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This article is about the Christian Bible. For the related Jewish text, see Hebrew Bible.

The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites.^[1] The second division of Christian Bibles is the New Testament, written in the Koine Greek language.

The Old Testament consists of many distinct books by various authors produced over a period of centuries.^[2] Christians traditionally divide the Old Testament into four sections: the first five books or Pentateuch (corresponds to the Jewish Torah); the history books telling the history of the Israelites, from their conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon; the poetic and «Wisdom books» dealing, in various forms, with questions of good and evil in the world; and the books of the biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning away from God.

The books that compose the Old Testament canon and their order and names differ between various branches of Christianity. The canons of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches comprise up to 49 books; the Catholic canon comprises 46 books; and the most common Protestant canon comprises 39 books.^[3]

There are 39 books common to essentially all Christian canons. They correspond to the 24 books of the Tanakh, with some differences of order, and there are some differences in text. The additional number reflects the splitting of several texts (Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra–Nehemiah, and the Twelve Minor Prophets) into separate books in Christian Bibles. The books that are part of the Christian Old Testament but that are not part of the Hebrew canon are sometimes described as deuterocanonical. In general, Catholic and Orthodox churches include these books in the Old Testament. Most Protestant Bibles do not include the deuterocanonical books in their canon, but some versions of Anglican and Lutheran Bibles place such books in a separate section called apocrypha. These books are ultimately derived from the earlier Greek Septuagint collection of the Hebrew scriptures and are also Jewish in origin. Some are also contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Content[edit]

The Old Testament contains 39 (Protestant), 46 (Catholic), or more (Orthodox and other) books, divided, very broadly, into the Pentateuch (Torah), the historical books, the «wisdom» books and the prophets.^[4]

The table below uses the spellings and names present in modern editions of the Christian Bible, such as the Catholic New American Bible Revised Edition and the Protestant Revised Standard Version and English Standard Version. The spelling and names in both the 1609–F10 Douay Old Testament (and in the 1582 Rheims New Testament) and the 1749 revision by Bishop Challoner (the edition currently in print used by many Catholics, and the source of traditional Catholic spellings in English) and in the Septuagint differ from those spellings and names used in modern editions which are derived from the Hebrew Masoretic text.^[a]

For the Orthodox canon, Septuagint titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. For the Catholic canon, the Douaic titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. Likewise, the King James Version references some of these books by the traditional spelling when referring to them in the New Testament, such as «Esaias» (for Isaiah).

In the spirit of ecumenism more recent Catholic translations (e.g. the New American Bible, Jerusalem Bible, and ecumenical translations used by Catholics, such as the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition) use the same «standardized» (King James Version) spellings and names as Protestant Bibles (e.g. 1 Chronicles as opposed to the Douaic 1 Paralipomenon, 1–2 Samuel and 1–2 Kings instead of 1–4 Kings) in those books which are universally considered canonical, the protocanonicals.

The Talmud (the Jewish commentary on the scriptures) in Bava Batra 14b gives a different order for the books in Nevi’im and Ketuvim. This order is also cited in Mishneh Torah Hilchot Sefer Torah 7:15. The order of the books of the Torah is universal through all denominations of Judaism and Christianity.

The disputed books, included in most canons but not in others, are often called the Biblical apocrypha, a term that is sometimes used specifically to describe the books in the Catholic and Orthodox canons that are absent from the Jewish Masoretic Text and most modern Protestant Bibles. Catholics, following the Canon of Trent (1546), describe these books as deuterocanonical, while Greek Orthodox Christians, following the Synod of Jerusalem (1672), use the traditional name of anagignoskomena, meaning «that which is to be read.» They are present in a few historic Protestant versions; the German Luther Bible included such books, as did the English 1611 King James Version.^[b]

Empty table cells indicate that a book is absent from that canon.

  Pentateuch, corresponding to the Hebrew Torah

  Historical books, most closely corresponding to the Hebrew Nevi’im (Prophets)

  Wisdom books, most closely corresponding to the Hebrew Ketuvim (Writings)

  Major Prophets

  Twelve Minor Prophets

Several of the books in the Eastern Orthodox canon are also found in the appendix to the Latin Vulgate, formerly the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church.

Historicity[edit]

Early scholarship[edit]

Some of the stories of the Pentateuch may derive from older sources. American science writer Homer W. Smith points out similarities between the Genesis creation narrative and that of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, such as the inclusion of the creation of the first man (Adam/Enkidu) in the Garden of Eden, a tree of knowledge, a tree of life, and a deceptive serpent.^[8] Scholars such as Andrew R. George point out the similarity of the Genesis flood narrative and the Gilgamesh flood myth.^[9][u] Similarities between the origin story of Moses and that of Sargon of Akkad were noted by psychoanalyst Otto Rank in 1909^[13] and popularized by 20th century writers, such as H. G. Wells and Joseph Campbell.^[14][15] Jacob Bronowski writes that, «the Bible is … part folklore and part record. History is … written by the victors, and the Israelis, when they burst through [Jericho (c. 1400 BC)], became the carriers of history.»^[16]

Recent scholarship[edit]

In 2007, a scholar of Judaism Lester L. Grabbe explained that earlier biblical scholars such as Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918) could be described as ‘maximalist’, accepting biblical text unless it has been disproven. Continuing in this tradition, both «the ‘substantial historicity’ of the patriarchs» and «the unified conquest of the land» were widely accepted in the United States until about the 1970s. Contrarily, Grabbe says that those in his field now «are all minimalists – at least, when it comes to the patriarchal period and the settlement. … [V]ery few are willing to operate [as maximalists].»^[17]

Composition[edit]

The first five books—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, book of Numbers and Deuteronomy—reached their present form in the Persian period (538–332 BC), and their authors were the elite of exilic returnees who controlled the Temple at that time.^[18] The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings follow, forming a history of Israel from the Conquest of Canaan to the Siege of Jerusalem c. 587 BC. There is a broad consensus among scholars that these originated as a single work (the so-called «Deuteronomistic History») during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BC.^[19]

The two Books of Chronicles cover much the same material as the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic history and probably date from the 4th century BC.^[20] Chronicles, and Ezra–Nehemiah, was probably finished during the 3rd century BC.^[21] Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments contain two (Catholic Old Testament) to four (Orthodox) Books of Maccabees, written in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.

These history books make up around half the total content of the Old Testament. Of the remainder, the books of the various prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve «minor prophets»—were written between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, with the exceptions of Jonah and Daniel, which were written much later.^[22] The «wisdom» books—Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Song of Solomon—have various dates: Proverbs possibly was completed by the Hellenistic time (332–198 BC), though containing much older material as well; Job completed by the 6th century BC; Ecclesiastes by the 3rd century BC.^[23]

Themes[edit]

Throughout the Old Testament, God is consistently depicted as the one who created the world. Although the God of the Old Testament is not consistently presented as the only God who exists, he is always depicted as the only God whom Israel is to worship, or the one «true God», that only Yahweh (or YHWH) is Almighty.^[24]

The Old Testament stresses the special relationship between God and his chosen people, Israel, but includes instructions for proselytes as well. This relationship is expressed in the biblical covenant (contract)^{[25][26][27][28][29][30]} between the two, received by Moses. The law codes in books such as Exodus and especially Deuteronomy are the terms of the contract: Israel swears faithfulness to God, and God swears to be Israel’s special protector and supporter.^[24] However, The Jewish Study Bible denies that the word covenant (brit in Hebrew) means «contract»; in the ancient Near East, a covenant would have been sworn before the gods, who would be its enforcers. As God is part of the agreement, and not merely witnessing it, The Jewish Study Bible instead interprets the term to refer to a pledge.^[31]

Further themes in the Old Testament include salvation, redemption, divine judgment, obedience and disobedience, faith and faithfulness, among others. Throughout there is a strong emphasis on ethics and ritual purity, both of which God demands, although some of the prophets and wisdom writers seem to question this, arguing that God demands social justice above purity, and perhaps does not even care about purity at all. The Old Testament’s moral code enjoins fairness, intervention on behalf of the vulnerable, and the duty of those in power to administer justice righteously. It forbids murder, bribery and corruption, deceitful trading, and many sexual misdemeanours. All morality is traced back to God, who is the source of all goodness.^[32]

