Old Testament Apocrypha

The biggest book in the Bible is the book of Psalms in the Old Testament. Psalms is filled with songs and poems with subjects ranging from worship to suffering and, like the majority of Old Testament books, include prophesies of the coming Messiah. While God had continuously spoke to the prophets about they’re coming savior, He never spoke of the specifics of what He would be like. Expectedly, this lead people to develop their own ideas and develop expectations as to what the Messiah will do and…

Torah or "the Teachings," which consisted of the first five books of the Old Testament. The process of reading, researching, and writing, followed by more reading, researching and writing was a challenge. I found out how the Old Testament originally began as several stories of numerous people that was traditionally transferred orally from father to son over period of several centuries. The final written form of the Old Testament is a compilation of several stories, documents, manuscripts that…

within these categories are explained. Then Longman explores questions of the origin, development and use of the Psalms to help modern Christian grasp how to apply the Psalms. Longman states that ‘the Psalms are the heart of the message of the Old Testament” (51) and “reading the Psalms touch the very core of our being” (52). Psalms reading can inform the reader’s intellect and arouse the…

The eastern sources are not strong contenders for direct sources as they lack specifics in similarity. There are, , present visual likenesses from which an author could draw to color a story. Conversely, the western sources show an inversion trait. Portier-Young and Roark argue the author of the Watcher narrative wrote against Prometheus Bound, pitting the loving God of Israel against capricious Zeus. The Tradition of Seven Lean Years also carries inversions: a flood from which God delivers Noah…

Through-out the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament many covenants were made between the Lord and his followers. With these covenants were conditions that, if obeyed, lead to great blessing from God. The Lord used these conditions to show that He had the power to bless in difficult times and as obedience was showed by God’s people, great blessing fell upon them as they lived lives in pursuit of God. In the Old Testament many covenants are made between God and his chosen people. In biblical…

The Old Testament is a collection of 39 books that explain history and Religion of the people of Israel. The authors of these books are unknown but each book has its own unique style, perspective, teachings and message. Every book has a purpose in telling the stories and laws of an overall religious structure and ethical culture. All of the books together outline a deep view of God and his attempt to relate and communicate with humans. In the Old Testament there is also an emphasis on…

befittingly links these opening books to the latter historical and prophetic books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. Not only is Deuteronomy key in its literary placement, but it is also pivotal if one is to understand the theology in the New Testament; especially thoughts regarding the ideology of love. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to contemporize the message of love in Deuteronomy so as to determine what actions the Bible calls of man, and to subsequently show whether hate…

Serpents in literature often have a negative connotation attached to them. In both “The Epic of Gilgamesh” and The Old Testament’s tale of Adam and Eve, the character of the serpent plays a large role. It can be argued that the serpent in “The Epic of Gilgamesh” played both a positive and negative role, whereas the serpent in The Old Testament was primarily an antagonistic character. By looking at the general symbolism of serpents in literature, it is easy to uncover the important yet slightly…

the Hebrew Bible’s story of the seer Balaam showcases God’s enduring covenant even in the light of the Israelite 's transgressions. In many ways, the story of Balaam presented in the passage of interest and the story of Balaam presented in the old testament…

Liberal Christianity vs Christian Fundamentalism There has always been a tension between those who have a liberal perspective and those who have a fundamentalist perspective on anything in life. This is for good reason, those with liberal views believe change is necessary and those with fundamentalist views believe that change is not. When you apply these two ways of thinking to a religious text such as the Christian Bible you get a separation within a religion. Between the two ways of…