Old Testament
first division of the Christian biblical canon
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian Bible. It is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Israelites, but differs from the Jewish canon in order, textual tradition, and, in some Christian traditions, contents. The second division of the Christian Bible is the New Testament, written in Koine Greek.
The Old Testament consists of many distinct books by various authors produced over a period of centuries. Christians traditionally divide the Old Testament into four sections: the Pentateuch or the first five books (which corresponds to the Jewish Torah); the Historical books telling the history of the Israelites, from their conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon; the Poetic Books, which explore themes of human experience, morality, and divine justice; and the Prophetic books, warning of the consequences of turning away from God.
The Old Testament canon differs among Christian denominations. The Catholic canon contains 46, the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches include up to 49 books, and the Protestant Bible typically has 39. Some books found in Christian Old Testament, but not in the Hebrew canon, are called deuterocanonical books, mostly originating from the Septuagint, an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Catholic and Orthodox churches include these, while most Protestant Bibles exclude them, though some Anglican and Lutheran versions place them in a separate section called Apocrypha.
Because the term "Old Testament" is used within Christianity, the same texts may be interpreted differently in Christian and Jewish traditions.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19786. VIAF identifies the subject as 185083399. The Library of Congress control number is n79054379. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Old Testament” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.