Books of the Bible
 You’ve seen the Peaks and Valleys, but what else is
there to know?
 Your Bible (especially the Old Testament) is not
Chronological at all…
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Chronological = the order in which events occurred
Our Bible is ordered based not on when they were written, but
on their subject matter
 The Hebrew Bible is also not Chronological
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It is set up according to the status of the author
Hebrew Bible Order
 The Tanakh:
 Torah
 Nevi’im
 Ketuvim
Tanakh is an acronym (TNK); when written in Hebrew
would be pronounced tuh-nock
Torah “Teaching”
 Torah comprises the books written by Moses – he’s
most important in Jewish tradition
 Without Moses, there would be no Law, and thus, no
Judaism
Books:
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Nevi’im “Prophets”
 The books of the prophets are often divided into two
groups : Earlier Prophets and Later Prophets
1. Joshua
2. Judges
3. Samuel
4. Kings
5. Isaiah
6. Jeremiah
7. Ezekiel
8. The Twelve Prophets
a. Hosea
b. Joel
c. Amos
d. Obadiah
e. Jonah
f. Micah
g. Nahum
h. Habakkuk
i. Zephaniah
j. Haggai
k. Zechariah
l. Malachi
Ketuvim “Writings”
 11 books, everything else in the Old Testament
 Books of Truth: Psalms, Proverbs, Job
 Five Scrolls: Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations,
Ecclesiastes, Esther
 The Rest of the Writings: Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah,
Chronicles
The Bible
 The Bible, though comprising precisely the same
books as the Tanakh, is laid out quite differently.
 It is based on the book’s subject matter, not its author
 History and Law first
 Wisdom Literature next
 Prophets last
This is because the western mind is very, very different
than the middle eastern one – we expect everything to
be compartmentalized, separate, they did not.
Who did this?
 Nobody but God.
 There were canonical councils – but these were largely a
formality.
 Canonical councils
 OT: Hebrew authors and scholars recognized a book
that had been written by God. By Christ’s day, it had
been pretty well ironed out.
 NT: Apostles a large source for canonicity – they
recognized each other’s writings as being from Christ:
they knew the guy, after all.
Which Books?
 There are (or were) dozens of books that could have
gone into the Bible - why are the ones we have the ones
that made it?
 Tests:
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Authoritative (God says)
Prophetic (A man of God wrote it)
Authentic (consistent with the rest of the Word)
Dynamic (demonstrates God’s life-changing power)
Received (accepted and used by many other believers)
What about the others?
 The Catholic Church keeps a series of books in their
Bible that will not be in yours.
 Don’t worry, they aren’t sinning!
 These books, called the Apocrypha, are written by early
Christians, are valuable, and teach good things about
Christ, but the early church all agreed that they did not
pass all the tests for scriptural canonicity
List of Apocryphal Books
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I and II Esdras
Tobit
Judith
Rest of Esther
Wisdom
Ecclesiasticus or Sirach
Baruch
Song of Three Children
Story of Susanna
The Idol Bel and the Dragon
Prayer of Manasses
I and II Maccabees
Apocrypha
 The Jews never accepted the Apocryphal books as
scripture (important, yes, but not God’s word)
 Apocrypha never claimed to be scripture
 Apocrypha is never quoted in other authoritative
scriptures
Torah = Pentateuch
 The Torah is the Hebrew word for the first five books
of the Bible.
 The word Pentateuch is Greek – it means “Five Scrolls”
 It comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible
– popular during the Intertestamental Period (the time
between the testaments). This would have been the
version most Jews were reading in Jesus’ day.
Remember?
 Peaks and Valleys:
 The Torah or Pentateuch covers the first 3 Peaks and 3
valleys that we looked at earlier.
 Peaks
Creation
Promise
Nation
 Valleys
Failure
Slavery
Wandering
Your Job:
Get with a partner, get a sheet of butcher paper. I will
give you a peak or valley to work with. Then, with your
partner, figure out a way to illustrate a comic book that
describes the events in your peak or valley.
Make it look good!
Peaks:
Creation – Genesis 1-2
Promise – Genesis 12 & 15
Nation – Exodus 33-34
Valleys:
Failure – Genesis 3-4
Slavery – Exodus 1-2
Wandering – Numbers 14 & 16