"The Books of the Bible"
Below is the Protestant canon of the Bible (New Revised Standard Version). The Roman Catholic canon also includes the Deuterocanonical books as part of the Old Testament (these are considered apocryphal by most Protestants). The Hebrew Bible recognizes the books referred to as the Old Testament in the Protestant Bible, but not the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books or the New Testament.
See also The King James Bible, Old Testament Names, and Kings of Judah & Israel
See also The King James Bible, Old Testament Names, and Kings of Judah & Israel
The Old Testament with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books
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The New Testament
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The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also called the Decalogue (Greek, “ten words”), were divine laws revealed to Moses by God on Mt. Sinai. Appearing in both Exodus (Ex. 20: 2–17) and Deuteronomy (Deut. 5:6–21), the commandments are numbered differently depending on whether they appear in a Catholic, Protestant, or Hebrew Bible. The following is the version given in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's.
Source: Revised Standard Version of the Bible (Ex. 20: 2–17).
Old Testament Names
We do not pretend that this list is all-inclusive. We list only those names that occur most often in crossword puzzles.
- Aaron: First high priest of Jews; son of Amram; brother of Miriam and Moses; father of Abihu, Eleazer, Ithamar, and Nadab.
- Abel: Son of Adam and Eve; slain by Cain.
- Abigail: Wife of Nabal; later, wife of David.
- Abihu: Son of Aaron.
- Abimelech: King of Gerar.
- Abner: Commander of army of Saul and Ishbosheth; slain by Joab.
- Abraham (or Abram): Patriarch; forefather of the Jews; son of Terah; husband of Sarah; father of Isaac and Ishmael.
- Absalom: Son of David and Maacah; revolted against David; slain by Joab.
- Achish: King of Gath; gave refuge to David.
- Achsa (or Achsah): Daughter of Caleb; wife of Othniel.
- Adah: Wife of Lamech.
- Adam: First man; husband of Eve; father of Cain, Abel, and Seth.
- Adonijah: Son of David and Haggith.
- Agag: King of Amalek; spared by Saul; slain by Samuel.
- Ahasuerus: King of Persia; husband of Vashti and, later, Esther; sometimes identified with Xerxes the Great.
- Ahijah: Prophet; foretold accession of Jeroboam.
- Ahinoam: Wife of David.
- Amasa: Commander of army of David; slain by Joab.
- Amnon: Son of David and Ahinoam; raped Tamar; slain by Absalom.
- Amram: Husband of Jochebed; father of Aaron, Miriam and Moses.
- Asenath: Wife of Joseph.
- Asher: Son of Jacob and Zilpah.
- Balaam: Prophet; rebuked by his donkey for cursing God.
- Barak: Jewish captain; associated with Deborah.
- Baruch: Secretary to Jeremiah.
- Bathsheba: Wife of Uriah; later, wife of David.
- Belshazzar: Crown prince of Babylon.
- Benaiah: Warrior of David; proclaimed Solomon King.
- Ben-Hadad: Name of several kings of Damascus.
- Benjamin: Son of Jacob and Rachel.
- Bezaleel: Chief architect of Tabernacle.
- Bilbah: Servant of Rachel; mistress of Jacob.
- Bildad: Comforter of Job.
- Boaz: Husband of Ruth; father of Obed.
- Cain: Son of Adam and Eve; slayer of Abel; father of Enoch.
- Cainan: Son of Enos.
- Caleb: Spy sent out by Moses to visit Canaan; father of Achsa.
- Canaan: Son of Ham.
- Chilion: Son of Elimelech; husband of Orpah.
- Cush: Son of Ham; father of Nimrod.
- Dan: Son of Jacob and Bilhah.
- Daniel: Prophet; saved from lions by God.
- Deborah: Hebrew prophetess and judge; helped Israelites conquer Canaanites.
- Delilah: Mistress and betrayer of Samson.
- Elam: Son of Shem.
- Eleazar: Son of Aaron; succeeded him as high priest.
- Eli: High priest and judge; teacher of Samuel; father of Hophni and Phinehas.
- Eliakim: Chief minister of Hezekiah.
- Eliezer: Servant of Abraham.
- Elihu: Comforter of Job.
- Elijah (or Elias): Prophet; went to heaven in chariot of fire.
