Last week, The Tidings featured the Letters of St. Paul as part of a feature on the Pauline Year, declared by Pope Benedict XVI. This week, in acknowledging the importance of the Bible as evidenced by the recent Synod of World Bishops in Rome, summaries of the Old and New Testament books are presented on pages 8-10.

In Catholic editions of the Bible, the Old Testament contains 46 books, divided according to the Pentateuch, or first five books, 16 historical books, seven wisdom books and 18 prophetic books.

Of the 46, seven complete books and parts of two others are not included in Protestant editions of the Bible. Catholics call them deuterocanonical, meaning they form a second or subsequent canon; Protestants call them apocryphal, meaning of doubtful authorship or authenticity. The seven books in full are Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) and Baruch; portions of Esther and Daniel are also considered deuterocanonical.

The following summaries of the Old Testament books were condensed from the introductions and texts in the New American Bible, the translation produced by members of the Catholic Biblical Association of America under the patronage of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Chapter and verse references are noted in parentheses. The Scripture readings at U.S. Catholic liturgies are taken from this edition of the Bible.

PENTATEUCH
The first five books are known as the Torah to Jews and the Pentateuch to Christians; they form "the law."

Genesis (50 chapters): Composed from several literary traditions, Genesis describes the beginning of God's covenant relationship with the Jews, as well as some of the Bible's best-known stories, including two poetic versions of creation, Noah's ark and the flood, the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and Joseph and his brothers.

Exodus (40): Focuses on God's covenant and law and the Israelites' liberation through their Exodus from Egypt.

Leviticus (27): Consists entirely of regulations God gave Moses in the tent of meeting to help the Israelites remain personally and communally holy.

Numbers (36): covers the period the Israelites wandered in the desert after they left Egypt, focusing on the testing of both the people and their leaders; the book's name comes from the two censuses of the tribes taken at the beginning and end of their journey.

Deuteronomy (34): The book's name means "second law"; on the plains of Moab, before the Israelites can enter the Promised Land, Moses exhorts the people to renew their relationship with God in several major discourses.

HISTORICAL BOOKS
In the Jewish tradition some of the books that Christians consider historical are listed with the prophets. The historical books do not provide a chronological history, but look at certain important times and leaders.

Joshua (24): Joshua, who leads the Israelites from victory to victory in the Promised Land, is the central figure throughout.

Judges (21): Recounts the activities of 12 "judges," military leaders rather than magistrates, who guided the Israelites from the time of Joshua's death to the institution of the monarchy.

Ruth: (4): Takes its name from Ruth, a Moabite, who is the daughter-in-law of Naomi, an Israelite widow who leaves Moab for Bethlehem after the death of her husband and sons; shows the universality of salvation and establishes the lineage of King David, the great-grandson of Ruth.

Samuel I (31) and II (24): The two books of Samuel were originally one book covering three important leaders, the prophet Samuel, King Saul and King David, during about 100 years from the last of Israel's judges through the early years of the monarchy. The first book also deals with the relationship between kings and prophets. The second book is mainly the story of King David, whose royal house will produce the Messiah.

Kings I (22) and II (25): Originally one book, the two books of Kings cover Jewish monarchs from Solomon, beginning about 970 B.C., to Zedekiah and the beginning of the Babylonian exile in 597 B.C. The first book focuses on the centrality of the Temple in Jerusalem and God's fidelity. The second book, which focuses on the consequences of rebelling against God, picks up chronologically from the first.

Chronicles I (29) and II (36): The two books of Chronicles, with the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, likely formed a single work that supplemented the material in Samuel and Kings, but they reinterpret the history of Israel from the time of King Saul to the end of the Babylonian exile in 538 B.C. The first book highlights David's reign as the ideal and Temple worship as the center of Jewish life. The second book focuses on King Solomon's achievements, especially the Temple, and what brought about the Babylonian exile.

Ezra (10): It takes its name from the priest and scribe Ezra, who, along with Nehemiah, was most responsible for the reorganization of Jewish life, including marriages between Jews and foreigners, after the Babylonian exile.

Nehemiah (13): Where Ezra was a religious reformer, Nehemiah was a political reformer and lay governor of Judah who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and introduced administrative changes. This book focuses on obedience to the law which gave Judaism its identity.

Tobit (14): A deuterocanonical book, this religious novel focuses on Tobit, a wealthy Israelite living among the captives deported to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, in 721 B.C., his trials and tribulations and those of his family; in the person of the fictional Tobit, the book illustrates Jewish piety and the power of prayer, and includes many maxims also found in the wisdom books.

