Old Testament

The Old Testament (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 and occasionally Aramaic
writings by the Israelites.[1] The second division of
Christian Bibles is the New Testament, written in Koine
Greek.
:
 Old Testament
Part of the Bible

Information

Religion Judaism,
Christianity

Language Hebrew, Aramaic

Books 39 (Protestant),
46 (Catholic), up
to 49 (Orthodox)

Chapters 929

Verses 23,145

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:[3] the first five books or Pentateuch (which
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 literature, which explore themes of human
experience, morality, and divine justice; and the books of
the biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of
turning away from God.

The Old Testament canon differs among Christian

denominations. The Eastern Orthodox and Oriental
Orthodox Churches include up to 49 books, the Catholic
canon contains 46, and the Protestant Bible typically has
39.[4] Most of these books are shared across all Christian
canons, corresponding to the 24 books of the Tanakh but
with differences in order and text. Some books found in
Christian Bibles, but not in the Hebrew canon, are called
deuterocanonical books, mostly originating from the
Septuagint, an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew
Bible. Catholic and Orthodox churches include these,
while most Protestant Bibles exclude them, though some
Anglican and Lutheran versions place them in a separate
:
 section called Apocrypha.

While early histories of Israel were largely based on

biblical accounts, their reliability has been increasingly
questioned over time. Key debates have focused on the
historicity of the Patriarchs, the Exodus, the Israelite
conquest, and the United Monarchy, with archaeological
evidence often challenging these narratives. Mainstream
scholarship has balanced skepticism with evidence,
recognizing that some biblical traditions align with
archaeological findings, particularly from the 9th century
BC onward.[5]

Content
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.[6]

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
1609–10 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
Hebrew
Christian Protestant Catholic Orthodox Bible
Old Testament Old Testament Old Testament
:
 order[c] (39 books) (46 books) (49 books) (Tanakh)
(24 books)

1 Genesis Genesis Genesis Bereshit

2 Exodus Exodus Exodus Shemot

3 Leviticus Leviticus Leviticus Vayikra

4 Numbers Numbers Numbers Bamidbar

5 Deuteronomy Deuteronomy Deuteronomy Devarim

6 Joshua Joshua (Josue) Joshua (Iesous) Yehoshua

7 Judges Judges Judges Shoftim

8 Ruth Ruth Ruth Rut (Ruth)

1 Samuel (1 1 Samuel (1
9 1 Samuel
Kings)[d] Kingdoms)[e]
Shmuel[f]
2 Samuel (2 2 Samuel (2
10 2 Samuel
Kings)[d] Kingdoms)[e]

1 Kings (3 Kings) 1 Kings (3

11 1 Kings [d]
Kingdoms)[e]
Melakhim[g]
2 Kings (4 Kings) 2 Kings (4
12 2 Kings [d]
Kingdoms)[e]

1 Chronicles (1 1 Chronicles (1
13 1 Chronicles Divrei
Paralipomenon) Paralipomenon)
Hayamim
2 Chronicles (2 2 Chronicles (2
14 2 Chronicles (Chronicles)[h]
Paralipomenon) Paralipomenon)

1 Esdras
15
(Ἔσδρας Aʹ)[i][j]

16 Book of Ezra Book of Ezra[k] Ezra–Nehemiah

Ezra–
(Ἔσδρας Βʹ)[l][e]
Nehemiah[n]
:
 [m]
17 Nehemiah Book of
Nehemiah[o]

18 Tobit (Tobias) Tobit[j]

19 Judith Judith[j]

20 Esther Esther[p] Esther[p] Ester (Esther)

1 Maccabees (1
21 [q]
1 Maccabees[j]
Machabees)

2 Maccabees (2
22 2 Maccabees[j]
Machabees)[q]

23 3 Maccabees[j]

24 2 Esdras[s][j]

25 4 Maccabees[t]

26 Job Job Job Iyov (Job)

Tehillim
27 Psalms Psalms Psalms[u]
(Psalms)

Prayer of
28
Manasseh[v]

Mishlei
29 Proverbs Proverbs Proverbs
(Proverbs)

Qohelet
30 Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes
(Ecclesiastes)

