“Bible Corner” — Last week | wrote about the four sub-divisions of the Old Testament and said how many books were in each. Then I listed the five books of the Pentateuch. The next section is the Historical Books with 16 books: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther, 1 and 2 Maccabees. The Wisdom Books number 7. They are: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth), Song of Songs, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus (Sirach). There are 18 books in the Prophets sub-division: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Just so that all the books of the Old Testament are mentioned here I will repeat the five books of the Pentateuch from last week: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
It is a bit daunting to see all those books plus all the books in the New as well. If someone asks me for advice on how to begin exploring, I usually suggest that they take one book from the Old, one from the New and one psalm a day from the Book of Psalms as a prayer. The usual books I would suggest to begin with are Ruth from the Old Testament and Mark’s Gospel from the New.