This episodes works to understand why there are two parts to the Bible: the Old Testament and the New Testament. It's a critical question that lays the groundwork for understanding the Scriptures. We explore how the Bible comprises 66 books written over 1500 years by around 40 different authors in three languages, and yet, it remarkably maintains consistency. You’ll learn about the significance of each testament and how the Old Testament sets the stage for the New Testament, ultimately pointing to Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promises. We also touch upon the 400 years of silence between the two testaments, discussing how that period prepared the way for the arrival of Christ. So, grab your Bible, and let’s unpack these foundational truths together!

Looking ahead, we hint at our next episode where we’ll delve into the New Testament and the New Covenant that it introduces. We hope to provide you with clarity on how this new section of the Bible transforms the understanding of faith and relationship with God, making it relevant even in today’s world. Stick with us as we uncover these truths together!

Takeaways:

• The Bible consists of 66 books: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament, covering a span of about 1500 years of writing.
• Understanding the Old and New Testaments is crucial, as they together outline the entirety of Christian faith and teachings.
• The Old Testament lays the groundwork for the New Testament, pointing towards the arrival of Jesus Christ and the new covenant.
• The writing of the Bible involved over 40 authors, written in three languages: Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, without any contradictions over centuries.
• The 400-year gap between the Old and New Testaments represents a significant period of silence from God, marking a transition in divine communication.
• Apologetics is an essential aspect of understanding and defending the faith, focusing on the rational justification of Christian beliefs.

Foreign.

Welcome back to the I Want to Know podcast.

My name is Josh Freeman.

This is my co host, John Daniel.

And we're glad everybody came back.

Last week on our very first podcast, we was talking about, we're going to get into, straight into learning about the Bible.

And one of my first questions is I want to know, I want to know why there's a New Testament and Old Testament and just a little bit about the Bible itself.

Well, Josh, those are very great questions and very foundational and fundamental questions and I want to help you get an understanding of it.

So let's dig in together.

First off, I guess we're answering the question, why is there an Old and a New Testament?

Well, first thing, I've taken a few notes, Josh, as you approached me with this question a few days ago, so I sat down and wrote a few notes out of the things I wanted to make sure to cover with you.

So just a little bit of background, a little bit of explanation on what we call the bible.

And there's 66 total books in the Bible and out of the 66 total books, there's 39 Old Testament books and there's 27 New Testament books.

1500 year time frame.

That's a long time.

1500 years.

It's pretty amazing, Josh, when you, when you look at, and as we go through this podcast and as we uncover the truths of God's word and you see the consistency and you know, we, we'll talk about apologetics one day and that's a topic that I love to talk about.

But apologetics, yeah, the apologetics is giving a defense, not apologizing, but I forget the Greek word, but Apollo, Jesus, I believe, or something that means to give a defense.

Tennessee, that's right, that large county education.

But, but anyway, it's, it's given the defense, right?

And it's usually, you know, a lot of people will say that faith is blind and, and you know, and of course, when you're talking about agnostics or skeptics or atheists and what, you know, these things and, and they're just.

Anyway, that's going on down a rabbit hole.

But I hope to get there one of these days.

40 men wrote in this, wrote this book.

It's written in three languages.

It's written in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.

How you spell Haramaic?

A, R, A. I don't know.

That's make.

I got you.

Yeah, I can.

I understand what it is.

Aramaic.

Yeah.

So the three different languages.

You know, they.

And a lot of people don't understand.

Maybe you don't.

You know, the Bible as we know it, it didn't exist in the days of Jesus.

There were scriptures, there were scrolls, and from.

From the book of Isaiah, but you couldn't go to.

You could go down the books of Million and buy you an Old Testament back in those days.

Right.

Or you couldn't go and buy you a Bible.

It was mainly word mouth, correct?

Well, it was.

I mean, that was scriptures and scrolls that they had.

But yeah, there was a lot of memorization and a lot of the teaching off that memorization.

