The Historical
Books
Old Testament
Joshua Ezra
Judges Nehemiah
Ruth Tobit
1 and 2 Samuel Judith
1 and 2 Kings Esther
1 and 2 Chronicles 1 and 2 Maccabees
Overview of the Historical Books
Depictsthe history of Israelites but the purpose is
theological rather than historiographical.
After
40 years of wandering in the desert and the
death of Moses, God began to move the Israelites
across the Jordan River.
Under the leadership of Joshua and Caleb into the
Promised Land, these books tell of their journey to and
life in the land of Canaan.
It was not easy as they lived encompassed by
antagonistic nations with superstitious, blasphemous
practices, and cruel customs.
The Israelites were drawn in to a life of spiritual decline.
The message of Joshua is about his tremendous
faith in God that provided him the courage and
fortitude to lead the Hebrew nation into the
Promised Land.
The first half of his book tells of their cycles of
battles and difficulties to reach and settle the land.
The second half of Joshua gives account of the
lands designated by God to the various tribes of
Judah.
Thebook of Judges shows that the judgment of God
against iniquities will be enacted, but His forgiveness
and possibility for reconciliation is there for those who
repent.
Canaan had been inhabited by several blasphemous
and evil nations who worshipped many false gods and
idols.
The Israelites again compromised and allowed the
influence of those practices to infiltrate and corrupt
them.
The Book of Ruth is named for the Moabite woman
who commits herself to the Israelite people by an
oath to her mother-in-law Naomi and becomes the
great-grandmother of David by marriage to Boaz of
Bethlehem. Thus she is an ancestor in the messianic
line that leads to Jesus.
Ruth’stheme confirms that even in dark times, if people
live to please God and not themselves, they will
experience God’s love and protection.
The book of 1 Samuel brings a transition of having
Kings instead of being ruled by Priests and Judges.
After Israel’s leaders wandered away from God’s Law,
God allowed a new form of leadership.
Saul was placed as the first God-appointed King of
Israel.
After Saul’s overstepped his role, David was anointed
as King and a record of his reign appears in 2 Samuel.
Thetwo books of Kings compare the lives of those
who live for God and those who defy Him.
These books introduce the stories of Solomon, Elijah,
Elisha, Ahab, and the evil Jezebel.
The 1 and 2 Chronicles recount the history of
Israel, Solomon, the details of building of the
temple, Israel splitting in two, and the exile of
Judah into Babylonian slavery.
The Books of Kings take us from the death of David
and the enthronement of Solomon, through the division
of the people into the two kingdoms of Israel and
Judah, to the destruction of the Northern Kingdom,
Israel, at the hands of the Assyrian invader (722/721
B.C.), and the fall of Judah, the Southern Kingdom, to
the Babylonians (587 B.C.) and its ensuing exile, the
Babylonian captivity.
In this theology, what has characterized Israel’s
history, in the six hundred years from Moses to the
Babylonian exile, has been a dynamic of fidelity or
infidelity to Israel’s covenant Lord, and the
consequent destiny Israel forges for itself of covenant
blessing or covenant curse.
Thisdynamic of choice and consequences serves to
explain the disasters Israel incurs throughout its
history.
The Books of Tobit, Judith, and Esther are often
grouped together and they are stories told to instruct
the people concerning the ways of God, to encourage
them in critical times, and to entertain.
While they may contain kernels of historical fact, these
stories are told primarily to illustrate truths that
transcend history.
The name Maccabee, probably meaning “hammer,” is
actually applied in the Books of Maccabees to only one
man, Judas, third son of the priest Mattathias and first
leader of the revolt against the Seleucid kings who
persecuted the Jews.
The 1 and 2 Books of Maccabees, though regarded by
Jews and Protestants as apocryphal, i.e., not inspired
Scripture, have always been accepted by the Catholic
Church as inspired and are called
“deuterocanonical” to indicate that they are
canonical even though disputed by some.
The Wisdom
Books
Old Testament
Job Song of Songs
Psalms Wisdom
Proverbs Sirach
Ecclesiates
Overview of the Wisdom Books
“Wisdom”is a convenient umbrella term to designate
the Books of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth),
Wisdom, and Sirach (Ecclesiasticus).
Two other books are often associated with them:
Psalms, a collection of mostly devotional lyrics, and the
Song of Songs, a collection of love poems. All are
marked by a skillful use of parallelism, or verses of
balanced and symmetrical phrases.
These works have been classified as wisdom or
didactic literature, so called because their general
purpose is instruction.
A striking feature of the wisdom books is the absence
of references to the promises made to the patriarchs
or to Moses, or to Sinai or typical items in Israelite
tradition.
Wisdom itself is an art: how to deal with various
situations and achieve a good life. And it is also a
teaching: the lessons garnered from experience were
transmitted at various levels, from education in the
home all the way to training in the court.
The task of wisdom is character formation:
what is the wise path to follow?
The Prophetic
Books
Old Testament
Isaiah Obadiah
Jeremiah Jonah
Lamentations Micah
Baruch Nahum
Ezekiel Habbakuk
Daniel Zephaniah
Hosea Haggai
Joel Zechariah
Amos Malachi
Overview of the Prophetic Books
Theprophetic books bear the names of the four major
and twelve minor prophets, in addition to Lamentations
and Baruch.
The terms “major” and “minor” refer to the length of
the respective compositions and not to their relative
importance. Jonah is a story about a prophet rather
than a collection of prophetic pronouncements.
In the Hebrew Bible, Lamentations and Daniel are
listed among the Writings (Hagiographa), not
among the prophetic books.
Inancient Israel a prophet was understood to be an
intermediary between God and the community, someone
called to proclaim the word of God.
Prophetsreceived such communications through various
means, including visions and dreams, often in a state of
transformed consciousness, and transmitted them to the
people as God’s messengers through oracular
utterances, sermons, writings, and symbolic actions.
The primary concern of the prophets was with
contemporary events in the public sphere of social life and
politics, national and international.
They focus on public morality, the treatment of the poor
and disadvantaged, and the abuse of power, especially of
the judicial system.
They pass judgment in the strongest terms on the moral
conduct of rulers and the ruling class, in the belief that a
society that does not practice justice and righteousness will
not survive.
