THE BIBLE CONTINUED

We have reached the last two Eras’. The Exile Era covers the books of Ezekiel through Daniel. The Return Era covers Ezra through Esther.

There are four mind divisions in the Exile Era.

1. Prophecy: Warning of impending captivity. Jeremiah

2. Prophets: Encouraging faithfulness of exiles. Ezekiel and Daniel

3. Exiles: Assimilated into the culture. Daniel

4. Power Change: Persian Empire expands. Daniel

You will see here that biblical references will include some Prophetical Books.

The Return Era has four main subjects.

1. Disrepair: Destruction from war and neglect. Nehemiah 1:1-3

2. Temple: Rebuilding the temple. Ezra 1-6

3. People: Spiritual rebuilding. Ezra 7-10

4. Walls: Restoration complete. Nehemiah

There are two more sections to the Old Testament. The Poetical Books and The Prophetical Books. These five Poetical follow the Historail Books and precede The Prophetical. Job was written during the time of the events of Genesis; Psalms during the life of David; Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and The Song of Solomon were written during the life of Solomon. There are three major types of poetry: Lyric, Instructional, and Dramatic.

The Five Poetical Books

1. Job: Suffering and God’s sovereignty.

2. Psalms: Praise in public worship.

3. Proverbs Wisdom, skill for living.

4. Ecclesiastes: Futility of temporal pursuits.

5. Song of Solomon: God’s marriage manual.

The Prophetical Books. From Isaiah to Malachi we have the writings of sixteen men who wrote down their messages in seventeen books. These books are divided into three periods. Pre-Exile, Exile, and Post-Exile.

Pre-Exile:

1. To Israel: Hosea, Amos

2. To Judah: Habakkuk, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Micah, Zephaniah, Lamentations

3. To Assyria: Jonah, Nahum

4. To Edom: Obadiah




Exile:

1. From Babylonia: Ezekiel , Daniel

Post-Exile

1. To Jerusalem: Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

We have now come to the end of the Old Testament. We pray that this outline can be a study help to better understand why it is important to read and have knowledge of the Bible. We will continue starting with the Silence Period between the two books of the Testament.




God Bless,

recj/LJG