- Elimelech: Husband of Naomi; father of Chilion and Mahlon.
- Eliphaz: Comforter of Job.
- Elisha (or Eliseus): Prophet; successor of Elijah.
- Elkanah: Husband of Hannah; father of Samuel.
- Enoch: Son of Cain.
- Enoch: Father of Methuselah.
- Enos: Son of Seth; father of Cainan.
- Ephraim: Son of Joseph.
- Esau: Son of Isaac and Rebecca; sold his birthright to his twin brother Jacob.
- Esther: Jewish wife of Ahasuerus; saved Jews from Haman's plotting.
- Eve: First woman; wife of Adam.
- Ezra (or Esdras): Hebrew scribe and priest.
- Gad: Son of Jacob and Zilpah.
- Gehazi: Servant of Elisha.
- Gideon: Israelite hero; defeated Midianites.
- Goliath: Philistine giant; slain by David.
- Hagar: Handmaid of Sarah; concubine of Abraham; mother of Ishmael.
- Haggith: Mother of Adonijah.
- Ham: Son of Noah; father of Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan.
- Haman: Chief minister of Ahasuerus; hanged on gallows prepared for Mordecai.
- Hannah: Wife of Elkanah; mother of Samuel.
- Hanun: King of Ammonites.
- Haran: Brother of Abraham; father of Lot.
- Hazael: King of Damascus.
- Hephzi-Bah: Wife of Hezekiah; mother of Mannaseh.
- Hiram: King of Tyre.
- Holofernes: General of Nebuchadnezzar; slain by Judith.
- Hophni: Son of Eli.
- Isaac: Hebrew patriarch; son of Abraham and Sarah; half brother of Ishmael; husband of Rebecca; father of Esau and Jacob.
- Ishmael: Son of Abraham and Hagar; half brother of Isaac.
- Issachar: Son of Jacob and Leah.
- Ithamar: Son of Aaron.
- Jabal: Son of Lamech and Adah.
- Jabin: King of Hazor.
- Jacob: Hebrew patriarch; founder of Israel; son of Isaac and Rebecca; husband of Leah and Rachel; father of sons Asher, Benjamin, Dan, Gad, Issachar, Joseph, Judah, Levi, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon, and Zebulun, and daughter Dinah.
- Jael: Slayer of Sisera.
- Japheth:Son of Noah.
- Jehoiada: High priest; husband of Jehoshabeath; revolted against Athaliah and made Joash King of Judah.
- Jehoshabeath (or Jehosheba): Daughter of Jehoram of Judah; wife of Jehoiada.
- Jephthah: Judge in Israel; sacrificed his only daughter because of vow.
- Jesse: Son of Obed; father of David.
- Jethro: Midianite priest; father of Zipporah.
- Jezebel: Phoenician princess; wife of Ahab; mother of Ahaziah, Athaliah, and Jehoram.
- Joab: Commander in chief under David; slayer of Abner, Absalom, and Amasa.
- Job: Patriarch; underwent many afflictions; comforted by Bildad, Elihu, Eliphaz and Zophar.
- Jochebed: Wife of Amram.
- Jonah: Prophet; cast into sea and swallowed by great fish.
- Jonathan: Son of Saul; friend of David.
- Joseph: Son of Jacob and Rachel; sold into slavery by his brothers; husband of Asenath; father of Ephraim and Manassah.
- Joshua: Successor of Moses; son of Nun.
- Jubal: Son of Lamech and Adah.
- Judah: Son of Jacob and Leah.
- Judith: Slayer of Holofernes.
- Kish: Father of Saul.
- Laban: Father of Leah and Rachel.
- Lamech: Son of Methuselah; father of Noah.
- Lamech: Husband of Adah and Zillah; father of Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-Cain.
- Leah: Daughter of Laban; wife of Jacob; sister of Rachel.
- Levi: Son of Jacob and Leah.
- Lot: Son of Haran; escaped destruction of Sodom.
- Maacah: Mother of Absalom and Tamar.
- Mahlon: Son of Elimelech; first husband of Ruth.
- Manasseh: Son of Joseph.
- Melchizedek: King of Salem.
- Methuselah: Patriarch; son of Enoch; father of Lamech.
