    
Bill (Bills)
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Username: Bills
Post Number: 143
Registered: 03-2008
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 07, 2011 - 03:05 am: | 
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The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians, which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism. The number of these writings varies markedly between denominations, Protestants accepting only the Rabbinic canon but dividing it into 39 books, while Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, Coptic and Ethiopian churches recognise a considerably larger collection derived from the ancient Septuagint.
The books can be broadly divided into the Pentateuch, which lists the Mosaic Law and tells how God selected Israel to be his chosen people, the history books telling the history of the Israelites from their Conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon, the poetic and "wisdom" books dealing, in various forms, with questions of good and evil in the world, and the books of the biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning away from God. For the Israelites who were its original authors and readers these books told of their own unique relationship with God and their relationship with Proselytes, but the over-arching Messianic nature of Christianity has led Christians from the very beginning of the faith to see the Old Testament as a preparation for the New Covenant and New Testament.
The Old Testament contains 39 (Protestant) or 46 (Catholic) or more (Orthodox and other) books, divided, very broadly, into the Pentateuch (meaning "five books"), the historical books, the "wisdom" books and the prophets. The difference of seven books between the Catholic and Protestant canons stems from the fact that the early Christians used a Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures which differed from the one which came to be accepted by the Jews; the Protestant churches later dropped those books which were not accepted by the Jews. |
The Old Testement Topics 