The letter to the Hebrews is of inestimable value to Christians. Without it, many of the realities concerning Christ as foreshadowed by the Law would be unclear. For example, the Jews had known all along from the Hebrew Scriptures that when their high priest went into the Most Holy compartment of the sanctuary in their behalf he was representing them before Jehovah. But they never appreciated this reality: Someday the real High Priest would actually appear in the heavens in Jehovah’s very presence! And as we read the Hebrew Scriptures, how could we realize the tremendous significance of the account of Abraham’s meeting with Melchizedek, or understand so clearly what this king-priest typified? This, of course, is to cite only two examples out of the many realities that we come to visualize in reading the letter.

The faith that the letter builds helps Christians to hold on to their hope by means of “the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld.” (Heb 11:1) At a time when many persons rely on antiquity, on the material wealth and power of organizations, on the splendor of rites and ceremonies, and look to the wisdom of this world instead of to God, the divinely inspired letter to the Hebrews admirably helps to make the man of God “fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.”​—2Ti 3:16, 17.

Writership and Time, Place Written. Writership of the letter to the Hebrews has been widely ascribed to the apostle Paul. It was accepted as an epistle of Paul by early writers. The Chester Beatty Papyrus No. 2 (P⁠⁴⁶) (of about 200 C.E.) contains Hebrews among nine of Paul’s letters, and Hebrews is listed among “fourteen letters of Paul the apostle” in “The Canon of Athanasius,” of the fourth century C.E.

The writer of Hebrews does not identify himself by name. Even though all his other letters do bear his name, this lack of identification of the writer would obviously not rule out Paul. Internal evidence in the letter strongly points to Paul as its writer and to Italy, probably Rome, as the place of writing. (Heb 13:24) It was in Rome, evidently during the years 59 to 61 C.E., that Paul was first imprisoned. Timothy was with Paul in Rome, being mentioned in the apostle’s letters to the Philippians, the Colossians, and Philemon, written from Rome during that imprisonment. (Php 1:1; 2:19; Col 1:1, 2; Phm 1) This circumstance fits the remark at Hebrews 13:23 about Timothy’s release from prison and the writer’s desire to visit Jerusalem soon.

The time of writing was before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., for the temple at Jerusalem still stood, with services being performed there, as is evident from the argument in the letter. And Paul’s remark about Timothy’s being released reasonably fixes the time of writing about nine years earlier, namely, 61 C.E., when it is thought that Paul himself was released from his first imprisonment.​—Heb 13:23.

The 39 divinely inspired books from Genesis to Malachi, according to the common arrangement today, constitute the major portion of the Bible.

The books of the Hebrew Scriptures as they appear in most Bible versions may be divided into three sections: (1) Historic, Genesis to Esther, 17 books; (2) Poetic, Job to The Song of Solomon, 5 books; (3) Prophetic, Isaiah to Malachi, 17 books. Such divisions are rather general, since the historical section contains poetic portions (Ge 2:23; 4:23, 24; 9:25-27; Ex 15:1-19, 21; Jg 5) as well as prophetic (Ge 3:15; 22:15-18; 2Sa 7:11-16); the poetic section contains historical material (Job 1:1–2:13; 42:7-17) as well as prophetic (Ps 2:1-9; 110:1-7); and in the prophetic section historical information and poetic material are found (Isa 7:1, 2; Jer 37:11–39:14; 40:7–43:7; La 1:1–5:22).

By combining and rearranging these same 39 books in a different order, the Jews counted only 24 or 22 books and, according to their traditional canon, arranged them as follows: First, there was the Law (Heb., Toh·rahʹ), also called the Pentateuch, consisting of (1) Genesis, (2) Exodus, (3) Leviticus, (4) Numbers, and (5) Deuteronomy. (See PENTATEUCH.) Second came the Prophets (Heb., Nevi·ʼimʹ), divided into the “Former Prophets,” (6) Joshua, (7) Judges, (8) Samuel (First and Second together as one book), (9) Kings (First and Second as one book), and the “Latter Prophets,” subdivided into the “Major” Prophets, (10) Isaiah, (11) Jeremiah and (12) Ezekiel, and (13) Twelve “Minor” Prophets (a single book composed of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi). The third section was called the Holy Writings (Hagiographa or, in Hebrew, Kethu·vimʹ), beginning with (14) Psalms, (15) Proverbs, and (16) Job; then came the “Five Megilloth” or five separate scrolls, namely (17) The Song of Solomon, (18) Ruth, (19) Lamentations, (20) Ecclesiastes, and (21) Esther, followed by (22) Daniel, (23) Ezra-Nehemiah (combined), and (24) Chronicles (First and Second together as one book). The book of Ruth was sometimes appended to Judges, and Lamentations to Jeremiah, to give 22 books, a total corresponding to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, although this is not the usual arrangement in Hebrew Bibles today.

