The English Bible Essay

The Order of Books in the Old Testament

The English Bible has the books in a sequential sequence that indicates they were not written to create a logic flow. (Von, 2001). According to the authors’ standing, the Jews organized the volumes. There is a chronology of events and an arrangement of ideas from the book of Genesis to the Song of Solomon that makes it simpler to understand the content. Genesis is a part of the Torah, which contains the stories, rules, and poetic forms used by the Jews. The Bible moves on to the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy after the creation story in the book of Genesis, and Deuteronomy, where the growth of the Abraham and Sarah’s family is expounded in detail. Their relationship with God, their journey to the land of Canaan, and the redemption from Egypt is focus of these books.

The Covenant with God and Worship

Along the way, Israel made a covenant with God concerning the best form of worship to show appreciation to the Creator. After the creation, Exodus and numbers focus on Moses and how he led the Israelites from the Egyptian captivity in 1300 B.C (Alter, 1990). During this period of wandering God frequently visited them and gave the 10 commandments at Mt. Sinai. Leviticus and Deuteronomy looks at the relationship between people and their God.

The Prophets in the Old Testament

After looking at the history of the descends of Abraham and Sarah, the Bible goes to the next section where it profoundly looks at the works of the prophets in the Old Testament. In every era that God is relating with mankind, prophets were of utmost importance. The prophetic books were mostly written during the era of Elijah and are composed of the Minor and the Major Prophets. The Major and the Minor prophets were equipped with the knowledge by God and got an empowerment from the Holy Spirit in carrying out their prophetic duties. The message spoken by God would be delivered to the people who would be cautioned about sinful ways and the possible repercussions for their disobedience. In these prophetic books, a message of hope is also brought in and it was targeting those who maintained their hope in God and lived according to the Ten Commandments. The prophetic books are also important in prophesying that Jesus would be born to save them from their sins through salvation. The division between the Major Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Lamentation and the minor prophets like Hosea, Joel, and Amos shows that God chooses to reveal more information to some than others (Grant & Tracey, 1984).

The Ketuvim or “Writings”

The prophetic books are followed by the Ketuvim or the “Writing” in which the Song of Solomon is found. These books were written with a divine intervention, although they can be considered as being a level below the prophetic books in terms of authority (Berlin, 1994). Ketuvim can be considered as being a miscellaneous collection of secular love poetry, history, apocalyptic, romantic tales, short stories, and liturgical poetry. The books were composed between the 2nd and the 6th centuries in the period of Babylonian Exile (Kitchen, 2003). Unlike the Torah and the prophetic books, the canonization of these books took a little longer with each book getting accepted on its time. The Song of Songs is composed of praises made by King Solomon. The Song of Solomon is regarded as “The Song of Songs” because of the outstanding skills used to compose it. Initially, the book made no reference to King Solomon but later on the people who composed it acknowledged the King. The Acknowledgement saw the book being incorporated into the Hebrew Bible. The love story has been given different interpretations by some scholars believing it was God’s love for his people instead of couples expressing their love for each other.

Conclusion

Conclusively, the order of the books in the Old Testament from Genesis to the Songs of Solomon follows a certain sequence that reveals what God wanted of his people. In the first five books, God gave out laws that would govern the human behavior in the descents of Abraham and Sarah. Later on, through God’s inspiration, the prophetic books were written to warn the people about the consequences of their sins. After the works of the major and the minor prophets, different works of the category “Writing” were incorporated. The acceptance of these books was controversial even for the “Song of Solomon” until the author was acknowledged. The order of the Bible does not stop at the Song of Songs but rather continues all the way to the book of Malachi. The New Testament is not an exemption to this sequence as the events are narrated in a manner that is easy to follow in order to get the intended meaning. Looking at the content of the biblical authors that were inspired by God and the people who put the books together reveals that there was a high and extraordinary creativity that was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

References

Alter, R., & Kermode, F. (Eds.). (1990). The literary guide to the Bible. Harvard University Press.

Berlin, A. (1994). Poetics and interpretation of Biblical narrative (Vol. 9). Eisenbrauns.

Grant, R. M., & Tracy, D. (1984). A short History of the interpretation of the Bible. Philadelpia, PA: Fortress Press.

Kitchen, K. A. (2003). On the reliability of the Old Testament. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

Von Rad, G. (2001). Old Testament Theology: The theology of Israel’s historical traditions (Vol.1). Westminster John Knox Press.