Review of the books of the Old Testament

The Testament is called New because of its time and the nature of what is contained in it, because in it everything is renewed, and, first of all, man, for whom everything was created. They may say: heaven is the same now, as is the earth, and man, who rules over everything; but a new law was given, new commandments, new grace through baptism, a new man, new promises; now not earth and earthly things, but heaven and heavenly things; new sacraments; now it is no longer those material objects, sheep and blood, smoke and stench, but reasonable and virtuous service; new commandments; the tree that takes us to heaven and makes us high. The goal of both Testaments is the same: the correction of people. And is it surprising that this is the purpose of Scripture, when nature itself exists for the benefit of man? For him, God created the great sky, the vast earth, and the immeasurable sea, so that people, seeing the greatness of creation and marveling at the Creator, would reach the knowledge of God. All this is for a person. And since the purpose of the Old and New Testaments is the same, Moses considered it necessary to describe ancient events, but not in the way of pagan writers. They write history only to tell the story of events, to imagine wars and battles, and to gain fame for themselves by these writings. But the legislator writes differently: he everywhere sets out the history of the great righteous people, so that the story of their lives will serve as good instruction for posterity. Therefore, he tells not only about the righteous, but also about sinners, so that we imitate some and avoid the example of others, and through both, we succeed in virtue and diligence. Thus, let no one think it strange that the legislator narrates ancient events and writes laws. After all, just as much power does the law have, so does the story about the lives of the saints. So, in the Old Testament there are historical books, which are the following eight: the Book of Genesis, which tells about the creation of the world and about the lives of those who pleased God; Exodus, which tells about the miraculous liberation of the Jews from Egypt, about their stay in the desert and about the giving of the law; Leviticus is about sacrifices and priesthood, because the tribe of Levi inherited the priesthood, and this book received its name from the name of this tribe; then Numbers - because, after the exodus from Egypt, God commanded that the Jewish people be counted, and six hundred thousand were counted, descended from one person - Abraham. Then Deuteronomy, because Moses explained the law to them a second time. Next is Joshua; After Moses, he was the leader of the Jews, led them into the Promised Land and divided this land by lot between the twelve tribes. After him, the Judges - because, after the death of Jesus, the control of the Jews passed to the noblest people and (different) tribes ruled. Then Ruth, a short book containing the story of a foreign woman who was married to a Jew. Then the four books of Kings, which tell about the events under Saul, under David, under Solomon, Elijah and Elisha, before the Babylonian captivity. After Kings - the book of Ezra. After the Jews were taken to Babylon for their sins and remained there for seventy years in slavery, God finally had mercy on them and disposed Cyrus, who then reigned over the Persians, to release the captives; This is the Cyrus whose upbringing Xenophon described. Having been released, they returned under the leadership of Ezra, Nehemiah and Zerubbabel. Ezra writes about this return, namely, about how, upon their return, they built the church for the second time and restored the city. But after a hundred years, the Macedonian war befell them again. Then the events happened under Antiochus Epiphanes, when the Jews, having suffered a siege that lasted three and a half years, and having suffered grievously, were again freed from disaster. Then, after a little time, Christ comes and the Old Testament ends. And in order to know where the Jewish people came from, it is necessary to say something here. After Adam there was Seth, then Enoch, then many other generations, and finally Noah, during which the flood occurred because people were corrupted by wickedness. After the end of the flood, he, leaving the ark alone with his three sons, filled the earth with his offspring, as many generations gradually occurred. When people multiplied, they wanted to build a tower that would reach to the sky. But God, not approving of their intentions, confused their languages, dividing one into many. Since they ceased to understand each other, it became impossible for them to live with each other; and this was the reason for their scattering throughout the universe. They say that during this confusion of languages, Eber, the ancestor of the Jews, did not want to participate in their enterprise, and one retained his own language, having been awarded this for his excellent behavior. His descendant was Abraham; That is why the language of the Jews is called Hebrew, from Eber. Thus his descendant was Abraham; Abraham's son is Isaac, whose son is Jacob. He was the father of twelve patriarchs: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Naphtali, Gad, Dan, Asher, Joseph, Benjamin. Eleven of these patriarchs are named after the tribes that descended from them. From each of them came a tribe, and the descendants were called by their name. From Joseph came not one tribe, but two; Joseph's