And again, I know we're still down a rabbit hole, but, you know, I did a study on Islam and, you know, within a few short years, they had to collect all the Elams or whatever, had to collect all the Koranians in Burma because there was so much discrepancy.

Right.

Within just a few shorts.

How can you follow something that always.

Contradicted so much discrepancy from the different writers and different things?

The Bible for all these years been on the number one best ever list since it was compiled.

No, no book has ever upsold the Bible.

And again, you know, the history of it is infallible.

That means there's inherent, there's nothing.

Nobody has ever disproved anything about the Bible.

Just time and time again, even to the day in modern science and archeology, they're still uncovering and unearthing things that prove the Bible that prove it correct.

Yes.

Right.

You know, what's the conclusion?

It's real.

Yeah, it's real.

It's real.

Real.

And I hope the conclusion is, you know, by the time we get into this podcast later on down the road that you see and you understand what The Bible says it is.

It says what it says and it means what it says.

Right.

It's God's word.

It's God inspired.

And that means that, you know, these authors, these 40 different men.

Yeah, they.

You can see different writing styles and you can see the personalities of the authors, but they are guided by the Holy Spirit.

Right.

And there's nothing in this book that God did not want in that book.

And there's nothing in there that's not in there with purpose.

You and I talked the other day.

We talked about genealogies.

Genealogies.

All hard names and all.

My goodness, those are difficult.

They'll.

They'll sidetrack you.

They'll derail you.

So especially when you're new to the faith and you need to try to learn.

But they're in there for a reason.

Why can't they be all in Tennessee?

Name?

Bob and John.

Yeah.

Yeah, those are tough.

You ought to try to get in the pulpit and preach and read for when they try to go, you know.

I know why you guys sweat so much.

Now you have a congregation, man, I'll just sk.

My.

But here's the thing.

I don't.

Nobody else know how to pronounce them either.

So you just lay whatever way you will say that over confidence.

Right.

But anyway, let's get back on point, Josh.

The.

The Old Testament.

New Testament.

The Old Testament.

The New Testament.

So we talked about the Bible in and of itself.

Moses is the first author hero.

Genesis, Exodus, and that took place from 15th to the 13th BCE.

So before Christ.

Right?

Was when the Christ event.

Yeah, I guess I'm not sure what.

No, we don't have to look, I mean, I'm just.

Yeah, before BC Before Christ.

That's the old terminology.

Bc AD Right.

Yeah, before Christ.

And then the year of our Lord.

I think that is again, Latin and no demini or something, because that'll.

Okay, Y.

Say.

That's what I love.

I don't know if you ever watched Phil Robertson and the Dynasty guys.

You know, one of Phil Robertson's, the, The.

The Duck commander.

Yeah, I know exactly one of his things when he was preaching the gospel around the country and.

And one of his arguments would have been, you know, he said, you mark if you don't believe in God.

He said, you mark the very time that you live by, by my Lord and Savior.

So everybody in this world you might deny Christ, you may not believe in all this, but you're.

Every day you're living and you're marking your time.

By myself.

That's right.

So anyway, yeah, that's a cool thing.

But it started out, Moses started writing about the 15th or 13th BCE and John the apostle John was the last author.

And in, in the book of Revelation.

So Josh, let me feel like you.

Now let's dig into.

I've told you a little bit about the Bible, a little bit about how it was written, how many years it took, how many different men, how many different languages, how many different books.

Your question is, why is there an Old Testament?

Why is there a New Testament?

Is.

Let's answer this question.

What is a testament?

Do you know, you have an understanding?

What, what's a testament?

Well, in my.

I think the testament is like the commands from like you.

I don't know.

I guess really and truly.

I don't know.

I mean, I know it's a testament is like.

Is it.

Well, let's break back to testify or something like this is what I said.

Well, let's break it.

Let's simplify it for, for you and for, for the.

Listen, if you go to the lawyer, you and your wife, we're, we're.

We're no longer spray chickens and you got grandkids on the ground and you know, so you decide, hey, I need to make sure that.

That my estate.

I need to make sure that.

That my.

What I want done with my life if I'm dead and gone.