Song of Songs Shir Hashirim

Song of Songs
31 Song of Solomon (Canticle of (Song of
(Aisma Aismaton)
Canticles) Songs)

32 Wisdom Wisdom[j]

Sirach
:
 33 (Ecclesiasticus) Sirach[j]

34 Isaiah Isaiah (Isaias) Isaiah Yeshayahu

Jeremiah
35 Jeremiah Jeremiah Yirmeyahu
(Jeremias)

Eikhah
36 Lamentations Lamentations Lamentations
(Lamentations)

37 Baruch[w][j]

Baruch[w] Letter of
38
Jeremiah[x][j]

39 Ezekiel Ezekiel (Ezechiel) Ezekiel Yekhezqel

Daniyyel
40 Daniel Daniel[z] Daniel[z]
(Daniel)

41 Hosea Hosea (Osee) Hosea

42 Joel Joel Joel

43 Amos Amos Amos

44 Obadiah Obadiah (Abdias) Obadiah

45 Jonah Jonah (Jonas) Jonah

46 Micah Micah (Michaeas) Micah

47 Nahum Nahum Nahum The Twelve

Habakkuk
48 Habakkuk Habakkuk or
(Habacuc)
Trei Asar
Zephaniah
49 Zephaniah Zephaniah
(Sophonias)

50 Haggai Haggai (Aggaeus) Haggai

Zechariah
:
 51 Zechariah (Zacharias) Zechariah

Malachi
52 Malachi Malachi
(Malachias)

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.

Books in the appendix to the Vulgate Bible

Name in Eastern
Name in Vulgate
Orthodox use

3 Esdras 1 Esdras

4 Esdras 2 Esdras

Prayer of Manasseh Prayer of Manasseh

Psalm of David when he slew Goliath

Psalm 151
(Psalm 151)

Historicity

Early scholarship
Some of the stories of the Pentateuch may derive from
:
 older sources. Scholars such as Andrew R. George point
out the similarity between the Genesis flood narrative
and the Gilgamesh flood myth.[10][aa] Similarities
between the origin story of Moses and that of Sargon of
Akkad were noted by psychoanalyst Otto Rank in
1909[14] and popularized by 20th-century writers, such
as H. G. Wells and Joseph Campbell.[15][16] 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."[17]

Recent scholarship
In 2007, a historian of ancient 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
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 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]."[18]

In 2022, archaeologist Avraham Faust summarized

recent scholarship arguing that while early histories of
Israel were heavily based on biblical accounts, their
reliability has been increasingly questioned over time. He
continued that key debates have focused on the
historicity of the Patriarchs, the Exodus, the Israelite
conquest, and the United Monarchy, with archaeological
evidence often challenging these narratives. He
concluded that while the minimalist school of the 1990s
dismissed the Bible’s historical value, mainstream
scholarship has balanced skepticism with evidence,
recognizing that some biblical traditions align with
archaeological findings, particularly from the 9th century
BC onward.[19]

Composition
:
 The first five books—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
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.[20] The books of Joshua, Judges,
Ruth, 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.[21]

The two Books of Chronicles cover much the same

material as the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic history
and probably date from the 4th century BC.[22]
Chronicles, and Ezra–Nehemiah, was probably finished
during the 3rd century BC.[23] Catholic and Orthodox Old
Testaments contain two (Catholic Old Testament) to four
(Orthodox) Books of the 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.[24] The
"wisdom" books—Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalms,
Song of Songs—have various dates: Proverbs possibly
was completed by the Hellenistic time (332–198 BC),
though containing much older material as well; Job was
completed by the 6th century BC; Ecclesiastes by the
3rd century BC.[25]

Themes
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.[26]

The Old Testament stresses the special relationship

between God and his chosen people, Israel, but includes
instructions for proselytes as well. This relationship is
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 expressed in the biblical covenant (contract)[27][28][29]
[30][31][32]
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.[26] 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.[33]

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
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 murder, bribery and corruption, deceitful trading, and
many sexual misdemeanours. All morality is traced back
to God, who is the source of all goodness.[34]

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.[34]

Formation
:
 The interrelationship between various significant ancient
manuscripts of the Old Testament, according to the Encyclopaedia
Biblica (1903). Some manuscripts are identified by their siglum.
LXX here denotes the original Septuagint.

