The Old Testament
The Old Testament is a collection of thirty-nine books. The Old Testament teaches stories of religious models and references, law, faith, praise, worship, and more. Multiple books in the O.T. include laws and songs of praise that Christians continue to implement in their lives today. The O.T. offers a starting point for Christians like myself in their faith. It is divided into four groups of books that teach and influence your life in different ways including: The Law, the Historical, the Poetical, and the Prophetical. The Pentateuch is the first five books of the O.T. which mostly focuses on law and relates to the moral life of Israel. This section of books includes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Genesis means the origin or the beginning. The author of this book tells the story of creation and thus the beginning of the world. The book of Exodus tells the testimony God parting the Red Sea and delivering the Israelites out of Egypt. In the following book, Leviticus, God explains to the
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This section of books consists of twelve books stretching from Joshua to Esther and covers the history of the nation of Israel, Israel’s development, and life. Joshua through Ruth cover the period when Israel was ruled by God. The books of Samuel tell us of the stabilization and expansion of the nation. Throughout the following books until II Chronicles we are taught about the monarch of Israel, the division in the nation, and all the way to the destruction of the temple because of unbelief and disobedience to God. The books Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther teaches us the testimony of the restoration of the Temple, the reconstruction of the city, and the protection of the nation’s people. In the section of Historical Books, we learn about eight-hundred years of Israel’s history including conquering of land, reigns of judges, kings, divisions, and
A ban on the reading or possessing the Bible by the common people was placed from AD 500 to 1500 for about a thousand years. However, it was at the council of Valencia, the Bible was placed on “The Index of Forbidden Books.”
The Hebrew Scriptures Truth, scripture, and revelation are three concepts that the Bible is based on. Truth is defined as the way that things are or should be. It can relate to reality or wisdom. Truth can be communicated in a variety of ways. Literally, which is facts and figures and can be shown in math and science.
The Hebrew Bible, better known as the Old Testament, is a collection of tomes that form part of the Biblical canon. Many scholars around the world do not think that a single author wrote the books contained in the Hebrew Bible, but rather that it represents centuries of stories frequently compiled after the events they describe . The stories were created with visions for the future, in order to allow audiences insight into communities and beliefs that were common thought during their era. The stories responded to the issues and problems of their time, but also addressed contemporary climates. While the stories themselves may not be true, they convey truth without needing literal readings. For example, the creation stories in Genesis, portray God as creating the universe, and while this is considered as not ‘literally true’; the stories communicate theological truths about mankind’s relationship with God through the eyes of Hebrew writers .
Boadt, Lawrence. Reading the Old Testament, An Introduction. 2nd. Edited by Richard Clifford and Daniel Harrington. New York/Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2012.
The Old Testament and the Bible itself has been studied extensively for centuries. Archeologists and Scholars have labored and pondered over texts trying to decipher its clues. It does not matter how many times the Old Testament has been studied there will always be something new to learn about it or the history surrounding it. In the book Reading the Old Testament: an Introduction, the author Lawrence Boadt presents us with a few different authors of the Old Testament that used different names for God and had a unique insight into the texts. These four sources are titled P for priests, E for Elohim, J for Jehovah, and Y for Yahweh (95). These four unique sources help us realize that there is more than one author of the Pentateuch. These authors took the text and adapted for their culture. This independent source is used by scholars to help gain insight into what was behind the texts of the bible so we are not left with an incomplete picture of what went into the creation of the bible. Julius Wellhausen used these four sources to publish a book to able us to better understand the sources and to give it credibility with the Protestant scholars at the time (Boadt 94). These sources that is independent of the bible as in the DVD Who Wrote the Bible? and the Nova website aide in shedding light on the history that surrounded the writers who wrote the text and what inspired them to write it in the first place. The DVD shows the discovery of The Dead Sea Scrolls and the extensive history of the texts and all its sources in an effort to try to find exactly who wrote the bible (Who Wrote). These scrolls have aided scholars immensely by giving us some of the oldest known manuscripts of the bible in the world today. It shows that the bible w...
