What is the timeline of the Old Testament?

Answer 1

Another Answer from our community:The Old Testament is about the story of the chosen people and their relationship with God

Probably 5 % is true in the Old Testament; the remaining is a collection of oriental legends, Jewish fantasies, stories for children.

Answer 2

Without the Old Testament(aka: Hebrew Scriptures), the New Testament(Greek scriptures) would have doubtful meaning. The Old Testament contained the law code, history, and prophecies that found fulfillment :

-in Jesus, himself,

-in the accounts in the New Testament,

-and even in our day

(Luke 24:27, 44) (Romans 15:4)(1Corinthians 10:11)

It's the only place we learn about man's origin, the cause of death, and the Edenic promise of satan's distruction, the Noachian Flood, why blood is sacred, God's covenant with Abraham, and how YHWH fought for his covenant people, pointing forward to how he will defend his people today.

There are some 890 instances where Christian Bible writers quote from or refer to the Old Testament, continuing the many promises made by God.

Answer 3

A:The series of biblical stories from Abraham to Moses, principally found in the Books of Genesis and Exodus, but also in the Books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, comprise the Hebrew myths and legends that explained where the Hebrew people came from and why they lived in the Palestinian hinterland.

There is a disjoint between the stories in Genesis and those in Exodus, as they represent slightly different traditions. This can be seen from the ages of the three Patriarchs in Genesis, compared to the age of Moses and his supposed contemporaries. Not only are the Patriarchs said to have lived longer lives, their ages are based on numerology, using the magic number 17:

1. Abraham lived to 175 (5 X 5 X 7)
2. Isaac lived to 180 (6 X 6 X 5)
3. Jacob lived to 147 (7 X 7 X 3

• Each lifespan involves a perfect square (5, 6, then 7 in a numeric series),
• the third factor also forms a series (7, 5, 3)
• in each case the sum of the factors is 17.

Furthering the above formulas, Genesis says Sarah, wife of Abraham, lived to 127 years, which is the sum of these consecutive square numbers plus 17 (127 = 52 +62 + 72 + 17). Joseph, sometimes called the fourth patriarch, lived to 110 years, which is the sum of these consecutive square numbers (110 = 52 +62 + 72).

The ages given in the Book of Exodus are nice round numbers, much easier for oral storytellers to remember. For example, Moses lived to 120 years, while Joshua lived to exactly 110 years. This formula of round numbers is continued in the Book of Judges, where the rules of the Judges are simple multiples of 20.

The Book of Genesis brings Abraham out of Ur in Mesopotamia into the land of the Canaanites. There, he has two sons, Ishmail and Isaac. Isaac, in turn, has twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob is destined to become the father of the Israelite people. Jacob's favourite son, Joseph, is sold into slavery in Egypt, where he rises to become the second highest official after the pharaoh. A famine brings his eleven brothers into Egypt, where they again meet Joseph.

Four hundred years later, Moses is chosen by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, which he only does after bringing down ten plagues on the Egyptians. As they flee northward out of Egypt, the entire Egyptian army, led by the pharaoh himself, chases them. Moses parts the Red Sea and the Israelites escape across the seabed but the entire pursuing Egyptian army is drowned as the waters return. After forty years wandering in the desert, Moses dies and Joshua is chosen to lead the people into the Promised Land, which The Bible indicates to have occurred approximately 1405 BCE.

The Books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are traditionally attributed to Moses. However, scholars say that the books really had a number of anonymous authors over a period of several centuries during the first millennium BCE. The principal authors are now known as the Yahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist and the Priestly Source.

Answer 4

How short is too short? In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God created man, then woman from man. They disobeyed the only rule God gave, thus their souls were separated from God. (in the new testament a bridge is built between God and man) People lived to be very very old, forgot God/ ran away from God. One man listened when God said "BUild a big boat!" Noah said "Everyone get in!" No one did. Animals came. God shut the door. Earth floods. Noah's family repopulates earth. Peoples lives are shorter. people forget God. They build a tower trying to be as great as God. God confuses them with different languages. People disperse. Earth splits into continents. Abraham loves God. God makes promise to Abraham and to his descendents. Abraham has Issac and Ishmael. Lineage of promise through Issac. Issac has Esau and Jacob. Esau gives Jacob birthright for stew. Lineage through Jacob (God changes his name to Israel). Jacob has 12 sons. One (Joseph) Is sold as a slave to Egypt by his brothers. With God's help Jacob becomes leader in Egypt during famine. Josephs brothers go to Egypt to get food and see their brother.They are scared that he will kill them, but He is kind to them. Their father and all of their family move to Egypt. Years go by. Israel gets too large and Pharaoh gets scared and enslaves Israel. Says to kill all of the boys in Israel. Moses is spared by being floated in a basket on a river. Pharohs daughter finds him and raises him as her own. Moses grows and finds he is Israeli. He leads the people out of Egypt after much turmoil. (This is where passover came from; read of the last plague in Egypt). Israel wonders in the Siani Dessert for 40 years. They get the ten commandments from God. They take the land of Israel, where their fathers were from back from the people who moved in. They have many judges who lead the people after moses and Joshua die. But they want a king. God says this is a bad idea. Why be a slave to a king when you are now free, but the people wanted a leader to lavish. So saul was chosen, he goes crazy with Jealousy of David... David the boy fights golioth and eventually becomes the great king of Israel through whom Jesus Christ's lineage can be traced... My hand hurts... There is more but that is the important early history till about Kings or Chronicles. Israel was enslaved again and there were prophets who brought God's word to the people and the people were saved multiple times. Just read it. That's the best way to know what it says.

