Tanakh
The Hebrew Bible, known by its acronym Tanakh (formed from the initials of its three sections: Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim), constitutes the canonical collection of Jewish scripture and the common textual foundation of both Judaism and, to a large extent, Christianity, which incorporates it as the 'Old Testament', albeit with some differences in ordering and the number of books included. Of composite authorship, redacted over more than a millennium by numerous authors, oral traditions and successive communities, its first section, the Torah ('instruction' or 'law'), comprises the five books traditionally attributed to Moses — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy — which narrate everything from the creation of the world and the biblical patriarchs to the covenant at Sinai and the body of ritual, civil and moral laws structuring the life of the people of Israel. The second section, the Nevi'im ('prophets'), includes both the 'historical' books — Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, which recount the conquest of Canaan and the Israelite monarchy — and the 'prophetic' books proper — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve minor prophets — texts of extraordinary literary and theological intensity focused on social criticism, the denunciation of idolatry and the proclamation of judgement and future restoration. The third section, the Ketuvim ('writings'), gathers a heterogeneous collection of great generic richness, including lyric poetry (Psalms), wisdom and existential literature (Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes), love poetry (Song of Songs), narrative (Ruth, Esther, Daniel) and historical chronicles. Beyond its fundamental religious value for millions of believers, the Tanakh constitutes one of the most influential literary, ethical and historical documents of Western civilisation as a whole, an inexhaustible source of images, narratives and moral categories running through Western art, law and political thought to this day.