- Michal: Daughter of Saul; wife of David.
- Miriam: Prophetess; daughter of Amram; sister of Aaron and Moses.
- Mizraim: Son of Ham.
- Mordecai: Uncle of Esther; with her aid, saved Jews from Haman's plotting.
- Moses: Prophet and lawgiver; son of Amram; brother of Aaron and Miriam; husband of Zipporah.
- Naaman: Syrian captain; cured of leprosy by Elisha.
- Nabal: Husband of Abigail.
- Naboth: Owner of vineyard; stoned to death because he would not sell it to Ahab.
- Nadab: Son of Aaron.
- Nahor: Father of Terah.
- Naomi: Wife of Elimelech; mother-in-law of Ruth.
- Naphtali: Son of Jacob and Bilhah.
- Nathan: Prophet; reproved David for causing Uriah's death.
- Nebuchadnezzar (or Nebuchadrezzar): King of Babylon; destroyer of Jerusalem.
- Nehemiah: Jewish leader; empowered by Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem.
- Nimrod: Mighty hunter; son of Cush.
- Noah: Patriarch; son of Lamech; escaped Deluge by building Ark; father of Ham, Japheth and Shem.
- Nun (or Non): Father of Joshua.
- Obed: Son of Boaz; father of Jesse.
- Og: King of Bashan.
- Orpah: Wife of Chilion.
- Othniel: Kenezite; judge of Israel; husband of Achsa.
- Phinehas: Son of Eleazer.
- Phinehas: Son of Eli.
- Phut (or Put): Son of Ham.
- Potiphar: Egyptian official; bought Joseph.
- Rachel: Wife of Jacob; mother of Joseph; sister of Leah.
- Rebecca (or Rebekah): Wife of Isaac; mother of Esau and Jacob.
- Reuben: Son of Jacob and Leah.
- Ruth: Wife of Mahlon, later of Boaz; daughter-in-law of Naomi.
- Samson: Judge of Israel; famed for strength; betrayed by Delilah.
- Samuel: Hebrew judge and prophet; son of Elkanah.
- Sarah (or Sara, Sarai): Wife of Abraham; mother of Isaac.
- Sennacherib: King of Assyria.
- Seth: Son of Adam; father of Enos.
- Shem: Son of Noah; father of Elam.
- Simeon: Son of Jacob and Leah.
- Sisera: Canaanite captain; slain by Jael.
- Tamar: Daughter of David and Maachah; raped by Amnon.
- Terah: Son of Nahor; father of Abraham.
- Tubal-Cain: Son of Lamech and Zillah.
- Uriah: Husband of Bathsheba; sent to death in battle by David.
- Vashti: Wife of Ahasuerus; set aside by him.
- Zadok: High priest during David's reign.
- Zebulun (or Zabulon): Son of Jacob and Leah.
- Zillah: Wife of Lamech.
- Zilpah: Servant of Leah; mistress of Jacob.
- Zipporah: Daughter of Jethro; wife of Moses.
- Zophar: Comforter of Job.
"Kings of Judah and Israel"
Kings Before Division of Kingdom
- Saul: First King of Israel; son of Kish; father of Ish-Bosheth, Jonathan and Michal.
- Ish-Bosheth (or Eshbaal): King of Israel; son of Saul.
- David: King of Judah; later of Israel; son of Jesse; husband of Abigail, Ahinoam, Bathsheba, Michal, etc.; father of Absalom, Adonijah, Amnon, Solomon, Tamar, etc.
- Solomon: King of Israel and Judah; son of David; father of Rehoboam.
- Rehoboam: Son of Solomon; during his reign the kingdom was divided into Judah and Israel.
Kings of Judah (Southern Kingdom)
- Rehoboam: First King.
- Abijah (or Abijam or Abia): Son of Rehoboam.
- Asa: Probably son of Abijah.
- Jehoshaphat: Son of Asa.
- Jehoram (or Joram): Son of Jehoshaphat; husband of Athaliah.
- Ahaziah: Son of Jehoram and Athaliah.
- Athaliah: Daughter of King Ahab of Israel and Jezebel; wife of Jehoram; only queen to occupy the throne of Judah.
- Joash (or Jehoash): Son of Ahaziah.
- Amaziah: Son of Joash.
