The scriptures we know as the Old Testament were available to Jesus and Jews of his time as individual scrolls in the Temple in Jerusalem, and in local synagogues. The collection came together over several centuries by many different authors and groups of editors and were copied by hand again and again. Many stories began as ‘oral tradition’, stories told out loud and passed on from generation to generation, eventually being written down to form part of the record of God’s dealings with Israel, as a resource to help Israel know their God and how to be faithful in that relationship.

IN THE BEGINNING. I spent several years living and working in Sudan and Uganda. I discovered that most tribal groups had stories of their origins and of how the world as they know it came into being – their creation stories. Probably all peoples do in some form or another.

What we have in the Bible are the stories Israel came to tell, starting with their two creation stories. I’ve written elsewhere about them under the title ‘Discerning the Spirit in the Midst of Chaos’. They are foundational and reached something like their present form in the 6^th century BC when Israel was in exile. Like many African creation stories, Genesis 2 and 3 (the Garden of Eden) tell a story explaining why God, who loves the people, is now distant and does not live with his people. The cause is human failure or ‘sin’. In the next chapters, the failures multiply as Cain kills his bother Abel and the human family gradually descends into evil and chaos. So God resolves to destroy all living creatures by a huge flood and start again with Noah and his family and the animals which come into the ark.

The last story of the tower of Babylon in Genesis 11 has human beings working together to build a tower which reaches to the heavens in order to ‘make a name for ourselves’. This attempt at self-glorification is a challenge to, and a rejection of, their God, so he divided them by making them speak different languages and they then scattered across the world.

A SKETCHY OVERVIEW OF ISRAEL’S HISTORY. The story of Israel starts in Genesis 12, with God choosing and making promises to Abraham and Sarah in about the 17^th or 18^th Century BC (dating is difficult). God calls Abraham and Sarah to leave Haran and takes them south to the land of Canaan. He promises to give the land of Canaan to their descendants and make them a great nation. Through God’s blessing of Abraham and his descendants the whole world will be blessed.

The ‘history’ takes us very selectively through stories of Abraham’s descendants Isaac, and then Jacob whose family become slaves in Egypt where they grow numerous before being freed under the leadership of Moses and eventually entering Canaan in the 13^th century BC under their new leader, Joshua.

It’s a fairly disparate nation in the time of the “Judges” in the 12^th century BC. The 12 tribes are finally united under the first kings Saul, David and Solomon in the 11^th and early 10^th centuries. After Solomon 10 northern tribes rebel, and the one kingdom becomes two kingdoms. The descendants of King David rule in Jerusalem (over the tribes of Judah and Benjamin) until their eventual defeat and exile to Babylon in 587 BC. The northern kingdom (Ephraim or just ‘Israel’) has its centre in Samaria and is defeated earlier and taken into exile by Assyria in 722 BC.

In the 6^th Century the Judah-ites (from the southern kingdom) in Babylon are allowed to return home by decree of Cyrus the Persian Emperor. Apart from a brief period of rebellion, Israel then lives under the authority of the changing regional superpowers up to (and beyond) Jesus’ day when Rome is in control. The last writings in the OT (not including some disputed ‘Deutero-canonical’ books and a couple of additions to existing prophetic books) are from the 3^rd or 4^th Century BC.

The Bible is not just a human record, but through Israel’s history and by the recording of that history, God makes himself known and his purposes known, not just for Israel, but for all people. In this way, Israel is a priestly nation, making God known to the world.

THE EXODUS. One of the most wonderful stories ever told in the Bible or anywhere else, is that of Jacob’s son Joseph (of the many-coloured coat) in the Book of Genesis. Joseph’s adventures take him to Egypt where he becomes favoured and powerful under the Egyptian king, Pharoah. He is then able to bring his father and the rest of his family to Egypt where they are well provided for in a time of famine. God has given Jacob a new name, Israel, so his children and their extended families become known as the Israelites.

Over generations, that initial welcome of the Israelites by the Egyptians turns into fear and then enslavement.  God eventually calls Moses to lead the Israelites out of that slavery. When Moses is called in Exodus 3 (at the burning bush) God reveals his special name to him as YHWH or ‘Yahweh’. This holy name is a name which cannot be translated but is linguistically very close to ‘I am’ or ‘I will be’ and God does promise Moses: “I will be what I will be” (or possibly “I am who I am”). Most Bibles follow the tradition to substitute LORD (always in capitals) for ‘Yahweh’, out of respect for the holiness of the name and so as not to misuse it, as is required by the 3^rd Commandment.

The Exodus is the key event in creating Israel’s nationhood and reveals their God as the one who liberates them from slavery. The 10 Commandments are prefaced by the statement “I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Exodus 20). Through Moses, Yahweh institutes the annual Passover Festival to recall the events of their liberation, ensuring the nation never forgets.

