The Old Testament

Introduction to the Hebrew Bible has provided me with a critical analysis of the Hebrew Bible and introduced a wide variety of interpretive strategies, including African American, anthropological, feminist, historical-critical, Jewish, and literary perspectives. These approaches were presented by our author’s, L. Juliana M. Claassens, Peter Enns, Walter Brueggemann, and John L. Collins. Each author provides a unique interpretation to help us comprehend how the text is an expression of one’s interpretive understanding. Having said that, the biggest influence has been how I will seek to present Old Testament scriptures more effectively while remembering the context and the audience in which I am presenting. For example, I believe the greatest lessons that I have been reminded of are, the Old Testaments Scriptures from my childhood, which have become a big part of my relationship with God and are based on a childlike faith, which must now grow in the richness of the different interpretations, it is this message that I can apply to life.

Several of the prophets had much to say in regards to idolatry, social injustice, and religious ritualism throughout the Old Testament. Some of these that will be used in this essay are Isaiah, Hosea, Micah, Jonah, and Ezekiel. Their verses will better define the meanings God has on each of these subjects.

The Old Testament is the largest part of the bible nestled behind the leather binding in the front of the book. Unlike most books, told from one-person or even two this is comprised of multiple, some stories even having two different versions in another point of view; over time it has become a large collection of ancient texts written and re-written by different authors and editors over the many years. The stories show the ancient Israelites, they show the laws, and rituals, which make up their religion and the small embers, which will one day, turn to a flame that is Christianity. The Jewish people view these stories as collected in what they call the Torah, is the collection for what makes up their history and the promise that God gave to them, as well as their laws and what they worship today. For the Christians the Old Testament is still seen as sacred, but most place a stronger importance to the New Testament.

Several times in the Bible, the Lord commissions a person to serve as a prophet and a leader for his people. While those who are commissioned are elevated by that choice, those commissions are not always positive. On the contrary, the Lord is frequently responding to something that people have done that He finds disappointing or upsetting. As a result, the commissioning often have an ominous tone to them, even though they reflect the Lord's pleasure with one of his servants. Isiaiah 6 and Jeremiah 1 both demonstrate how a commission was both an honor and a burden for the men who received them in the Bible. They also demonstrate that the prophets were tasked to do difficult things.

One of the most important tasks of the prophet, then, to whom God has given sharper eyes than others, is to perceive the true nature of the evil around him. What others accept as "doing what comes naturally" the prophet sees in all its grotesque horror. It is an abomination to the Lord… What God expects of the prophet is not flowery ritual but a kind of divine madness that shatters the complacency of religious people.

Prophets played such an important role in the time of the Old testament. It is because of these prophets, that we have so much of our prophetic literature through the Old Testament today. They played an integral role throughout the life and history of Israel. We can see through numerous situations throughout the Old Testament that the prophets were a catalyst for change occurring in the land/people of Israel. According to David L. Peterson in his book, "The Prophetic Literature", a reason as to why there were prophets that arose in the time and land of Israel, is because its said that the prophets were fundamentally important in understanding the history and value of Israel, and that the activeness of the prophets showed God 's concern for His people . We see that the word 'prophet ', in the Greek language actually means "to foresee" . This in time brought about issues in regards to whether or not the prophets weren 't just prophets, but could be providing some sort of witchcraft. But in actual fact, the prophets within the Old testament tended to not only speak about the future, but noted circumstances that occurred in the past and that reeled on into their present time. As we move forward in time from the times of the prophets, we can see the necessity of having the prophets in the land, life and people of Israel. Prophets at times came under four different titles or labels in the Old Testament. "Seer", "diviner", "man of God", and "prophet" . Throughout different

Frederick E. Greenspahn addressed the prophets input on idolatry. “Israelite prophets seem particularly concerned with this problem: ‘their land is full of idols… idols of silver and gold which they made in order to prostrate [to them],’ says Isaiah” (Greenspahn, 2004). Isaiah was not the only prophet who ran into the problem of idolatry, “Hosea describes the Northern

Dennis Bratcher provides insight on the ethics of the prophets in his article entitled Social Ethics in the Prophets. In this article Bratcher gives the reader some general information regarding the prophets before discussing in greater detail the theological foundation of the prophets and social ethics as it pertains to the prophets. Today, we understand that the torah and the prophetic traditions existed side by side in Israel’s religious life. They were both expressions of what the people had come to understand about God and how they should respond to God.

The names “Old Testament” and “New Testament” are inherently theological in nature. Because there is a difference distinctly built into giving them different notations, it implies that there are differences between each the Old Testament and the New Testament, whether it is subtle in nature or obvious in nature. To Christians, the difference means that the Old Testament contains dealings between God and the world and even some of the rules made are made irrelevant by the interactions of Christ Jesus with the world. One of the differences between the New Testament and the Old Testament is the way each of the Testaments describe God and God’s nature. The Old Testament describes an angry God, one who only created the world and was obsessed with laws and rules. The New Testament describes a loving God who redeemed the world. The different ways the Old Testament and New Testament describe God and his nature are very much influenced by their perspective of God. By the rules, actions, and laws God made, the early writers of the Old Testament made their judgements about God and wrote those perspectives into the books of the Old Testament. The writers of the Old Testament did the best they could with the information they had and got some things about God right, but also got things wrong. The writers of the New Testament and therefore, Christian believers understand God better.

The prophets of the Old Testament speak a great deal about idolatry, social injustice, and religious ritualism. These were serious problems for the people of Israel and Judah and are still problems for many people today.

The books from the Old Testament and New Testament do not have a direct link between them. For the readers of the bible, there is a clear end of the Old Testament with the book of Malachi, and the beginning of the New Testament with the book of Matthew does not continue with what was left in Malachi. The author, John Butler, refers to John the Baptist as the “connecting link between the Old and New Testament.” The 400 years that separate the Old Testament with the New Testament John the Baptist makes a link in this time period. John the Baptist connects the Old Testament by focusing on the wrath of God, and in the New Testament he announces the coming of the Messiah. By studying John the Baptist one can understand how God has taken every

And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do. And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.

The first 39 books of the larger work called the Bible, is called the Old Testament. The Bible itself is arguably the best selling and most read book of all time, yet it’s well known to be quite challenging to read through and understand. The Old Testament portion of the Bible, notably the most difficult portion of the Bible for most to study and follow, yields 39 books from multiple authors, and spans over 4000 years of crucial world and church history. If that were not enough to take on, the Old Testament comes our way through multiple styles of authorship and formats, including but not limited to, books of history, law, proverbs, ethics,

The roles of biblical prophets, according to Dr. Eliezar Segal, were to .advise the community of what to do in order to refine their lives. They most often did this after a terrible event or national tragedy. Prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel did precisely that

The Old Testament ends with the Minor Prophets. These prophets provided insight on many issues the Jews were facing. All of the prophets had the same ideas of a warning of impending judgment because of the nations’ sinfulness, the coming judgment, a call for repentance, and a promise of future deliverance of God’s grace. Idolatry, social injustice and religious ritualism are three issues that the prophets emphasized on in their teachings and can be inspired in the minds and hearts of believers today. The prophets’ teachings are just as important today as they were in the past. The teachings about God, the way man lived, social issues, and religious rituals are all relevant in the today’s society.