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.[35]

Greek
Hebrew texts began to be translated into Greek in
Alexandria in about 280 BC and continued until about
130 BC.[36] These early Greek translations – supposedly
commissioned by Ptolemy II 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.[37]

It varies in many places from the Masoretic Text and

includes numerous books no longer considered
canonical in some traditions: 1 Esdras, Judith, Tobit, the
books of Maccabees, the Book of Wisdom, Sirach, and
Baruch.[38] 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.[39]

In 331, Constantine I commissioned Eusebius to deliver

fifty Bibles for the Church of Constantinople.
:
 Athanasius[40] 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.[41] 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".[42]

Latin
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.
[43]
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.[44]

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);[45] 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".[46] 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;[47] the
councils were under significant influence of Augustine of
Hippo, who regarded the canon as already closed.[48]
:
 Protestant canon
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.[49]

Rome then officially adopted a canon, the Canon of Trent,

which is seen as following Augustine's Carthaginian
Councils[50] or the Council of Rome,[51][52] and includes
most, but not all, of the Septuagint (3 Ezra and 3 and 4
Maccabees are excluded);[53] 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.[49]
:
 Other versions
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.[54]

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.[54]
:
 Christian theology
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". The Hebrew Scriptures
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.[55]
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.
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 Some thought the Messiah was already present, but
unrecognised due to Israel's sins; some 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.[55] The story of Jesus' death, therefore, involved
a profound shift in meaning from the Old Testament
tradition.[56]

The name "Old Testament" reflects Christianity's

understanding of itself as the fulfillment 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).[57][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".[58]
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 See also

New Testament
Biblical and Quranic narratives
List of Hebrew Bible
manuscripts
Expounding of the Law
Genealogies of Genesis
Law and Gospel
List of ancient legal codes
Non-canonical books
referenced in the Bible
:
 Quotations from the Hebrew
Bible in the New Testament