The problem of evil plays a large part in the Old Testament. The problem the Old Testament authors faced was that a good God must have had just reason for bringing disaster (meaning notably, but not only, the Babylonian exile) upon his people. The theme is played out, with many variations, in books as different as the histories of Kings and Chronicles, the prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah, and in the wisdom books like Job and Ecclesiastes.^[32]

Formation[edit]

The process by which scriptures became canons and Bibles was a long one, and its complexities account for the many different Old Testaments which exist today. Timothy H. Lim, a professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at the University of Edinburgh, identifies the Old Testament as «a collection of authoritative texts of apparently divine origin that went through a human process of writing and editing.»^[2] He states that it is not a magical book, nor was it literally written by God and passed to mankind. By about the 5th century BC, Jews saw the five books of the Torah (the Old Testament Pentateuch) as having authoritative status; by the 2nd century BC, the Prophets had a similar status, although without quite the same level of respect as the Torah; beyond that, the Jewish scriptures were fluid, with different groups seeing authority in different books.^[33]

Greek[edit]

Hebrew texts began to be translated into Greek in Alexandria in about 280 and continued until about 130 BC.^[34] These early Greek translations – supposedly commissioned by Ptolemy Philadelphus – were called the Septuagint (Latin for ‘Seventy’) from the supposed number of translators involved (hence its abbreviation «LXX»). This Septuagint remains the basis of the Old Testament in the Eastern Orthodox Church.^[35]

It varies in many places from the Masoretic Text and includes numerous books no longer considered canonical in some traditions: 1 and 2 Esdras, Judith, Tobit, 3 and 4 Maccabees, the Book of Wisdom, Sirach, and Baruch.^[36] Early modern biblical criticism typically explained these variations as intentional or ignorant corruptions by the Alexandrian scholars, but most recent scholarship holds it is simply based on early source texts differing from those later used by the Masoretes in their work.

The Septuagint was originally used by Hellenized Jews whose knowledge of Greek was better than Hebrew. However, the texts came to be used predominantly by gentile converts to Christianity and by the early Church as its scripture, Greek being the lingua franca of the early Church. The three most acclaimed early interpreters were Aquila of Sinope, Symmachus the Ebionite, and Theodotion; in his Hexapla, Origen placed his edition of the Hebrew text beside its transcription in Greek letters and four parallel translations: Aquila’s, Symmachus’s, the Septuagint’s, and Theodotion’s. The so-called «fifth» and «sixth editions» were two other Greek translations supposedly miraculously discovered by students outside the towns of Jericho and Nicopolis: these were added to Origen’s Octapla.^[37]

In 331, Constantine I commissioned Eusebius to deliver fifty Bibles for the Church of Constantinople. Athanasius^[38] recorded Alexandrian scribes around 340 preparing Bibles for Constans. Little else is known, though there is plenty of speculation. For example, it is speculated that this may have provided motivation for canon lists and that Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus are examples of these Bibles. Together with the Peshitta and Codex Alexandrinus, these are the earliest extant Christian Bibles.^[39] There is no evidence among the canons of the First Council of Nicaea of any determination on the canon. However, Jerome (347–420), in his Prologue to Judith, claims that the Book of Judith was «found by the Nicene Council to have been counted among the number of the Sacred Scriptures».^[40]

Latin[edit]

In Western Christianity or Christianity in the Western half of the Roman Empire, Latin had displaced Greek as the common language of the early Christians, and in 382 AD Pope Damasus I commissioned Jerome, the leading scholar of the day, to produce an updated Latin Bible to replace the Vetus Latina, which was a Latin translation of the Septuagint. Jerome’s work, called the Vulgate, was a direct translation from Hebrew, since he argued for the superiority of the Hebrew texts in correcting the Septuagint on both philological and theological grounds.^[41] His Vulgate Old Testament became the standard Bible used in the Western Church, specifically as the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate, while the Churches in the East continued, and continue, to use the Septuagint.^[42]

Jerome, however, in the Vulgate’s prologues describes some portions of books in the Septuagint not found in the Hebrew Bible as being non-canonical (he called them apocrypha);^[43] for Baruch, he mentions by name in his Prologue to Jeremiah and notes that it is neither read nor held among the Hebrews, but does not explicitly call it apocryphal or «not in the canon».^[44] The Synod of Hippo (in 393), followed by the Council of Carthage (397) and the Council of Carthage (419), may be the first council that explicitly accepted the first canon which includes the books that did not appear in the Hebrew Bible;^[45] the councils were under significant influence of Augustine of Hippo, who regarded the canon as already closed.^[46]

Protestant canon[edit]

In the 16th century, the Protestant reformers sided with Jerome; yet although most Protestant Bibles now have only those books that appear in the Hebrew Bible, the order is that of the Greek Bible.^[47]

Rome then officially adopted a canon, the Canon of Trent, which is seen as following Augustine’s Carthaginian Councils^[48] or the Council of Rome,^[49][50] and includes most, but not all, of the Septuagint (3 Ezra and 3 and 4 Maccabees are excluded);^[51] the Anglicans after the English Civil War adopted a compromise position, restoring the 39 Articles and keeping the extra books that were excluded by the Westminster Confession of Faith, both for private study and for reading in churches but not for establishing any doctrine, while Lutherans kept them for private study, gathered in an appendix as biblical apocrypha.^[47]

Other versions[edit]

While the Hebrew, Greek and Latin versions of the Hebrew Bible are the best known Old Testaments, there were others. At much the same time as the Septuagint was being produced, translations were being made into Aramaic, the language of Jews living in Palestine and the Near East and likely the language of Jesus: these are called the Aramaic Targums, from a word meaning «translation», and were used to help Jewish congregations understand their scriptures.^[52]

For Aramaic Christians there was a Syriac translation of the Hebrew Bible called the Peshitta, as well as versions in Coptic (the everyday language of Egypt in the first Christian centuries, descended from ancient Egyptian), Ethiopic (for use in the Ethiopian church, one of the oldest Christian churches), Armenian (Armenia was the first to adopt Christianity as its official religion), and Arabic.^[52]

Christian theology[edit]

Christianity is based on the belief that the historical Jesus is also the Christ, as in the Confession of Peter. This belief is in turn based on Jewish understandings of the meaning of the Hebrew term Messiah, which, like the Greek «Christ», means «anointed». In the Hebrew Scriptures, it describes a king anointed with oil on his accession to the throne: he becomes «The LORD‘s anointed» or Yahweh’s Anointed.

By the time of Jesus, some Jews expected that a flesh and blood descendant of David (the «Son of David») would come to establish a real Jewish kingdom in Jerusalem, instead of the Roman province of Judaea.^[53] Others stressed the Son of Man, a distinctly other-worldly figure who would appear as a judge at the end of time. Some expounded a synthesised view of both positions, where a messianic kingdom of this world would last for a set period and be followed by the other-worldly age or World to Come.

Some^[who?] thought the Messiah was already present, but unrecognised due to Israel’s sins; some^[who?] thought that the Messiah would be announced by a forerunner, probably Elijah (as promised by the prophet Malachi, whose book now ends the Old Testament and precedes Mark’s account of John the Baptist). However, no view of the Messiah as based on the Old Testament predicted a Messiah who would suffer and die for the sins of all people.^[53] The story of Jesus’ death, therefore, involved a profound shift in meaning from the Old Testament tradition.^[54]

The name «Old Testament» reflects Christianity’s understanding of itself as the fulfilment of Jeremiah’s prophecy of a New Covenant (which is similar to «testament» and often conflated) to replace the existing covenant between God and Israel (Jeremiah 31:31)^[55].^[1] The emphasis, however, has shifted from Judaism’s understanding of the covenant as a racially- or tribally-based pledge between God and the Jewish people, to one between God and any person of faith who is «in Christ».^[56]

See also[edit]

• Abrogation of Old Covenant laws
• Biblical and Quranic narratives
• Book of Job in Byzantine illuminated manuscripts
• Criticism of the Bible
• Expounding of the Law
• Law and Gospel
• List of ancient legal codes
• List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts
• Marcion of Sinope
• Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible
• Quotations from the Hebrew Bible in the New Testament
• Timeline of Genesis patriarchs