Judith (16): Another deuterocanonical book, this is a tract for difficult times, with God, the master of history, delivering the Jews from the Assyrians through the pious widow Judith, who kills the Assyrian general Holofernes; the name Judith means "Jewess."

Esther (10 numerical chapters --- Hebrew text --- plus chapters A-F ---Greek text): The supplementary Greek material is considered deuterocanonical. Esther is the cunning and brave Jewish heroine who thwarts a plot in the Persian court to kill on a single day all the Jews living in Persia. The book explains the origin of the feast of Purim, held to mark the Jews' victory.

Maccabees I (16) and II (15): Maccabees I, considered deuterocanonical, recounts the Jewish revolt against the Seleucid kings and pagan influences in the second century B.C. The revolt was led by the heroic sons of the priest Mattathias, Judas Maccabeus, Jonathan and Simon, and by his grandson, John Hyrcanus. Maccabees II, also deuterocanonical, covers a 20-year period in the second century B.C. The author condenses a five-volume work by Jason of Cyrene, and there is overlap with Maccabees I, as the book reiterates the importance of the Maccabean revolt and introduces ideas about the afterlife.

WISDOM BOOKS
The wisdom literature is mostly instructional, reflecting the ancient tradition of passing down collected wisdom from one generation to the next, but also includes the poetry of the psalms, mainly devotional lyrics, and the Song of Songs, primarily a nuptial hymn.

Job (42): Takes its name from Job, a prosperous chieftain whose complete reversal of fortune prompts three cycles of speeches, in the form of an artistic dialogue, debating suffering and innocence.

Psalms (150 psalms): These hymns, songs and prayers praising and beseeching God were composed for liturgical worship and form one of the most popular Old Testament books. About half the psalms are attributed to King David, though many came from different periods and collections. In the New American Bible, the numbering of the verses follows the Hebrew Psalter.

Proverbs (31): This anthology of didactic poetry is meant to teach wisdom both to those who are young and inexperienced and those seeking more advanced insights. Various sections are ascribed to Solomon, Agur, Lemuel and the anonymous "wise."

Ecclesiastes (12): The author of the book, Qoheleth in Hebrew, is a teacher of popular wisdom whose reflections on life lead to the conclusion that "all things are vanity."

Song of Songs (8): On one level, this long poem describes an ideal human love and on a deeper level the mutual love of the Lord and his people. It is attributed to Solomon in the traditional title but its language and style suggest a later time; different voices --- a bride, a chorus of daughters of Jerusalem and a bridegroom --- speak singly and in conversation about love.

Wisdom (19): Also known as the Wisdom of Solomon, this deuterocanonical book is another compilation of proverbs and sage advice attributed to Solomon, but was written in Greek probably by a Jew living in Alexandria, Egypt, about 100 years before Christ.

Sirach (51): This deuterocanonical work is the longest of the wisdom books; its Latin name, Ecclesiasticus, means "church book," suggesting its use in teaching catechumens and the faithful. The prologue says that Jesus ben Sira taught this wisdom to boys in Jerusalem and that it was translated into Greek by his grandson around 132 B.C.

PROPHETIC BOOKS
The prophetic books contain the words of Israel's prophets, chosen by God to receive divine communications and transmit them to the people. This section is comprised of the major and minor prophets, with major and minor referring to length rather than importance; the Book of Lamentations, a series of elegies on the fate of Jerusalem; and the Book of Baruch, the secretary of the prophet Jeremiah, which focuses on the Babylonian exile.

Isaiah (66): Divided into the Book of Judgment and Book of Consolation, and also by authorship, with Isaiah writing during the Assyrian assaults on Israel and Judah during the second half of the eighth century B.C. (Chapters 1-39), Second or Deutero-Isaiah writing toward the end of the Babylonian exile (Chapters 40-55), and Third or Trito-Isaiah with oracles from a later period (Chapters 56-66).

Jeremiah (52): The greatest prophet of the seventh century B.C., Jeremiah supported the reforms of King Josiah and suffered greatly for his repeated warnings about the Jews' return to idolatry and the growing power of Babylon.

Lamentations (5): Each chapter is a lament by an eyewitness to the fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. The laments express the Jews' grief and humiliation, their torments and miseries at being subjugated and exiled, and their ultimate faith in God's constancy and mercy. The book also uses an interesting literary device: the first four laments, or poems, are acrostics in which the individual stanzas begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, from beginning to end.