Explanatory notes

a. Generally due to derivation

from transliterations of
names used in the Latin
Vulgate in the case of
Catholicism, and from
transliterations of the Greek
Septuagint in the case of
the Orthodox (as opposed
to the derivation of
translations, instead of
:
 translations, instead of
transliterations, of Hebrew
titles) such Ecclesiasticus
(DRC) instead of Sirach
(LXX) or Ben Sira (Hebrew),
Paralipomenon (Greek,
meaning "things omitted")
instead of Chronicles,
Sophonias instead of
Zephaniah, Noe instead of
Noah, Henoch instead of
Enoch, Messias instead of
Messiah, Sion instead of
Zion, etc.
:
 b. The foundational Thirty-
Nine Articles of
Anglicanism, in Article VI,
asserts these disputed
books are not used "to
establish any doctrine", but
"read for example of life."
Although the Biblical
Apocrypha are still used in
Anglican Liturgy,[7] the
modern trend is to not even
print the Old Testament
Apocrypha in editions of
Anglican-used Bibles
:
 c. The numbering of books is
for comparison with the
Hebrew order of books. It
does not directly represent
the order of any specific
canon as some books are
moved and combined in
specific Bibles, as notes
detail.
d. The books of Samuel and
Kings are often called First
through Fourth Kings in the
Catholic tradition, much like
the Orthodox.
:
 the Orthodox.
e. Names in parentheses are
the Septuagint names and
are often used by the
Orthodox Christians.
f. Samuel is considered one
book in the Hebrew Bible.
g. Kings is considered one
book in the Hebrew Bible.
h. Chronicles is considered
one book in the Hebrew
Bible.
i. In Slavic language Bibles
Ἔσδρας Aʹ corresponds to
:
 Ἔσδρας Aʹ corresponds to
1 Esdras. In the Vulgate it is
called 3 Esdras.
j. One of 11 deuterocanonical
books in the Russian
Synodal Bible.
k. In the Vulgate the Book of
Ezra is called 1 Esdras.
l. In Slavic language Bibles
Ἔσδρας Bʹ corresponds to
Ezra-Nehemiah and is
called 2 Esdras. In the
Vulgate Ezra is called 1
Esdras and Nehemiah is
:
 Esdras and Nehemiah is
called 2 Esdras
respectively.
m. Some Eastern Orthodox
churches follow the
Septuagint and Hebrew
Bibles by considering the
books of Ezra and
Nehemiah as one book.
n. Ezra–Nehemiah is
considered one book in the
Hebrew Bible.
o. In the Vulgate the Book of
Nehemiah is called 2
:
 Nehemiah is called 2
Esdras.
p. The Catholic and Orthodox
Book of Esther includes 103
verses not in the Protestant
Book of Esther.
q. The Latin Vulgate, Douay–
Rheims, and Revised
Standard Version Catholic
Edition place First and
Second Maccabees after
Malachi; other Catholic
translations place them
after Esther.
r. 1 Maccabees is
:
 r. 1 Maccabees is
hypothesized by most
scholars to have been
originally written in Hebrew;
however, if it was, the
original Hebrew has been
lost. The surviving
Septuagint version is in
Greek.[8]
s. In Slavic language Bibles 2
Esdras is called 3 Esdras. In
the Vulgate it is called 4
Esdras.
t. In Greek Bibles, 4
:
 t. In Greek Bibles, 4
Maccabees is found in the
appendix.
u. Eastern Orthodox churches
include Psalm 151 and the
Prayer of Manasseh, not
present in all canons.
v. Part of 2 Paralipomenon in
the Russian Synodal Bible.
w. In Catholic Bibles, Baruch
includes a sixth chapter
called the Letter of
Jeremiah. Baruch is not in
the Protestant Bible or the
:
 Tanakh.
x. Eastern Orthodox Bibles
have the books of Baruch
and the Letter of Jeremiah
separate.
y. Hebrew (minority view); see
Letter of Jeremiah for
details.
z. In Catholic and Orthodox
Bibles, Daniel includes
three sections not included
in Protestant Bibles. The
Prayer of Azariah and Song
of the Three Holy Children
:
 of the Three Holy Children
are included between
Daniel 3:23–24. Susanna is
included as Daniel 13. Bel
and the Dragon is included
as Daniel 14. These are not
in the Protestant Old
Testament.
aa. The latter flood myth
appears in a Babylonian
copy dating to 700 BC,[11]
though many scholars
believe that this was
probably copied from the
:
 probably copied from the
Akkadian: Atra-Hasis, which
dates to the 18th
century BC.[12] George
points out that the modern
version of the Epic of
Gilgamesh was compiled by
Sîn-lēqi-unninni, who lived
sometime between 1300
and 1000 BC.[13]