Answer 5

The Old Testament is a compilation of ancient books that record the myths, legends, folk stories and history of the Hebrew people down to the post-Exilic period. The major history, known as the Deuteronomic History (Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Kings) was written during the reign of King Josiah of Judah and arguably is biased towards emphasising the importance of the small southern Hebrew kingdom of Judah, with its capital in Jerusalem, compared to that of the much larger and more prosperous Israel, at the same time emphasising the close links between the two nations.

The first book, Genesis, provide an account of the creation of the world, a great Flood that covered the whole world and the emergence of the Hebrew patriarchs, from whose lineage every Israelite was said to be descended. The Old Testament goes on to tell how the people believed their forefathers escaped from slavery in Egypt and conquered the land of the Canaanites, then allocated parts of the land to each of twelve tribes of the people. There was a United Monarchy ruled over by kings who founded the dynasty of the Judah nation, but the northern kingdom soon broke away and formed the nation of Israel, which lasted only two hundred years before it was swept away by the Assyrians. The people of Judah were, in turn, defeated and sent into exile by the Babylonians. The Babylonians were defeated soon after by the Persians, who liberated the Jews and allowed them to return to Jerusalem, where they rebuilt their Temple.

Answer 6

A:

Scholars have largely established the background of the Old Testament, which was written down during the middle centuries of the first millennium BCE, mainly in Judah but with some works written or completed during the Babylonian Exile. They discount the tradition that the earliest books of the Old Testament were written centuries before the establishment of Judah, saying that the events that lead to this conclusion did not really occur. The most important five books of the Old Testament are known as the Pentateuch. The consensus is that the first book in the Pentateuch to be written more or less in the form we know today is Deuteronomy, written during the seventh-century-BCE reign of King Josiah. A substantial part of the Book of Isaiah is at least as old as Deuteronomy, as is Micah.

The Old Testament contributes relatively little of historical importance, but contains traditions, legends, myths and historical accounts of the Hebrew people, including some from the northern Hebrew kingdom of Israel. It describes creation and the origins of the Hebrew people according to those traditions. Some of the more recent books are somewhat reliable as history, but even these are open to doubt as to their historicity and objectivity, and so should be studied with caution. The Books of Daniel and Esther, set during and shortly after the Babylonian Exile, were actually written as novels during the second century BCE, although they have since been adopted as scripture.

Answer 7

The Jewish Bible is called the Tanach. The Christian Old Testament was based on the Tanach but the OT was altered to support the teachings of Christianity, therefore, the OT is not considered a valid religious text in Judaism.

Answer 8

There are three covenants. Two which God made with Abraham (Genesis ch.15 and Genesis ch.17), and one with Abraham's Israelite descendants in the time of Moses after the Exodus.
1) In Genesis ch.15, the Covenant Between the Parts:
a) God informs Abraham of future events (the Egyptian exile)
b) God promises the land of Canaan (Israel) to Abraham's descendants
c) The covenant is finalized through a demonstration of God's presence (see Genesis 15:7-9 and 15:17).
2) In Genesis ch.17, the covenant of circumcision:
a) The promises of many descendants (17:2,3) and of inheriting the land of Canaan are repeated (17:8), but the main thing in this covenant is the promise that God will be the God of Abraham (17:7, 17:8).
b) God promises that Abraham and Sarah will have a son (17:15-16), whom they will name Isaac (17:19) and who will be the continuation of God's covenant with Abraham (17:21).
c) The covenant itself is manifested through circumcision, for Abraham and his descendants (17:10).

3) The covenant between God and the Israelite nation (see Exodus ch.19 and ch.24), was made in the time of Moses, with Moses serving as the messenger.
This covenant is one of obedience, to listen to God's voice (Exodus 19:5), which will include the entire Torah (24:12). God, for His part, promised to treasure the Israelites (Exodus 19:5; and see also Deuteronomy 26:16-19). The covenant was manifested through God's giving the Ten Commandments (Exodus ch.19-20), and was finalized (on our part) through the sacrifices described in Exodus ch.24.

Answer 9

The Old Testament is a compilation of the myths, legends,history and laws of the Hebrew people, up until just before the time of the Maccabees. The Deuterocanonical books take this period beyond the time of the Maccabees.

