The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) is also known as the Old Testament and the Bible is a written recollection of the life of the Hebrews and their history that started in 2000 B.C.E in Sumer. At the beginning the story of the Hebrew people were transmitted just orally from one generation to another and later with the establishment of the first Hebrew State around 1000 B.C.E that history was recorded and became to be known as the Hebrew Bible as we know it today (Fiero).<!--more-->

The Hebrew Bible is divided into 3 main parts: first we have the Torah (laws), then the Prophets and finally the writings. Also it is important to mention that those three parts are subdivided into several parts. For example the Torah is compose of the first books of the Hebrew bible, which include the book of Genesis, exodus, Leviticus, numbers and Deuteronomy. These first part of the Hebrew bible or torah are the earliest forms of scriptures from the Hebrews and what is important to mention here is that these books are the results of the writings of many authors and represent years of editing between auditors work than end up with the format and the scriptures that we have today, so in other words many authors contribute to the Hebrew bible (CooK). The first five books of the bible (torah) represent a history of the creation of the world and the history of the Hebrew entry into Cannan. The second part of the Hebrew bible (prophets) is very interesting because the writing of this part of the Hebrew bible are attributed to the prophets themselves and these part of the bible has two sections ,the first are considered the former prophets and is  kind of a continuation of the torah and focus on the history of Israel and the different kingdoms at that time, the other section focus on what is called the classical prophets and this focus on prophets from the eight to fifth centuries B.C.E and the Babylonian exile period and one aspect that makes this section interesting is that they are very short writings compare to the ones from the former prophets section , the fact that these books were shorter facilitated their gathering and the consequently preservation. Also this part of the Hebrew bible is presented in a literary poetic way with few parts detailing the lives and activities of the prophets. The third part of the Hebrew bible (the writings) is basically a recollection of many literary genres that include Psalms (poetry), Lamentations, Proverbs (wisdom literature), historical books (Chronicles) and one of the most talk books of the Hebrew bible which is the book of Daniel that mixes prophecy, history and apocalypse (Hebrew Scriptures).

The origin of the Hebrew people can be traced to the time when their patriarch named Abraham is believed to have led them to settle in Cannan which is ancient Israel, Later the Hebrew people migrated to Egypt but because of many conflicts there they end up becoming slaves. Later in 1250 B.C.E a new patriarch named Moses led them to freedom and they settle in Sinai because the promised land of Cannan a occupied by tribes.

The Hebrew bible or old testament reflects the influence of some of the world most powerful empires and civilizations like the empires of Mesopotamia which include the Babylonians and the Assyrians, also the Persian, Greek and Roman empires because the Hebrew bible stories are not done in a specific time in history but instead are a continuous development of the history of the Hebrew people. Major events are what characterized and shape the scriptures of the Hebrew bible, the Egyptian empire had a stronghold of what is know as ancient Israel from 1450 to 1200 B.C.E. Later around 1000 B.C.E the land was ruled by different kings for almost a century and at the end there was a split of the monarchy causing the creation of different kingdoms in the land of Israel. These was a period that the Hebrew people were free from foreign control but it not lasted long because in 745 B.C.E the Assyrian empire which location corresponds to present day Iraq took control of the land of Israel and all of its kingdoms. The main kingdoms of Israel were the kingdom of Judah (south part of present day Israel) and the kingdom of Israel (North part of present day Israel), this led to the Babylonian exile around 586 B.C.E what characterized the Babylonian exile is that most of the people with power of Israel or the elite were deported to Babylon, many left to never set foot again in the land of Israel. But the influence and impact of foreign empires still presented a great impact in the land of Israel, later in time the Persian empire conquered the Babylonian empire and took control of the land of Israel but the main difference between the Persian empire and other empires in Israel was that the Persian empire help many of the exile Israelites to rebuild their temples and did not try to destroyed their culture as other empires did. Later in 333 B.C.E the land was conquered by Alexander the great which start a period of Hellenistic rule that lasted until 167 B.C.E. Later the Roman empire took the control of the land and changed the name of the territory to Palestine and the control of the territory was in the hands of many people that function as governors. Palestine became part of the Roman Empire and during this period is when Jesus lived and represents the formation of the early stages of the church and the spread of the church to many places. So the history of Israelites has been profoundly influence by some of the most powerful empires in the world and it is important to mention and emphasized here that many of the Hebrew bible books were written during periods were Israelites were under the control of other empires like the ones mention above and the effect that those empires had on the lives and development of the Hebrew writings can not be deny. (Carr )

It is important to mention that there are some stylistic similarities between the writings and the text of the Babylonian empire and Persian empire and Hebrew bible text and the main reason for that is that the Persian and the Babylonian empires at one point had an stronghold on the land of Israel and as a result of that they influence the way Israelites saw life and the way Israelites saw foreigners. For example: the Book (Fiero ) talks about the Babylonian story of the Epic of Gilmamesh and that could be compare to the Hebrew story of genesis. These two stories have many points in common like the big flood that ended up killing many people and also the creation of an ark that was ordered by God to one man with the specific instructions to save a wide variety of animal species. After reading both stories the similarities are so striking that it is hard for many people not to compare and relate both stories which had led many scholars to debate whether one is a copy of the other. Another aspect that had a profound impact in the land of Israel was what people considered the important relationship between God and Israel, for example the people of Israel like any other type of civilization had a huge dependency on water but the main problem was that in other places like in Babylonia or Egypt people could depend on rivers like the Nile or the Tigris river for water, but that was not possible in Israel, so the people of Israel had a huge dependency on rain and excessive periods of no rain were seen as punishment from God for not behaving according to God rules. (Lupovitch). According to experts the Hebrew bible is a combination of myth, history and stories and although some historical information is more difficult to confirm because of the scarcity of written records there is still evidence that talks about how live was in the ancient near east. In regards to education and how Israelites use to educate their youth in order to preserve their culture and move it forward, in the near east the major role that education have was to promote the religious belief of the community and promote respect for the values of the community, also the main tools use to educate people were two things: oral tradition and later written work. In places like Mesopotamia the main source of education was the home were the parents or other clan people was in charge of the education of kids, at the beginning because of the lack of scripture people rely on oral tradition and teaching but later with the advent of the scripture a system evolve that include specialized institutions for teaching which in ancient times involved places like temples and palaces, these characteristics were similar between the Hebrews and other civilizations like the Egyptians and Mesopotamia. But still there were differences between the way the Hebrew educate their people and the way other near east civilizations did it, for example, the Hebrew idea of personal freedom of both man and women and also the idea that people have responsibility with God and also with other people play key a key role in the way Hebrews were educated and these ideas were not common in other civilizations (Elwell).

