its insistence upon Sunday as a day of worship. What it has changed, however, is its insistence upon what form that penance should take.

[Tzfat]

But you attempted to blame Luther, when we beat him to it by 1600 years. Give credit where credit is due. BTW, you are welcome for the TaNaKh.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thanks. It may add a needed accuracy to some discussions.

One can hope.

[reed13k]

bfl

[Verginius Rufus]

Eusebius quotes Origen on the number of books in the Hebrew Bible—in Origen’s day apparently the Jewish canon was 22 books to match the 22 letters of the alphabet. To do that they included Ruth with Judges and Lamentations with Jeremiah.