The Arrangement of the Books
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The King James Version and virtually all other more modern translations list 39 individual books in the Old Testament. These books do represent the entirety of the Old Testament. But the one problem with them is the order in which they are found.
Since these books comprise the official Hebrew canonized Scriptures, this is where we should look to establish the correct order. First, notice that Christ told His disciples, after His Resurrection, that Bible verses foretold of His life and mission: “And He said unto them, These are the words which I spoke unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning Me. Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:44-45).
As Luke wrote of this account, he was specifying which Scriptures—the Hebrew canonized Scriptures—Christ pointed out as His inspired Word. They foretold of His life and fulfillment of many prophecies concerning Him.
Luke was specifying this information to the gentile readers of his Greek manuscripts.
The Hebrew canonized Scriptures are emphasized here in contrast to such counterfeit documents as the Septuagint, written in the Greek language. (More will be covered about the Septuagint later.) Accurate and valid copies of the Hebrew Scriptures translated into the Greek language did exist in the first century. Notice that Christ Himself identified the Hebrew Scriptures by the following terms: (1) The Law of Moses, (2) the Prophets, and (3) the Psalms.
These are the three major divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures—the Old Testament. They were arranged according to the recorded words of Jesus Christ in Luke 24:44-45.
Before defining these three sections in detail, keep in mind that the arrangement is different than we find in the Kings James Version and other modern translations of this time.
The reason for this change in order is that the Roman Catholic Church based its Latin Vulgate on the Egyptian Septuagint Version, written in Greek. Unlike the Jews, these mainly Samaritan religionists had no commission to preserve the Scriptures as the oracles of God. Therefore, they did not fear the God of Israel, and proceeded to group the Scriptures as they saw fit. They rearranged the order of the Old Testament books according to subject, ignoring the order according to the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.
The arrangement we find in most all bibles at this time reflects the rearrangement by these non-Jewish counterfeits. The order of the 39 books is radically dismantled. Yet we shall see their original placement and come to appreciate why that order was important.
Note what Flavius Josephus states in regard to the number of books in the Hebrew Scriptures: “For we [the Jews] have not an innumerable multitude of books among us, disagreeing and contradicting one another, but only 22 books, which contain the records of all the past times; which are justly believed to be divine” (Against Apion, Book I, Section VIII).
The following scholars associated with the Catholic movement also publicly acknowledged that there were 22 books to the Hebrew Scriptures: Origen (A.D. 210), Athanasius (365), Cyril of Jerusalem (386), and Jerome (410).
We first list the books of the Law, also known as the Torah or Pentateuch:
The Law of Moses (5 books):
Genesis; Exodus; Leviticus; Numbers; Deuteronomy
Note that in this first section of the Law, the order is not changed. The radical changes appear in the second (the Prophets) and third sections (the Psalms or Writings).
Now, we list the original order of the Prophets. Note how the books are divided and sub-divided:
The Former Prophets (2 books):
Joshua-Judges (combined into one); Samuel-Kings (combined into one)
The Latter Prophets (4 books):
Three major prophets (each one book): Isaiah; Jeremiah; Ezekiel; “The Twelve” prophets (the following texts combined into one): Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
Finally, the third division known as the Psalms. This division is also referred to as the Writings. It is divided into three parts:
The Former Poetic Books (3 books):
Psalms; Proverbs; Job
The Megillot or Festival Books (5 books):
Song of Solomon; Ruth; Lamentations; Ecclesiastes; Esther
The Latter Restoration Books (3 books):
Daniel; Ezra-Nehemiah (combined into one); Chronicles (combined into one)
This original order is completely chronological. This will be more thoroughly appreciated once we study the canonization and other historical aspects involved.