Old Testament

The Old Testament is the first main part of the Christian Bible. It tells about God's creation of the world and his work with his people Israel before the coming of Jesus Christ. Its books include stories, laws, poetry, wise sayings, and messages from the prophets. Jews call these books the Hebrew Bible or the Tanakh, and they were first written mostly in Hebrew.

Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Bibles do not all include the same books in the Old Testament.

There are 39 books in most Protestant Bibles.

• The Pentateuch contains five books:

  • Genesis,

  • Exodus,

  • Leviticus,

  • Numbers, and

  • Deuteronomy.

• There are 12 historical books:

  • Joshua,

  • Judges,

  • Ruth,

  • First and Second Samuel,

  • First and Second Kings,

  • First and Second Chronicles,

  • Ezra,

  • Nehemiah, and

  • Esther.

• There are five wisdom books:

  • Job,

  • Psalms,

  • Proverbs,

  • Ecclesiastes, and

  • Song of Solomon.

• There are five Major Prophets:

  • Isaiah,

  • Jeremiah,

  • Lamentations,

  • Ezekiel, and

  • Daniel.

• There are 12 Minor Prophets:

  • Hosea,

  • Joel,

  • Amos,

  • Obadiah,

  • Jonah,

  • Micah,

  • Nahum,

  • Habakkuk,

  • Zephaniah,

  • Haggai,

  • Zechariah, and

  • Malachi.

These are the same books as the Hebrew Bible though the Jewish canon counts and orders them differently (24 books, ending with Chronicles).

Catholic Bibles include those 39 books, plus seven deuterocanonical books:

• Tobit,

• Judith,

• Wisdom of Solomon,

• Wisdom of Ben Sirach,

• Baruch (including the Letter of Jeremiah as chapter 6), and

• First and Second Maccabees.

Catholic Bibles also include the Greek additions to Esther and the additions to Daniel (the Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Young Men, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon), incorporated into those books rather than counted separately.

Orthodox Bibles include everything in the Catholic canon plus, typically:

• First Esdras,

• Third Maccabees, and

• Psalm 151.

Beyond that, it varies by tradition. Greek Bibles often print 4 Maccabees and the Prayer of Manasseh in an appendix. Slavonic Bibles (Russian tradition) include 2 Esdras (called 3 Esdras there) as well. Naming conventions for the Esdras books are inconsistent across traditions. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo canon is the broadest of all, adding books such as Jubilees and 1 Enoch, which no other tradition includes in its canon.

See Bible; see also Bible, Manuscripts, and Text of the Old Testament; Bible: Old Testament Quotes in the New Testament.