Baruch (6): This deuterocanonical book, ascribed to Baruch, the secretary of the prophet Jeremiah, contains different compositions, in prose and poetry, Hebrew and Greek, collected around the theme of the Babylonian exile.

Ezekiel (48): Ezekiel, like Jeremiah, was both priest and prophet, but his focus on the Temple and liturgy earned him the title "father of Judaism" in postexilic Israel. Deported with the exiles in 597 B.C., Ezekiel began prophesying in Babylon, first reproaching Israel for its sins and predicting further devastation, then after the fall of Jerusalem shifting to the promise of salvation in a new covenant.

Daniel (14): considered apocalyptic literature, looking ahead to the Day of the Lord and the end of history; describes the heroic exploits of Daniel, a young Jew taken early to Babylon; the final two chapters are considered deuterocanonical.

Hosea (14): Hosea was a prophet of the northern kingdom in the eighth century B.C. and a contemporary of Isaiah, Amos and Micah; his marriage to the unfaithful Gomer symbolized Israel's infidelity; he began the tradition of describing the relationship between God and Israel in terms of marriage.

Joel (4): Not much is known about Joel, but his postexilic prophecy contains many apocalyptic images and stresses the Day of the Lord, or day of judgment. The book deals with the land of Judah ravaged by locusts and a call to penance, the Day of the Lord, blessings for God's people and a judgment upon the nations.

Amos (9): A shepherd of Judah, he prophesied in Israel at the cult center Bethel during the reign of Jeroboam II in the eighth century B.C. Amos denounces the hollow prosperity of the northern kingdom and calls the people back to the high moral and religious demands of God's revelation.

Obadiah (21): In the shortest and sternest prophecy in the Old Testament, Obadiah (about whom little is known) utters a bitter prophecy against the Edomites, longtime enemies of the Israelites, who committed heinous crimes after being forced to leave their ancient home near the Gulf of Aqaba and settling in southern Judah in the fifth century B.C.

Jonah (4): This postexilic book, probably from the fifth century B.C., tells the fantastical story of Jonah, a disobedient prophet swallowed by a great fish while trying to flee his divine commission. After his rescue, Jonah proceeds to Ninevah, where everyone in the wicked city heeds his message of doom and repents. Jonah and God then have an exchange over Jonah's bitterness about the success of his mission and God's mercy.

Micah (7): This prophet, from an obscure village in the Judean foothills, denounces the social evils in both Samaria and Jerusalem, the capitals of the divided kingdoms, and points to Israel's restoration through the house of David. The prophet Jeremiah notes that King Hezekiah's reforms were influenced by Micah's prophecy.

Nahum (3): This oracle about the hated city of Ninevah, the capital of Assyria, was made shortly before Ninevah and the Assyrian empire were destroyed by Babylon. Assyria had been the scourge of the ancient Near East for nearly three centuries, which helps explain Nahum's jubilant tone.

Habakkuk (3): This oracle, received in a vision by Habakkuk, dates from the years just before Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah in 597 B.C. The first two chapters are a dialogue in which the prophet complains about the ways of God and God responds. The third chapter is a later liturgical prayer of praise that recalls some of Israel's past glory.

Zephaniah (3): This prophecy, during the reign of King Josiah in the seventh century B.C., condemns the religious degradation of Jews reverting to old idolatries, and focuses on God's impending judgment on the Day of the Lord.

Haggai (2): Haggai, who received his commission to prophesy in 520 B.C., is the first postexilic prophet. His prophecy contains five oracles: a call to rebuild the Temple; the future glory of the new Temple; the unworthiness of a people, possibly the Samaritans, to offer sacrifice in the newly restored Temple; a promise of immediate blessings for the rebuilding of the Temple; and a pledge to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah and a descendant of David, that continues messianic hopes.

Zechariah (14): The first eight chapters, dating to 520 B.C., contain the oracles of Zechariah, while the rest of the book is attributed to an unknown author or authors referred to as Deutero-Zechariah.

Malachi (3): Malachi is not a proper name but the Hebrew expression for "my messenger." This anonymous author, writing around 455 B.C., criticizes the postexilic abuses of the priests and Levites and the indifference of the people to their religious heritage, especially regarding marriage with pagans. This prophecy may have set the stage for the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah, and the messenger reference in the third chapter was quoted by Jesus in the Gospels as referring to John the Baptist.

---CNS