Citations

1. Jones 2000, p. 215.

2. Lim, Timothy H. (2005).
:
 2. Lim, Timothy H. (2005).
The Dead Sea Scrolls: A
Very Short Introduction.
Oxford: Oxford University
Press. p. 41.
3. "Bible 101: A Brief
Introduction to the Old
Testament" (https://www.si
mplycatholic.com/bible-101
-a-brief-introduction-to-the
-old-testament/) . Simply
Catholic. 13 July 2024.
Retrieved 11 February
2025.
4. Barton 2001, p. 3.
:
 4. Barton 2001, p. 3.
5. Faust, Avraham (2022).
"Between the Biblical Story
and History: Writing an
Archaeological History of
Ancient Israel" (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=4b
eREAAAQBAJ&pg=PA78) .
In Keimer, Kyle H.; Pierce,
George A. (eds.). The
Ancient Israelite World.
Taylor & Francis. p. 78-79.
ISBN 978-1-000-77324-8.
6. Boadt 1984, pp. 11, 15–16.
:
 6. Boadt 1984, pp. 11, 15–16.
7. The Apocrypha, Bridge of
the Testaments (https://we
b.archive.org/web/200902
05074449/http://orthodoxa
nglican.net/downloads/apoc
rypha.pdf) (PDF),
Orthodox Anglican,
archived from the original (h
ttp://orthodoxanglican.net/d
ownloads/apocrypha.pdf)
(PDF) on 5 February 2009,
"Two of the hymns used in
the American Prayer Book
office of Morning Prayer,
:
 office of Morning Prayer,
the Benedictus es and
Benedicite, are taken from
the Apocrypha. One of the
offertory sentences in Holy
Communion comes from an
apocryphal book (Tob. 4: 8–
9). Lessons from the
Apocrypha are regularly
appointed to be reason
Sunday, Sunday, and the
special services of Morning
and Evening Prayer. There
are altogether 111 such
lessons in the latest revised
:
 lessons in the latest revised
American Prayer Book
Lectionary [Books used are:
II Esdras, Tobit, Wisdom,
Ecclesiasticus, Baruch,
Three Holy Children, and I
Maccabees.]"
8. Goldstein, Jonathan A.
(1976). I Maccabees. The
Anchor Bible Series.
Garden City, NY:
Doubleday. p. 14. ISBN 0-
385-08533-8.
9. Driver, Samuel Rolles
:
 9. Driver, Samuel Rolles
(1911). "Bible" (https://en.w
ikisource.org/wiki/1911_Enc
yclop%C3%A6dia_Britannic
a/Bible) . In Chisholm, Hugh
(ed.). Encyclopædia
Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.).
Cambridge University
Press. pp. 849–894, see
page 853, third para.
"Jeremiah.....were first
written down in 604 B.C. by
his friend and amanuensis
Baruch, and the roll thus
formed must have formed
:
 formed must have formed
the nucleus of the present
book. Some of the reports
of Jeremiah's prophecies,
and especially the
biographical narratives, also
probably have Baruch for
their author. But the
chronological disorder of
the book, and other
indications, show that
Baruch could not have been
the compiler of the book"
10. George, A. R. (2003). The
:
 Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic:
Introduction, Critical Edition
and Cuneiform Texts (http
s://books.google.com/book
s?id=21xxZ_gUy_wC&pg=P
A70) . Oxford University
Press. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-
19-927841-1.
11. Cline, Eric H. (2007). From
Eden to Exile: Unraveling
Mysteries of the Bible (http
s://books.google.com/book
s?id=bJW-zhffwk4C&pg=P
A20) . National Geographic.
:
 A20) . National Geographic.
pp. 20–27. ISBN 978-1-
4262-0084-7.
12. Tigay, Jeffrey H. (2002)
[1982]. The Evolution of the
Gilgamesh Epic (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=cx
juHTH6I2sC) . Bolchazy-
Carducci Publishers. pp. 23,
218, 224, 238.
ISBN 9780865165465.
13. The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Translated by Andrew R.
George (reprinted ed.).
London: Penguin Books.
:
 London: Penguin Books.
2003 [1999]. pp. ii, xxiv–v.
ISBN 0-14-044919-1.
14. Otto Rank (1914). The myth
of the birth of the hero: a
psychological interpretation
of mythology (https://archiv
e.org/details/mythofbirthofh
er1914rank) . English
translation by F. Robbins
and Smith Ely Jelliffe. New
York: The Journal of
nervous and mental disease
publishing company.
:
 publishing company.
15. Wells, H. G. (1961) [1937].
The Outline of History:
Volume 1. Doubleday.
pp. 206, 208, 210, 212.
16. Campbell, Joseph (1964).
The Masks of God, Vol. 3:
Occidental Mythology.
p. 127.
17. Bronowski, Jacob (1990)
[1973]. The Ascent of Man (
http://archive.org/details/as
centofman0000bron_y1z
2) . London: BBC Books.
:
 pp. 72–73, 77. ISBN 978-0-
563-20900-3.
18. Grabbe, Lester L. (25
October 2007). "Some
Recent Issues in the Study
of the History of Israel".
Understanding the History
of Ancient Israel. British
Academy. pp. 57–58.
doi:10.5871/bacad/978019
7264010.003.0005 (http
s://doi.org/10.5871%2Fbac
ad%2F9780197264010.00
3.0005) . ISBN 978-0-19-
:
 3.0005) . ISBN 978-0-19-
726401-0.
19. Faust, Avraham (2022).
"Between the Biblical Story
and History: Writing an
