Themes in the Bible

Themes in the Bible: History of Israel

Themes in the Bible: History of Israel

Introduction

The Old Testament and the New Testament, the first and the second division of the bible, both have the themes of Salvation and love of God as central themes that surround the teachings. The history of Israel can also be seen as surrounding these two significant themes. The Old Testament includes some different content and theologies when compared to that of the New Testament, but they both have these two common themes. The events following the revelation of the Old Testament and before the New Testament define the inter-testamental period which saw a great deal of political changes in the history of the world in general and in the history of Israel in particular. The region of Israel where Jewish people lived saw migrations and suppressions by the different empires that ruled in this period over them. The loss of hope was natural for them and the wait for Christ that was foretold by the Old Testament was anxiously waited for. The arrival of the Christ marked the end of the '400 silent years' and showed a new revival to the hopes of the people.

Discussion

Contents and basic Theologies of Old Testament

The Old Testament is the first division of the Christian Bible. It is a term used to refer to the first set of religious books that comprise the Christian Bible. There is though a difference in the number of books that are believed to be part of the Bible. Protestants accept 39 books while Catholic, Orthodox and Coptic Bibles include a larger number of Old Testament books. With a rich vocabulary of about 5800 Hebrew words, the Old Testament focuses on the history of the creation of this world, the migration of Israelites and also tells us about the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God. All these things are explained and presented in The Old Testament with the help of real life stories. The history and experiences of individuals of the earlier times before the Old Testament serve the purpose of teaching important things about the world to the people. All through the book there is progressive revelation of who God is and what does he do with the people and with things in the world. Some of the books in the Old Testament also talk about and predict the arrival of Christ and foretell about the end of the world. Poetry, prophets and wisdom proverbs are some of the major content items of the Old Testament (Piepenbring, 1895).

Contents and basic Theologies of New Testament

The New Testament is the second division of the Christian Bible. It comprises of 27 books that focus on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and the operations of the Christian church. With a vocabulary of 4800 Greek words, the New Testament includes gospels that tell us about the narratives of the life, death and teachings of Christ. This will then help the people to understand how they ...