Explanatory notes[edit]

Citations[edit]

General and cited references[edit]

• Bandstra, Barry L (2004), Reading the Old Testament: an introduction to the Hebrew Bible, Wadsworth, ISBN 978-0-495-39105-0
• Barton, John (1997), How the Bible Came to Be, Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 978-0-664-25785-9
• ——— (2001), «Introduction to the Old Testament», in Muddiman, John; Barton, John (eds.), Bible Commentary, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-875500-5
• Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi, eds. (2014-10-17). The Jewish Study Bible: Second Edition. Oxford University Press. p. PT194. ISBN 978-0-19-939387-9.
• Berman, Joshua A. (Summer 2006). «God’s Alliance with Man». Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation (25). ISSN 0793-6664. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
• Blenkinsopp, Joseph (1998), «The Pentateuch», in Barton, John (ed.), The Cambridge companion to biblical interpretation, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-48593-7
• Boadt, Lawrence (1984), Reading the Old Testament: an introduction, Paulist Press, ISBN 978-0-8091-2631-6
• Brettler, Marc Zvi (2005), How to read the Bible, Jewish Publication Society, ISBN 978-0-8276-1001-9
• Bultman, Christoph (2001), «Deuteronomy», in Barton, John; Muddiman, John (eds.), Oxford Bible Commentary, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-875500-5
• Coggins, Richard J (2003), «1 and 2 Chronicles», in Dunn, James DG; Rogerson, John William (eds.), Commentary on the Bible, Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-3711-0
• Coogan, Michael David (2008-11-01). A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in Its Context. Oxford University Press. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-19-533272-8..
• Crenshaw, James L (2010), Old Testament wisdom: an introduction, Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 978-0-664-23459-1
• Davies, GI (1998), «Introduction to the Pentateuch», in Barton, John (ed.), Oxford Bible Commentary, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-875500-5
• Dines, Jennifer M (2004), «The Septuagint», Continuum, ISBN 978-0-567-08464-4
• Farmer, Ron (1991), «Messiah/Christ», in Mills, Watson E; Bullard, Roger Aubrey (eds.), Mercer dictionary of the Bible, Mercer University Press, ISBN 978-0-86554-373-7
• Ferguson, Everett (1996). The Church of Christ: A Biblical Ecclesiology for Today. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-8028-4189-6.
• Gentry, Peter R (2008), «Old Greek and Later Revisors», in Sollamo, Raija; Voitila, Anssi; Jokiranta, Jutta (eds.), Scripture in transition, Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-16582-3
• Grabbe, Lester L (2003), «Ezra», in Dunn, James DG; Rogerson, John William (eds.), Commentary on the Bible, Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-3711-0
• Hasel, Gerhard F (1991), Old Testament theology: basic issues in the current debate, Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-0537-9
• Hayes, Christine (2006). «Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible): Lecture 6 Transcript». Open Yale Courses. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
• Herion, Gary A (2000), «Covenant», in Freedman, David Noel (ed.), Dictionary of the Bible, Eerdmans, ISBN 978-90-5356-503-2
• Jobes, Karen H; Silva, Moises (2005), Invitation to the Septuagint, Baker Academic
• Jones, Barry A (2000), «Canon of the Old Testament», in Freedman, David Noel (ed.), Dictionary of the Bible, William B Eerdmans, ISBN 978-90-5356-503-2
• Juel, Donald (2000), «Christ», in Freedman, David Noel (ed.), Dictionary of the Bible, William B Eerdmans, ISBN 978-90-5356-503-2
• Levine, Amy-Jill (2001). «Covenant and Law, Part I (Exodus 19–40, Leviticus, Deuteronomy). Lecture 10» (PDF). The Old Testament. Course Guidebook. The Great Courses. p. 46.
• Lim, Timothy H. (2005). The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• McLay, Tim (2003), The use of the Septuagint in New Testament research, Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-6091-0
• Miller, John W (2004), How the Bible came to be, Paulist Press, ISBN 978-0-8091-4183-8
• Miller, John W (1987), Meet the prophets: a beginner’s guide to the books of the biblical prophets, Paulist Press, ISBN 978-0-8091-2899-0
• Miller, Stephen R. (1994), Daniel, B&H Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-8054-0118-9
• Rogerson, John W (2003), «Deuteronomy», in Dunn, James DG; Rogerson, John William (eds.), Commentary on the Bible, Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-3711-0
• Sailhamer, John H. (1992), The Pentateuch As Narrative, Zondervan, ISBN 978-0-310-57421-7
• Schniedewind, William M (2004), How the Bible Became a Book, Cambridge, ISBN 978-0-521-53622-6
• Ska, Jean Louis (2009). The Exegesis of the Pentateuch: Exegetical Studies and Basic Questions. Mohr Siebeck. p. 213. ISBN 978-3-16-149905-0.
• Soggin, J. Alberto (1987), Introduction to the Old Testament, Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 978-0-664-22156-0
• Stuart, Douglas (1987), Hosea-Jonah, Thomas Nelson, ISBN 978-0-8499-0230-7
• Würthwein, Ernst (1995), The text of the Old Testament: an introduction to the Biblia Hebraica, William B Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-0788-5

Further reading[edit]

• Anderson, Bernhard. Understanding the Old Testament. ISBN 0-13-948399-3
• Bahnsen, Greg, et al., Five Views on Law and Gospel (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993).
• Berkowitz, Ariel; Berkowitz, D’vorah (2004), Torah Rediscovered (4th ed.), Shoreshim, ISBN 978-0-9752914-0-5.
• Dever, William G. (2003), Who Were the Early Israelites?, Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-0975-9.
• Driver, Samuel Rolles (1911). «Bible» . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 849–894.
• Hill, Andrew; Walton, John (2000), A Survey of the Old Testament (2nd ed.), Grand Rapids: Zondervan, ISBN 978-0-310-22903-2.
• Kuntz, John Kenneth (1974), The People of Ancient Israel: an introduction to Old Testament Literature, History, and Thought, Harper & Row, ISBN 978-0-06-043822-7.
• Lancaster, D Thomas (2005), Restoration: Returning the Torah of God to the Disciples of Jesus, Littleton : First Fruits of Zion.
• Papadaki-Oekland, Stella (2009), Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts of the Book of Job, ISBN 978-2-503-53232-5.
• von Rad, Gerhard (1982–1984), Theologie des Alten Testaments [Theology of the Old Testament] (in German), vol. Band 1–2, Munich: Auflage.
• Rouvière, Jean-Marc (2006), Brèves méditations sur la Création du monde [Brief meditations on the creation of the World] (in French), Paris: L’Harmattan.
• Salibi, Kamal (1985), The Bible Came from Arabia, London: Jonathan Cape, ISBN 978-0-224-02830-1.
• Schmid, Konrad (2012), The Old Testament: A Literary History, Minneapolis: Fortress, ISBN 978-0-8006-9775-4.
• Silberman, Neil A; et al. (2003), The Bible Unearthed, New York: Simon & Schuster, ISBN 978-0-684-86912-4 (hardback), ISBN 0-684-86913-6 (paperback).
• Sprinkle, Joseph ‘Joe’ M (2006), Biblical Law and Its Relevance: A Christian Understanding and Ethical Application for Today of the Mosaic Regulations, Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, ISBN 978-0-7618-3371-0 (clothbound) and ISBN 0-7618-3372-2 (paperback).

External links[edit]

• Bible gateway. Full texts of the Old (and New) Testaments including the full Roman and Orthodox Catholic canons
• Early Jewish Writings, archived from the original on 2018-09-24, retrieved 2018-09-29 — Tanakh
• «Old Testament», Écritures, La feuille d’Olivier, archived from the original on 2010-12-07 Protestant Old Testament on a single page
• «Old Testament», Reading Room, Canada: Tyndale Seminary. Extensive online Old Testament resources (including commentaries)
• Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible), Yale University
• «Old Testament». Encyclopedia.com. The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.
• Bible, X10 host: Old Testament stories and commentary
• Tanakh ML (parallel Bible) – Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the King James Version

This article is about the Christian Bible. For the related Jewish text, see Hebrew Bible.

