There is a very legitimate argument between Christians over which books are in the Old Testament. In fact, to this day, there is not one list on which all Christians agree. In fact, there are not even two lists, or even three lists, but, would you believe there are at least four lists? Listed below are four lists of Old Testament books along with which section of Christendom has which list.
When we read arguments about which books are in the Old Testament, we are often thinking about the arguments between the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformers. After all, we live in the West, and the Reformation is part of our history. But, we do not realize that the argument over which books are in the Old Testament is a much more complex argument than we think. Because of the various invasions of Israel, the Jews in the Dispersion were widely scattered. As well, the early Christians rapidly translated the Old Testament into their languages. Thus, before the end of the second century AD, the Old Testament was found in many more translations than just Greek. For instance, there are versions/fragments of the Old Testament in: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Amharic, Latin, Coptic, Armenian, Georgian, even a pre-Christian Samaritan Pentateuch in Paleo-Hebrew.
While the Church agreed on the writings of the New Testament, it is hard for us to conceive that they never came to full agreement on the Old Testament before the schisms rent the Church apart.
I have not forgotten about the invocation of the saints. I took this quick aside because of a passing question in one of the comments about one of the books of the Old Testament. The answer is that whether a particular book is in the Old Testament or not may very well depend on which part of Christendom one belongs to. The shortest list is the Protestant/Masoretic list. The longest list is the Ethiopian Orthodox list. The books on the Protestant/Masoretic list are common to all the lists, but the other three lists have additional chapters to some of the books in the Protestant/Masoretic list.
| Eastern Orthodox | Roman Catholic | Protestant | Ethiopian Orthodox |
| Genesis | Genesis | Genesis | Genesis |
| Exodus | Exodus | Exodus | Exodus |
| Leviticus | Leviticus | Leviticus | Leviticus |
| Numbers | Numbers | Numbers | Numbers |
| Deuteronomy | Deuteronomy | Deuteronomy | Deuteronomy |
| Enoch | |||
| Jubilees | |||
| Joshua | Joshua | Joshua | Joshua |
| Judges | Judges | Judges | Judges |
| Ruth | Ruth | Ruth | Ruth |
| 1 Kingdoms | 1 Kings | 1 Samuel | 1 Samuel |
| 2 Kingdoms | 2 Kings | 2 Samuel | 2 Samuel |
| 3 Kingdoms | 3 Kings | 1 Kings | 1 Kings |
| 4 Kingdoms | 4 Kings | 2 Kings | 2 Kings |
| 1 Chronicles | 1 Chronicles | 1 Chronicles | 1 Chronicles |
| 2 Chronicles (longer than Hebrew one) | 2 Chronicles | 2 Chronicles | 2 Chronicles |
| 1 Ezra | |||
| 2 Ezra | 1 Esdras | Ezra | Ezra |
| Nehemiah | 2 Esdras | Nehemiah | Nehemiah |
| 3 Ezra | |||
| 4 Ezra | |||
| Tobit | Tobit | Tobit | |
| Judith | Judith | Judith | Judith |
| Esther (longer than Hebrew one) | Esther (longer than Hebrew one) | Esther | Esther (longer than Hebrew one) |
| 1 Maccabees | 1 Maccabees | 1 Maccabees | |
| 2 Maccabees | 2 Maccabees | 2 Maccabees | |
| 3 Maccabees | 3 Maccabees | ||
| Psalms (151 in number) | Psalms (150 in number) | Psalms (150 in number) | Psalms (151 in number) |
| Job | Job | Job | Job |
| Proverbs | Proverbs | Proverbs | Proverbs (Proverbs 1-24) |
| Täagsas (Proverbs 25-31) | |||
| Ecclesiastes | Ecclesiastes | Ecclesiastes | Ecclesiastes |
| Song of Songs | Canticle of Canticles | Song of Solomon | Song of Solomon |
| Wisdom of Solomon | Wisdom of Solomon | ||
| Wisdom of Sirach | Ecclesiasticus | Wisdom of Sirach | |
| Hosea | Hosea | Hosea | Hosea |
| Amos | Amos | Amos | Amos |
| Micah | Micah | Micah | Micah |
| Joel | Joel | Joel | Joel |
| Obadiah | Obadiah | Obadiah | Obadiah |
| Jonah | Jonah | Jonah | Jonah |
| Nahum | Nahum | Nahum | Nahum |
| Habakkuk | Habakkuk | Habakkuk | Habakkuk |
| Zephaniah | Zephaniah | Zephaniah | Zephaniah |
| Haggai | Haggai | Haggai | Haggai |
| Zechariah | Zechariah | Zechariah | Zechariah |
| Malachi | Malachi | Malachi | Malachi |
| Isaiah | Isaiah | Isaiah | Isaiah |
| Jeremiah | Jeremiah | Jeremiah | Jeremiah |
| Baruch | Baruch (includes Epistle of Jeremiah) | Baruch | |
| Lamentation of Jeremiah | Lamentations | Lamentations | Lamentations |
| Epistle of Jeremiah | |||
| Ezekiel | Ezekiel | Ezekiel | Ezekiel |
| Daniel (longer than Hebrew one) | Daniel (longer than Hebrew one) | Daniel | Daniel (longer than Hebrew one) |
For the users of the KJV (and there are some out there who think the KJV is “God’s Bible” etc) I’ve always found it amusing that the KJV used to have the other books in it – until the text came to the States.
It is not only that the original King James included the Deuterocanonicals, but also that some of the translations were deliberately changed when the King James was republished in America because the original translations sounded too “Catholic.”
It might be interesting — though perhaps outside the purview or interest of your blog — to explore how the Hebrew Bible was compiled and when. I hope I am not creating a straw man when I say that most Evangelicals have some idea that Scripture floated down intact as a book (like Moby Dick or Harry Potter, except God-breathed — er, like the Left Behind books).
One of the most profound and potentially disturbing discoveries is the hodge-podge way in which the Jews compiled their library of Scriptures and the roles played by men such as Ezra during the exile.
Frankly, it is the modern-day Protestant obsession with “sola scriptura” which has led to the plethora of sad cases like Bart Ehrman (men who cut their theological and doctrinal teeth on the notion of inerrancy).
Thanks for the list.
RE: the Authorized Version – a great read is the book, “God’s Secretaries” about the making of King James’s translation.