Not all the early catalogs had the books of the Hebrew Scriptures arranged in the above order. This is because at the time the individual books were in separate scrolls. To illustrate: In the Babylonian Talmud (Bava Batra 14b), it is stated: “Our Rabbis taught: The order of the Prophets is, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the Twelve Minor Prophets.” (Translated by M. Simon and I. Slotki) This may explain why Jeremiah precedes Isaiah in a number of Hebrew manuscripts written in Germany and France.

The Writers. All the Hebrew Scriptures were written and compiled by Jews, members of the nation “entrusted with the sacred pronouncements of God.” (Ro 3:1, 2) And, for the most part, these pre-Christian Scriptures were written in Hebrew, with the following limited portions in Aramaic: Genesis 31:47; Ezra 4:8 to 6:18 and 7:12-26; Jeremiah 10:11; Daniel 2:4b to 7:28. Aramaic words are also found in Job, certain Psalms, The Song of Solomon, Jonah, Esther, and in the Hebrew parts of Daniel. The book of Ezekiel likewise shows Aramaic influence.

Moses wrote and compiled the first five books of the Bible, and he was followed by at least 31 other writers and compilers including Joshua, Samuel, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. They lived over a period of 1,100 years, from the 16th to the 5th century B.C.E., and came from various occupations, such as that of shepherd, copyist, governor, king, prophet, and priest.

Some of the Bible writers were eyewitnesses of the incidents they recorded; Moses wrote of his experiences before Pharaoh. (Ex 5:1–12:32) They gathered certain historical data from previous records through diligent research, as when compiling the genealogical records. (1Ch 1-9) But many things, such as knowledge concerning the assembly of angelic hosts in heaven and revelations in the field of prophecy, were matters beyond the realm of human knowledge and could be learned only by direct inspiration of God. This and the perfect unity of the whole, despite being the composite work of many writers extending over so long a period of time with their various backgrounds, all attest to and demonstrate that Bible writers indeed “spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit.”​—2Pe 1:21.

Canon of Hebrew Scriptures. The books of the Hebrew Scriptures do not appear in our Bibles in the order in which they were written. Joel, Amos, and Jonah lived about two centuries or so before Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Nor do the titles of the books always disclose their writer. The book of Job, for instance, was apparently written by Moses; the book of Ruth, by Samuel. Details about the individual books, as to when and by whom each was written, are set out in the “Table of Bible Books in Order Completed” in the article BIBLE. See the articles on the individual books for contents, importance and significance, proof of authenticity, and other information.

The canon of the Hebrew Scriptures was well established when Jesus Christ was on earth, as is evidenced by his statements recorded in the Christian Greek Scriptures. For example, he referred to the three-section arrangement when he spoke of “all the things written in the law of Moses and in the Prophets and Psalms.” (Lu 24:44) His followers wrote of or spoke of “the public reading of the Law and of the Prophets,” “the Scriptures,” “the law of Moses and the Prophets,” “the holy Scriptures,” and “the holy writings.”​—Ac 13:15; 18:24; 28:23; Ro 1:2; 2Ti 3:15; see CANON.

Noteworthy too is the fact that no Apocryphal writings were admitted into the Hebrew canon. From the days of Ezra and Malachi, in the fifth century B.C.E., the completed canon of the Hebrew Scriptures has been guarded and protected against the inclusion of any writings of questionable nature. (See APOCRYPHA.) Scrupulous care was exercised by the manuscript copyists called Sopherim, who at a later time were succeeded by the Masoretes.

Originally the Hebrew Scriptures were written without vowels or punctuation, and without our present chapter and verse divisions. In the second half of the first millennium C.E. the Masoretes, who were also very careful Bible copyists, established a system of vowel points and accent marks as an aid to reading and pronunciation.

Preservation and Transmission. The Jewish Sopherim (scribes), although meticulous as to avoiding errors in copying, made certain emendations, or corrections, in the text where, in their opinion, the original text seemed to show irreverence for God or disrespect for his representatives. In more than 140 instances the Jewish scribes