The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites.^[1] The second division of Christian Bibles is the New Testament, written in the Koine Greek language.

The Old Testament consists of many distinct books by various authors produced over a period of centuries.^[2] Christians traditionally divide the Old Testament into four sections: the first five books or Pentateuch (corresponds to the Jewish Torah); the history books telling the history of the Israelites, from their conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon; the poetic and «Wisdom books» dealing, in various forms, with questions of good and evil in the world; and the books of the biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning away from God.

The books that compose the Old Testament canon and their order and names differ between various branches of Christianity. The canons of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches comprise up to 49 books; the Catholic canon comprises 46 books; and the most common Protestant canon comprises 39 books.^[3]

There are 39 books common to essentially all Christian canons. They correspond to the 24 books of the Tanakh, with some differences of order, and there are some differences in text. The additional number reflects the splitting of several texts (Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra–Nehemiah, and the Twelve Minor Prophets) into separate books in Christian Bibles. The books that are part of the Christian Old Testament but that are not part of the Hebrew canon are sometimes described as deuterocanonical. In general, Catholic and Orthodox churches include these books in the Old Testament. Most Protestant Bibles do not include the deuterocanonical books in their canon, but some versions of Anglican and Lutheran Bibles place such books in a separate section called apocrypha. These books are ultimately derived from the earlier Greek Septuagint collection of the Hebrew scriptures and are also Jewish in origin. Some are also contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Content[edit]

The Old Testament contains 39 (Protestant), 46 (Catholic), or more (Orthodox and other) books, divided, very broadly, into the Pentateuch (Torah), the historical books, the «wisdom» books and the prophets.^[4]

The table below uses the spellings and names present in modern editions of the Christian Bible, such as the Catholic New American Bible Revised Edition and the Protestant Revised Standard Version and English Standard Version. The spelling and names in both the 1609–F10 Douay Old Testament (and in the 1582 Rheims New Testament) and the 1749 revision by Bishop Challoner (the edition currently in print used by many Catholics, and the source of traditional Catholic spellings in English) and in the Septuagint differ from those spellings and names used in modern editions which are derived from the Hebrew Masoretic text.^[a]

For the Orthodox canon, Septuagint titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. For the Catholic canon, the Douaic titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. Likewise, the King James Version references some of these books by the traditional spelling when referring to them in the New Testament, such as «Esaias» (for Isaiah).

In the spirit of ecumenism more recent Catholic translations (e.g. the New American Bible, Jerusalem Bible, and ecumenical translations used by Catholics, such as the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition) use the same «standardized» (King James Version) spellings and names as Protestant Bibles (e.g. 1 Chronicles as opposed to the Douaic 1 Paralipomenon, 1–2 Samuel and 1–2 Kings instead of 1–4 Kings) in those books which are universally considered canonical, the protocanonicals.

The Talmud (the Jewish commentary on the scriptures) in Bava Batra 14b gives a different order for the books in Nevi’im and Ketuvim. This order is also cited in Mishneh Torah Hilchot Sefer Torah 7:15. The order of the books of the Torah is universal through all denominations of Judaism and Christianity.

The disputed books, included in most canons but not in others, are often called the Biblical apocrypha, a term that is sometimes used specifically to describe the books in the Catholic and Orthodox canons that are absent from the Jewish Masoretic Text and most modern Protestant Bibles. Catholics, following the Canon of Trent (1546), describe these books as deuterocanonical, while Greek Orthodox Christians, following the Synod of Jerusalem (1672), use the traditional name of anagignoskomena, meaning «that which is to be read.» They are present in a few historic Protestant versions; the German Luther Bible included such books, as did the English 1611 King James Version.^[b]

Empty table cells indicate that a book is absent from that canon.

  Pentateuch, corresponding to the Hebrew Torah

  Historical books, most closely corresponding to the Hebrew Nevi’im (Prophets)

  Wisdom books, most closely corresponding to the Hebrew Ketuvim (Writings)

  Major Prophets

  Twelve Minor Prophets

Several of the books in the Eastern Orthodox canon are also found in the appendix to the Latin Vulgate, formerly the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church.

Historicity[edit]

Early scholarship[edit]

Some of the stories of the Pentateuch may derive from older sources. American science writer Homer W. Smith points out similarities between the Genesis creation narrative and that of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, such as the inclusion of the creation of the first man (Adam/Enkidu) in the Garden of Eden, a tree of knowledge, a tree of life, and a deceptive serpent.^[8] Scholars such as Andrew R. George point out the similarity of the Genesis flood narrative and the Gilgamesh flood myth.^[9][u] Similarities between the origin story of Moses and that of Sargon of Akkad were noted by psychoanalyst Otto Rank in 1909^[13] and popularized by 20th century writers, such as H. G. Wells and Joseph Campbell.^[14][15] Jacob Bronowski writes that, «the Bible is … part folklore and part record. History is … written by the victors, and the Israelis, when they burst through [Jericho (c. 1400 BC)], became the carriers of history.»^[16]

Recent scholarship[edit]

In 2007, a scholar of Judaism Lester L. Grabbe explained that earlier biblical scholars such as Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918) could be described as ‘maximalist’, accepting biblical text unless it has been disproven. Continuing in this tradition, both «the ‘substantial historicity’ of the patriarchs» and «the unified conquest of the land» were widely accepted in the United States until about the 1970s. Contrarily, Grabbe says that those in his field now «are all minimalists – at least, when it comes to the patriarchal period and the settlement. … [V]ery few are willing to operate [as maximalists].»^[17]

Composition[edit]

The first five books—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, book of Numbers and Deuteronomy—reached their present form in the Persian period (538–332 BC), and their authors were the elite of exilic returnees who controlled the Temple at that time.^[18] The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings follow, forming a history of Israel from the Conquest of Canaan to the Siege of Jerusalem c. 587 BC. There is a broad consensus among scholars that these originated as a single work (the so-called «Deuteronomistic History») during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BC.^[19]

The two Books of Chronicles cover much the same material as the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic history and probably date from the 4th century BC.^[20] Chronicles, and Ezra–Nehemiah, was probably finished during the 3rd century BC.^[21] Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments contain two (Catholic Old Testament) to four (Orthodox) Books of Maccabees, written in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.

These history books make up around half the total content of the Old Testament. Of the remainder, the books of the various prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve «minor prophets»—were written between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, with the exceptions of Jonah and Daniel, which were written much later.^[22] The «wisdom» books—Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Song of Solomon—have various dates: Proverbs possibly was completed by the Hellenistic time (332–198 BC), though containing much older material as well; Job completed by the 6th century BC; Ecclesiastes by the 3rd century BC.^[23]

Themes[edit]

Throughout the Old Testament, God is consistently depicted as the one who created the world. Although the God of the Old Testament is not consistently presented as the only God who exists, he is always depicted as the only God whom Israel is to worship, or the one «true God», that only Yahweh (or YHWH) is Almighty.^[24]

The Old Testament stresses the special relationship between God and his chosen people, Israel, but includes instructions for proselytes as well. This relationship is expressed in the biblical covenant (contract)^{[25][26][27][28][29][30]} between the two, received by Moses. The law codes in books such as Exodus and especially Deuteronomy are the terms of the contract: Israel swears faithfulness to God, and God swears to be Israel’s special protector and supporter.^[24] However, The Jewish Study Bible denies that the word covenant (brit in Hebrew) means «contract»; in the ancient Near East, a covenant would have been sworn before the gods, who would be its enforcers. As God is part of the agreement, and not merely witnessing it, The Jewish Study Bible instead interprets the term to refer to a pledge.^[31]

Further themes in the Old Testament include salvation, redemption, divine judgment, obedience and disobedience, faith and faithfulness, among others. Throughout there is a strong emphasis on ethics and ritual purity, both of which God demands, although some of the prophets and wisdom writers seem to question this, arguing that God demands social justice above purity, and perhaps does not even care about purity at all. The Old Testament’s moral code enjoins fairness, intervention on behalf of the vulnerable, and the duty of those in power to administer justice righteously. It forbids murder, bribery and corruption, deceitful trading, and many sexual misdemeanours. All morality is traced back to God, who is the source of all goodness.^[32]

