Tenach and Old Testament – the same Bible?

Abstract

This article questions the simplicity with which not only Old Testament specialists, but theologians in general – especially in the Protestant tradition – usually identify the Hebrew text as printed in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (and its predecessors) as the “real” Old Testament. The relevant questions are grouped into four clusters: What is meant by “Tenach” and “Old Testament”, what is a canon, is the Jewish Tenach continued in the same way as the Christian Old Testament, what are the theological implications of their dissimilarity and their association? An argument is developed in which it is concluded that there are several conditions under which the Tenach of the Jews and the Old Testament of Christians can not be called the same Bible. Only when the canon is seen as a process as opposed to a list or a book, can a positive answer to the question be given. Several advantages of this approach conclude the discussion.