The Old Testament is the first major section of the Bible.  It recounts the story of God’s creation of the world, the downfall of humanity, and his rescue plan for his people. Most of the Old Testament details God’s relationship with his people, Israel. Even though the Old Testament might seem unrelated to Jesus, the whole Old Testament story constantly points forward to him (Luke 24:26-27; 44-47; John 5:39).

Why do we call the Old Testament “Old”?

Jews calls their Scriptures the Hebrew Bible, but Christians call the section the Old Testament. For Christians, the Old Testament isn’t “old” because it’s outdated or unimportant. Christians call it “old” because it mostly concerned with the “old covenant,” God’s covenant with Israel. Building on that idea,  Christians call the Old Testament “old” because it comes before the new covenant established through Christ (2 Cor. 3:14; Heb. 8:13). Therefore, we should not treat the Old Testament in a flippant way or believe that it is offering contradictory messages to the ones we find in the New Testament. We should take our queues about how to relate to the Old Testament from Jesus himself. He read it (Luke 4:16-21), quoted it (Matt. 4:4 7, 10), fulfilled it (Matt. 5:17). considered it to be God’s word (Mark 7:8-13).

The Arrangements of the Old Testament

In a typical Christian Bible, the Old Testament is arranged in four main sections based on the type of writing: Law, Historical Books, Wisdom (Poetry), and Prophecy.

1. The Pentateuch (The “Torah”/Law)

The first section is typically called the Pentateuch (from the Latin meaing “five books”) in English or in the Hebrew Bible it’s called the Torah, or Law. It consists of the five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The story begins with God creating the world, the first man, and human sin. Due to humanity’s sin, God makes promises to Abraham to move his salvation plan forward (Genesis). Eventually, Abraham’s descendants find themselves enslaved in Egypt. God raises up Moses to deliver them, makes a covenant with them, give them his lawand has his presence reside with them (Exodus). God provides the sacrificial system for the people to remain close to him (Leviticus). The people wander around for a while due to their disobedience (Numbers). But eventually, they need to prepare to enter the Promised Land by obeying God’s law (Deuteronomy).

2. The Historical Books

The next section is the so-called “Historical Books.” These books continues Israel’s history. These books speak about Israel’s conquest and early life in the land (Joshua, Judges, Ruth). The story moves to include the beginning and establishment of Israel’s kingship (1 and 2 Samuel) and its eventual decline and exile from the land (1 and 2 Kings; 1 and 2 Chronicles). After the exile, God brings the exiles home and they seek to rebuild their lives (Ezra, Nehemiah). Some Jews did not make the sojourn home and faced particular challenges living under pagan rule (Esther).

While the Historical Books read like history, they’re more than that. They’re theological history. The Historical Books aren’t just about providing information about ancient history, but seek to show how God is faithful to his covenant promises and continuing his plan of salvation for the world.

3. Wisdom (Poetry)

The next section of books are the Wisdom books, which are often written in poetry. These books function a lot like “how to” manuals for wisely navigating life. They address topics such as how to suffer (Job), how to worship (Psalms), how to make decision (Proverbs), how to find the meaning of life (Ecclesiastes), and how to love (Song of Solomon).

The Wisdom are emotional, honest, raw, and also deeply personal. If the Law tells us what God commands, wisdom literature helps us live it out in daily life. 

4. The Prophets

The final section is known as the Prophets. From Isaiah through Malachi, we hear the voices of God’s messengers. The prophetical books are typically separated into two sections: the Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel) and the Minor Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi).

The primary task of the the prophets was to call the people back to be faithful to the covenant that God had made with them. They warned the people about the coming judgment that God would against their sin and idolatry. But even in the darkest times, they also spoke messages of hope, looking forward to a time when God would redeem his people, renew them, and establish them back in the land.  Some prophetical books are long and some are short, but all of them remind us that God speaks into real situations and also provides real hope. 

As is apparent from the ordering of the book, the Old Testament is not arranged chronologically. The storyline line moves fairly orderly from Genesis to Esther. But the ordering of the Scriptures takes a different turn, moving into Wisdom and literature and then the prophetical books. Many scholars believe that Job may be one of the earliest stories and books of the Bible written, yet it appear later, in the section of Wisdom literature. The prophets lived at various points during Israel’s history, many of them living through the events described in Kings and Chronicle. The Psalms were written across hundreds of years.

Reading the Old Testament Well

One of the most important things to remember when reading the Old Testament is that it is a different world! While the Old Testament will often speak to the same fears, trials, and temptations we face today, it is written in the context of the ancient Near East. The worldviews, belief systems, and values were very different than our today. Communicating in the ancient world was different than modern Western ways of communicating as well. Since the Old Testament was not originally written with chapters and verses (those were added much, much later), the original authors often used different literary devices to mark off sections and change of topics. Because most people in the ancient world did not have their own personal copy of God’s word, the Scriptures were often written in a way to be heard. The Old Testament authors regularly used repetition to make their points. They will often describe the same event from various perspectives.

It’s also important to know that there is a difference between descriptive texts and prescriptive texts. Descriptive texts describe what happened, even though they don’t necessarily endorse it. So even though some characters in the Old Testament have multiple wives, the Old Testament isn’t necessarily endorsing polygamy. In fact, if you read the Old Testament closely, it’s pretty evident that the Old Testament authors actually see polygamy as a bad thing. Prescriptive texts actually prescribe, or command, what we should do. One common mistake Christians make is to simplistically apply the commands of the Old Testament to themselves. But Christians cannot just rip the commands of the Old Testament out of their context and apply them to their own situation, because Jesus is the culmination and fulfillment of the Old Testament law. The commands of the Old Testament no longer directly apply to Christians but have to be mediated through Jesus. For example, do Christians have to “keep the Sabbath”? Do they have set aside a particular day for rest like Jews do? The New Testament clearly answers, “no.” As Paul writes in Colossians: “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ” (2:16-17). Christians can look to the Old Testament for wise principles, but they are not direct commands for us today.

Conclusion

The Old Testament is a wild and winding story of a faithful God and an unfaithful people. But even though human beings constantly rebel against their Creator, he does not give up on his plan to save. From the very beginning, God promised a special “seed” or offspring, who would come from a woman and crush the head of the evil serpent (Gen. 3:15). Then, over the course of hundreds of years, God slowly provides a little more clarity as to who this special offspring would be. He would not only be the seed of the woman, but the “seed” of Abraham. From Abraham’s line, come the special people of Israel from whom this seed would come. The coming Offspring would also come from king David’s line within Israel. He would be the fully obedient Son, who rules over an eternal dynasty. This Offspring would usher in a new covenant, where God would remake a new Israel, settle them in a new creation, worshipping in a new temple.

When Jesus shows up and declares, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” (Matt. 4:17) he is showing all that all the hopes, dreams, and expectations of the Old Testament are now fulfilled in him. Jesus is the new Adam who overturns the sin of the world (Rom. 5:12–19). Jesus is the seed of Abraham, bringing blessing to all nations (Gal. 3:16). Jesus is the new Moses, teaching people with authority (Matt. 5:1-48). Jesus is the true Davidic king, ruling and reigning over all things (Acts 2:29-36). Jesus is the new temple, the place where God and humanity meet (John 2:19-21). Jesus establishes the new covenant, the new arrangement that God has made with his people (Luke 22:20).