Chapter One

This course is a general survey of the Old Testament. The aim is to give a general and comprehensive picture of each book from Genesis to Malachi. With this in view, the basic goals of the course can be stated as follows:

Recent discoveries in the ancient Near East have created a resurgence of interest in Old Testament studies. Both the professional scholar and the interested layman have been intrigued by finds such as the uncovering of the Dead Sea Scrolls in musty caves near the Qumran community This is only one instance of scores of new discoveries which shed light on the biblical record.

You will notice in works written today on the contents of the Old Testament that there is a radical difference in the approach the authors take. There is a reason for this. The way we approach the Old Testament will be determined by the theological presuppositions we bring to the Word of God. If I accept the thesis that the Old Testament is merely a witness to revelation and a fallible one at that, this will color my treatment of the content of the individual books. But if I take the approach that the Old Testament is an infallible record of God revealing Himself to man, my development will be different. Obviously the latter approach is the one that will be pursued in this course. We need not apologize because this was the attitude Christ and the apostles exhibited toward the Old Testament. They believed it to be an inerrant record of divine truth as passages such as Matthew 1:22-23; 5:17-18; Mark 12:36; and Acts 1:16 clearly show.

This first chapter will explore some foundational truths that are related to the Old Testament as a whole. These facts will supply valuable background material that will assist in the study of the contents of the individual books. It would be helpful, first of all, to point out the nature of the survey approach which we will pursue.

We have all met the new Christian who is eager to study the Word for himself. He is unfamiliar with the books of the Bible but he jumps in enthusiastically anyway and expects great spiritual truths to be unfolded for him automatically. If he happens to pick the Old Testament as his starting point, he often gives up quickly. His futility is heightened as he tries to sort out the numerous details that confront him. He reads of events he cannot understand, of kings he cannot keep straight, and of foreign powers that increase his confusion. The problem is a common one. He has submerged himself in a sea of details and cannot see the over all plan, either of the Old Testament as a whole, or of the individual books.

The survey, or synthesis approach as it is sometimes called, attempts to give an overall plan of the individual books of the Bible without getting lost in the minutia. It is the opposite of the analytic approach, which is concerned with a study of the details of the chapters and verses. The difference can be compared to a Rand McNally map of the world and a street map of the city of Chicago. The first map gives the broad outline of the continents and countries so that you can see the world as a whole. The second is concerned with the minute details of an individual city. Working from the whole to the parts in a study of the Bible may keep us from getting lost in the "side streets" of the Scriptures and may open our eyes to the main arteries. With this in mind we can begin unfolding the map.

It comes as a shock to the average Bible reader to find that the books of the Old Testament are not placed in chronological order. The order we find in our English Bible, however, is a logical one, as the books are grouped by subject matter (For the order of the books in the Hebrew Bible, see Section 6.6, Chapter 12: The Inerrancy, Canoncity and Interpretation of Scripture, of the course: Systematic Theology).

The first seventeen can be roughly classified as history while the last seventeen constitute the prophetic section of the Old Testament. Wedged in between are the five books usually classified as poetical.

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17	5	17
Historical: Genesis - Esther	Poetical: Job - Song of Solomon	Prophetical: Isaiah - Malachi

The historical books can be broken down even further. The first five books of the Old Testament are called the Pentateuch or Law. They were all written by the same human author - Moses. The twelve remaining books have no specific title but can be divided into those describing events before the Babylonian captivity and those tracing the history after the captivity.

HISTORICAL BOOKS (17)

Pentateuch
Law (5)
Written by Moses

Genesis - Deuteronomy

12 Remaining

Pre-captivity
(9)
Joshua - 2 Chronicles

Post-captivity
(3)
Ezra - Esther

These books are so designated because they reflect the main characteristic of Hebrew poetry, parallelism of thought. Each of the five books explores a basic question of life.

The prophetical books are normally divided into major and minor prophets. There are five major and twelve minor prophets. Lamentations and Jeremiah are usually placed together because they were written by the same author. Daniel is sometimes placed with the major prophets as well.