The problem of evil plays a large part in the Old Testament. The problem the Old Testament authors faced was that a good God must have had just reason for bringing disaster (meaning notably, but not only, the Babylonian exile) upon his people. The theme is played out, with many variations, in books as different as the histories of Kings and Chronicles, the prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah, and in the wisdom books like Job and Ecclesiastes.^[32]

Formation[edit]

The process by which scriptures became canons and Bibles was a long one, and its complexities account for the many different Old Testaments which exist today. Timothy H. Lim, a professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at the University of Edinburgh, identifies the Old Testament as «a collection of authoritative texts of apparently divine origin that went through a human process of writing and editing.»^[2] He states that it is not a magical book, nor was it literally written by God and passed to mankind. By about the 5th century BC, Jews saw the five books of the Torah (the Old Testament Pentateuch) as having authoritative status; by the 2nd century BC, the Prophets had a similar status, although without quite the same level of respect as the Torah; beyond that, the Jewish scriptures were fluid, with different groups seeing authority in different books.^[33]

Greek[edit]

Hebrew texts began to be translated into Greek in Alexandria in about 280 and continued until about 130 BC.^[34] These early Greek translations – supposedly commissioned by Ptolemy Philadelphus – were called the Septuagint (Latin for ‘Seventy’) from the supposed number of translators involved (hence its abbreviation «LXX»). This Septuagint remains the basis of the Old Testament in the Eastern Orthodox Church.^[35]

It varies in many places from the Masoretic Text and includes numerous books no longer considered canonical in some traditions: 1 and 2 Esdras, Judith, Tobit, 3 and 4 Maccabees, the Book of Wisdom, Sirach, and Baruch.^[36] Early modern biblical criticism typically explained these variations as intentional or ignorant corruptions by the Alexandrian scholars, but most recent scholarship holds it is simply based on early source texts differing from those later used by the Masoretes in their work.

The Septuagint was originally used by Hellenized Jews whose knowledge of Greek was better than Hebrew. However, the texts came to be used predominantly by gentile converts to Christianity and by the early Church as its scripture, Greek being the lingua franca of the early Church. The three most acclaimed early interpreters were Aquila of Sinope, Symmachus the Ebionite, and Theodotion; in his Hexapla, Origen placed his edition of the Hebrew text beside its transcription in Greek letters and four parallel translations: Aquila’s, Symmachus’s, the Septuagint’s, and Theodotion’s. The so-called «fifth» and «sixth editions» were two other Greek translations supposedly miraculously discovered by students outside the towns of Jericho and Nicopolis: these were added to Origen’s Octapla.^[37]

In 331, Constantine I commissioned Eusebius to deliver fifty Bibles for the Church of Constantinople. Athanasius^[38] recorded Alexandrian scribes around 340 preparing Bibles for Constans. Little else is known, though there is plenty of speculation. For example, it is speculated that this may have provided motivation for canon lists and that Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus are examples of these Bibles. Together with the Peshitta and Codex Alexandrinus, these are the earliest extant Christian Bibles.^[39] There is no evidence among the canons of the First Council of Nicaea of any determination on the canon. However, Jerome (347–420), in his Prologue to Judith, claims that the Book of Judith was «found by the Nicene Council to have been counted among the number of the Sacred Scriptures».^[40]

Latin[edit]

In Western Christianity or Christianity in the Western half of the Roman Empire, Latin had displaced Greek as the common language of the early Christians, and in 382 AD Pope Damasus I commissioned Jerome, the leading scholar of the day, to produce an updated Latin Bible to replace the Vetus Latina, which was a Latin translation of the Septuagint. Jerome’s work, called the Vulgate, was a direct translation from Hebrew, since he argued for the superiority of the Hebrew texts in correcting the Septuagint on both philological and theological grounds.^[41] His Vulgate Old Testament became the standard Bible used in the Western Church, specifically as the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate, while the Churches in the East continued, and continue, to use the Septuagint.^[42]

Jerome, however, in the Vulgate’s prologues describes some portions of books in the Septuagint not found in the Hebrew Bible as being non-canonical (he called them apocrypha);^[43] for Baruch, he mentions by name in his Prologue to Jeremiah and notes that it is neither read nor held among the Hebrews, but does not explicitly call it apocryphal or «not in the canon».^[44] The Synod of Hippo (in 393), followed by the Council of Carthage (397) and the Council of Carthage (419), may be the first council that explicitly accepted the first canon which includes the books that did not appear in the Hebrew Bible;^[45] the councils were under significant influence of Augustine of Hippo, who regarded the canon as already closed.^[46]

Protestant canon[edit]

In the 16th century, the Protestant reformers sided with Jerome; yet although most Protestant Bibles now have only those books that appear in the Hebrew Bible, the order is that of the Greek Bible.^[47]

Rome then officially adopted a canon, the Canon of Trent, which is seen as following Augustine’s Carthaginian Councils^[48] or the Council of Rome,^[49][50] and includes most, but not all, of the Septuagint (3 Ezra and 3 and 4 Maccabees are excluded);^[51] the Anglicans after the English Civil War adopted a compromise position, restoring the 39 Articles and keeping the extra books that were excluded by the Westminster Confession of Faith, both for private study and for reading in churches but not for establishing any doctrine, while Lutherans kept them for private study, gathered in an appendix as biblical apocrypha.^[47]

Other versions[edit]

While the Hebrew, Greek and Latin versions of the Hebrew Bible are the best known Old Testaments, there were others. At much the same time as the Septuagint was being produced, translations were being made into Aramaic, the language of Jews living in Palestine and the Near East and likely the language of Jesus: these are called the Aramaic Targums, from a word meaning «translation», and were used to help Jewish congregations understand their scriptures.^[52]

For Aramaic Christians there was a Syriac translation of the Hebrew Bible called the Peshitta, as well as versions in Coptic (the everyday language of Egypt in the first Christian centuries, descended from ancient Egyptian), Ethiopic (for use in the Ethiopian church, one of the oldest Christian churches), Armenian (Armenia was the first to adopt Christianity as its official religion), and Arabic.^[52]

Christian theology[edit]

Christianity is based on the belief that the historical Jesus is also the Christ, as in the Confession of Peter. This belief is in turn based on Jewish understandings of the meaning of the Hebrew term Messiah, which, like the Greek «Christ», means «anointed». In the Hebrew Scriptures, it describes a king anointed with oil on his accession to the throne: he becomes «The LORD‘s anointed» or Yahweh’s Anointed.

By the time of Jesus, some Jews expected that a flesh and blood descendant of David (the «Son of David») would come to establish a real Jewish kingdom in Jerusalem, instead of the Roman province of Judaea.^[53] Others stressed the Son of Man, a distinctly other-worldly figure who would appear as a judge at the end of time. Some expounded a synthesised view of both positions, where a messianic kingdom of this world would last for a set period and be followed by the other-worldly age or World to Come.

Some^[who?] thought the Messiah was already present, but unrecognised due to Israel’s sins; some^[who?] thought that the Messiah would be announced by a forerunner, probably Elijah (as promised by the prophet Malachi, whose book now ends the Old Testament and precedes Mark’s account of John the Baptist). However, no view of the Messiah as based on the Old Testament predicted a Messiah who would suffer and die for the sins of all people.^[53] The story of Jesus’ death, therefore, involved a profound shift in meaning from the Old Testament tradition.^[54]

The name «Old Testament» reflects Christianity’s understanding of itself as the fulfilment of Jeremiah’s prophecy of a New Covenant (which is similar to «testament» and often conflated) to replace the existing covenant between God and Israel (Jeremiah 31:31)^[55].^[1] The emphasis, however, has shifted from Judaism’s understanding of the covenant as a racially- or tribally-based pledge between God and the Jewish people, to one between God and any person of faith who is «in Christ».^[56]

See also[edit]

• Abrogation of Old Covenant laws
• Biblical and Quranic narratives
• Book of Job in Byzantine illuminated manuscripts
• Criticism of the Bible
• Expounding of the Law
• Law and Gospel
• List of ancient legal codes
• List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts
• Marcion of Sinope
• Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible
• Quotations from the Hebrew Bible in the New Testament
• Timeline of Genesis patriarchs

