1) The Old Testament is a collection of ancient documents.

When we set out to study the Bible, we need to be aware of its basic structure. People often describe the Bible as the best-selling book of all-time. More accurately, the Bible is the best-selling collection of ancient documents of all time. If you’re reading the Protestant Bible, it consists of 66 documents: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament.

Some of these documents are the length of small books. Others are brief letters or a collection of poems. They share a common focus on the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but they were written and edited over the course of one thousand or more years from different times and locations.

If we want to understand the Old Testament, we need to recognize how diverse it is as a collection of literature. This recognition will give us greater clarity as we study its different parts and uncover its unifying message.

2) The Old Testament is God's Covenant with the People of Israel.

The word “testament” comes from a Latin word (testāmentum) which refers to a legal will or document. In some ways, it's similar to "covenant". Latin was the dominant language for a significant portion of Christian history and so this phrase was eventually brought into English. The idea of a legal document or will is closely related to the concept of “covenant” in the Bible.

The phrase “Old Testament” (i.e. Old Covenant) is based on the biblical text itself. For example, see:

1 Corinthians 11:25 In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

2 Corinthians 3:14 But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside

Jeremiah 31:31-34 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

While the phrase “Old Testament” clearly finds its roots in the Bible, we should be aware of an important observation. The Old Testament is not the only name for this collection of books. For Jewish people, the collection Christians label the “Old Testament” is simply the Bible. When we, as Christians, approach the Old Testament we must always remind ourselves that this was and is God’s word to the people of Israel.

3) The Old Testament is God's Word

The claim that the Old Testament is God’s word is a basic tenet of the Christian faith. From time to time, Christians tried to disassociate with the Old Testament. Every instance failed and some of them with disastrous results. For example, elements of the Nazis anti-Semitism, or at least the fact that it was allowed to grow and produce the horrors of the Holocaust, can be traced to Christians who believed the Old Testament was no longer relevant.

As a major part of God’s word, Christians consider the Old Testament authoritative. Why? Why do we elevate the thoughts and principles of one ancient book over the ideas of others? This question is worth exploring, but it requires that we understand the Old Testament as well as possible. Unfortunately, many people who passionately insist on the Bible’s authority are quite unfamiliar with it. If we are going to assert that the Old Testament is God’s word for our lives, we need to understand it deeply. Acquiring this understanding will force us to explore some important topics like…

• the content of the Old Testament
• the Old Testament’s composition
• the literary genres contained in the OT
• the interpretive challenges it presents.

Final Thoughts

You cannot understand the Bible without understanding the Old Testament. And the first question we need to answer about the Old Testament is "What is it?" These three statements provide us with a good start to answering that question.

The Old Testament is...

1. A collection of ancient documents,
2. God's covenant with the people of Israel,
3. and God's word to Christians.

Check out the video version of this blog post.