Archaeological History of
Ancient Israel" (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=4b
eREAAAQBAJ&pg=PA78) .
In Keimer, Kyle H.; Pierce,
George A. (eds.). The
Ancient Israelite World.
Taylor & Francis. p. 78-79.
ISBN 978-1-000-77324-8.
20. Blenkinsopp 1998, p. 184.
:
 20. Blenkinsopp 1998, p. 184.
21. Rogerson 2003, pp. 153–
54.
22. Coggins 2003, p. 282.
23. Grabbe 2003, pp. 213–14.
24. Miller 1987, pp. 10–11.
25. Crenshaw 2010, p. 5.
26. Barton 2001, p. 9: "4.
Covenant and Redemption.
It is a central point in many
OT texts that the creator
God YHWH is also in some
sense Israel's special god,
:
 who at some point in history
entered into a relationship
with his people that had
something of the nature of a
contract. Classically this
contract or covenant was
entered into at Sinai, and
Moses was its mediator."
27. Coogan 2008, p. 106.
28. Ferguson 1996, p. 2.
29. Ska 2009, p. 213.
30. Berman 2006,
p. unpaginated: "At this
:
 juncture, however, God is
entering into a "treaty" with
the Israelites, and hence the
formal need within the
written contract for the
grace of the sovereign to be
documented.30 30.
Mendenhall and Herion,
"Covenant," p. 1183."
31. Levine 2001, p. 46.
32. Hayes 2006.
33. Berlin & Brettler 2014,
p. PT194: 6.17–22: Further
introduction and a pledge.
:
 introduction and a pledge.
18: This v. records the first
mention of the covenant
("brit") in the Tanakh. In the
ancient Near East, a
covenant was an agreement
that the parties swore
before the gods, and
expected the gods to
enforce. In this case, God is
Himself a party to the
covenant, which is more like
a pledge than an agreement
or contract (this was
sometimes the case in the
:
 sometimes the case in the
ancient Near East as well).
The covenant with Noah will
receive longer treatment in
9.1–17.
34. Barton 2001, p. 10.
35. Brettler 2005, p. 274.
36. Gentry 2008, p. 302.
37. Würthwein 1995.
38. Jones 2000, p. 216.
39. Cave, William. A complete
history of the lives, acts,
and martyrdoms of the holy
:
 apostles, and the two
evangelists, St. Mark and
Luke (https://books.google.
com/books?id=-L5UAAAAY
AAJ&pg=PA406) , Vol. II.
Wiatt (Philadelphia), 1810.
Retrieved 2013-02-06.
40. Apol. Const. 4
41. The Canon Debate, pp.
414–15, for the entire
paragraph
42. Herbermann, Charles, ed.
(1913). "Book of Judith" (ht
tps://en.wikisource.org/wiki/
:
 tps://en.wikisource.org/wiki/
Catholic_Encyclopedia_(191
3)/Book_of_Judith) .
Catholic Encyclopedia. New
York: Robert Appleton
Company. Canonicity: "..."
the Synod of Nicaea is said
to have accounted it as
Sacred Scripture" (Praef. in
Lib.). No such declaration
indeed is to be found in the
Canons of Nicaea, and it is
uncertain whether St.
Jerome is referring to the
:
 use made of the book in the
discussions of the council,
or whether he was misled
by some spurious canons
attributed to that council".
43. Rebenich, S., Jerome
(Routledge, 2013), p. 58.
ISBN 9781134638444
44. Würthwein 1995, pp. 91–
99.
45. "The Bible" (http://www.thel
atinlibrary.com/bible/prolog
i.shtml) .
www.thelatinlibrary.com.
:
 www.thelatinlibrary.com.
46. Kevin P. Edgecomb,
Jerome's Prologue to
Jeremiah (https://web.archi
ve.org/web/201312310020
43/http://www.bombaxo.co
m/blog/?p=233) , archived
from the original (http://ww
w.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=2
33) on 31 December 2013,
retrieved 30 November
2015
47. McDonald & Sanders,
editors of The Canon
:
 editors of The Canon
Debate, 2002, chapter 5:
The Septuagint: The Bible
of Hellenistic Judaism by
Albert C. Sundberg Jr.,
page 72, Appendix D-2,
note 19.
48. Everett Ferguson, "Factors
leading to the Selection and
Closure of the New
Testament Canon", in The
Canon Debate. eds. L. M.
McDonald & J. A. Sanders
(Hendrickson, 2002) p.
320; F. F. Bruce, The Canon
:
 320; F. F. Bruce, The Canon
of Scripture (Intervarsity
Press, 1988) p. 230; cf.
Augustine, De Civitate Dei
22.8
49. Barton 1997, pp. 80–81.
50. Philip Schaff, "Chapter IX.
Theological Controversies,
and Development of the
Ecumenical Orthodoxy" (htt
p://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/hi
story/3_ch09.htm) , History
of the Christian Church,
CCEL
:
 CCEL
51. Lindberg (2006). A Brief
History of Christianity.
Blackwell Publishing. p. 15.
52. F.L. Cross, E.A. Livingstone,
ed. (1983), The Oxford
Dictionary of the Christian
Church (2nd ed.), Oxford
University Press, p. 232
53. Soggin 1987, p. 19.
54. Würthwein 1995, pp. 79–
90, 100–4.
55. Farmer 1991, pp. 570–71.
56. Juel 2000, pp. 236–39.
:
 56. Juel 2000, pp. 236–39.
57. Jeremiah 31:31 (https://bibl
e.oremus.org/?passage=Jer
emiah%2031:31&version=n
rsv)
58. Herion 2000, pp. 291–92.

