The Hebrew Bible

In this clip from The Story of the Jews, Simon Schama explores the origins of the Hebrew Bible, beginning with the emergence of the monotheistic Jewish God.

The monotheistic God of the Jews, faceless, formless, invisible and very much on his own, was slow to emerge from the crowd of rival Gods worshipped in the ancient world. But when He did emerge, He would reside in a sacred inner sanctum, known as the ‘Holy of Holies’, which only the high priest was permitted to enter.

But there would be another way for the Jews to approach their God directly: the Hebrew Bible.

The writing of the Hebrew Bible began approximately 2700 ago. What a moment in literature that was! What stories were delivered to the world – Adam and Eve, Cain murdering his brother Abel, Noah and his Ark, Abraham called to sacrifice his son, Jacob wrestling with the angel, Joseph and coat of many colors… And that’s just Volume One, before Moses even makes an appearance in his basket of bull rushes.

And these stories from the sacred scrolls are not the museum pieces of some carefully preserved folk tradition – they still matter to people in the here and now. The arrival of a new scroll from the scribe is a cause for celebration.