PROPHETICAL BOOKS (17)
MAJOR (5)		MINOR (12)
Pre-captivity (2)	During captivity (3)	Pre-captivity (8)	During captivity (1)	Post-captivity (3)
Isaiah	Lamentations	Hosea	Obadiah	Haggai
Jeremiah	Ezekiel	Joel		Zechariah
	Daniel	Amos		Malachi
		Jonah
		Micah
		Nahum
		Habakkuk
		Zephaniah

The Hebrew Old Testament contains twenty-four books, beginning with Genesis and ending with 2 Chronicles. Though this arrangement of the Old Testament is in only twenty-four books, the subject matter is identical with the thirty-nine book division of our Protestant English Bible. The difference is in the order and division of the arrangement of the books. The reason for this is that the Protestant canon of the Old Testament has been influenced by the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint (LXX) made about 250-160 B.C.

The Septuagint divided the books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah each into two, which makes eight instead of four. The Twelve Minor Prophets were divided into twelve, instead of being counted as one book as in the twenty-four book division. This adds fifteen making a total of the thirty-nine books as in the Protestant English Bible.

Since the year 1517, modern Hebrew Bibles divided the books into thirty-nine, but kept the three-fold division including the arrangement of the books (Genesis through 2 Chronicles) as in the ancient Hebrew Bible.

This twenty-four book division in its three-fold division which became the thirty-nine book division is as follows:

(Source: Chronological and Background Charts of the Old Testament, Zondervan Publishing House: Grand Rapids, 1994 Revised and Expanded Edition, p. 12, by John H. Walton)

4. TYPOLOGY AND THE OLD TESTAMENT

A "type" has been properly defined as:

The New Testament gives ample justification for the use of typology. The discussion of Melchizedek in Hebrews 7 is an example of a person being used as a type. Melchizedek is an Old Testament personage who bears a remarkable similarity and correspondence to Christ. He is both a king and a priest like Christ. Like Christ also, his priesthood is not based on a genealogy. Adam and David are types of Christ as well.

The Exodus from Egypt is an instance of an event serving as a type. Just as Israel was redeemed from bondage by the power of God, in the same way we are redeemed from sin. The event bears an obvious correspondence and analogy with our salvation.

The sacrifices of Leviticus 1-5 are an instance of an institution which constitutes a type. The parallel between the shedding of the blood of the animal and the shedding of the blood of Christ is clearly seen in Hebrews 9.

It is obvious that these similarities are more than accidental. They are divinely intended illustrations of spiritual truth. As we proceed through the Old Testament, we will study the typology where there is an obvious relationship with a New Testament truth.

A basic understanding of the dispensational structure of the Old Testament is helpful if we are to place the books in their proper perspective. A "dispensation" has been defined as:

Marking out certain dispensations is merely a recognition that God's economy or method of operation is not always the same. God operates under a different economy today. For examples:

Not all are agreed as to the number of dispensations found in the Bible but most dispensationalists accept seven or eight. Five of these are in the Old Testament.

(Note: Please note that the years given in below table are for reference only and therefore should not be dogmatically held.)

Beginning Years	Dispensations / Ages	Historical / Future Periods	Biblical References	Testaments
4??? BC	Innocence	Adam and Eve	Genesis 1-3	Old
4??? BC	Conscience	Adam to Noah	Genesis 4-8
2485 BC	Human Government	Noah to Abraham	Genesis 9-11
2055 BC	Covenant / Promise	Abraham to Moses	Genesis 12 - Exodus 19
1625 BC	Law	Moses to Christ	Exodus 20 - End of Old Testament
AD 32	Grace	The Church Age	Acts 2	New
AD ????	Tribulation	Seven Years, Still Future	Daniel 9:27; Revelation 11:2; 13:5
AD ????+7	Millennium	One Thousand Years, Still Future	Revelation 20:4

It is sufficient to note here that in a dispensation God tests man concerning some facet of His revealed will. The inevitable result is failure in man's part. A dispensation is not a way of salvation. As we shall see in our study of the Old Testament, the method of salvation is the same in any dispensation. The basis is always the cross, although the extent of revelation man is given to believe may vary from dispensation to dispensation (i.e. this is called progressive revelation).

