Overview of the Old Testment notes by Alex
1Have the whole overview of the old testment
God has given us a library of 66 books.The Latin word biblia,translated as 'Bible',literally means 'books',not book.Bible,covering thousand of years ,written by different authors,many different type of books,the history book,the law book,the song books,how do they all fit together,it is so important have a overview of the 39 books.God want us to learn his word book by book,because that's how they choose to give us.God give us his word time and space.We should understand what time he speak this ,in what space he speak this,the time and space,in other way ,the context,is very important
2 Let's begin with space
To do that ,of course we need maps,we need to hold these two maps on mind when we reading the old testment.
the middle east and the promise land
we have to remember
the two very large rivers:
1 the River Nile in Egypt in the west
2 the rivers Tigris and Euphrates
The Fertile Crecent:
These two rivers produce fertility,This fertile area comprised the centres of powers in the ancient world,Egypt located in the west and Assyria and Babylon later in the east.
The Middle East
3 Time
The old testment covers over 2000 years of history before the time of Christ.Genesis1-11 covers the 'prehistoric'part-the creation of the universe,the fall of man in the Garden of Eden,the Flood and the towerof babel.
3.1Four periods
we should remember:four period of The Old Testment
The Old Testment period can be divided into four 500 years each,Each period has a key event ,a prominent person and a type of leadership.
| 2000 | 1500 | 1000 | 500 |
|---|---|---|---|
| election | Exodus | Empire | Excile |
| Abraham | Moses | David | Isaiah |
| Patriarch | Prophets | Prince | Priests |
You can see the leadership changed from patriarchs,to prophets,to prince,to priests,it doesn't mean prince does all the time ,or priests does all the time ,it means the leadership of the nation past from one group to the other ,but these leadership all failed in The Old Testment,until Juese came.So they tried three different kinds of leadership that day,but they are really looking for someone who can combine these things in one,that is Jesus,who is prophets,priest,and king.
3.2Two gaps
This time line is broken by two 400-year gaps.The first comes between the patriarcks and the prophets around 1500BC and the second after the priests at 400 BC.During these two sets of 400 years God said nothing and did nothing.
When we read the phrase in the bible 'the living god',did you realize what that means ,did you realize a few years ago what it meant some theologian start saying the god is dead.They did not mean that god had ceased to exist,that is popular misunderstanding ,what they meant was god is no longer active in this world,he still exists,but in somewhere else now,he is not acting in this world.The Egypt ，It's interesting what happened during the gap,in the gaps,when God was silent and inactive,in first gap ,The Eygption,the india,and the chinese cultures developed,in the second gap,we have peole Socrotes,Plato,Aristotle,the great philosopher infuence the western world so much,we have Buddha, Confucius,Alexander the Great,Julius Caesar.When god isn't busy ,man is.
*Chronological order:The Daily Bible® Paperback – August 1, 2012
by F. LaGard Smith (A