What.

So what does that call?

That's your testament.

That's your will.

Will and testament.

You go to the law and you draw up a will and test.

Yes, exactly.

So if you draw up a will and testing, what does that explain that to me?

What?

That's your directions of what you own.

Down with your stuff.

Okay.

Right.

And then it is.

And that's abiding agreement.

Right.

We'll get into it a little bit later on.

And when, when does that come about binding agreement?

Because it's not binding when you go and write it.

Right.

Because you're still alive.

But we'll come anyway.

So testament is a person will.

I didn't definition but just do the Google search think, you know, well, what would.

How much better could I have done in school?

Google would have existed.

Yeah, but we wouldn't have need cell phone cameras.

But yeah.

Yeah.

Well, we're not getting to that.

But let's.

I did a Google.

What is a testament?

Testament.

Simply a person's will, especially the part relating to property, it was one definition from Google Search.

Another one was something that serves as a sign or evidence of a specified fact, event or quality.

So a covenant or testament.

So that's, that's another because another definition is covenant or dispensation.

So all of those are three.

When you Google search, what is it or testament, those are the three definitions that you'll come up with, right?

A person's will, especially pertaining to property, something that serves as a sign or, or evidence of a specified factor, event or a covenant or dispensation.

Now dispensation is talking about length of time, but covenant also.

Let's break covenant now because covenant.

Now we're getting into the words.

Like what more, you know, imagine you or I the one saying the word covenant.

No, that old language is different.

Now is an agreement, agreement between me, agreement between me.

Whenever do a business agreement and a business deal.

Then you know, we, we've done a contract and it's an agreement and that's, that could be said as a government, you know.

So a covenant is an agreement, a covenant is a testament.

They're all here, changeable.

They're really talking about the same thing, dispensation here.

I did break that down.

Dispensation is a system of order or government or an organization of a nation, community, especially as existing to a particular time.

So it's a system of order is a dispensation.

So dispensation, a covenant and an agreement.

All that is talking about a set of laws, a set of order, government, the test, during the set of time, during times set.

And it's an agreement.

So now we're getting into the Testament.

So now we're referring to.

Or why is there an Old Testament and New Testament?

Well, again, the Bible is the word of God.

It's crazy.

Is it chronological for the Old Testament and New Testament?

Like.

I don't know.

I guess what I'm asking is, is I don't know what I'm asking.

I guess like the break.

There's a break somewhere.

Like I said, there's a single page in your Bible that's blank.

Goes from Old Testament, New Testament.

And it's just like you turn the.

Blank page and over.

Yeah.

So that, that is, that is like that, that blank page.

And I don't know, off the top of my head, I can, I need to look and maybe we'll.

I'll get you.

That ended later.

So that's.

That one page represents the Dark Ages.

God quit communicating with his people during time.

You See, I ain't got that far into the Bible.

Right.

And so let me, Let me just real quick.

Yeah, so that's.

I'm just gonna do a Google search, Joss, and we'll say, how many years between the Old and New Testament?

400 years.

Just that quick.

I got you that.

In 400 years, between the last book of the Old Testament and the New Testament.

This country ain't been around for 400 years though.

Right, Right.

America hasn't been around that long.

Right.

400 years, God quit communicating with his people.

So you have that Old Testament where Moses was the author.

He started writing Genesis from the beginning of time.

Adam and Eve and the garden, creation of the world and through, all the way through that until the end of the Old Testament.

And then there was 400 years that God went silent.

And then.

But now the Old Testament points, the whole Old Testament continuously points to the New Testament points to not just the New Testament, but the New Testament being somebody's last will and testimony.

Right.

Last test.

But is that somebody.

And we're going to get there.

That's Jesus.

So the Old Testament points to the New Testament, which the Old Testament is pointing to Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Savior of mine.

It's pointing to.

He's on his way.

He's on his way.

And, and it's how God accomplished bringing forth salvation to mankind.

The Testament government are, are the same.

They're both in agreement and they're both talking about a system of order coming from, of course.

