10.1. Introduction

10.1. Introduction The Old Testament is an old book. It consists of thirty-nine books. According to the Jews the number was twenty-four. They considered the two books of Samuel, Kings, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles as single books (e.g. not first and second Samuel, but the book of Samuel). The twelve Minor Prophets were also known as the book of the Twelve, reducing them by eleven to a single book. The division of Tenach (abbreviation of Torah Nebi’im and Chetuvim) is as follows:

(1)     The Torah (the Law). Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The Hebrew names for these books are taken from the first word(s) of the book. Genesis for example is ‘In (the) beginning’, Exodus, ‘names’, Leviticus ‘and he called’, Numbers ‘in the desert’ and Deuteronomy ‘words’.

(2)     Nevi’im (the Prophets). The name of each book in the Nevi’im (Prophets) is based on the name of the main character, the supposed writer of the book, or a description of the contents. The prophets consisted of:

·    The early prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings.

·    The later prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, The Twelve (the Minor Prophets).

(3)     Ketuvim (the Writings). This division is composed of:

·    the Book of truth: Psalms, Proverbs, and Job;

·    the Megilloth (Five Scrolls): Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther;

·The Historical books: Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles. The number and order of the books in the Septuagint differs from that of the Hebrew Bible. The order in the present editions of our English Bibles and the names of the books are based on the Septuagint, while the number is based on Tenach. As well as the books normally printed in our Bibles (according to Tenach) there are some books in the Septuagint, known as the Deuterocanonical books or Apocrypha. The issue of how the Bible came into existence will not be discussed in this course. What we are interested in is how the divinely inspired text was preserved. The bible gives evidence of written records as early as the time of Moses (see Exodus 17:14; Exodus 24:4; Deuteronomy 10:4). These original writings are no longer available. The Jewish community kept these holy writings, however, and preserved them from generation to generation. We do not have a record of the early transmission of the text of the Old Testament. The text was guarded and probably copied by the priests and the Levites (Deuteronomy 17:18).

Records started during the time of Ezra and afterwards. The biblical text suggests that in previous generations copies of the text were to be made for kings. When he (the king) takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites (Deuteronomy 17:18, NIV).