The Old Testament is the first part of the Christian Bible that precedes and announces the New Testament. This section of scripture tells the story of the creation of the world and mankind, and narrations about the first foundations of the Christian faith are included, as well as diverse representative characters of the main monotheistic religions, for example, Moses, Noah and Abraham. Have you ever wondered what is the difference between the Old and the New Testament?, or what are the books that compose it? We invite you to discover below the richness of these biblical texts that reveal the Word of God.
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What is the Old Testament?
For Christians, the Old Testament, also known as first testamentIt represents the old alliance between God and humanity. The Bible also mentions the new alliance or pact that had its origin with the birth of Christ.
When we analyze the Holy Scriptures, we can see that the Old Testament speaks to us of a creator and liberating God, while the New Testament speaks of a God the Father who gave us salvation through his son.
On the other hand, let us bear in mind that both the New and Old Testaments reveal the Word of God, and believers know that they have been written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but if we look at their content, we can see that the oldest texts of the Old Testament are perhaps more difficult to understand and interpret than the Gospels or the Epistles of the New Testament, as they take different literary forms and are rooted in different cultural contexts. However, the various mythical, poetic, prophetic and historical narratives of the Old Testament allow us to discover the birth of the people of God, their journey and their relationship with the Lord, which was sometimes a bit chaotic.
The different books of the Old Testament
The books of the Old Testament were written at different times in antiquity, mainly in Hebrew, although some texts were also written in Greek or Aramaic.
The arrangement and order of the Old Testament books has been defined by different canons, including the Septuagint canon and the Hebrew Bible canon.
We present some of them below:
- The five books of the Pentateuch (also known as the five books of Moses), comprising the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
- The so-called “historical” books; among which we can find the book of Ruth, the book of Esther, the books of Samuel, etc…
- The “Wisdom” books, which include the book of Psalms, Proverbs, the book of Job, the Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes.
- The books of the prophets (Ezekiel, Elijah, Isaiah, Zechariah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Jonah, Joshua…)
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Biblical characters from the Old Testament
Many of the biblical characters we know are deeply embedded in our cultures and form the basis of our religions. For example:
- Adam and Eve, in the account of Creation remind us that God created man because he so desired in his heart.
- Moses, the man God used to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt, introduced us to the Ten Commandments, and his brother Aaron was his spokesman before Pharaoh.
- Abraham, through his faith, was called “father of nations”, and from him descended his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob,
- We can also find King David, from whose lineage the Messiah descends.
Through the different biblical stories of these characters we can discover not only their heroic aspect, but also their weaknesses, fears and fears, which allow us to understand what these negative feelings entail. For example, we can see the consequences of envy and jealousy in the story of Cain and Abel or of Joseph, who was sold by his brothers, as well as the result of pride in the episode of the Babel Tower.
But the Old Testament also reveals a God who helps those who pray to him and obey his law, despite adversity, such is the case of Daniel in the lions’ den, David in his fight against Goliath, Noah building the ark, or the people of Israel in the account of the trumpets of Jericho. All these episodes show us a God who inspires wisdom and strength to those who fear him and invoke him: a clear example of this was experienced by King Solomon at the time of his famous trial.
The Old Testament also tells the story of many women who inspired, influenced and marked the history of the people of God. Such is the case of Rebekah, the wives of Jacob (Raquel and Lía) Sípora, Débora and Rahab
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proposes different prayer communities to discover, meditate and learn to pray with the Bible, because we believe that the Word of God is very rich and God speaks to our lives through it:
For example, you can:
- Join the community “the reflection of the day” and receive every day a good dose of spiritual food through the Holy Scriptures
- Be part of the community “the Gospel of the day” so that every morning you receive a meditation taken from a spiritual leader, so that you can better assimilate the Word of God in your heart.
- Discover how God comes to meet you through the Bible through lectio divina, which allows you to start a conversation with God and promotes spiritual growth.
- Join this online retreat “Observe and trust Jesus this year!”, to learn to surrender our moods to the Lord and trust Him.
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