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The first place to start is to say that the Jews today do not call the Old Testament “the Old Testament.” It is not old to them but is their only Scripture. Plus, since Judaism does not have a “New Testament,” Jews never use the word “Testament” to refer to their Scripture. Instead, Jews refer to it as the Hebrew Bible or, more often, the Tanak or Tanakh. Examining this word will show (1) how the Hebrew Bible is arranged differently than the Old Testament and (2) why it is arranged differently than the Old Testament.

The Tanak is an acronym, like “USA” means the “United States of America.” It consists of three different consonants (T, N, K) with two “a’s” added to make it a word. The three letters stand for the three divisions of the Hebrew Bible: the Torah (or Law), the Nevi’im (or prophets), and the Ketuvim (or writings, sometimes spelled “Kethuvim”). The 39 books of the Tanak are arranged this way:

1. Torah: Law: The first 5 books in the OT.
2. Nevi’im: Prophets: The books that were written by prophets or have prophets in them (Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.).
3. Ketuvim: Other Writings: Basically, everything else. For example, Ruth is in this section and II Chronicles is the last book in this section, which means it is the last book in the Jewish Bible.

[Side note: Sometimes Jews refer to the whole Tanak as the Torah. You will have to listen to the whole sentence or idea to see if "Torah" refers to the whole Jewish Scripture or just to the first five books. Also, sometimes Tanak is spelled "Tanakh."]

On the other hand, the Protestant OT is arranged this way:

1. History books: Genesis – Esther [The five books that Jews call the Torah are here but Christians refer to them as the "Pentateuch."]
2. Wisdom Literature: Job – Ecclesiastes
3. Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, [Lamentations,] Ezekiel, and the 12 Minor Prophets at the end of the OT.
4. [Daniel: An apocalyptic writing like Revelation in the NT. Some people fold Daniel in with the prophets.]

Why is the different arrangements of the Tanak and Protestant important? After all, they contain the same books, why does it matter if there is a different arrangement? This is why: To Jews, the Tanak is a living document, in that it is an incomplete story with one part left to be completed. This is what I mean: This is the last verse in II Chronicles (and, so, the last verse in the Hebrew Bible): 26:23: “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up and may the Lord their God be with them.’” This last verse in the Hebrew Bible is a command for the Jews to rebuild the Temple. First, the Temple this verse is referring to is the Second Temple, which was eventually rebuilt. At this point in time, the First Temple had been destroyed and many Jews were living in exile in Babylonia. After Cyrus defeated the Babylonians, he allowed the Jews to go back to Jerusalem and build the Second Temple, and many Jews did that. But Jews today believe this is also a command to rebuild the Temple now, and that would be the Third Temple. For Jews, then, the Tanak is a living book because they have not obeyed the last command (as they see it) to build the Third Temple. This ties in with the discussion earlier about why the Jews cannot build the Third Temple: they want to and believe that God has given them a command to build it, but they cannot because of the Dome of the Rock. So, the arrangement of the Tanak points toward the Third Temple.

What about the arrangement of the OT for Christians? Look at the last two verses in the OT: Malachi 4:5, 6: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” The last verses in the OT point to one like Elijah (who was John the Baptist) and the Lord (who was Jesus). You turn the page after Malachi, and there is the story of Jesus with Matthew chapter 1. So, the arrangement of the OT points toward Jesus.

© 2020, 2021 Mark Nickens