The Old Testament

The English word Bible comes from a Greek word “Biblia,” meaning books. The name is well chosen because the Bible is not one book but a collection of sixty-six books. These sixty-six are divided into two main divisions: The Old Testament (Old Covenant), and the New Testament (New Covenant). It is well then to read and study the Bible not as though it were one book, but as two collections of sacred writings.

The Old Testament was written by Jews in the Hebrew language. It is much larger and more varied in content than the New Testament. It is a religious record of the life of the Hebrew people, telling of the creation of the world, the life of the Patriarchs from Adam to Abraham, and then relating in much greater detail the establishment and history of the people of Israel. It is interesting to look at the books of the Old Testament as they were compiled and classified by the Jewish people.

The Law (Also called Pentateuch or Torah) includes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

The Prophets includes two types, historical and literary. The historical books include Joshua, Judges, Samuel I, II, and Kings I, II. The literary books include Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habbakuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

The Writings include historical and narrative books like Ruth, Esther, and Chronicles I, II; prophetic books like Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah; Poetic books like Psalms, Song of Solomon, and Lamentations; and philosophical books like Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes.

Some people also include the Apocrypha which is a group of “hidden” writings, written from 200 B.C. to 200 A. D., which have not been accepted on a par with the above groups and which do not appear in most versions of the Bible.

Through the centuries devout Jews have held the Law of Moses, the first five books, to be the most sacred part of the Old Testament Canon. This is due to several factors. They tell the heroic story of the great founders of Israel: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and of the establishment of Israel as a nation under Moses, to them the greatest of the prophets. Here is a record of how God chose Israel, brought her out of bondage in Egypt, and established her as a nation in the Holy land of Cannan, and revealed to her great religious and moral truths.

The prophetic writings were the second group of books to be collected and accepted as scripture by the Jews. This portion of the Old Testament, particularly the fifteen literary prophetic books, has gained increasing respect among both Jews and Gentiles in recent centuries. The writing of Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Jonah contain religious poetry and concepts which are unexcelled in the entire Bible, and in some ways, by anything that has ever been written.

The third group of Old Testament books, the Writings, was the last to be accepted as part of the scriptures. They have been loved and appreciated by the Jews and Christians, but have not carried equal authority in matters of belief and doctrine as have the Law and the Prophets. Their value has been more of a meditative and devotional character with some historical interest.

The Old Testament as a whole is large in size, unexcelled in literature, rich in human interest and biography, and contains a great many wonderful and varied religious teachings – devotion, law, wisdom, moral and religious teaching. This book is also the most difficult to understand, presenting serious problems of interpretation to the careful and earnest student.