Old Testament

[Star Sarellia]

Firstly I wish to apologise for my complete ignorance of Judaism

Sorry..

I have a few questions.. so many thanks in advance to answers. If existing threads already cover these topics.. please don't hesitate to provide a link them.


Are the old testament books of the standard bible also considered holy books in the faith of Judaism?

Are any viewed with controversy?

How are these books viewed within the faith of Judaism?

Are they considered the 'inerrant word of God' in the same sense that Fundamental Christians view them.?

[dauer]

Hey Star.

Are the old testament books of the standard bible also considered holy books in the faith of Judaism?

I'm not sure what you mean by standard bible. Within Christianity there is some variation in the books of the Old Testament. Generally we don't call it that because we don't see that there is any new one, and the text we would be first and foremost using is the masoretic text, and translations none of which have any sort of official status. But if you'd like to see a list ofthe books and a translation please see here:

The Judaica Press Complete Tanach with Rashi - Classic Texts

Are any viewed with controversy?

Of the Tanach none currently.

How are these books viewed within the faith of Judaism?

Canon.

Are they considered the 'inerrant word of God' in the same sense that Fundamental Christians view them.?

It would depend on the type of Judaism, but all in all Judaism is far less literalist than Christianity can get anyway. You may wish to read:

Judaism and Christianity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dauer

[Star Sarellia]

Thanks Dauer

I am quite fond of wikipedia and the other link proved most helpful.

Thanks for the general insight too

After I do some reading I might be back with couple more questions..

[bananabrain]

what dauer said.

obviously, for us, the Torah is "inerrant" by definition - although human interpretation of it is in many cases far from coming up to the same standard. consequently, your average "bible-believing christian" will go "six days of creation, you see, it says so in the Text", your average jew will say "what do you mean by a day? after all, a day is normally measured by the rotation of the earth around the sun but if you look in the Text, the sun wasn't even Created until the third day - so perhaps we shouldn't be taking this quite so literally".

b'shalom

bananabrain