Book Two of The Lessons of Jesus · Free
Understanding the Old Testament
Jesus explains the scriptures he grew up on
Every book of the Old Testament, one chapter each, in his own voice: what happens in it, who wrote it, where it fits in the story, where he quoted it, and how he read it. Every claim has a source. Every verse is one tap away.
Thirty-nine chapters, one for every book. Every quotation is from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain.
Thirty-nine chapters, in the order your Bible prints them.
New here? Start at the top, with How to Use This Book. Or open any chapter. Each one stands on its own.
Start here
How the chapters work, the scriptures I grew up on, and the whole story of my people in one telling.
The Law
The first five books of your Bible are the Law of Moses, which my people called the Torah, the teaching. They tell one continuous story, from the creation of the world to the edge of the promised land, and the laws are set inside that story. Genesis tells how the family began. Exodus tells how they were freed from slavery in Egypt and given the Law at Mount Sinai. Leviticus is the priests’ handbook, given while they camp at the mountain. Numbers follows them through forty years in the wilderness. Deuteronomy is Moses’s farewell, spoken within sight of the land he would never enter. In my day these five scrolls were the heart of the scriptures, and every Jew accepted them.
The History
The next twelve books tell my people’s story in the land, from the settlement around 1200 BC to the return from exile in the 500s and 400s BC. Joshua and Judges tell how the tribes settled. Ruth is a short story set in the days of the judges. 1 and 2 Samuel tell of the first kings, Saul and David, and 1 and 2 Kings carry the story from Solomon to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. 1 and 2 Chronicles then tell the story of the kings a second time, written much later, from the Temple’s point of view. Ezra and Nehemiah tell of the return and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and Esther is set among the Jews who stayed in Persia. In the Hebrew Bible, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings make up the first half of the Prophets. The other books of this part belong to the Writings, the third part of the scriptures, which was still taking shape in my day.
- 6Joshua: The Man Who Had My Name
- 7Judges: Everyone Did What Was Right in Their Own Eyes
- 8Ruth: The Foreigner in My Family Tree
- 91 Samuel: The People Ask for a King
- 102 Samuel: The King Who Took What He Wanted
- 111 Kings: Solomon’s Glory, and Who Paid for It
- 122 Kings: How It All Fell Down
- 131 Chronicles: The Same History, Told Again
- 142 Chronicles: The Last Page of My Bible
- 15Ezra: Coming Home, and Who Was Sent Away
- 16Nehemiah: The Governor Who Cancelled the Debts
- 17Esther: The Book That Never Mentions God
Poetry and Wisdom
These five books do not tell the nation’s story. They are poems, prayers and the hard-won wisdom of ordinary life. Job argues with God about suffering. The Psalms are my people’s songbook and prayer book. Proverbs gathers the sayings parents taught their children. Ecclesiastes asks what any of it means when everyone dies. The Song of Songs is a set of love poems. Tradition linked four of them to famous kings, the Psalms to David and the other three to Solomon, though much of them was written long after those kings. In the Hebrew Bible all five stand among the Writings, the third part of the scriptures, which was still taking shape in my day. You can read them in any order.
The Major Prophets
A prophet was not a fortune-teller. He was someone who spoke for God to kings and people in a crisis, mostly about injustice, false worship and what was coming because of them. These books are called major because they are long, not because they matter more. Your Bible prints them after the history books, but the prophets lived inside that history. Isaiah spoke in Jerusalem while Assyria threatened it, and his scroll carries on into the exile and after. Jeremiah lived through Jerusalem’s last years and its fall. Lamentations mourns the ruined city. Ezekiel was a priest carried off to Babylon. Daniel is set in Babylon too, but was finished centuries later. In the Hebrew Bible as it later took shape, Lamentations and Daniel are among the Writings, not the Prophets. Each chapter’s At a Glance box tells you where its book fits in the story.
The Twelve
In my day, the twelve short prophets from Hosea to Malachi were written together on a single scroll, called simply the Twelve. Your Bible calls them the Minor Prophets. They are minor only in length. They span about three hundred years, from Amos and Hosea in the 700s BC to Malachi after the return from exile, and they are not printed in the order in which they lived. Each chapter’s At a Glance box tells you where its prophet fits.
- 28Hosea: Mercy, Not Sacrifice
- 29Joel: Your Sons and Your Daughters
- 30Amos: Let Justice Roll On
- 31Obadiah: The Brother Who Stood and Watched
- 32Jonah: The Prophet From My Own Hills
- 33Micah: Act Justly, Love Mercy
- 34Nahum: The Other Book About Nineveh
- 35Habakkuk: How Long?
- 36Zephaniah: The Day of Wrath, and the Humble
- 37Haggai: The Temple I Walked In
- 38Zechariah: The King on a Donkey
- 39Malachi: My Messenger
The back of the book
A last word, then every date on one line and everyone the book names, in one place.
Take the whole book with you.
For your phone or e-reader
Opens in Apple Books, Google Play Books and most e-readers, and can be sent to a Kindle.
Download the e-bookTypeset, ready to print
A 6 × 9 book, 311 pages, with the contents, the notes and both covers.
Get the PDFRead it right here
Nothing to download. Every chapter has its own page and its own short address, like LessonsOfJesus.com/genesis.
Start reading