The Original Texts of Christianity 2: The OT History Books

Thank you for visiting. This article is one installment in a series that explains the “original texts” of the world’s myths and religions — one of the articles dealing with the Christian Bible.

Last time (OT 1), I explained the 5 books of the Old Testament’s first section, the “Law (Pentateuch).” In this article I take up the “History,” 12 books, that follow it, looking book by book at roughly 700 years of the Israelites’ journey after they entered the Promised Land.

For the explanation of the Law (Pentateuch), please see this article.

The Original Texts of Christianity 1: The Law (Pentateuch), Book by Booken.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-christianity-ot1/

The Scope of This Article

First, let’s confirm which part of the Bible’s 66 books this article covers.

Learn with Character Art! An Illustrated Guide to ChristianityView on Amazon → Christianity from Age 14, Explained with DiagramsView on Amazon →

What Is the “History” (12 Books)?

The 12 books that follow the Law (Pentateuch) are called the “History,” depicting roughly 700 years of the Israelites who entered the Promised Land of Canaan — flourishing as a nation, eventually falling, and rising again.

Running through this long history is a consistent perspective: “faithfulness to God brings blessing; turning away invites ruin.”

First, let’s confirm the broad flow of the era these 12 books cover.

The breakdown of the 12 books is as follows.

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Book 6: Joshua

This is the book in which “Joshua,” Moses’s successor, leads the Israelites at last into the Promised Land of Canaan.

The story begins, as with the escape from Egypt, with the miracle of the waters of the Jordan River being dammed up so the people cross over on the dry riverbed.

At the first obstacle, the fortress city of Jericho, the army, following God’s instructions, marched around the city for seven days, and on the seventh day raised a war cry and blew the trumpets, whereupon “the great walls came crashing down.”

The conquest continues, and in the battle at Gibeon there is the tale that when Joshua prayed, “O sun, stand still,” the sun halted in the middle of the sky so the battle could be completed.

After conquering Canaan, Joshua divides the land among the 12 tribes of Israel.

At the book’s end, Joshua presses the people to choose which god they will serve from now on, and declares his own resolve with the famous words, “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Book 7: Judges

After Joshua’s death, this book depicts the age when Israel, still without a king, was led from time to time by leaders God raised up, the “judges.”

In this age, one clear pattern repeats:

(1) The people forget God and worship idols → (2) God lets foreign enemies oppress them → (3) The people suffer and cry out to God for help → (4) God sends a judge to save them → (5) Peace comes, but eventually it returns to (1).

This cycle of corruption and deliverance forms the skeleton of the whole book.

The judge of great strength, “Samson” in particular, had the secret of his power in his hair, but was betrayed by his lover Delilah, who cut his hair, and he was captured. Yet at the end he regained his strength, toppled the pillars of the enemy’s temple, and brought down many Philistines with him.

The book closes with the line, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes,” foreshadowing the next age, when a king is sought.

Book 8: Ruth

Set against the turmoil of the age of the judges, this short book tells, by contrast, a warm family story.

Naomi, an Israelite woman who moved to Moab to escape famine, loses her husband and two sons there. As Naomi tries to return home, her Moabite daughter-in-law “Ruth” follows her, saying, “Your people will be my people, and your God my God.”

Moving to Bethlehem, Ruth makes her living gleaning leftover grain and meets “Boaz,” a prominent kinsman, and marries him.

The son Obed born to them becomes the grandfather of David, Israel’s greatest king. In other words, this story is an important record showing that “a Gentile woman, by faith, joined the royal house of Israel — and indeed the later genealogy of Jesus Christ.”

Book 9: 1 Samuel

Centered on “Samuel,” the last judge and also a prophet, this book depicts how the monarchy began in Israel.

Because the people demanded, “Give us a king to rule us, like the other nations,” Samuel, following God’s instruction, anoints Saul as the first king.

But Saul gradually came to disobey God’s commands and was rejected as king. The one God chose instead was a shepherd boy of Bethlehem, “David.”

What made David’s name famous at a stroke was his showdown with the Philistine giant “Goliath.” Goliath, nearly three meters tall, taunted the Israelite army daily, provoking them with “Let someone fight me in single combat,” while the soldiers were all too afraid to come out.

There the shepherd boy David, who had come to bring food to his brothers, steps forward to volunteer. Declining the armor and sword the king gave him because “I am not used to them,” David advanced armed only with five stones and a sling (a tool for protecting sheep from wolves).

