The Books of the Old Testament

Home

The Books of the Old Testament

|

|

Hebrew Text

The Old Testament is also known as the Hebrew Bible, as it was, of course, written mostly in Hebrew. Some parts of the book of Daniel were written in Aramaic.

The Old Testament is divided into three sections:

The Five Books of Moses
The Prophets, and
The Writings

The Five Books of Moses

The five books of Moses, also called the Law, or Torah in Hebrew, or Pentateuch in Greek are:

Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers, and
Deuteronomy

Genesis which means creation or generation gives an account of the origin of all things. It gives the history of mankind to the time of Noah and then the history of ancient Israel to the time of Joseph.

Exodus, the departure, gives an account of the Israelites in Egypt, Moses' attempt to free them and their eventual freedom and journey to the Promised Land.

Leviticus is generally a series of Laws.

Numbers gives a record of the number of people during and after their wanderings in the wilderness. It gives an account of the Israelites journey from Sinai to Moab. There were fewer people at the end of the journey than there were at the beginning.

Deuteronomy consists of the discourses Moses gave to the Israelites about the events of the forty years in the wilderness and warnings not to forsake God. It also recounts the laws God gave Moses at Mount Sinai and a list of blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. It also tells of the death of Moses which was probably written by Joshua.