father did not want one tribe to be named after him. How did it happen? Since Joseph was alone, wanting to make him a dedicated patriarch, Jacob decided that two tribes should be named after the names of his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh; both of these tribes were attributed to Joseph. Thus, thirteen tribes arose: eleven from the other patriarchs and two from Joseph through his sons. From here the tribe of Levi is excluded, which is given the priesthood, and it should not have been engaged in anything else, and the number twelve is not violated. So, the twelve tribes performed all other tasks, and the tribe of Levi alone was entrusted with the duties of the priesthood. Moses came from this tribe. So, these twelve patriarchs, having arrived in Egypt, in fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham: “I will multiply your seed like the stars of heaven” (Gen. 22:17), and became the ancestors of six hundred thousand. From them the Jewish people were formed, which received their name from the royal tribe of Judah, from which the kings descended. Thus, in the Old Testament there are historical books, precisely those that we indicated above; also moralizing ones, such as: Proverbs, Wisdom of Sirach, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs; then prophetic, such as: sixteen prophets, Ruth and David (The Book of Ruth is placed between the prophetic, perhaps due to the educational significance of Ruth; it is also possible that it got here by mistake of the scribe). However, these different types of Scripture can also be found mixed with one another. For example, in historical tales one can find prophecy; and from the prophets one hears many historical stories; and moral teachings and exhortations can be found in both, and in prophecies, and in historical narratives. All this, as I said above, has one thing in mind - the correction of the listeners, so that stories about what happened before, and moral teachings, and exhortations, and prophecies direct us to what we should. The business of prophecy primarily consisted in predicting the future, both joyful and sorrowful, in order to encourage some and keep others from wickedness through fear. There is another kind of prophecy - this is a prediction about Christ; they speak with precision not only about His coming, but also about what He will do after His coming, about the conception, about the birth, about the Cross, about miracles, about the election of disciples, about the New Testament, about the cessation of Judaism, about the extermination of paganism, about the high dignity of the Church and about all other subsequent circumstances. The prophets foretold all this clearly for a long time, some with prototypes, and some with words. There are precisely two types of prophecy: prediction of the future either by deeds or words; words when, wanting to talk about the Cross, they say: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearers, silent” (Is. 53:7). This is prophecy in words; deeds, when, for example, Abraham appears raising up a son and slaughtering a ram. With these actions he prefigured the Cross and the slaughter that was about to take place for the universe. And many such types and predictions by works can be found in the Old Testament. However, prophecy tends to speak not only about the future, but also about the past, as is especially true in Moses. When he talks about heaven and earth, he speaks about the past and hidden by time, and, therefore, utters a prophecy about this. Just as speaking about what has not yet happened and what is still unknown is characteristic of prophecy, so revealing and communicating what has happened, but was hidden by time, is characteristic of the same grace. It is common for prophecy to speak about the present, when something exists but is hidden, as, for example, was the case with Ananias and Sapphira; here was neither the past nor the future, but the present, but unknown. Peter, having opened the prophecy, discovers this. Such are the general writings of the Old Testament. And in the New Testament what is said mysteriously in the Old Testament is explained; namely: prophecies are evidenced by deeds, life is depicted reaching to heaven, unspeakable future blessings are indicated, “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man” (1 Cor. 2:9). The New Testament, having accepted a person who was gradually and little by little liberated from wickedness by the Old Testament, elevates him to the life of an angel. The work of the Old Testament was to create man, and the New Testament was to make man an angel. When wickedness caused people to cease to be human, reduced them to the baseness of dumbness and made them beast-like, then the law freed them from this wickedness, but grace adds to them angelic virtues. There are also books of the New Testament, namely: fourteen epistles of Paul, four Gospels, two of the disciples of Christ, John and Matthew, and two of Luke and Mark, of which one was a disciple of Peter, and the other of Paul. Those saw Christ with their own eyes and treated Him, and these passed on to others what they received from them. Also the book of Acts, the same Luke, who narrated the events of that time, and three conciliar epistles (St. Chrysostom does not mention the other four conciliar epistles and the Apocalypse, probably because these books in his time were not yet everywhere included in the canon of the books of Holy Scripture). The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: