ABOUT
THE OLD AND THE NEW
TESTAMENTS
ABOUT THE OLD TESTAMENT
The Old Testament is a collection of 39 books written in Hebrew, with a few chapters written in Aramaic. These books are arranged in five groups in English Bibles:
(1) The Pentateuch. The name means "five books," and this group is made up of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The Group is sometimes called the "Law of Moses," or the "Torah," a Hebrew word referring to God's "law" or "teachings."
(2) The Historical Books. This group is made up of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Ester. Together, the Pentateuch and Historical books tell the history of Israel two times. The books of Genesis through 2 Kings tell the history the first time, while the books 1 Chronicles through Nehemiah tell it the second time from a somewhat different point of view.
(3) The Poetic Books. This group is sometimes called the "Wisdom Books," and it contains Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. Lamentations is also one of the poetic books, but in English Bibles if follows Jeremiah, because Jeremiah has often been thought to be its author.
(4) The Major Prophets are the longer books that contain the messages of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
(5) The Minor Prophets are the shorter books that contain the messages of the prophets Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
ABOUT THE NEW TESTAMENT
The New Testament is a collection of 27 books and letters written in Greek. They are arranged in four groups:
(1) Gospels and Arts. This group contains the four Gospels, which are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The term "gospel" means "good news," and these four Gospels tell the good news about Jesus Christ. The group also contains the book of Acts, which tells how the good news spread in the years after Jesus died and was raised from death.
(2) Letters of Paul. This group is made up of Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon. These letters have traditionally been called "epistles," and each one is named for the group or person that it was written to.
(3) Other Letters. This group contains letters written by people other than Paul. It contains Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1,2, and 3 John, and Jude. The Letter to the Hebrews doesn't give its author's name, but each of the other letters is named for the person who wrote it.
(4) Revelation. This book is quite different from the other New Testament books, because it is a book of visions and prophecies.