Explanatory notes[edit]

Citations[edit]

General and cited references[edit]

• Bandstra, Barry L (2004), Reading the Old Testament: an introduction to the Hebrew Bible, Wadsworth, ISBN 978-0-495-39105-0
• Barton, John (1997), How the Bible Came to Be, Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 978-0-664-25785-9
• ——— (2001), «Introduction to the Old Testament», in Muddiman, John; Barton, John (eds.), Bible Commentary, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-875500-5
• Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi, eds. (2014-10-17). The Jewish Study Bible: Second Edition. Oxford University Press. p. PT194. ISBN 978-0-19-939387-9.
• Berman, Joshua A. (Summer 2006). «God’s Alliance with Man». Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation (25). ISSN 0793-6664. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
• Blenkinsopp, Joseph (1998), «The Pentateuch», in Barton, John (ed.), The Cambridge companion to biblical interpretation, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-48593-7
• Boadt, Lawrence (1984), Reading the Old Testament: an introduction, Paulist Press, ISBN 978-0-8091-2631-6
• Brettler, Marc Zvi (2005), How to read the Bible, Jewish Publication Society, ISBN 978-0-8276-1001-9
• Bultman, Christoph (2001), «Deuteronomy», in Barton, John; Muddiman, John (eds.), Oxford Bible Commentary, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-875500-5
• Coggins, Richard J (2003), «1 and 2 Chronicles», in Dunn, James DG; Rogerson, John William (eds.), Commentary on the Bible, Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-3711-0
• Coogan, Michael David (2008-11-01). A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in Its Context. Oxford University Press. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-19-533272-8..
• Crenshaw, James L (2010), Old Testament wisdom: an introduction, Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 978-0-664-23459-1
• Davies, GI (1998), «Introduction to the Pentateuch», in Barton, John (ed.), Oxford Bible Commentary, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-875500-5
• Dines, Jennifer M (2004), «The Septuagint», Continuum, ISBN 978-0-567-08464-4
• Farmer, Ron (1991), «Messiah/Christ», in Mills, Watson E; Bullard, Roger Aubrey (eds.), Mercer dictionary of the Bible, Mercer University Press, ISBN 978-0-86554-373-7
• Ferguson, Everett (1996). The Church of Christ: A Biblical Ecclesiology for Today. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-8028-4189-6.
• Gentry, Peter R (2008), «Old Greek and Later Revisors», in Sollamo, Raija; Voitila, Anssi; Jokiranta, Jutta (eds.), Scripture in transition, Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-16582-3
• Grabbe, Lester L (2003), «Ezra», in Dunn, James DG; Rogerson, John William (eds.), Commentary on the Bible, Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-3711-0
• Hasel, Gerhard F (1991), Old Testament theology: basic issues in the current debate, Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-0537-9
• Hayes, Christine (2006). «Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible): Lecture 6 Transcript». Open Yale Courses. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
• Herion, Gary A (2000), «Covenant», in Freedman, David Noel (ed.), Dictionary of the Bible, Eerdmans, ISBN 978-90-5356-503-2
• Jobes, Karen H; Silva, Moises (2005), Invitation to the Septuagint, Baker Academic
• Jones, Barry A (2000), «Canon of the Old Testament», in Freedman, David Noel (ed.), Dictionary of the Bible, William B Eerdmans, ISBN 978-90-5356-503-2
• Juel, Donald (2000), «Christ», in Freedman, David Noel (ed.), Dictionary of the Bible, William B Eerdmans, ISBN 978-90-5356-503-2
• Levine, Amy-Jill (2001). «Covenant and Law, Part I (Exodus 19–40, Leviticus, Deuteronomy). Lecture 10» (PDF). The Old Testament. Course Guidebook. The Great Courses. p. 46.
• Lim, Timothy H. (2005). The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• McLay, Tim (2003), The use of the Septuagint in New Testament research, Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-6091-0
• Miller, John W (2004), How the Bible came to be, Paulist Press, ISBN 978-0-8091-4183-8
• Miller, John W (1987), Meet the prophets: a beginner’s guide to the books of the biblical prophets, Paulist Press, ISBN 978-0-8091-2899-0
• Miller, Stephen R. (1994), Daniel, B&H Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-8054-0118-9
• Rogerson, John W (2003), «Deuteronomy», in Dunn, James DG; Rogerson, John William (eds.), Commentary on the Bible, Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-3711-0
• Sailhamer, John H. (1992), The Pentateuch As Narrative, Zondervan, ISBN 978-0-310-57421-7
• Schniedewind, William M (2004), How the Bible Became a Book, Cambridge, ISBN 978-0-521-53622-6
• Ska, Jean Louis (2009). The Exegesis of the Pentateuch: Exegetical Studies and Basic Questions. Mohr Siebeck. p. 213. ISBN 978-3-16-149905-0.
• Soggin, J. Alberto (1987), Introduction to the Old Testament, Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 978-0-664-22156-0
• Stuart, Douglas (1987), Hosea-Jonah, Thomas Nelson, ISBN 978-0-8499-0230-7
• Würthwein, Ernst (1995), The text of the Old Testament: an introduction to the Biblia Hebraica, William B Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-0788-5

Further reading[edit]

• Anderson, Bernhard. Understanding the Old Testament. ISBN 0-13-948399-3
• Bahnsen, Greg, et al., Five Views on Law and Gospel (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993).
• Berkowitz, Ariel; Berkowitz, D’vorah (2004), Torah Rediscovered (4th ed.), Shoreshim, ISBN 978-0-9752914-0-5.
• Dever, William G. (2003), Who Were the Early Israelites?, Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-0975-9.
• Driver, Samuel Rolles (1911). «Bible» . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 849–894.
• Hill, Andrew; Walton, John (2000), A Survey of the Old Testament (2nd ed.), Grand Rapids: Zondervan, ISBN 978-0-310-22903-2.
• Kuntz, John Kenneth (1974), The People of Ancient Israel: an introduction to Old Testament Literature, History, and Thought, Harper & Row, ISBN 978-0-06-043822-7.
• Lancaster, D Thomas (2005), Restoration: Returning the Torah of God to the Disciples of Jesus, Littleton : First Fruits of Zion.
• Papadaki-Oekland, Stella (2009), Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts of the Book of Job, ISBN 978-2-503-53232-5.
• von Rad, Gerhard (1982–1984), Theologie des Alten Testaments [Theology of the Old Testament] (in German), vol. Band 1–2, Munich: Auflage.
• Rouvière, Jean-Marc (2006), Brèves méditations sur la Création du monde [Brief meditations on the creation of the World] (in French), Paris: L’Harmattan.
• Salibi, Kamal (1985), The Bible Came from Arabia, London: Jonathan Cape, ISBN 978-0-224-02830-1.
• Schmid, Konrad (2012), The Old Testament: A Literary History, Minneapolis: Fortress, ISBN 978-0-8006-9775-4.
• Silberman, Neil A; et al. (2003), The Bible Unearthed, New York: Simon & Schuster, ISBN 978-0-684-86912-4 (hardback), ISBN 0-684-86913-6 (paperback).
• Sprinkle, Joseph ‘Joe’ M (2006), Biblical Law and Its Relevance: A Christian Understanding and Ethical Application for Today of the Mosaic Regulations, Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, ISBN 978-0-7618-3371-0 (clothbound) and ISBN 0-7618-3372-2 (paperback).

External links[edit]

• Bible gateway. Full texts of the Old (and New) Testaments including the full Roman and Orthodox Catholic canons
• Early Jewish Writings, archived from the original on 2018-09-24, retrieved 2018-09-29 — Tanakh
• «Old Testament», Écritures, La feuille d’Olivier, archived from the original on 2010-12-07 Protestant Old Testament on a single page
• «Old Testament», Reading Room, Canada: Tyndale Seminary. Extensive online Old Testament resources (including commentaries)
• Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible), Yale University
• «Old Testament». Encyclopedia.com. The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.
• Bible, X10 host: Old Testament stories and commentary
• Tanakh ML (parallel Bible) – Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the King James Version

Ветхий Завет

Синонимы:

Ве́тхий Заве́т (греч. παλαιὰ διαθήκη, лат. Vetus Testamentum) —

1) наиме­но­ва­ние первой части Свя­щен­ного Писа­ния, объ­еди­ня­ю­щей в себе книги, состав­лен­ные в дохри­сти­ан­ские вре­мена;
2) назва­ние, обо­зна­ча­ю­щее союз, или завет, между Богом и изра­иль­ским наро­дом (заклю­чен­ном при Моисее);
3) наиме­но­ва­ние, при­ла­га­е­мое к разным союзам-заве­там, заклю­чен­ным Богом с людьми в дохри­сти­ан­скую эру (напри­мер, с Ноем (Быт.6:18), с Авра­амом (Быт.15:18), с Иса­а­ком (Быт.17:21)).

