Until approximately 2000 years ago, all that existed by way of written revelation from God was the Old Covenant, or Old Testament. As explained in an earlier session of Christianity Clarified, the Old Covenant was never referred to as such until after the New Covenant came into being. It was the completion of the New that gave the Old its name. So, prior to the Law, the Jewish nation, to whom the Old Testament, or Old Covenant, was given, considered what we call the Old Covenant, the entirety of God’s written revelation. This is one of the principle things separating Judaism from Christianity. The Jewish people, to this day, continue to reject the Christian New Testament and its message. They believe what we Christians call the “Old Testament” is, in fact, the entire Bible. While Christians look upon the New Covenant, or the New Testament, as the “rest of the story” that continues and completes the Old Covenant, the Jews see the Old alone as God’s entire written revelation.
The Old Covenant, or Old Testament, as regards its structure and content is as follows: The first five books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Sometimes, these are referred to as “The Law” or “The Pentateuch” or, with the Jewish name, “The Torah.” These are followed by the prophets, commonly designated as the “former prophets”, consisting of Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings. Then come the “latter prophets”, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and all twelve of the minor prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi. Then come the writings made up of the Psalms, the Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and, lastly, 1 and 2 Chronicles. There are other arrangements and breakdowns, suggested by both Jewish and Christians scholars, but this is, perhaps, the oldest and most familiar.
The number of books the Jews reckon to complete their Bible, which is our Old Testament, is 24. The total for Christians is 39. This appears to be a discrepancy but, in reality, it is not. The Jews combine several of the books that Christians separate. This means the Jewish total of 24 books is the same in actual content as the Christian total of 39 books. Does this mean, then, the actual content of the Jewish Bible is identical to the actual content of the Christian Old Testament? Precisely. As regards the two sections, the Old and the New, it has been well said that the New is in the Old concealed, and the Old is in the New revealed.
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