Old Testament

The Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures (also called the Hebrew Bible) constitutes the first major part of the Bible according to Christianity. It is usually divided into the categories of law, history, poetry (or wisdom books) and prophecy. All of these books were written before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth who is the subject of the subsequent Christian New Testament.

Canon of the Old Testament

:Main article: Biblical canon

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The Protestant Old Testament consists of the same books as the Tanakh, but the order and numbering of the books are different. Protestants number the Old Testament books at 39, while the Jews number the same books as 24. This is because the Jews consider Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles to form one book each, group the 12 minor prophets into one book, and also consider Ezra and Nehemiah a single book. The Roman Catholic, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox include additional books, called the deuterocanonical books, which Protestants exclude as apocryphal. The basis for these books is found in the early Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible. This translation was widely used by the early Christians and is the one most often quoted in the New Testament when it quotes the Old Testament.

Related Topics:
Protestant - Tanakh - Samuel - Kings - Chronicles - Minor prophets - Ezra - Nehemiah - Roman Catholic - Oriental Orthodox - Eastern Orthodox - Deuterocanonical books - Apocrypha - Greek - Septuagint - Christians - New Testament

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See also: Books of the Bible, for a side-by-side comparison of the various canons of the Hebrew Bible.

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