The Structure of the Bible
The word “Bible” has many meanings. The Jewish Bible contains scriptures, written over a considerable expanse of time, originally in Hebrew (with some sections in Aramaic). Christian Bibles contain in addition other scriptures known as the “New Testament,” originally written in Greek. Catholic Bibles include still other books, called the “Apocrypha,” not found in most Protestant Bibles. Christian Bibles incorporate all of the books found in Jewish Bibles but in a different order, and call them the “Old Testament.” So the word “Bible” signifies many things and must be clarified if the following discussion is to make sense.
Since Judeochristianity (our perspective recognizing a continuity between Jewish and Christian tradition) draws its inspiration from both Jewish and Christian heritage, this must be reflected in its approach to the Bible. The Jewish “Hebrew Bible” and the Christian “Old Testament” are not the same. The main difference is the order of the books, but this difference is significant. Here are the two orders side-by-side:
| The Hebrew Bible | The “Old Testament” |
|---|---|
|
Torah (“Law”) Genesis Exodus Numbers Leviticus Deuteronomy Prophets Joshua Judges 1,2 Samuel 1,2 Kings Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi Writings Psalms Proverbs Job Song of Songs Ruth Lamentations Ecclesiastes Esther Daniel Ezra & Nehemiah 1,2 Chronicles |
Genesis Exodus Numbers Leviticus Deuteronomy Joshua Judges Ruth 1 Samuel 2 Samuel 1 Kings 2 Kings 1 Chronicles 2 Chronicles Ezra Nehemiah Esther Job Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes Song of Solomon Isaiah Jeremiah Lamentations Ezekiel Daniel Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi |
The Logic of the “Hebrew Bible”
In the Hebrew Bible the first group of books (from Genesis to Deuteronomy) is called “Torah.” The root of the word means “to shoot (an arrow),” and has the sense of pointing one in the right direction. Thus the word torah has come to mean “teaching” or “instruction.” (It is often misleadingly translated “law.”)
The second group of books (from Joshua through Malachi) is called the “Prophets.” These are subdivided into the “Early Prophets” (Joshua through Kings) and the “Later Prophets” (Isaiah through Malachi). The last twelve (Hosea through Malachi) are very short and are traditionally considered together as one single book.
The books in the third group (Psalms through Chronicles) are of later origin and are called the “Writings.” This group is the most varied, containing works of poetry, “wisdom literature,” as well as some historical material.
You may come across a common Hebrew abbreviation for the Bible: TaNaKh. This word is an acronym of the first letters of each of the three sections just described: Torah, Nebi’im (Prophets), and Ketubim (Writings).
This is the Bible Jesus knew. When Jesus speaks of “the Law and the Prophets” he is referring to the first two divisions of the TaNaKh as just described. Exactly when the books of the third section (“Writings”) were canonized is unknown and probably took place after Jesus. Jesus did know at least the Psalms in addition to the “Law” and the “Prophets” (Luke 24:44).
The Hebrew Bible records the search to understand the nature of the one true God. It was not a smooth journey. There were numerous false starts and setbacks. Within that journey, spanning many humdreds of years, one can trace a series of separations and reconciliations.
The biblical story begins with the creation of the world, which was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). But it does not take long for human beings to transgress God’s will, losing their paradise and falling into a state of estrangement. God seeks to restore the relationship with humanity, which takes the form of the Covenant. This promise of God’s guiding presence in human life is passed from Abraham through his descendants until it finally becomes a message for the entire world, “a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).
A high point occurs with the receiving of God’s instructions at Sinai. But over the next decades and centuries, through a descent into idolatry and corruption, the people break faith with the covenant and are thrown into exile. This happens by the end of 2 Kings, exactly the midpoint of the Hebrew Bible.
The second half of the Hebrew Bible (beginning with Isaiah) gives us the process of restoration. Prophets arise in Israel to guide the people, slowly and very painfully, back to the Covenant they lost. Finally they return to the land and start rebuilding. The Covenant as an active force in their lives is renewed.
The Hebrew Bible ends with Chronicles, which recaps the entire story from Adam to the return from exile. It thus provides a fitting conclusion to the whole, summarizing the complete cycle of revelation => separation => reconciliation.
This is the salient point: The Hebrew Bible records one single and complete Covenant. It is one whole, complete within itself. The New Testament, which follows, takes that Covenant and extends it to the rest of humanity. The New Testament therefore brings the culmination of Hebrew prophecy and the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).
The Hebrew Bible (TaNaKh) tells of God’s Covenant with the Jewish people. The New Testament tells how this Covenant came to the whole world. One cannot fully understand one without the other.
The Logic of the “Old Testament”
The order of the Christian “Old Testament” follows a different logic. It separates the “historical” books (Genesis through Esther) from the “prophetic” books (Isaiah through Malachi). In between those two groups it places five books of wisdom and praise (Job through Song of Solomon). This mainly affects the order of the books in the Ketubim (“Writings”) section of the Hebrew Bible, which are scattered in different places within the Old Testament. A principle of historical chronology was applied: for example the book of Ruth, although written much later, is positioned right after Judges, since the events it describes supposedly take place during the same historical period.
Perhaps the most significant result of changing the order to end with Prophets rather than Writings is that instead of concluding on a note of completion (return from exile), the Christian Old Testament finishes with a hope pointing towards a future event. The last of the prophets, Malachi, and the last book of the Old Testament, concludes with this verse: “Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse” (Malachi 4:5-6). Christian tradition identifies Elijah with John the Baptist. Thus the Old Testament appears not complete within itself, but a prelude to something else.
