Old Testament

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Old Testament Christian name for the Hebrew Bible, which serves as the first division of the Christian Bible (see New Testament ). The designations "Old" and "New" seem to have been adopted after c.AD 200 to distinguish the books of the Mosaic covenant and those of the "new" covenant in Christ. New Testament writers, however, simply call the Old Testament the "Scriptures."

The Books of the Old Testament

Among contemporary Christians, the Roman Catholic Church recognizes as deuterocanonical several books that are consigned to the Old Testament Apocrypha by most Protestant bodies, whose canon conforms to that of the contemporary Hebrew Bible. There the books follow the order of the Palestinian Hebrew canon, which appears to have been adopted by c.AD 100, although most of the books had clearly received canonical status well before this time. The order is as follows: (1) the Torah or Law, the five books of the Pentateuch, i.e., Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; (2) the Prophets, consisting of Joshua, Judges, First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve (or Minor) Prophets; (3) the Writings (Hagiographa), a heterogeneous group to which belong (a) Psalms, Proverbs, and Job, (b) the Scrolls ( Megillot ), consisting of the Song of Solomon (Song of Songs), Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, and (c) Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and First and Second Chronicles.

The number of Old Testament books (not counting the Apocrypha) stands at 39; in the Hebrew Bible they are usually counted as 24. The discrepancy occurs because Ezra and Nehemiah are counted as one book, as are each of the following—First and Second Kings; First and Second Chronicles; and the 12 Prophets (Hosea through Malachi). Sometimes Judges and Ruth are also conflated, as are Jeremiah and Lamentations, making for 22 books, the number attested by Josephus (c.AD 36-AD 96).

Versions of the Old Testament

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, with a small portion in Aramaic (parts of the books of Daniel, Ezra, and Jeremiah). The text of the Hebrew Bible (called the Masoretic text, see Masora ) had been standardized by the 10th cent. AD, but the only existing Hebrew texts of biblical books before this time have been found at Qumran (see Dead Sea Scrolls ). The origin of the Masoretic version is unknown.

The original Old Testament canon was the Septuagint , long used in the Greek-speaking church and still retained by the Orthodox churches. This Hellenistic Jewish translation originated with the translation of the Pentateuch in the mid-3d cent. BC Later translations were made from it or patterned after it. The canon of the Septuagint included the books of the later Hebrew canon, with the addition of several others, most of which were those now reckoned deuterocanonical by Roman Catholics and apocryphal by Protestants. Dispute over the canonicity of these books has its source in the Latin Bible, which found its official form in the Vulgate , the work of St. Jerome; this largely agreed with the list of books of the Septuagint, and the list and order of the Vulgate was the canon accepted by the Western Church of the Middle Ages.

At the Reformation, Protestant bodies withdrew recognition of the canonicity of those portions of the Old Testament that appeared in the Vulgate but not in the Masoretic canon, although the English church considered them (i.e., the deuterocanonical books) suitable for instruction and edification, but not for establishing or confirming doctrine. To set these books clearly apart, the translators who produced the Authorized Version (see Bible ) assembled them in the Apocrypha as an appendix to the Old Testament. Thus the Protestant canon became exactly like the Masoretic, except that it retained the order of the books as they appeared in the Vulgate.

Chronology and Authorship

The critical study of the Old Testament is called higher criticism when dealing with literary-historical problems and lower criticism when dealing with questions of a purely textual nature. Chronology and authorship present great difficulties. Before c.1000 BC there is little likelihood of any outside source against which to check biblical chronology, but from the time of David it is possible to devise a chronology with some checks from nonbiblical sources, especially Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions and records.

The Old Testament represents the confession of the people of Israel that God first became active in their affairs in the experience of their Hebrew pastoral ancestors. Through the centuries, he continued to protect, admonish, and guide their vulnerable descendants. Under Joshua they came into possession of the land of Canaan, which they inhabited, except for their exile (586-539 BC) in Babylon, until the Romans decimated the population of Jerusalem and burned the Temple in AD 70.

As it now stands, the Old Testament presents a history of once disparate tribal groups with different traditions as the story of one people. The whole nation in embryo went down into Egypt with the patriarch Jacob and his 12 sons, and was brought out from there under Moses' leadership some centuries later. Subsequently, the 12 tribes entered Canaan together and established a tribal league in the days of the Judges. It is more likely, however, that it was only in the days of the tribal league that the 12 tribes were first brought together.

In the 10th cent. BC the first of a series of editors collected materials from earlier traditional folkloric and historical records (i.e., both oral and written sources) to compose a narrative of the history of the Hebrews who now found themselves united under David and Solomon. Stemming from differing traditions originating among those living in what was later the northern kingdom of Israel and those in the southern kingdom of Judah, we can trace two dominant compilations, known as the E (preferring the epithet "Elohim" for God) and the J (preferring the epithet "Yahweh" ), respectively. These were combined by a Judaean some time after the fall of the northern kingdom and are to be found inextricably associated in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, First and Second Samuel, and First and Second Kings. According to scholars, this combined JE narrative is the bulk of the earlier Old Testament.

The prophets began to confront Israel in the days of the divided monarchy, indicting the people for failure to heed the moral demand of God and for failing to protect the weak in society. Their warnings of doom came to pass as Israel fell before the imperial might of Assyria and Babylon. Faithful disciples of the prophets guarded their oracles, even supplementing them, long after their masters had passed from the scene.