- Uzziah (or Azariah): Son of Amaziah.
- Jotham: Regent, later King; son of Uzziah.
- Ahaz: Son of Jotham.
- Hezekiah: Son of Ahaz; husband of Hephzi-Bah.
- Manasseh: Son of Hezekiah and Hephzi-Bah.
- Amon: Son of Manasseh.
- Josiah (or Josias): Son of Amon.
- Jehoahaz (or Joahaz): Son of Josiah.
- Jehoiakim: Son of Josiah.
- Jehoiachin: Son of Jehoiakim.
- Zedekiah: Son of Josiah; kingdom overthrown by Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar.
Kings of Israel (Northern Kingdom)
- Jeroboam I: Led secession of Israel.
- Nadab: Son of Jeroboam I.
- Baasha: Overthrew Nadab.
- Elah: Son of Baasha.
- Zimri: Overthrew Elah.
- Omri: Overthrew Zimri.
- Ahab: Son of Omri; husband of Jezebel.
- Ahaziah: Son of Ahab.
- Jehoram (or Joram): Son of Ahab.
- Jehu: Overthrew Jehoram.
- Jehoahaz (or Joahaz): Son of Jehu.
- Jehoash (or Joash): Son of Jehoahaz.
- Jeroboam Il: Son of Jehoash.
- Zechariah: Son of Jeroboam II.
- Shallum: Overthrew Zechariah.
- Menahem: Overthrew Shallum.
- Pekahiah: Son of Menahem.
- Pekah: Overthrew Pekahiah.
- Hoshea: Overthrew Pekah; kingdom overthrown by Assyrians under Sargon II.
Prophets
- Major. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel.
- Minor. Hosea, Obadiah, Nahum, Haggai, Joel, Jonah, Habakkuk, Zechariah, Amos, Micah, Zephaniah, Malachi.
"The Dead Sea Scrolls"
Discovery of the Scrolls
The first of the Dead Sea Scroll discoveries occurred in 1947 in Qumran, a village situated about twenty miles east of Jerusalem on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. A young Bedouin shepherd, following a goat that had gone astray, tossed a rock into one of the caves along the seacliffs and heard a cracking sound: the rock had hit a ceramic pot containing leather and papyrus scrolls that were later determined to be nearly twenty centuries old. Ten years and many searches later, eleven caves around the Dead Sea were found to contain tens of thousands of scroll fragments dating from the third century B.C. to A.D. 68 and representing an estimated eight hundred separate works.The Dead Sea Scrolls comprise a vast collection of Jewish documents written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and encompassing many subjects and literary styles. They include manuscripts or fragments of every book in the Hebrew Bible except the Book of Esther, all of them created nearly one thousand years earlier than any previously known biblical manuscripts. The scrolls also contain the earliest existing biblical commentary, on the Book of Habakkuk, and many other writings, among them religious works pertaining to Jewish sects of the time.
The Controversy Begins
The shepherd who made the discovery at Qumran brought the seven intact scrolls he found there to an antique dealer. Three were sold to a scholar at Hebrew University and four were sold to the Archbishop of Syria, who tried for years to place them with a reputable academic institution and ultimately sold them in 1954 through a classified ad in The Wall Street Journal. The ad was answered by Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin, who donated these scrolls to the state of Israel and established a museum for them, The Shrine of the Book, at Hebrew University.Control of the remaining tens of thousands of scroll fragments, however, was not soon resolved. One year after the discovery at Qumran, the United Nations partitioned Palestine and war began. Meanwhile, a U.N.-appointed, Jesuit-trained official had summoned Roland de Vaux, director of the Ecole Biblique, a French Catholic Theological School in Arab East Jerusalem, to oversee research on the scrolls. The slow pace of publication and the extreme secrecy of de Vaux's almost entirely Catholic group fueled the theory that the Vatican wished to suppress information in the scrolls.
Then, in 1967, Zionists seized East Jerusalem and the Israel Antiquities Authority took control of the scrolls. Access, however, was merely transferred to yet another small group that seemed determined to hide them from the rest of the world. Israeli officials told prominent visiting scholars that they “would not see the scrolls in [their] lifetimes.” The building media frenzy was furthered by the 1990 dismissal of the project's editor-in-chief, Harvard Divinity School professor Dr. John Strugnell, after he publicly criticized Judaism and the Israeli state. A breakthrough came in September 1990, when the Huntington Library in California made available unauthorized photographs of the scrolls. The following year, text and translations of fifty scrolls were published in book form.
