A "Mind-Boggling" Implication: The Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, and the Definition of a Work

Abstract

The uniform title Bible. O.T. has long caused difficulty in Judaica libraries. The well documented problems caused by this heading are reviewed. Alternative models developed by the Hebraica Team of the Library of Congress (LC) are discussed, as is an LC proposed rule change to Resource Description and Access (RDA) that was partially approved by the Joint Steering Committee. The idea by members of the Association of Jewish Libraries to use the Virtual International Authority File as a technical solution is reviewed briefly. The author endorses a model from LC that uses different uniform titles for the Hebrew Bible and Christian Bible. Separate uniform titles are necessary because the two Bibles represent unique works; the ideational and textual differences of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament are seen in both canonical and translation differences.