Old Testament is the name that Christians give to the first part of the Bible. Collect the set of historical, prophetic, wisdom and poetic books of the Jewish religion, as well as the set of mosaic laws.
This part of the Bible is complemented by the New Testament, which revolves around the person and teachings of Jesus, as well as the formation and expansion of Christians. From the Christian point of view, the Old Testament explains the history of creation and the New Testament explains the history of salvation.
While the Old Testament is common to all denominations of Christianity, the compilation accepted by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches differs from the compilation accepted by Protestants.
The canon used by the Catholic Churches corresponds to the so-called Canon Alexandrian or Version of the Seventy, written in Greek and made up of 46 books in total (according to their division, the same books total 51 in the Orthodox version).
The canon of the seventies contains the books not recognized by the Protestant tradition, which are: Tobias, Judith, I book of the Maccabees, II book of the Maccabees, Wisdom, Ecclesiastical and Baruch.
The Protestant canon corresponds to the so-called Hebrew Canon or Canon Palestinense, written in Hebrew, which is made up of a total of 39 books.
Both compilations were used interchangeably in Jesus’ time, without implying deep doctrinal differences among the Jews of that generation.
There is evidence that the apostles used the seventies version because two thirds of their quotations refer to books not included in the Hebrew canon.
Parts of the Old Testament
The Old Testament is structured in the following parts:
Pentateuch or Torah:
It is a set of five books or five rolls, according to ancient tradition, which narrate the creation of the world and the origin of the Jewish faith and the Mosaic law from the cosmogony of Judaism. It is made up of books:
- Genesis
- Exodus
- Levitical
- Numbers
- Deuteronomy
Historical books
These books tell the story of the Jewish people from the death of Moses to the rebellion of the Maccabees against the Hellenes.
- Josue
- Judges
- Rut
- I Samuel
- II Samuel
- I Kings
- II Kings
- I Chronicles
- II Chronicles
- Ezra
- Nehemiah
- Tobias (Catholic version)
- Judit (Catholic version)
- Ester
- I Maccabees (Catholic version)
- II Maccabees (Catholic version)
Wisdom Books
It is a series of wisdom, poetic and wisdom books that range from stories for faith education to the expression of personal and community relationship with God through songs and prayers.
- Job
- Psalms (150)
- Proverbs
- Ecclesiastes (Cohélet)
- Song of songs
- Wisdom (Catholic version)
- Ecclesiastical (Sirácida) (Catholic version)
Prophetic books
The prophetic books are those where the arrival of the Messiah is prophesied that would fulfill the kingdom of God on earth and proclaim hope. They are subdivided into major prophets and minor prophets, a distinction established according to the length of the texts.
Major prophets
- Isaiah
- Jeremiah
- Wailing
- Baruc (Catholic version)
- Letter of Jeremiah 3
- Ezequiel
- Daniel
Minor prophets
- Hosea
- Joel
- Amos
- Obadiah
- Jonah
- Micah
- Nahum
- Habakkuk
- Zephaniah
- Haggai
- Zechariah
- Malachi
