Summary of the Old Testament Books

Who we are and whose we are

Father David Jones

Bible

The first 5 books of the Catholic bible are called the Pentateuch. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They give us the story of our beginning with God and the laws given to us by our Creator.

The next 16 books are called Historical Books. Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther (ours is the long version), 1 Maccabees, and 2 Maccabees. These books give us the history of the people God choose to reveal himself to the world.

The next 7 books are the Wisdom Books. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Wisdom of Solomon and Sirach, most often called Ecclesiasticus or Ecclesiastes. The Wisdom books deal with our questions about God, self, life, death, good and evil. Things we can’t quite wrap our brain around, but nonetheless speak to our heart.

The next 18 books are from the Prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch (includes the letter of Jeremiah), Ezekiel, Daniel (ours is longer with 14 chapters) Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

In our human history there is a time when we began to “smell ourselves” as the old folks would say. The prophets were people who reminded us to be careful about forgetting God and urged us to remember God.

This canon, all these books are a part of the Catholic bible. They are connected to all the books of the New Testament in order to give us the powerful story of who we are and whose we are.