Explain all the books of the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi?

Question

I just want a brief summary as to what every book in the bible is generally about.

Okay to clear things up:THIS IS NOT HOMEWORK!

I'm just curious because I want to compare the general meanings with other religious scriptures; contribute something worthy of a read or shove it.

baritone; In all honesty does such a question really make me a sadist? Refresh your definitions of words.

fenian; I think the last type of bible I want is a catholic bible darling. There should be no median between god & man; and that is a philosophy I live on, no matter what.

Pops & nochamama & the old dog if I wanted to read the holy bible i'd have done so. There are far too many bibles; How would I know which version to read?!

Rev. TomCat: thanks but no thanks. I just want the general picture of each book

Bikerchick; you would have been the best answer had Matt not answered.

Matt; thanks for taking the time. i hope Asia is great. and you were the LEAST laziest as far as I'm concerned.

Although none of the answers worked for me; I'll still pick a best answer rather than delete the question.

And the winner is.... Rev TOMCAT!!!

yeah right... shouldn't you be touching your sunday class right about now? lets hope those alterboys dont confess ;)

It's Matt.

Answer 1

Genesis - story of the Hebrew Origins.
Exodus - Lead out of Egypt
Leviticus - describes ritual acts
Numbers - movement of people from Sinai to Canaan
Deuteronomy - laws, laws, laws.
Joshua - war, war, war. After Moses' death, Joshua is the leader and takes over several areas.
Judges - history of Isreal from Joshua to Samuel
Ruth - the story of Ruth. An interesting read.
Samuel and Kings were actually one book. It deals with a lot of the stories you're familiar with, David and Goliath...Solomon.
Kings deals with the death of David all the way up to the Babylonian Exile.
Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah - Purpose is to write the historical understanding from the beginning of the world to the restoration of Judaism under Ezra and Nehemiah.
Esther - writes about the victory of the Jews of the Persian Empire. The festival Purim celebrates this.
Job - a story, almost like a play, that is written about a man named Job who Satan puts through many trials of his faith.
Psalms - A collection of songs/poetry. Generally attributed to David.
Proverbs - Advice
Ecclesiastes - limitations of human wisdom.
Song of Solomon - Similar description for Psalms, but attributed to Solomon.

Prophets - I'm going to be lazy for a minute and just say that the prophets reflected on political and social situations of their time and tried to warn people of the dangers of not following God. Even within several of the prophetic books, we the book was written over several different historical situations and put into one book. So it's too hard to dissect each one and give a fair answer here.

That finishes out the overview of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Might have skipped out on the prophets to some degree, but I bet you didn't think anyone would take it quite as far as I did :)

Matt

Answer 2

Are you kidding us Blah? There are thirty nine books in the Old Testament! That can't be done on Y/A ...
I will say this though, the Old Testament is pretty well divided into four groups, Law. History. Poetry. and Prophecy.
The Pentateuch has Genesis, Exodus Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. These are the History and Law.
Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, would be History.
Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, would be Poetry and Wisdom.
And then the rest are the Prophets ...Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
I hope this helps you darlin. You should study them all in the New King James Version, they will help you understand the meaning of Christianity. These books are the root and the trunk of Christianity.

Answer 3

Book Of Malachi Summary

Answer 4

"Cliff Notes: The Bible" and "The Bible for Dummies"

Both are available at www.amazon.com if not at your local public library.

In a nutshell:

The Torah:
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
The creation of the earth, the stories of Noah & the Flood, Abraham, Isaac, and Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt to Canaan.

The Prophets:
Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi
The history of the Jews in Canaan/Judah/Israel. The rise of ethnocentrism of Jews as The Chosen People. The prediction of the coming of the Messiah.

The Writings:
The rest of the books including Psalms.
Inspiration, poetry, reasons to believe in God

Answer 5

There is not room enough. These books of the Old Testament are give as a Testament or history of God's relationship with man and mans relationship with God. The covenant of God is revealed. I will be your God and you shall be my people.
The books cover everything from creation through the flood, through the time of the Exodus to the time that Malachi prophesied that a messenger would come to prepare the way of Lord Jesus to come.
I encourage you to read the bible from cover to cover.
Rev. TomCat

Answer 6

The Old Testament is still completely valid. If it were not Jesus would ot have quoted from it. The O.T. was the scripture of His day. I have never heard a Christian say that it is not as reliable as the N.T. What you have probably heard people say is that some things said in the O.T. were said to Jews and applied to Jews. That does not make it unreliable but it SOMETIMES makes certain parts non-applicable. Applicable and reliable are not the same thing at all.

Answer 7

Oh, my goodness, that' s a big request. There are lots of individual stories within just about every single book in the Bible. Even if we were brief, Genesis alone tells about creation, Adam and Eve, sin, Cain and Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, the flood, etc, etc.

Someone with this already written out will have to answer it for you. I'm sure there are lots of online resources you can get. This answer would take a few hours just to answer in brief!

Answer 8

Prophets - I'm going to be lazy for a minute and just say that the prophets reflected on political and social situations of their time and tried to warn people of the dangers of not following God. Even within several of the prophetic books, we the book was written over several different historical situations and put into one book. So it's too hard to dissect each one and give a fair answer here.

Answer 9

Gee Whiz, sister! Are you some kind of sadist? This is hardly the place for such a summary of 39 separate books, nor are you ensured of getting something from such a synopsis from uncredentialed writers.

You can find a fitting summary of each OT at the following web site.

Answer 10

Start reading the Holy Bible. Pops