The impact that the Hebrew bible has on today’s life is characterized by the using of its teachings by many societies today, for example, there are similarities with stories of the Hebrew bible and events that had occurred at present time like similarities between the struggle of the Hebrew people against the Pharaohs and United States history that talks about the struggles of the US early colonist with the English empire. Also during the period of United States independence was common to hear biblical citations that talk about the fight against the tyranny, many speeches at this time of struggle in the US were charged with biblical motifs and messages, for example, in the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence which is one of the main documents of the United States that states that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by the creator with certain unalienable rights which basically shows some influence of Hebrew ideas( Spiro). It is important to mention that the Hebrew Bible is the base of what is considered the New Testament or Bible, which is the holy book of Christianity, so in other words both Christianity and Judaism share a common base. Another aspect in which the Hebrew bible has a profound impact in the world is in practices conducted by businesses today, the torah has a great impact on marketing and business practices, According to Hershey H. Friedman who is a professor of Business and marketing in new York the torah has around 613 precepts and many of them talk about how to conduct business practices, also he mentions that the torah talks about being honest in the marketplace, for example, by prohibiting the merchants and traders of falsifying products or lying about certain characteristics of their products like the measures or weights of products. Another aspect that the torah influence is the idea of providing a fair price for products especially for products that have to so with essential necessities but one important characteristic here is that the torah also try to protect the seller by mentioning that the buyers should not take advantage of the ignorance of seller like in the cases were a seller may not know the right price for a product. Other topics cover in the torah include relationship between employees and employers, mainly the torah talks about not taking advantage of employees by paying fairly wages for their work and by not deceiving people. Also the torah talks about a hot topic today which is social responsibility, for example, the torah mentions that landowners should feel the obligation to help the poor and focus on the welfare of others which is mentioned 36 times in the torah and also the torah mentions people from different places, ethnics, or religious beliefs should be treated fairly. Another hot topic today is covered by the torah which is the responsibility that people have with the environment by prohibiting the excessive consumption that lead to waste of things and that land should be given rest in order to avoid excessive destruction of the land. Also another important way that the Hebrew bible influence life today is because the Psalms of the Hebrew bible mention certain characteristics that individuals should have like integrity, truthful, ethical, honest

( Friedman ).

In my opinion the Hebrew bible is a text that represents a wide variety of literary genres and I think that the Bible is more than just a Religious book that has influence many religions and civilizations all over the world. The Hebrew bible is full of interesting stories and poetry. The stories in the Hebrew bible present a degree of complexity, irony, and imagination. In that sense I think that the Hebrew bible should be consider important for its contribution to religion but also for its contribution to literature. Stories in the bible present unique scenarios that could be compare to present day novels because of their complexity. Also I think it is important to differentiate the difference in the writing style of the Hebrew bible and other work of its time like Homer’s Odyssey mainly because there is difference between the way stories are tell in both work. For example, in the Odyssey Homer put emphasis and depth when describing the places, characters and how places are described, but in the case of the Hebrew bible there is less detailed description of things compared to the Odyssey, so in a way the Hebrew bible allow the reader to imagine or use its own mind in determining those characteristics that are omitted in the stories. This literary characteristic is what gives the Hebrew bible one important characteristic, which is that it allows the different interpretation of its narrative because the readers could fill the gaps that are left out of the text and usually different readers will provide different points of view to different topics. The way I see it is that through the years people that have read the Hebrew bible had put their own personal characteristics and experiences into what they read and that provides many different perspectives to the same stories.

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<strong>Works Cited</strong>

-        Elwell, Walter A. “Entry for Education in Bible times”. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. 1997

-        Spiro, Ken . America and Jewish values. The Jewish impact on Civilization. 2002

Jewhttp://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/all/c/jewish-history/

-        Friedman, Hershey H. “The impact of Jewish values on marketing and business practices”. Journal of Macromarketing Vol.21. June 2001

-        Fiero, Gloria K. “The Humanistic Tradition”. 6<sup>th</sup> edition . McGraw-Hill 2011

-        Cook, James Wyatt. “Hebrew Bible”. Encyclopedia of Ancient Literature. New York 2008

-        Hebrew Scriptures. Encyclopedia of Judaism. The Jerusalem Publishing House. 2002

-        Carr, David M. “An introduction to the Old Testament: Sacred texts and imperial contexts of the Hebrew bible”. Chichester: John Wiley &amp;Sons 2010.

-        Lupovitch, Howard N. “Jews and Judaism in World history”. Themes in world history. Hoboken: Taylor &amp; Francis , 2009.

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