General and cited

references

Bandstra, Barry L (2004),

Reading the Old Testament: an
introduction to the Hebrew
Bible (https://books.google.co
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489) , Wadsworth, ISBN 978-
0-495-39105-0
Barton, John (1997), How the
Bible Came to Be (https://book
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9M4N2YC&q=How+the+Bible
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 ISBN 978-0-664-25785-9
⸻ (2001), "Introduction to
the Old Testament" (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=3surk
LVdw3UC&q=B.+Collecting+th
e+Hebrew+Scriptures&pg=PA
6) , in Muddiman, John; Barton,
John (eds.), Bible Commentary
(https://archive.org/details/oxfo
rdbiblecomme0000unse) ,
Oxford University Press,
ISBN 978-0-19-875500-5
Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi,
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 eds. (17 October 2014). The
Jewish Study Bible: Second
Edition (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=yErYBAAAQBA
J&pg=PT194) . Oxford
University Press. p. PT194.
ISBN 978-0-19-939387-9.
Berman, Joshua A. (Summer
2006). "God's Alliance with
Man" (http://azure.org.il/includ
e/print.php?id=131) . Azure:
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(25). ISSN 0793-6664 (https://
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 search.worldcat.org/issn/0793-
6664) . Retrieved 31 October
2019.
Blenkinsopp, Joseph (1998),
"The Pentateuch", in Barton,
John (ed.), The Cambridge
companion to biblical
interpretation (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=PSHCRgS
_SAUC&q=The+Cambridge+c
ompanion+to+biblical+interpre
tation) , Cambridge University
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 48593-7
Boadt, Lawrence (1984),
Reading the Old Testament: an
introduction (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=LGQNT6G_
do8C&q=Reading+the+Old+Te
stament:+an+introduction) ,
Paulist Press, ISBN 978-0-
8091-2631-6
Brettler, Marc Zvi (2005), How
to read the Bible (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=39nQa
fdJ_ssC&q=Brettler+how+to+r
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 ead+the+bible) , Jewish
Publication Society, ISBN 978-
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Bultman, Christoph (2001),
"Deuteronomy", in Barton,
John; Muddiman, John (eds.),
Oxford Bible Commentary (htt
ps://books.google.com/books?i
d=3surkLVdw3UC&q=Deutero
nomy) , Oxford University
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875500-5
Coggins, Richard J (2003), "1
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 and 2 Chronicles" (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=2Vo-11
umIZQC&q=Deuteronomy+Jo
hn+W+Rogerson&pg=PA153) ,
in Dunn, James DG; Rogerson,
John William (eds.),
Commentary on the Bible,
Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-
3711-0
Coogan, Michael David (1
November 2008). A Brief
Introduction to the Old
Testament: The Hebrew Bible
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 in Its Context (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=2rxBAQAA
IAAJ) . Oxford University Press.
p. 106. ISBN 978-0-19-
533272-8..
Crenshaw, James L (2010), Old
Testament wisdom: an
introduction (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=tKpWNrkO8
dEC&q=Old+Testament+wisdo
m:+an+introduction++By+Jam
es+L.+Crenshaw) ,
Westminster John Knox Press,
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Davies, GI (1998), "Introduction
to the Pentateuch" (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=3surk
LVdw3UC&q=Oxford+Bible+C
ommentary+Introduction+to+t
he+Pentateuch&pg=PA12) , in
Barton, John (ed.), Oxford Bible
Commentary (https://archive.or
g/details/oxfordbiblecomme00
00unse) , Oxford University
Press, ISBN 978-0-19-
875500-5
:
 Dines, Jennifer M (2004), "The
Septuagint" (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=Qv8Riv3QIb
QC&q=Dines+Septuagint) ,
Continuum, ISBN 978-0-567-
08464-4
Farmer, Ron (1991),
"Messiah/Christ" (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=goq0V
Ww9rGIC&pg=PA570) , in
Mills, Watson E; Bullard, Roger
Aubrey (eds.), Mercer
dictionary of the Bible, Mercer