As with all histories, the history of the Old Testament is written from the point of view of those who wrote it. It presents the Hebrew God as the creator of the world and the god who punishes all nations. It presents a glorious past for the nation of Israel and arguably over-emphasises the role of Judah in Hebrew affairs. The coverage of religion and laws is presented largely from the perspective of the Priestly group that flourished during and after the Babylonian Exile.

Answer 10

The Hebrew Bible ("Old Testament") is the historical record of how the Israelites came to be, and their continuing relationship with God, with each other, and with other peoples. See also:

An overview of the O.T.

How accurate is the Hebrew Bible - link 1

How accurate is it? - link 2

More information:

The Jewish Bible is the Tanakh, which contains the following (all in the original Hebrew):

The Torah (the Five Books of Moses):According to tradition, the Torah was given by God to Moses (Exodus 24:12) in 1312 BCE. Moses taught it to the people (Exodus ch.34), and put it in writing before his death (Deuteronomy 31:24) in 1272 BCE. (See: more about Moses)
Nevi'im (the Prophets):

Jewish tradition (Talmud, Bava Batra 14b) states that the prophetic books were written by the authors whose names they bear: Joshua, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, etc. Judges was written by Samuel, and Kings was written by Jeremiah. The prophetic books were written in the time of the prophets, from the 1200s BCE (Joshua) to the mid-300s BCE (Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi).

See: More about Samuel, and see: How many Isaiahs?

Ketuvim (the Writings):

Jewish tradition (Talmud, Bava Batra 14b) states that the Writings were written by the authors whose names they bear: Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah. Ruth was written by Samuel; Lamentations was written by Jeremiah; Psalms was set in writing by King David; Chronicles was written by Ezra; Proverbs, Song of Songs and Kohellet (Ecclesiastes) were written by King Solomon; and Esther was written by Mordecai andEsther. The Writings were written between 900 BCE (Ruth) to the mid-300s BCE (Esther, Daniel, Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah).
Concerning Job, the Talmud states more than one opinion as to when it was written.

Hebrew Bible Canon:

Our tradition is that from the time of the First Destruction, God's presence was no longer felt as clearly as before (see Deuteronomy 31:17-18). In addition, exile is not conducive to prophecy (Mechilta, parshat Bo). At that time, the last of the prophets realized that prophecy would soon cease; and that the dispersal of the Jewish people, plus the almost continuous tribulations from the First Destruction onward, made it imperative to seal the canon of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). The Sages of the time, including the last living prophets, convened a special synod for a couple of decades, which was called the Men of the Great Assembly (Mishna, Avot ch.1). This group, who functioned around 340 BCE, composed the blessings and the basic prayers of the siddur (prayerbook) and the early portions of the Passover Haggadah, made many of the Rabbinical decrees, and (most importantly) sealed the canon of the Tanakh. It was they, for example, who set the twelve Minor Prophets as (halakhically) a single book, and who set the books of the Tanakh in their traditional order (see Talmud, Bava Batra 14b). It was the Men of the Great Assembly whom Esther had to approach when she felt that the Divinely inspired Scroll of Esther should be included in the canon (see Talmud, Megilla 7a).
Since the sealing of the Tanakh, no Jewish sage has ever claimed prophecy.

Order of the Tanakh's books:
The Hebrew Bible is in chronological order: first the five books of the Torah, since they were given before any of the other prophetic books. Then Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings in that order, since that is chronological. Ruth (and others) could be before Kings, but we keep the Prophets and Writings separate.
After Kings, we have Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, which is in chronological order. All three of them lived well after the kings had already started.
The Twelve Minor Prophets, who also lived during the latter part of the era of the Kings, are gathered together in a single book of their own.
Then we have the Writings. Psalms, Proverbs and Job are together since they (and none of the other books) are a specific type of poetry ("Taamei Emet", with special trope).
The Five Megillot (Song of Songs, Ruth, Eichah, Kohellet, Esther) are together, in the order in which they're read in the synagogue.
Finally, the books of Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles were written in the end of the prophetic period.

Importance of the Tanakh:

The Tanakh is important because it tells the history of the ancient Israelites, as well as giving us the teachings of the Israelite prophets and kings, and the laws, ethics and beliefs of the Jewish religion.Our tradition is that the Hebrew Bible is from God (Exodus 24:12), given to us to provide knowledge, guidance, inspiration, awe and reverence, advice, law, comfort, history and more. It is the basis of Judaism. It crystallized, strengthened and codified our beliefs; insured our awareness and knowledge of our identity and history; and provided powerful impetus to be ethical.
It made us stand in awe of God, while also providing optimism and comfort through the prophecies of redemption. It inspired us to strive for holiness and informed us how to pray and to approach God's presence.
And it set detailed laws, practices and traditions for the Jewish people forever.

See also:

Jewish history timeline

How is the Hebrew Bible presented?

How was the Torah written?