THE HEART OF THE OT IS THE COVENANT. The heart of the OT is the historic (13^th century) giving of the Law to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai (Exodus chapter 19 onwards). This is a few months after the EXODUS and many years before they reach the promised land. God offers the Israelites a formal ‘covenant’ (a sort of treaty) to be his chosen people, and Israel accepts this knowing it will mean complete obedience. Then, and only then, God gives them (through Moses) rules and guidance for how to be his people, starting with the 10 Commandments. This agreement or treaty between God and his people is called a ‘covenant’, which is sealed in a ritual of blood sacrifice (the blood of the covenant) on the holy mountain in Exodus chapter 24.

Christians call this the ‘Old Covenant’ or the ‘Old Testament’ (from the Latin word used for covenant: testamentum). Christians believe that the Old Covenant, which was the basis of God’s relationship with Israel, is superseded by the New Covenant (i.e. New Testament), as promised in the OT and subsequently fulfilled in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Luke’s Gospel records Jesus as saying, over a glass of wine to be shared at the Last Supper: “this cup is the new covenant in my blood”. Jesus, then, is the new basis of God’s covenant relationship with all peoples.

THE PENTATEUCH. The most precious books of the OT are normally thought to be the first 5 documents, known as the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) or sometimes just as ‘the Law’ (the term is very flexible). Most scholars think that Deuteronomy is the first book of a history (the Deuteronomic History) which continues through Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings.

THE PROPHETS. A prophet is one who speaks on behalf of God. Sometimes that involves predictions of the future. The ‘Major’ Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel) come first in our Bibles because they are the longest writings. The ‘Minor’ Prophets are simply shorter documents. They address varying historic situations: before exile, during exile and after Judah (the former Southern kingdom) begins to return from exile.

POETRY. There’s lots of poetry in the OT – not just in the poetic books of Psalms, Lamentations, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. Most of Isaiah and much of Jeremiah is poetry. Most bibles show poetry by the way the words are set out on the page.  Poetry helps passages to be learned and memorised. But it’s also important because we read poetry differently to prose – for example, the poet uses more colourful language, images and metaphors.

VARIETY. There are collections of prophetic writings, wise sayings, teaching stories, songs, prayers, lists of ancestors, building instructions, love poetry, some strange apocalyptic writing and much more. The OT is a remarkably varied collection of documents, written as a record to be read aloud to people of faith.

THE LAND. A generation after the Exodus and the covenant at Mount Sinai, after the death of Moses, Joshua leads the Israelites into Canaan, the land promised first to Abraham hundreds of years earlier. The extent of the land, and the amount they conquer is disputed, but there is no doubt that the land is central to the identity of Israel’s people. Their eventual exile from this land will devastate the people, but it will bring crucial fresh understanding of God (Yahweh) and what it means to be his people.

WORSHIP. There is a lot of detailed instruction about ‘the cult’ i.e. formal worship. About services and festivals and sacrifices. About purification, ritual holiness and holy articles used in worship including clothing. And a great deal of detail about the construction and re-construction (post exile) of the Temple in Jerusalem, and the New Temple envisaged by the prophet Ezekiel.

KINGDOM. After Israel conquers the promised land, they are a disunited nation of 12 tribes for at least 100 years, battling for control of the land, mostly against the Philistines. The people demand a king so they can be like other nations. This request is granted though it is not warmly received by God or the prophet Samuel, who see it as a rejection of God and his call to be different from other nations.

Nonetheless, Saul is made king followed by David who (despite his failings) becomes the example of a good king, praised as a man after God’s own heart. Depending which bit of the Bible you are reading, God gives David either a conditional promise or an unconditional promise that a descendent of his will always be on the throne of Israel. (Psalm 89 complains to God that he has broken this promise after Jerusalem is destroyed and there is no king)

The kingdom splits into two after Solomon. David’s descendants continue on the throne in Jerusalem for the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin which form the Southern kingdom. Various dynasties then rule in the northern Kingdom over the rest of Israel centred in Samaria. The ‘history’ of both kingdoms is told chiefly in relation to the faithfulness or otherwise of the kings. The northern kingdom is finally exiled after several defeats by the Assyrians in 722 BC. It never reforms. The people who replace the Israelites in Samaria and the former northern kingdom are a people mostly brought in by Assyria from other nations. They start to worship the God of the land and will become the Samaritans of Jesus’ time. 

The southern kingdom is finally sent into exile in 587 BC after defeat by the Babylonians. They are allowed to return by decree of Cyrus, the King of Persia, in 539 BC. They never again have their own king, although they do fight and assert their independence for some years during the 2^nd Century BC in the Maccabean Revolt.  

DEVASTATING BUT CREATIVE EXILE. The exile to Babylon in 587 BC meant the loss of the three main things that gave Israel identity: the Land, the Temple and the Monarchy. It was devastating to the people and their leaders – how could this happen to us? There were doubts and deep questions about their own identity and who their God was, which in turn led to new ways of understanding God, his purposes for them and how they should fulfil their calling to be his people. Scholars think that many OT writings reached their current form during this creative time of deep angst and reflection.

Chiefly recorded in the prophetic writings of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Isaiah (chapters 40-55), the exile seems to have led to a better understanding that: 1) Yahweh is the God of all nations shaping all of history to fulfil his purposes. 2) He is holy and glorious beyond their imagination. 3) The returned exiles are still to be a holy nation at the centre of God’s purposes for the whole world.