What is the number the books in the Old Testament?

Answer 1

There are 39 books or 46 books in the Old Testament scripture depending on which Biblical canon you accept. The Protestant Bibles have 39 books and the Catholic Bibles have 46 which include an additional 7 Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical books.

Rabbinic Judaism recognizes 24 books of the

Tanakhor

Hebrew Bible, which are the core books accepted in the Old Testament of Christian Bibles. The Hebrew Bible combines several books into a single book (e.g. 12 minor prophet books were originally grouped as a single book). Likewise, the books of first and second Samuel, and first and second Kings are each single books in the Hebrew Bible.

The different grouping accounts for the discrepancy in the count for the number of books.