Для чего совре­мен­ному хри­сти­а­нину читать Ветхий Завет?

По мысли святых отцов, в част­но­сти, бла­жен­ного Авре­лия Авгу­стина, «Новый Завет в Ветхом скры­ва­ется, Ветхий Завет в Новом рас­кры­ва­ется». Ветхий Завет – это не сбор­ник древ­них мифов, ска­за­ний и легенд, как неко­то­рые пола­гают. Читая Ветхий Завет через призму Нового, чело­век, в какую бы эпоху он ни жил, может уви­деть, что Ветхий Завет гото­вил чело­ве­че­ство к при­ня­тию Сына Божия, что это было его глав­ной зада­чей. Бесе­дуя с зако­но­учи­те­лями, Иисус Хри­стос гово­рил: «Иссле­дуйте Писа­ния, ибо вы дума­ете чрез них иметь жизнь вечную; а они сви­де­тель­ствуют о Мне» (Ин.5:39). То есть Ветхий Завет гово­рит нам об Иисусе Христе, и именно потому нам, хри­сти­а­нам, стоит читать его даже спустя тыся­че­ле­тия со вре­мени его напи­са­ния. Ветхий Завет ведет нас ко Христу и поз­во­ляет лучше понять Новый.

Кроме того, Ветхий Завет явля­ется частью Свя­щен­ного Писа­ния (причем по объему своему он зна­чи­тельно пре­вос­хо­дит Новый Завет), значит, он был напи­сан по Божьему вдох­но­ве­нию, через Свя­того Духа, дей­ство­вав­шего в избран­ных мужах. Всё Свя­щен­ное Писа­ние – будь то Ветхий Завет или Новый – есть духов­ная пища, бла­го­датно воз­дей­ству­ю­щая на нашу душу, насы­ща­ю­щая её Словом Божьим. Поэтому читать Ветхий Завет и полезно, и нази­да­тельно.

Почему многие тре­бо­ва­ния Вет­хого Завета кажутся столь жесто­кими?

Оце­ни­вая неко­то­рые вет­хо­за­вет­ные  (уза­ко­нен­ные) нормы пове­де­ния, а также неко­то­рые дей­ствия людей дохри­сти­ан­ской эры, совер­шен­ные по осо­бому тре­бо­ва­нию Бога, многие совре­мен­ники рас­це­ни­вают их как неоправ­данно жесто­кие. Нередко это вызы­вает упреки в адрес хри­стиан со сто­роны ино­слав­ных или ате­и­стов, мол, смот­рите, в какого жесто­кого «бога» вы верите. В дей­стви­тель­но­сти Бог не явля­ется ини­ци­а­то­ром неоправ­дан­ной, чрез­мер­ной жесто­ко­сти. Он – Чело­ве­ко­лю­бец. Выстав­ляя подоб­ного рода оценки Вет­хому Завету, его обли­чи­тели, как пра­вило, не учи­ты­вают в долж­ной мере тот исто­ри­че­ский кон­текст, в рамках кото­рого про­ис­хо­дили собы­тия, и нрав­ствен­ное состо­я­ние людей дохри­сти­ан­ской эпохи. Заме­тим, что если в те вре­мена кро­ва­вые сцены мно­гими вос­при­ни­ма­лись как норма, а ныне их опи­са­ние шоки­рует чита­те­лей Библии, то это может рас­смат­ри­ваться как сви­де­тель­ство истин­но­сти хри­сти­ан­ского учения, дей­ствен­но­сти хри­сти­ан­ства, под вли­я­нием кото­рого нрав­ствен­ное созна­ние масс изме­ни­лось в лучшую сто­рону.

Как пра­вильно читать Ветхий Завет?

Есть мнение, что изу­че­ние Свя­щен­ного Писа­ния лучше начи­нать с Нового Завета, причем, изу­чать его нужно с опорой на пра­во­слав­ные тол­ко­ва­ния. И лишь после озна­ком­ле­ния с кни­гами Нового Завета уместно при­сту­пать к изу­че­нию вет­хо­за­вет­ного Писа­ния. Такой подход помо­жет избе­жать ново­на­чаль­ному чита­телю Библии мно­же­ства соблаз­нов, недо­уме­ний, вопро­сов из серии: «Где же тут любовь к ближ­нему?», «Куда смот­рел Бог?»… Конечно, эту реко­мен­да­цию нельзя счи­тать без­услов­ной, но, тем не менее, в ряде слу­чаев она дей­стви­тельно при­ме­нима.

Помимо этого, при­сту­па­ю­щим к изу­че­нию Вет­хого Завета можно поре­ко­мен­до­вать читать его не сразу от корки до корки, а бло­ками: начать с одной книги, парал­лельно изучая ком­мен­та­рии, инфор­ма­цию о том, в какое время, кем и для кого она была напи­сана. Важно погру­зиться в кон­текст. Затем можно при­сту­пать к про­чте­нию и осмыс­ле­нию второй, тре­тьей и т. д. Можно читать и по главе.

Для систем­ного, более глу­бо­кого изу­че­ния Свя­щен­ного Писа­ния можно вос­поль­зо­ваться допол­ни­тель­ной лите­ра­ту­рой экзе­ге­ти­че­ского, тек­сто­ло­ги­че­ского, исто­ри­че­ского, дог­ма­ти­че­ского харак­тера и пр. Данные про­из­ве­де­ния широко пред­став­лены на сайте «Азбука веры» в раз­деле «Биб­ле­и­стика». Боль­шим под­спо­рьем изу­ча­ю­щему Писа­ние может стать «Тол­ко­вая Библия» А.П. Лопу­хина. Не будем забы­вать и о тво­ре­ниях святых отцов. Все это помо­жет более полно озна­ко­миться с тек­стами Вет­хого Завета, избе­жать бук­ва­лизма и фор­ма­лизма.

Кто автор Вет­хого Завета?

Ветхий Завет, как часть Библии, – про­из­ве­де­ние Бога и чело­века. С одной сто­роны, утвер­жда­ется, что Ветхий Завет напи­сан целым кол­лек­ти­вом авто­ров, выда­ю­щихся пред­ста­ви­те­лей еврей­ского народа, живших в разные исто­ри­че­ские пери­оды. Их про­из­ве­де­ния отли­ча­ются друг от друга не только по содер­жа­нию: к при­меру, каждое из них имеет свой лите­ра­тур­ный стиль. Объ­еди­няет же их основ­ная тема: все они рас­ска­зы­вают нам о Боге и о том, как Он дей­ствует в этом мире. Однако глав­ное, что при­дает биб­лей­ским книгам един­ство, это то, что все авторы биб­лей­ских книг чер­пали свое вдох­но­ве­ние из общего источ­ника. Этим источ­ни­ком был Дух Божий. Задача людей, как соав­то­ров, состо­яла в том, чтобы выра­зить и пред­ста­вить то, что им откры­ва­лось по вдох­но­ве­нию Божию, в над­ле­жа­щей лите­ра­тур­ной форме. 

Какой исто­ри­че­ский период опи­сы­вает Ветхий Завет?

В Ветхом Завете опи­саны собы­тия от начала сотво­ре­ния мира до I века до Рож­де­ства Хри­стова.

На каком осно­ва­нии мы назы­ваем Завет «Ветхим»?