The book of Judges is the sequel to Joshua. It is the seventh book of the Old Testament. It recounts stories and events from the death of the hebrew leader and prophet Joshua to the birth of the hebrew Samuel. That is roughly, from the end of the Israelite conquest of Canan in the 13th Century B.C to the begining of the monarchy in the 11 th century B.C. It tells about the hebrews from Joshua’s Death to the time of Samuel. It was written in about 550 BC, on tablets named the Ras Shamra tablets. The Ras Shamra tablets where later discovered in the early 20th Century, even though the stories and acountings of the judges where already known and written. The book of Judges belongs to a specific historical tradition which is called the Deuteronomic history. The author of the book of Judges, was in exile in Babylonia. While in exile he was deeply concerned with foreign domination. So he wrote many of his stories on the migration of the tribe of Dan to the North and the sins of the Benjamites. The author emphasized that Israel was being influenced by foreign powers and the loss of freedom and prosperity. Recurring throughout the book is the stereotyped formula: "The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the lord." Then after each period or subjection the author introduces another formula: " But when the people of Israel cried the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people. Through-out the book, the book of judges tells about prophets, rulers and influencial people such as: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tilian and Samson. There are also many more minor people.
The most highly referenced and revered as sacred are The King James Version, considered a masterpiece of English literature, The Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, The Aprocrypha, the books believed left out of some bibles, The Vulgate, the Latin Bible used for centuries by the Roman Catholic religion, and The Septuagint, the first ancient Greek translation of the Tanakh (Geisler and Nix 15, McCallum 4). The Bible is considered a sacred text by three major world religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Many believers consider it to be the literal truth. Others treat it with great respect, but believe that it was written by human beings and, thus is often contradictory in its tenets.
The Torah also known as The Book of Moses or the Pentateuch, refers to the first five books of the Tanakh or Hebrew bible. The religious texts found in the Tanakh come from The Torah, Neviim and Kituvim. The book of Moses is comprised of Bereshit (Genesis), Shemot (Exodus), Vayikra (Leviticus), Bedimar(Numbers) and Devarim (Deuteronomy). The Torah holds traditions, religious laws and teachings that are followed within the religion of Judaism.
Kingship played a vital role in the progression and development of the kingdom of Israel throughout history from the time they first were freed by the mercy of Yahweh. The presentation of ancient Hebrew culture from kingship in the Old Testament reveals the tradition in
The Old Testament is divided into six major sections. During each of these sections, elements of Old Testament history foreshadow various New Testament themes and events. Some of these various accounts recorded in the Old Testament are prophetical in nature and foretell specific details about various events that will be fulfilled in New Testament times. Each of the six major sections carries its own unique overarching theme that will in some way tie into New Testament history and theology. The six major sections of Old Testament are: creation (Genesis 1-11), covenant (Genesis 12-50), congr...
Collins, John J. A Short Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007.
Book of Numbers is a description of certain events in the life of the chosen people, but just as in the Book of Leviticus - Jehovah communicate in the certain principles and rules of life. According to tradition, the author of the book is Moses. The first chapter contains a list of men. Anyone who wanted to lead the spiritual life, he had to make a vow and promise observance of cleanliness. Several Israelites who doubted God and His promises were punished - they would never experience the Promised Land. They rebelled and others as well, among them were, Abiram and Dathan. They stood as the head of two hundred and fifty other rebels who did not want to take orders of Moses and Aaron. Shortly afterwards, death was a punishment for disobedience.
The first five books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy contain the beginnings of the story of God and humanity. At a first glance each book seems not fully connect with all the others; yet with a closer look, the Pentateuch is one complete story to be read in unison. In fact, Gary Schnittjer would say that Genesis 1-12 stets the pattern for the rest of the Pentateuch’s story and form. Furthermore, the continuity between the five books raises the question of authorship. Was the Pentateuch the work of a sole-author—Moses, or is the Pentateuch a compilation of several writings put together in order to tell one story? Therefore, current scholarship on the authorship of the Pentateuch helps to answer that
Let us start with this statement: I believe that new preachers and new people to the Christian Faith try hard to avoid the Old Testament. If they do, they only look at one section and struggle to connect all the pieces together. One of the issues that makes people uncomfortable is the prophets. First, there is a definite volume of them, and then they are divided into “major” and “minor.” I think at the core of our hearts, we are trying to understand the difference among the different biblical prophets.