Why are We Reading the Old Testament Out of Order?
The Revival from the Bible Blog
If you are reading through the Old Testament with us at Revival from the Bible, you may have noticed that we “skipped” the book of Ruth! Before you send an email to the church because you think somebody made a typo on the reading chart, let me tell you that going straight from Judges to Samuel was intentional. We will be reading Ruth in November toward the end of our reading.
Why are we doing that? Why in the world are we reading the Old Testament out of order!? To put it simply, we are reading it in the order in which Jesus (and the Jewish people of His time) would have read it!
Any basic Old Testament Survey class will explain that there is a different order in how the Jewish people order the books of the Bible and our modern English translations do. To be clear: there is NO difference in the content, only a difference in the order. So why not read the Old Testament in the same order that Jesus most likely would have read it?
The Jews arranged the books of what we call the Old Testament into three categories: The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. Jesus affirms His familiarity and use of these distinctions in Luke 22:44, where He says, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” (Here “the Psalms” is a stand-in for “the Writings” because Psalms is by far the biggest book of that section).
We will be reading the Old Testament in this order this year:
The Law
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
The Prophets
Joshua
Judges
1 & 2 Samuel
1 & 2 Kings
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Ezekiel
The “Book of the Twelve” (aka the “Minor Prophets”)
The Writings
Psalms
Proverbs
Job
Song of Solomon
Ruth
Lamentations
Ecclesiastes
Esther
Daniel
Ezra-Nehemiah
1 & 2 Chronicles
If you want to read a little more about the order of the Old Testament, you can check out this blog from my seminary Old Testament Survey professor, Jim Hamilton.
Most importantly, let’s keep digging into God’s Word together!