A summary of the character of dispensationalism and the uniqueness of each dispensation can be found in Section 7, Chapter 1: Introduction to Systematic Theology, Course: Systematic Theology. A detailed study of dispensationalism will be found in the book by Dr. Charles Ryrie (Charles Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today, Chicago: Moody Press, 1965).

Unlike the New Testament which encompasses a brief span of a century the Old Testament covers events spanning well over 4,000 years. The writing of the Old Testament books covers approximately one thousand years. During this period four Gentile world powers appeared on the horizon and left their mark on Israel's history. The four Gentile world powers are as follows:

Around 2000 B.C. God spoke to Abraham and he left his home in Ur and entered Canaan. The book of Genesis records the life of the patriarchs in this land. In the closing chapters of the book the world power of Egypt comes into view, as the providential hand of God leads the family of Jacob to the land of Egypt where they are preserved and protected for four hundred years. God used this period to weld and increase this little family into a nation and prepare them for the Exodus.

The gracious treatment that characterized the Egyptians when Jacob and his family entered that land soon changed when a new dynasty arose. The opening chapter of Exodus describes the slavery and oppressive conditions that resulted. In this setting God prepares Moses to lead the children out of the bondage of Egypt and through the Red Sea. From here they are guided to Mount Sinai where God entrusts this young nation with the law and the Tabernacle.

Forty years of wandering in the wilderness of the Sinai peninsula is climaxed by the return of the nation to Canaan. The wresting of the land from the inhabitants under the military leadership of Joshua is quickly followed by a period of spiritual degeneration under the rule of the judges.

The incompetence of many of the judges led to the period of monarchy with each of Israel's first three kings reigning for a period of forty years. When David succeeded Saul he was able to build the Israelite nation into a world power. When Solomon succeeded to the throne, however, he weakened the kingdom through heavy taxation and the kingdom divided in 931 B.C., shortly after his death.

This created a dual kingdom with two thrones and two capitals, Samaria in the north and Jerusalem in the south. Such a condition existed until 722 B.C. when the Northern Kingdom was annexed by the second great Gentile world power of the Old Testament period, Assyria. This left the Southern Kingdom of Judah intact until 586 B.C. when the next world power, the Babylonians, destroyed Jerusalem and carried thousands of Jews into captivity.

The captivity ended in 536 B.C. when the Persian ruler Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to their own land. This period, often called the Restoration, saw the Jews under the leadership of men like Ezra rebuild the Temple and walls of the city. This period brought the Old Testament to a close around 400 B.C.

The final chapter of Luke's gospel pictures two discouraged disciples leaving Jerusalem. As they walk along the road to Emmaus, the risen Christ joins them and engages them in conversation. As they relate the events surrounding the crucifixion, the Lord directs them to the Old Testament Scriptures. Luke 24:27 states: "And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." The Lord gave these two disciples a course in Old Testament survey. As he expounded these truths to them their hearts burned within them (Luke 24:32).

This significant incident reveals some guidelines for us as we study the Old Testament in survey fashion. First, it tells us that Christ is the integrating factor in all of the Old Testament. In "all the Scriptures" He revealed Himself to these disciples. The rationalistic approach to the Old Testament would completely discredit such an emphasis. However, we must take it into consideration as we move through each book. The person and work of Christ are stamped on the pages of the Old Testament.

The second observation is that a study of the Old Testament met their personal needs. They were worried and disappointed. The Old Testament Scriptures warmed their hearts and changed their attitude to one of joy. They rose up "that very hour" (Luke 24:33) and shared the truth they had learned. As we study this course it is our desire to master the content of each individual book. We must also be able to place it in the proper historical framework. But there must be more than that. It should be our prayer that the truths of the Bible will change us as we study it. 1 Corinthians 10:11 and Romans 15:4 remind us that the Old Testament is written for our admonition and learning. It is designed to give us patience, comfort, and hope. We need to remember that it is more than a book of ancient history. It is truth that will change lives.