Выра­же­ние «Ветхий Завет» имеет осно­ва­ния в Свя­щен­ном Писа­нии. Оно встре­ча­ется в Посла­нии апо­стола Павла к Корин­фя­нам (2Кор.3:14), где свя­зы­ва­ется с Мои­се­е­вым Зако­ном. В алле­го­ри­че­ском сопо­став­ле­нии Сарры и Агари (Гал.4:22-26) апо­стол Павел про­ти­во­по­став­ляет Синай­ский Завет Новому Завету, под­ра­зу­ме­ва­ю­щему сво­бод­ное и осо­знан­ное стрем­ле­ние чело­века к еди­не­нию с Богом.

Каса­тельно ран­не­хри­сти­ан­ской лите­ра­туры можно отме­тить, что, напри­мер, во II в. поня­тие «Ветхий Завет» (др.-греч. Παλαιὰ Διαθήκη), в отли­чие от Нового Завета (Καινή Διαθήκη), исполь­зо­вали Мели­тон Сар­дий­ский и Ориген (См. по этому поводу: «Эклоги»).

Что каса­ется выра­же­ния «Новый Завет», то осно­ва­нием для его упо­треб­ле­ния явля­ется, в част­но­сти, про­ро­че­ство Иере­мии о заклю­че­нии Нового Завета: «Вот насту­пают дни, гово­рит Гос­подь, когда Я заключу с домом Изра­иля и с домом Иуды новый завет, не такой завет, какой Я заклю­чил с отцами их в тот день, когда взял их за руку, чтобы выве­сти их из земли Еги­пет­ской; тот завет Мой они нару­шили, хотя Я оста­вался в союзе с ними, гово­рит Гос­подь» (Иер.31:31-32).

Исполь­зу­ется ли Ветхий Завет в цер­ков­ном бого­слу­же­нии?

Ветхий Завет широко исполь­зу­ется в пра­во­слав­ном бого­слу­же­нии. Напри­мер, псалмы упо­треб­ля­ются как посто­ян­ная основа еже­днев­ных служб: «вечер­ний псалом» (Пс.103) за вечер­ней; шесто­псал­мие (Пс.3, 37, 62, 87, 102, 142) и хва­лит­ные псалмы (Пс.148, 149, 150) во время утрени; по три псалма на каждом часе; «бла­го­дар­ствен­ным псал­мом» (Пс.33) закан­чи­ва­ется Литур­гия, в начале же Литур­гии слова мы слышим «Изоб­ра­зи­тель­ные» анти­фоны (Пс.102, 145) и так далее. Кроме того, вся Псал­тирь раз­де­лена на два­дцать частей – кафизм, кото­рые чита­ются еже­не­дельно за вечер­ней и утре­ней. Во время Вели­кого Поста вся Псал­тирь про­чи­ты­ва­ется два раза каждую неделю. Опять же, во время Вели­кого поста прак­ти­ку­ется чтение других вет­хо­за­вет­ных Книг. Еще одной состав­ля­ю­щей пра­во­слав­ного бого­слу­же­ния, свя­зан­ной с исполь­зо­ва­нием Писа­ния Вет­хого Завета, явля­ется чтение паре­мий – фраг­мен­тов Библии, пред­на­зна­чен­ных для чтения в особых слу­чаях. Паре­мии чита­ются в наве­че­рие ряда боль­ших (или хра­мо­вых) празд­ни­ков, в дни Вели­кого поста, а также при совер­ше­нии неко­то­рых треб. Не будем забы­вать и о Вели­ком пока­ян­ном каноне, автор кото­рого, св. Андрей Крит­ский, для обзора пере­чис­ля­е­мых грехов рас­смат­ри­вает Биб­лей­скую исто­рию, при этом в первых восьми песнях канона он обра­ща­ется пре­иму­ще­ственно к Вет­хому Завету.

Для удоб­ства изу­че­ния можно ли раз­де­лить Ветхий Завет на своего рода блоки по содер­жа­нию?

По спо­собу напи­са­ния книги Вет­хого Завета делятся на кано­ни­че­ские и нека­но­ни­че­ские. Первые при­зна­ются Цер­ко­вью бого­вдох­но­вен­ными, тогда как вторые не при­зна­ются. Между тем, и нека­но­ни­че­ские книги счи­та­ются нази­да­тель­ными и полез­ными.

По содер­жа­нию книги Вет­хого Завета можно раз­де­лить на:

• зако­но­по­ло­жи­тель­ные книги: Пяти­кни­жие (Бытие, Исход, Левит, Числа, Вто­ро­за­ко­ние);
• исто­ри­че­ские: книги Иисуса Навина, Судей, Руфь, четыре книги Царств, две Пара­ли­по­ме­нон, Книги Ездры, Неемии, Товита, Иудифи, Есфири, три Мак­ка­вей­ские книги;
• учи­тель­ные (поэ­ти­че­ские): книги Иова, Псал­тирь, Прит­чей Соло­мо­но­вых, Еккле­си­а­ста, Песнь Песней, Пре­муд­ро­сти Соло­мона, Пре­муд­ро­сти Иисуса, сына Сира­хова;
• про­ро­че­ские: книги про­ро­ков Исаии, Иере­мии, Плач Иере­мии, Посла­ние Иере­мии, про­ро­ков Варуха, Иезе­ки­иля, Дани­ила и книги «малых про­ро­ков»: Осии, Иоиля, Амоса, Авдия, Ионы, Михея, Наума, Авва­кума, Софо­нии, Аггея, Заха­рии, Мала­хии.

Цитаты о Ветхом Завете

«Иссле­дуйте Писа­ния, ибо вы дума­ете чрез них иметь жизнь вечную; а они сви­де­тель­ствуют о Мне».
Ин.5:39

«Ты из дет­ства знаешь свя­щен­ные писа­ния, кото­рые могут умуд­рить тебя во спа­се­ние верою во Христа Иисуса. Все Писа­ние бого­дух­но­венно и полезно для науче­ния, для обли­че­ния, для исправ­ле­ния, для настав­ле­ния в пра­вед­но­сти, да будет совер­шен Божий чело­век, ко вся­кому доб­рому делу при­го­тов­лен».
2Тим.3:15-17

«Новый Завет в Ветхом сокрыт, Ветхий в Новом открыт».
бла­жен­ный Авгу­стин

«Как известно, начи­ная с поло­вины вто­рого века, Мар­кион и его после­до­ва­тели про­во­дили резкое раз­ли­чие между Ветхим и Новым Заве­том. Учили даже, что два Завета от разных богов ведут свое начало. Новый Завет, сле­до­ва­тельно, по их мнению, содер­жит в себе именно новое учение, прямо про­ти­во­по­лож­ное учению вет­хо­за­вет­ному, а потому его и отме­ня­ю­щее. Но Сам Хри­стос, и апо­столы, и Цер­ковь с самого начала при­зна­вали Вет­хо­за­вет­ное Писа­ние в каче­стве авто­ри­тета. Учение Мар­ки­она немед­ленно встре­тило себе над­ле­жа­щий отпор со сто­роны цер­ков­ных писа­те­лей. В поле­мике против Мар­ки­она бого­словы вто­рого века подробно рас­кры­вали, что Новый Завет Вет­хого не отме­няет; наобо­рот, весь Новый Завет уже пред­ска­зан в Ветхом».
сщмч. Ила­рион (Тро­иц­кий)

Ве́тхий Заве́т — первая, древнейшая из двух (наряду с Новым Заветом) часть христианской Библии, заимствованная в христианстве из Танаха (древнего еврейского Священного Писания) и в православии и католицизме из других древних еврейских религиозных книг. В Ветхий Завет во всех христианских конфессиях входит 39 книг Танаха, являющегося общим священным текстом иудаизма и христианства. Кроме того, в православии и католицизме в Ветхий Завет включаются дополнительные книги, в православии называемые неканоническими, в католицизме — второканоническими. В протестантизме дополнительные книги в Ветхом Завете отсутствуют, и состав книг Ветхого Завета полностью соответствует составу книг Танаха.

Все значения словосочетания «ветхий завет»

• новый завет
• вечный завет
• синодальный перевод
• десять заповедей
• нагорная проповедь
• (ещё синонимы…)

• ветхость
• библия
• развалина
• древний
• дряхлый
• (ещё ассоциации…)

• ветхость
• библия
• назарет
• Евангелие
• апостол
• (ещё ассоциации…)

• Разбор по составу слова «ветхий»
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