Judaism, Christianity, and the Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls offer unprecedented information about Jewish religious and political life in Palestine during the turbulent late Second Temple Period (200 B.C. to A.D. 70), a time of great corruption and conflict under Roman rule in Palestine. Scholars estimate that the Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden in A.D. 68, when Roman legions reached the Dead Sea during the emperor Vespasian's campaign to Jericho. The discovery of the scrolls established that Jewish culture was far richer and more diverse at this time than scholars had previously believed. Three main groups of Jews were prominent during the late Second Temple Period: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. Many other sects and political parties also flourished. This pluralism ended in A.D. 70 when, six years after the start of the First Jewish Rebellion, the Romans sieged Jerusalem, killing or enslaving half the Jewish population and destroying Herod's Temple. The capitol fell to the Romans, and only the Judaism of the dominant Pharisees survived.The scrolls also shed light on the time when Jesus and John the Baptist lived and early Christians began to organize. Specifically, they offer evidence that early Christian beliefs and practices had precedents in the Jewish sects of the time. Sectarian scrolls tell of people who, like the early Christians, did not believe in the Temple worship of the Pharisees, people who had their own literature, their own rituals—including baptism—and their own beliefs, most significantly beliefs in a messiah, a divine judgment, and an apocalypse. Three different scrolls depict a sacred meal of bread and wine. These similarities as well as parallels between the literary style of certain scrolls and that of the New Testament have led some scholars to claim that Jesus and John the Baptist were either part of or strongly influenced by a sect at the Dead Sea. But no direct link has been established, and it is likely that similarities can be attributed to each being derived from a like strain of Judaism. Still, this debate has furthered speculation about the historical Jesus, such as the claim that he was a Zealot rather than a pacifist, a theory that does not fit with New Testament tradition but does fit with the history of this period. And one of the most important discoveries in the scrolls has been the use of the name Son of God to refer to someone other than Jesus, implying a cultural use of the term that was not itself synonymous with God.
Who Hid the Scrolls?
Debate continues about who actually wrote, copied, and stored the scrolls. The most prevalent theory is that this was done by an ascetic group of Essenes who had retreated to the desert to await a Messiah, and who lived at Qumran in a community guided by the Manual of Discipline, or Community Rule, a scroll detailing the beliefs and practices of a messianic sect. In the 1950s, Roland de Vaux excavated a site between the Qumran caves and the Dead Sea that he claimed was a monastic library where Essenes had copied the scrolls. Recent archaeologists, however, think that what de Vaux believed to be the remains of desks and ink bottles are in fact remains of dining tables and perfume bottles, suggesting that the site was a Roman-style villa whose occupants were engaged in the lucrative perfume trade. Furthermore, not a single manuscript fragment has ever been found on this site. Some scholars believe that Sadducees lived at the Qumran site. Others believe that the scrolls were kept not by a religious sect but by a militant, nationalistic group, and that the Qumran site was in fact a fortress. It has been argued also that the people who lived at the Qumran site were not the same people who hid the scrolls in the caves. Still other scholars reject the idea that the scrolls can be identified with a single group, suggesting instead that the scrolls describe the beliefs and rituals of the many Jewish sects of the time. These scholars propose that the scrolls are copies of manuscripts from libraries throughout Jerusalem that Jews sought to preserve as the Romans encroached upon the capitol. One scroll, called the Copper Scroll, offers a detailed description of efforts to hide documents.The Scrolls Today
More than fifty years after their discovery, no one can claim to know the absolute truth about the Dead Sea Scrolls, although academics and amateurs alike generate ever more intriguing theories, wild claims, and media attention. It is a complicating factor that almost all the scrolls are copies of other manuscripts—some perhaps historical, others certainly fictitious, and all together, transcribed over the course of nearly three hundred years. It will probably never be possible to know for sure what among the scrolls is fact, when exactly it was recorded, and why: their origins, scribes, keepers, and meanings will likely remain a mystery.—Holly Hartman
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