1.  The books of “Former Prophets” are historical in content, and yet are classified under “Prophets.” The reason for this may be that their authors had the official status of a prophet, or, as F.F. Bruce holds, they reported events “to illustrate the great principles on which the prophets insisted.”

2.  Each of the five “rolls” was read at an annual Jewish feast of commemoration, in this chronological order: Song of Songs at Passover (first month); Ruth at Feast of Weeks (Harvest) (third month); Lamentations at the anniversary of the destruction of Jerusalem (fifth month); Ecclesiastes at Tabernacles (seventh month); and Esther at Purim (twelfth month).

3.  Chronicles appears last in the Hebrew Bible. This is why Jesus used the expression “from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah” (Luke 11:51) to sum up all the martyrs whose blood had been shed in OT times. Abel was the first and Zechariah was the last martyr appearing in this order of the Hebrew Bible.

Note the following facts concerning the books listed under the Protestant OT:

1.  The first seventeen books chronologically record selected highlights of man’s history from creation to the marriage of Abraham (Gen. 1-11), and from the birth of the nation of Israel to its return to Canaan after the Babylonian Captivity (Gen. 12-Nehemiah). The section called History may be subdivided into these three groups:

     a) Period of confederacy among the tribes: Joshua, Judges, Ruth

     b) Rise and fall of the monarchy: I Samuel through 2 Chronicles

     c) Captivity and return: Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther

2.  The books of Law are so designated because of the prominence of God’s Law in the experience of Israel during those centuries. (The name Pentateuch comes from the Greek, meaning “five-fold vessel.” The name Torah is the Hebrew word for “Law.”)

3.  The five books of Poetry are mainly reflections, hymns, dialogues, and maxims, directed to the reader’s inner life. They are classified as poetry because this is the prominent literary style of the books.

4.  The distinction between major and minor books of prophecy is based only on length. Although Lamentations is not long, it is in the major group because it could be considered as an appendix to Jeremiah.

5.   All of the prophets ministered in the period of about 900 to 44 B.C. Most of their messages were directed to either Israel (Northern Kingdom) or Judah (Southern Kingdom), or to both. Chronologically, Malachi is the last OT voice to speak.

The historical scope of the New Testament