When the giant approached, despising David, David declared, “You come at me with sword and spear, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of hosts.” The single stone he slung struck Goliath in the forehead, and the giant fell. David then cut off Goliath’s head with his own sword and won the victory. This story is still passed down today under the name “David and Goliath” as a symbol of overcoming a mighty enemy not by strength but by faith in God.

As the people’s affection gathered around David, now a hero, Saul grew fiercely jealous and persistently sought David’s life. Even so, when chances arose for David to kill Saul, he refused to lay a hand on “the LORD’s anointed.” Eventually Saul fell in battle, and the story continues into the next book.

Book 10: 2 Samuel

This is the book in which David becomes king in name and in fact and unites Israel.

David captures the impregnable city of Jerusalem and makes it his capital, bringing in the “Ark of the Covenant,” the symbol of God’s presence, to make it the center of the faith.

Here a supremely important promise is given. Through the prophet Nathan, God declares, “Your house (dynasty) and kingdom will endure forever before me.” This is the “Davidic covenant,” which later becomes the basis for the expectation, foundational to Christianity, that “the savior (Messiah) will be born from David’s line.”

On the other hand, this book also records David’s great sin. He takes “Bathsheba,” the wife of his subordinate Uriah, and to cover it up sends Uriah to his death in battle. Sharply rebuked for his sin by the prophet Nathan, David repented deeply.

But afterward David’s household is struck by tragedy, including the rebellion of his son “Absalom.” A harsh aspect of the Bible is depicted: even a great king cannot escape the consequences of sin.

Book 11: 1 Kings

It begins with the reign of David’s son “Solomon.”

At his accession, Solomon was told by God, “Ask whatever you wish, and I will give it to you,” and he asked not for wealth or long life but for “wisdom to judge the people rightly.” Pleased with this, God gave him wealth and honor in addition to wisdom.

What symbolizes that wisdom is the “Judgment of Solomon.” To two women each claiming a single baby as “my child,” Solomon orders, “Then cut the baby in two with a sword and give half to each.” One of the women wept and pleaded, “Then give it to her — only do not kill it.” Solomon saw that the woman willing to give the child up to keep it alive was the true mother, and returned the baby to her.

At the height of his splendor, Solomon built the magnificent “Temple” in Jerusalem.

But in his later years, under the influence of many foreign wives, he leaned into idol worship and grew corrupt. As a result, after Solomon’s death, discontent over heavy taxation exploded, and the kingdom split into the northern “Kingdom of Israel” and the southern “Kingdom of Judah.”

In the latter half of the book, the prophet “Elijah” appears in the northern kingdom, where idol worship had spread. He confronts the 450 prophets of the pagan god “Baal” on Mount Carmel.

Both sides built altars and contested, “The god who sends fire from heaven to burn the offering is the true one.” Though Baal’s prophets cried out from morning to evening, nothing happened. Elijah, meanwhile, deliberately drenched his altar with water and then prayed to the one God. At that, fire fell from heaven and burned up even the water-soaked offering and the altar. Thus Elijah dramatically showed that the one God alone is the true God.

Book 12: 2 Kings

It begins with scenes of Elijah’s disciple “Elisha” performing many miracles, and afterward tells the rise and fall of the successive kings of the divided northern and southern kingdoms.

As many kings ran to idol worship and kept turning from God, the northern “Kingdom of Israel” was destroyed by the Assyrian Empire in 722 BC.

In the southern “Kingdom of Judah,” good kings who carried out religious reforms, such as Hezekiah and Josiah, did appear, but on the whole the tide of corruption could not be stopped. And at last, in 586 BC, Jerusalem fell to the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

At this time, the Temple Solomon had built was destroyed, and many of the people were carried off to Babylon as captives. This is the “Babylonian exile.” The book closes with the Old Testament’s greatest tragedy: losing the Promised Land and being carried off to a foreign land.

Book 13: 1 Chronicles

Chronicles is a book that retells the same history as Samuel and Kings from a different perspective, for the generation that returned from exile.

Its first part devotes much space to a long genealogy beginning with “Adam.” This is to remind a people thrown into disorder by exile of “who they are and from which people they descend.”

The latter half depicts David’s reign, but the human drama of Samuel (his sins and rebellions) is mostly omitted, and the focus falls on preparations for worship at the Temple and the organization of the Levites who lead the praise. In other words, this book aims to present an ideal image of a “community of worship.”