And we're talking about God or we're talking about the word of God.

So we're talking about the, the agreement from God to his creation.

There's actually five elements commonly agreed upon in the Bible, you know, so we're talking about the Old Testament, the New Testament.

So the Old covenant, the New covenant.

But actually within the Old Testament, there's four covenants represented in the Old Testament.

Okay, now you got the.

So the New Testament is only one covenant.

One, one test.

All right?

In the Old covenant or the Old Testament, you got the four covenants.

You got the no attic.

And I may butcher up these words, right?

But the no attic.

So that, that was.

God had an agreement in the covenant with Noah.

All right, Remember the story of Noah?

Do, do you know that?

Well, I know the story of Noah.

The flood.

No flood.

What God?

So God flooded the world.

He saved Noah.

He saved Noah and his seven family members.

There were eight people who were saved through the water.

And we'll get to that in another episode.

That's an interesting story too.

But, but Noah and his family were saved through the water.

And when they finally rested on that mountain and what, what was the sign?

Do you remember?

There was a sign that the water.

That God won't destroy the earth.

The water is rainbow.

Rainbow.

Yeah.

God sent a sign for that covenant.

And God made an agreement with Noah and he says, I'm not made this covenant.

I'm not going to flood this world again.

And here's.

I'm going to put a rainbow in the sky.

And so there's always it.

For at each covenant there's a sign.

There's a sign.

Keep that in mind.

All right, so those, the Noad covenant, then the Abrahamic covenant.

So there was Abraham.

You've heard him talk to or you're reading about him, his father Abraham, throughout the scriptures.

Abraham's covenant.

God makes a covenant with Abraham and he says, I'm going to bless this nation.

He gives him a land promise.

He gives him a blessing, a people and making, making him a nation promise.

And he brings a I'm going to bless all the nations of this world and bless all the world through you.

So it's a threefold promise, right?

Land, people and blessings of the world.

And so that's, this is where you start seeing the Hebrew nation because they, through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the twelve tribes of Israel.

And you know, then that's where the Israelite, that's where the Hebrew children come from, is to Abraham.

It was eventually his word, the Christ came from right through Abraham.

So you got the.

No attic, the Abrahamic.

Then you got the Mosaic.

And later on, I know I put you on a reading plan.

You've read through Exodus already.

And so you see Moses come on in the scene and you see now that.

Is that where the word mosaic comes from?

From Moses, Yes.

Because I always hear people talk about a mosaic painting.

Oh, well, that's not the same thing.

I don't know.

I think that's the same thing.

But no, I believe there's.

So there's obviously a different definition.

So the Mosaic covenant.

And, and that is typically, typically when you talk about the Mosaic covenant is that's what people refer to the Old Testament, right?

The Mount and the Ten Commandments and the Old Law and so on and so forth.

The Mosaic covenant is what typically people refer to when you refer to the Old Testament.

Because the law that God gave to Moses on my side, now that he come, that included the Ten Commandments and it included all the festival days and all of the Sacrifices and animal sacrifices and so on and so forth, right?

So.

And then you.

Then you have the Davidic covenant.

And that is with King David.

So those are the four.

King David's covenant is that.

That he will always.

This.

The scepter, he says will never pass from your.

Your.

The scepter.

That scepter got passed down from king to king.

And as you hold that scepter, then that represents you've got control and power of the kingdom.

Right?

So David was the second king in Israel.

God put the Israelites, you know, they rebelled against God and they wanted the king.

They wanted to be like the rest of the world.

And God said, all right, I'm gonna give you what you asked for.

And he gave him Saul.

It's all started out being pretty good king, but then Saul lost his mind and lost his marbles.

And David came on the same King David, right?

And David come and set up and re.

Establish and did.

Right.

What book is that in?

First Samuel, I believe.

Okay.

And it's the story of David.

And now he came on the scene.

Samuel was a prophet during that time.

He was given direction who God was talking to.

Right.

You know, Samuel was giving direction to the people.

But anyway, along that line, God tells David, he said, the scepter was never passed from you.

