Chad Summa

The book of Joshua is named after the primary character and likely author, Hoshea, son of Nun to whom Moses gave the name Joshua (Numbers 13:16). The title is the same in Hebrew and the Septuagint text, though the Septuagint uses the Greek equivalent to the name Joshua, which is Iesous, or Jesus. Author The […]

The Book of Enoch is perhaps one of the most widely known pieces of literature from the corpus known as the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. It purports to be the work of Enoch, seventh in the line from Adam (on Seth’s side), though some of it is supposedly also written by Noah. When you are asked […]

The book of Daniel is named after the prophet of the same name who likely went into Babylonian captivity around 605 BC when the Babylonians first began to dominate Judah. The title for the book is the same in both the Hebrew version and the Greek Septuagint. Author of Daniel The book of Daniel nowhere […]

In this summary of Isaiah, let’s start with the title. The title of the book of Isaiah is simply Isaiah, and as with most of the prophets it is the personal name of the primary human speaker in the book. Author of Isaiah Who is the author of this book? While “Isaiah, son of Amoz” […]

The Hebrew title for the book of Psalms is tehilim, roughly translated as “praises.” In some ways, this is an unusual title, as the largest single category of Psalms are laments. It is from the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint that we get the term “psalmos” or song. The term […]

Let’s start our summary of Exodus with a look at the title of the book. The Hebrew title for the book of Exodus is Shemoth (“names”), coming from the very first line of the book which says, “These are the names. . .”. The title of the book in the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation […]

Beginnings are important, as they set the stage for everything that comes after. The book of Genesis is the same way. It narrates the beginning of creation, of man and woman, of sin, of God’s chosen nation, and of God’s plan for saving mankind. Since beginnings are so foundational for everything, the book of Genesis […]

How did we get our Old Testament? Who decided which books made the cut (and became “canon”)? Why are there differences between the list of books in Catholic and Protestant Bibles? Before we get into these questions, however, it is important to differentiate a couple terms: “Scripture” and “Canon.” “Scripture” can refer to any writing […]