Book 14: 2 Chronicles

The second volume begins with Solomon’s “building of the Temple” and depicts the history of the southern Kingdom of Judah single-mindedly through the lens of “faithfulness to God.”

The story ends, as in Kings, with the Babylonian exile, but Chronicles does not stop there. It closes with the scene in which the Persian king “Cyrus” issues a decree permitting the Jews to return, with “Build a temple in Jerusalem.”

In other words, the great intent of this book lies in not ending with despair (the exile) but closing with hope for rebuilding.

Book 15: Ezra

Receiving the decree of the Persian king Cyrus, this book depicts the Jews returning to Jerusalem from the Babylonian exile that had lasted about 50 years.

First, people led by the governor “Zerubbabel” return and, despite interference from neighboring peoples, rebuild the destroyed Temple (this is called the “Second Temple”).

Afterward, the priest “Ezra,” an expert in the Law, returns and presses forward a reform that re-establishes the community, whose faith had slackened, on the basis of the Law.

Book 16: Nehemiah

“Nehemiah,” an official serving the Persian king, is grieved to hear that Jerusalem’s walls remain in ruins and, with the king’s permission, travels there.

Undeterred by fierce interference from surrounding powers, Nehemiah encourages the people and achieves the feat of rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls in only 52 days.

Afterward, together with the priest Ezra, he reads the Law aloud before the people, who weep and repent and vow to “once again keep the covenant with God.” Thus the faith community, on the verge of collapse from the exile, was re-established.

Book 17: Esther

Closing the History is the story of the Jews who did not return home but remained in the Persian Empire.

The Jewish maiden “Esther” is chosen as queen of Persia for her beauty.

But the chief minister of the time, “Haman,” hating the Jews, plots a conspiracy to massacre all the Jews in the realm. Learning of this, Esther, encouraged by her foster father Mordecai’s words, “Perhaps you have become queen for just such a time as this,” risks her life to appeal directly to the king.

As a result, Haman’s plot is exposed, and he is hanged on the very gallows he had prepared for the Jews, and the Jews are saved. The Jewish festival “Purim” was established to commemorate this deliverance.

Esther is also known as the only book in the Bible in which the word “God” never appears even once. Even so, throughout the story God’s unseen guidance (providence), saving the people from crisis, is said to be depicted.

The Measuring Rod of the History — “Faithfulness to the Covenant”

Reading through the 12 historical books, you notice these are not mere records of events. All of history is measured by a single yardstick — “Were the people faithful to the covenant with God?”

The narrative style of the History has a clear pattern. When the people or king turn from God and worship idols, suffering comes — attacks by enemies and the like. When the people repent and return to God, God sends a judge or king to save them. But before long they turn away again. This cycle of “betrayal → suffering → repentance → deliverance” runs through history from Judges to Samuel and Kings.

And the History consistently explains the reason that the once-glorious Israel finally came to ruin in the Babylonian exile as “because the people broke the covenant and kept turning from God.” The History is also a grand book of reflection in which the people of Israel looked back on their own rise and fall through the lens of “relationship with God.” This concern resounds all the more sharply in the next section, the Prophets (Article 4), as the prophets’ stern warnings.

To Learn More

Here are some related books. Reading them alongside this series lets you savor this world even more deeply.

The World of the Bible Through 50 Masterpiece PaintingsView on Amazon → What Exactly Is Christianity? (a beginner’s primer)View on Amazon →

Conclusion

In this article, I explained the Old Testament’s “History,” 12 books, book by book, from Joshua to Esther. How was it?

Through these 12 books, we could trace roughly 700 years of Israel’s history: from the conquest of the Promised Land of Canaan, through the age of the judges, the united kingdom of David and Solomon, the kingdom’s division, the Babylonian exile, and on to the return.

Running consistently through it is the perspective that “faithfulness to God brings flourishing; turning away invites ruin.” I hope you can see how, within the surges of history — glory, fall, and rebuilding — the theme running through the whole Bible is depicted again and again.

In the next article, the character changes from the event-records of the History: I will explain the “Poetry & Wisdom Literature” (Job, Psalms, etc.), which treat human living and faith through song and proverb, and the “Prophets” (Isaiah and others), who were entrusted with the word of God.

The Original Texts of Christianity 3: The OT's Poetry & Wisdomen.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-christianity-ot2/

I hope you’ll read the next article too.