3.+The+Old+Testament

The Old Testament.
There are five divisions in the OT. > Books of Poetry song:media type="file" key="song_poetry.mp3" width="240" height="20" > Minor Prophets song: media type="file" key="song_minorProphets.mp3" width="240" height="20"
 * 1) **Pentateuch**, which means "Law." These five books were written by Moses. They all go together. Where one finishes with the story, the other one starts.
 * 2) **History**. There are a total of 12 books in this section, but you can break them up into three sets of three. We'll look at these momentarily in more detail.
 * 3) **Poetry**. Typically identified as "poetry," these five books are really the wisdom literature of the ancient Hebrews. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon were all written by Solomon.
 * 1) **Major Prophets**. These five books were written by four different men. Isaiah wrote Isaiah, Jeremiah wrote Jeremiah, Ezekiel wrote Ezekiel, and Daniel wrote Daniel. So who wrote Lamentations? That would be Jeremiah. In the book that bears his name, he warned that the city of Jerusalem was going to be destroyed. When it was, he "lamented" its fall and wrote Lamentations.
 * 2) **Minor Prophets**. These 12 books are not less important than the Major Prophets, just shorter. I don't expect you to memorize these books. Even when you do know them by heart, it's still hard to find a passage from these because they're so short. But when someone hollers out a really funny-sounding Hebrew name, then it's probably going to be one of these.

Click here to listen to me recite the numbers "5, 12, 5, 5, 12." There's a catchy rhythm to the OT divisions that I want you to hear: media type="file" key="song_5-12_3x.mp3" width="240" height="20" I hope this will help you memorize the number of books in each of the five divisions of the OT.

Memorize the Books of History.
Let's focus on memorizing the books of History. Let's first divide them up into three sets of three.
 * 1) **J** oshua, **J** udges, Ruth.
 * 2) Samuel, **K** ings, **C** hronicles.
 * 3) **E** zra, Nehemiah, **E** sther.

As we try to memorize these books, notice that in each set, there are always two books that start with the same letter (or sound) and one that starts with a different letter.
 * 1) In set one, it's the letter " **J** ."
 * 2) In set two, it's the sound " **K** " as in Kings and Chronicles.
 * 3) In set there, it's the letter " **E** ."

Also notice how in set two, these three books have been broken into two parts.
 * 1) Samuel becomes 1 Samuel (pronounce this as "First Samuel") and 2 Samuel (pronounce this as "Second Samuel").
 * 2) Kings becomes 1 Kings (say "First Kings") and 2 Kings (say "Second Kings").
 * 3) Chronicles becomes 1 Chronicles (say "First Chronicles") and 2 Chronicles (say "Second Chronicles").

Practice.
There are 39 books in the OT. Together, they take up 2/3 of your entire Bible.
 * Notice how many pages are from Genesis to Song of Solomon.
 * Notice how many pages are from Isaiah to Malachi.

Links:

 * To hear these books of History pronounced: media type="file" key="recite_booksHistory.mp3" width="240" height="20".
 * To hear the entire Old Testament pronounced: media type="file" key="recite_ot.mp3" width="240" height="20"
 * To go the next module on the New Testament, click here.