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 University Press, ISBN 978-0-
86554-373-7
Ferguson, Everett (1996). The
Church of Christ: A Biblical
Ecclesiology for Today (https://
books.google.com/books?id=k
VqRaiPlx88C&pg=PA2) . Wm.
B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 2.
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Gentry, Peter R (2008), "Old
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 k+and+Later+Revisors:+Can+
we+always+distinguish+the
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04-16582-3
Grabbe, Lester L (2003), "Ezra"
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eronomy+John+W+Rogerson&
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 (eds.), Commentary on the
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Hasel, Gerhard F (1991), Old
Testament theology: basic
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id=yJJ6bE0kt1YC&q=Old+Test
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Hayes, Christine (2006).
"Introduction to the Old
Testament (Hebrew Bible):
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 Lecture 6 Transcript" (http://op
enmedia.yale.edu/projects/ipho
ne/departments/rlst/rlst145/tra
nscript06.html) . Open Yale
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"Covenant" (https://books.goog
le.com/books?id=qRtUqxkB7w
kC&q=Old+Testament&pg=PP
1) , in Freedman, David Noel
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Jobes, Karen H; Silva, Moises
(2005), Invitation to the
Septuagint, Baker Academic
Jones, Barry A (2000), "Canon
of the Old Testament" (https://b
ooks.google.com/books?id=qRt
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t&pg=PP1) , in Freedman,
David Noel (ed.), Dictionary of
the Bible, William B Eerdmans,
ISBN 978-90-5356-503-2
Juel, Donald (2000), "Christ", in
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 Freedman, David Noel (ed.),
Dictionary of the Bible (https://
books.google.com/books?id=q
RtUqxkB7wkC&q=Eerdmans+
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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" (htt
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n.com/library/public/document
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ment-Guidebook.pdf) (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
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Miller, John W (2004), How the
Bible came to be (https://book
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t-jstoC) , Paulist Press,
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Miller, John W (1987), Meet the
prophets: a beginner's guide
to the books of the biblical
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Rogerson, John W (2003),
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n+W+Rogerson&pg=PA153) ,
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3711-0
Sailhamer, John H. (1992), The
Pentateuch As Narrative (http
s://books.google.com/books?id
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 ailhamer+the+pentateuch) ,
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57421-7
Schniedewind, William M
(2004), How the Bible Became
a Book (https://books.google.c
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+a+Book) , Cambridge,
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Ska, Jean Louis (2009). The
Exegesis of the Pentateuch:
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149905-0.
Soggin, J. Alberto (1987),
Introduction to the Old
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e.com/books?id=mqSNsKXnH
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664-22156-0
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 Stuart, Douglas (1987), Hosea-
Jonah (http://smile.amazon.co
m/Word-Biblical-Commentary-
Vol-Hosea-Jonah/dp/084990
2304/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie
=UTF8&qid=1460638022&sr
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0-8499-0230-7
Würthwein, Ernst (1995), The
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ISBN 978-0-8028-0788-5

Further reading

Anderson, Bernhard.
Understanding the Old
Testament. ISBN 0-13-
948399-3
Bahnsen, Greg, et al., Five
Views on Law and Gospel
: