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The Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures constitutes the first major part of the Christian
Bible, usually divided into the categories law, history, poetry and prophecy. All of
those books were written before the birth of Jesus.
The Protestant Old Testament consists of the same books as the Tanakh, but the order and numbering of the books are different. The exact number of books
depends on whether certain disputed books are included, but all Christian groups agree on 39 books. (The Jewish tradition counts them as 24 books, with Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles forming one book
each, the 12 minor prophets grouped into one book, and Ezra and Nehemiah combined into one.) The Roman Catholic and Eastern
Orthodox include an additional seven books, called the Deuterocanonical books, which Protestants exclude as apocryphal.
The Old Testament text used by the earliest Greek-speaking, Christians was the Septuagint, a Greek translation that was widely held by Jews in the first century to be authoritative and which
included the Deuterocanon.
The major difference between the Old Testament and the Jewish scripture, the Tanakh, is in the order of the books. The order of the books of the Old Testament is:
- 1. Genesis
- 2. Exodus
- 3. Leviticus
- 4. Numbers
- 5. Deuteronomy
- 6. Joshua
- 7. Judges
- 8. Ruth
- 9. 1 Samuel
- 10. 2 Samuel
- 11. 1 Kings
- 12. 2 Kings
- 13. 1 Chronicles
- 14. 2 Chronicles
- 15. Ezra
- 16. Nehemiah
- 17. Tobit *
- 18. Judith *
- 19. Esther **
- 20. First Book of Maccabees *
- 21. Second Book of Maccabees *
- 22. Job
- 23. Psalms
- 24. Proverbs
- 25. Ecclesiastes
- 26. Song of Songs
- 27. Wisdom *
- 28. Sirach *
- 29. Isaiah
- 30. Jeremiah
- 31. Lamentations
- 32. Book of Baruch *
- 33. Ezekiel
- 34. Daniel **
- 35. Hosea
- 36. Joel
- 37. Amos
- 38. Obadiah
- 39. Jonah
- 40. Micah
- 41. Nahum
- 42. Habakkuk
- 43. Zephaniah
- 44. Haggai
- 45. Zechariah
- 46. Malachi
* Deuterocanonical book not included with some editions of the Bible, or included separately as Apocrypha.
** Some editions include deuterocanonical passages in this book that are omitted from other editions, or included
separately as Apocrypha.
The naming of the Old Testament
The term "Old Testament" is a translation of the Latin Vetus Testamentum, which
translates the Greek Η Παλαια
Διαθηκη, Hé Palaia Diathêkê, meaning "The Old Covenant (or Testament)". Christians
call this group of books the Old Testament, because of a belief (taught in the Epistle to the Hebrews) that there is a new covenant
or testament between God and mankind, after the coming of Jesus.
Jews themselves do not accept the New Testament or the
characterization of the Tanakh as the Old Testament (although many Jews accept Jesus as
a historical figure and even as a student of a Tannaitic Sage).
The relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament is controversial among Christians. There is some debate among
Protestant scholars over the issue of whether the New Testament applies
to Jewish people, but there is very little debate over its applicability to Gentiles. Similarly, the degree to which the Old
Testament and its laws applies to Christians. Very few Christians, for example, follow the dietary laws within the Old Testament,
whereas almost all Christians believe that the Ten Commandments are
applicable. The question of which Old Testament laws are applicable affects debates on homosexuality and the ordination of women in the priesthood.
Some historical groups such as Gnostics have gone so far as to assert that the God
of the Old Testament is a different being that the God of the New Testament. Most Christian groups believe that this view is
heresy.
Thus, some scholars prefer Hebrew Bible as a term that covers
the commonality of the Tanakh and the Old Testament while avoiding sectarian bias.
The New Testament text however does contain many references to the Old Testament, especially in relation to the fulfillment of
prophecies concerning the promised messiah, whom Christians believe to be
Jesus. In Christian theological views this expectation, present fulfillment and
eschatological fulfillment of the divine, eternal kingdom under the headship of Christ are the thread running through both
Testaments.
See also: Biblical canon; books of the Bible; biblical figures;
Bible; Septuagint; Quotations from the Old Testament in the New Testament
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