Why We Need Both
From the perspective of the Hebrew Bible, the placement of the books in the Christian Old Testament is problematic. First, history cannot be separated from prophecy. The two are inextricably intertwined. There is history in the “prophetic” books and prophecy in the “historical” books. In addition, the Book of Daniel is apocalyptic rather than prophetic and should not be classified with the major Hebrew prophets. It was also written much later, probably at the time of the Maccabees.
Additionally, if the goal was to make the order of the books historically chronological, it was not completely realized. The prophetic books are out of chronological order. (For example, Hosea and Amos should come before Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Daniel should come before Ezra and Nehemiah.)
The most serious difficulty with the Old Testament book order, however, comes from ending with Malachi’s prophecy of Elijah instead of with the return from exile as in Chronicles. This can leave an impression that the Hebrew scriptures are not a complete whole but merely an introduction to the New Testament. The Hebrew Bible must be understood in its own right before the New Testament can be fully appreciated. One must have a sense of what that original Covenant was in order to understand what its full extension really means.
The greatest danger would be to come away thinking there are two “covenants,” an “old” one for Jews and a “new” one for Christians, with the Christian one replacing the Jewish one. This is a theological mistake. If God can break one Covenant or declare it obsolete, then God can do the same with another. If God’s promise to the Jews was shaky, then so is God’s promise to the Gentiles. While we can abandon a covenant that God makes with us, God never breaks it and always allows the possibility of return. It is not nullified. There is therefore only one eternal Covenant (Genesis 17:7). It was first revealed in the history of the Jewish people as recorded in the Bible, but meant to encompass everyone. Thus a much better terminology than “Old Testament” and “New Testament” would be “Original Covenant” and “Extended Covenant.”
We now confront an important paradox (not unusual in theology): the order of the Christian Old Testament also speaks a truth, and must be held alongside the order of the Hebrew Bible. One should not negate the other; rather, they should be held together in creative tension. The order of the Hebrew Bible tells us that God’s Covenant with the Jews is whole and complete. And the order of the Christian Old Testament reminds us that even while God’s Covenant with the Jewish people still stands, that is not where it stops. God’s promise to Abraham was meant to bless the world. The New Testament tells us how that unfolds. And the Old Testament, ending with a hopeful look towards this fulfillment, reminds us that God’s Covenant with the Jews was only the beginning.
We should therefore not use one of these orders against the other, but instead learn the truth they reveal when we hold them both at once. They both convey important if not identical messages. And they show us that Christians and Jews have much to learn from each other. Jews learn from Christians about the universalization of their faith and how it has blessed the world. And Christians learn from Jews about the roots of their own faith and the source of Christ’s message. It is time the two faiths became reconciled, even while each keeps its commitment to its own traditions.
The New Testament
We can now more fully appreciate the “good news” of the New Testament. The Hebrew Bible shows us how the Hebrew people discovered that God is involved in their everyday lives. In the New Testament this discovery is shared with everyone
The books of the New Testament are as follows:
| The New Testament |
|---|
|
Matthew Mark Luke John Acts Romans 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians 1 Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 2 Timothy Titus Philemon Hebrews James 1 Peter 2 Peter 1 John 2 John 3 John Jude Revelation |
The first four of these are Gospels, a unique form of spiritual biography detailing Jesus’s life and ministry. Mark’s Gospel was the first to be written. The Gospels of Mattew and Luke draw upon Mark and also on another source called Q (from the German Quelle, meaning “source”). The Q source, which does not exist in written form, contains sayings and parables not found in Mark. These three Gospels, Mark, Matthew, and Luke, follow a roughly identical chronological sequence and so can be lined up in parallel columns without much difficulty. For this reason they are called the “Synoptic” Gospels, meaning they can be “seen together.”
The Gospel of John is very different in style, with Jesus engaging in extended discourses rather than relating parables. It also differs from the Synoptics in some chronological details (e.g. the length of Jesus’s ministry, the sequence of some events, and the day of the crucifixion). It has a sophisticated theology providing an important supplement to the Synoptic material.
The Gospels are followed by the Book of Acts, a history of the early church written by the author of the Gospel of Luke and forming its continuation. Above all it documents the spread of the Gospel message to the Gentile world through the ministry of the Apostle Paul.
Then follow a series of epistles, or letters to church communities. Their order is not chronological but roughly by size, from long to short. Many are ascribed to Paul, but only these seven are considered authentic by most scholars: 1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Romans, and Philemon. The other letters bearing Paul’s name are generally thought to be “pseudepigraphic,” meaning written in the name of someone else. Someone, perhaps a disciple, might have used Paul’s name either as a tribute to Paul or to ensure a wider circulation of the letter. There are also letters attributed to authors other than Paul, many of those considered pseudepigraphic as well.
The New Testament ends with the Book of Revelation, an example of apocalyptic writing not unlike Daniel. “Apocalyptic” denotes a form of literature current at the time describing the crises to occur at the end of history, when the forces of evil are finally defeated. The book’s concluding picture of “the new heaven and the new earth” (Revelation 21) is the perfect ending to the entire Bible, which began with the creation of heaven and earth in Genesis. It projects onto a cosmic scale the biblical cycle of original goodness, corruption, and restoration. The arc of salvation begins with creation itself and reaches to the very end of time.
In the pages to follow we will see how all of the Bible’s major sections fit together to tell the story of God’s involvement in our lives. What follows is not a summary of the Bible, nor a description that is in any way exhaustive. It is admittedly an interpretation, focusing on events of special significance. Hopefully it will provide a road map through the Bible for those who are not familiar with it, as well as a clarification of its deeper spiritual message.