To Deuteronomy, scholars assign a late 7th-century BC origin. Deuteronomy, the book of the law "found" in the Temple during the reign of Josiah , was written, scholars argue, for a specific purpose—to provide a written law for the people, and to authenticate the reforms Josiah had instigated. Deuteronomy gave rise to a historical work, called the Deuteronomic History, in which the older JE traditions were reworked in light of its theology. Leviticus, with its emphasis on priestly matters, probably reached its final form in the post-exilic era in the establishment of post-exilic Judaism. The books of Chronicles and of Ezra and Nehemiah provide a theological agenda for post-exilic Judaism, stressing Temple worship, ethnic purity, and adherence to the Mosaic law.

Bibliography

See J. H. Hayes and J. M. Miller, Israelite and Judaean History (1977); B. S. Childs, Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture (1979); J. Bright, A History of Israel (3d ed. 1981); W. H. Schmidt, Old Testament Introduction (1984); B. W. Anderson, Understanding the Old Testament (4th ed. 1986); P. C. Craigie, The Old Testament (1986); J. A. Soggin, Introduction to the Old Testament (rev. ed. 1989); J. Miles, God: A Biography (1995). See also translations of the books of the Old Testament by E. Fox (1996-) and of a number of its books by Robert Alter (1996, 1999, 2004, 2007), both of whom have attempted to preserve the flavor of the original Hebrew.

Old Testament Term used by Christians for the first part of the Bible, though many scholars prefer to use the term ‘Hebrew Bible’ as a more neutral description. It is always regarded as authoritative (except by certain heretics, e.g. Marcion), though the precise contents of the OT have been disputed. In NT times the Samaritans accepted only the first five books of the OT, and at the Reformation Catholics accepted all the books contained in the LXX, while Protestants accepted the Hebrew canon and relegated the inter-testamental books contained only in the Greek LXX to the Apocrypha.

The Hebrew Bible is divided into the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings:

The Law (Torah) reached its final form about 400 BCE and is the Pentateuch: Genesis to Deuteronomy.

The (Former) Prophets consist of the historical books which record activities of prophets—Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings.

The (Latter) Prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve Minor Prophets ( Hosea to Malachi).

The Writings comprise the Psalms, Job, Proverbs, and five Rolls (Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and Esther), Daniel, Ezra–Nehemiah, and Chronicles.

The Greek OT, the Septuagint (LXX) included additional books and compiled them in a different order. The historical books are grouped together, so that after the Pentateuch, the order is: Joshua, Judges and Ruth; the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles; 1 Esdras (not in Hebrew OT),

2 Esdras (Ezra–Nehemiah in Hebrew);Esther; followed by Judith, Tobit, and 1 and 2 Maccabees (not in Hebrew); then 3 and 4 Maccabees. The next section consists of the poetical books: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Job, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (Ben Sirach), Psalms of Solomon. The Prophetic Books consist of: the twelve Minor Prophets, followed by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Baruch, Lamentations, Letter of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Susanna,  Daniel (including the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Children), and Bel and the Dragon.

The OT is more of an anthology than a unified document with a single theological outlook. The great insight of modern critical scholarship has been the recognition of different strands in the historical books and the overall theological stamp which has been imposed upon them at a date far later than that of the events described. The OT was compiled over a period of more than a thousand years. A few pieces of poetry, such as Judg. 5, may have originated before 1000 BCE, while Daniel is as late as 165 BCE. It is one task of critical study to reconstruct the course of the history of Israel, and the records of neighbouring peoples and other discoveries of archaeologists have been important; and a few clues are provided by the books themselves about the time and place of their composition.

Old Testament First and older section of the Bible, originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic, and accepted as religiously inspired and sacred by both Jews and Christians. Among Jews it is known as the Hebrew Bible. It begins with the creation, but the main theme of the Old Testament is the history of the Hebrews. In addition, there are many examples of prophetic writing, poetry, and short narrative tales. It comprises the Pentateuch or Torah (Genesis to Deuteronomy); the Historical Books (Joshua to I and II Kings); the Wisdom Books (Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes); the Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel); the 12 Minor Prophets (Hosea to Malachi); and the miscellaneous collection known as the Writings (including Psalms and the Song of Songs). Sometimes included is a collection of books written in the final three centuries bc, known as the Apocrypha. The number, order, and names of the books of the Old Testament vary between the Jewish and Christian traditions; texts for both are based mainly on the Septuagint. Parts of the ancient Hebrew text were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. See also Law and the Prophets

Old Tes·ta·ment • n. the first part of the Christian Bible, comprising thirty-nine books and corresponding approximately to the Hebrew Bible. Most of the books were originally written in Hebrew, some in Aramaic, between about 1200 and 100 bc. They comprise the chief texts of the law, history, prophecy, and wisdom literature of the ancient people of Israel.

Old Testament. A term denoting the collection of Canonical Books which the Church shares with Judaism, together with (in Catholic and Orthodox Churches) certain other Jewish Books not now accepted as canonical by the Jews (the Apocrypha). Like the NT, the OT Books are regarded as inspired in the Church, which from the time of Marcion has defended them against attack.

Old Testament. Christian name for the Jewish scriptures (see TANACH) which form the first part of the Bible. In Roman Catholic usage the deuterocanonical books are included.