Now, he's not referring to physical, earthly, kingdom and at that place, saying that your reign will never stop or the lineage of the reign and your lineage will never stop.

He's not referring to the kingdom of Israel and the earthly kingdom.

He's saying the God's kingdom because he's talking to God's people.

The Hebrews are God's people.

And later that's going to be spread out to include gentiles.

Include all of those of us who are not Jews.

Right.

And.

But God saying, I'm going to promise you that.

Hence the title of a gentile.

Not a Jew.

Not a Jew.

Okay.

The definition of a gentile is not a Jew.

Right.

So that hung me up a long time ago.

Well, I'm glad y.

Let's get straight down.

Out.

But the promise, he's saying to David, the scepter will not pass from me.

From you.

Meaning your family, your lineage.

Jesus Christ narrowed down.

Jesus Christ is in the lineage.

Jesus Christ is the king of the kingdom.

So that was his prophet.

His covenant is Jesus will be born of your heritage.

Yes, yes.

So King David.

So those are.

Yes, King baby.

So those are four.

You know, you could say, you know, there's.

There's debated within a couple of More, but they're, they're kind of insignificant.

But the.

No.

Attic Abrahamic, the Mosaic and the Davidic or the four covenants, actually, Old Testament, kind of all.

Some.

The Old Testament is.

A lot of people refer to the Mosaic in this whole wall, you know, that kind of grass.

All of them in together.

Then you have that 400 year, that bank page.

Why, why, why does it stop?

Why does it stop now?

Why does God.

Are you saying it was a 400 year?

Because, I mean, that's part of my ignorance toward the Bible.

Like I didn't know that for 400 years.

Well, full disclosure, Josh, I don't have an answer for you on why God chose to wait 400 years before he broke.

Okay.

I mean, that's some of these.

I mean, I'd rather you say that.

Well, you know, give me some.

You know, his.

On vacation in Florida.

Yeah, I mean, you know, that's, you know, a lot of things as you study and usually learn, learn the Bible.

There's a lot of answers that we search for that we love to find.

And there's just.

The fact of the matter is you're not going to know at this side of eternity right now, if you want to get to heaven one day and ask, hey, why don't you wait 400 years and why don't you go silent for 400 years?

Maybe he'll answer you, maybe not.

I don't know.

I'm not going to be too concerned about it, to be honest with you.

But in your salvation, you don't have to know that.

No, it doesn't.

It's not pertinent to going to heaven.

Right.

But, but he did.

He stopped for 400 years communicating.

Now, you know, God's perfect.

His plan is perfect.

They had a reason and it accomplished his will.

Right.

And so we'll go with that for, for today.

But why he did it.

Stuff he wanted to.

Yeah, well, I mean, I'm good with it.

I just didn't know it.

But so that 400 years of silence then ushered in.

Because, see, like for instance, at the end of the Old Testament, last book is Malachi.

So I was assuming, because I have not read Malachi yet, even though it's only two and a half pages.

I guess I should go ahead and read it.

But I didn't know that.

Maybe it explained in the book of Malachi why the 400 years happened.

Just because it's the last book of the Old Testament, you know, I mean, that's how I was making that connection.

That don't Mean that that is right.

No, it is.

Nobody can tell you I'm not right very often.

We know, Josh, and a lot of.

I want to clarify something else for you.

You know, I set you on a Bible reading plan a few weeks ago and kind of encourage you to help you just read the Bible, you know, a lot of people and it is very intimidating and you come across stuff that you don't understand and you know, but a lot of things that are worthwhile in this life are intimidating in our heart.

Right?

Yeah.

And.

And there's no quick and easy, you know, Bible for dummies.

I guess you probably find something like that.

Research.

But really there's no better way than to just dig into it and find you.

Found you a counterpart, a trustworthy friend to help you walk through it and help you understand and break it down and reason at the Bible with you.

But if you want to know the Bible, pick it up and read it.

Well, I have found that you can't be lazy.

I mean, you got to work at it.

Yeah.

I mean, I think that sometimes part of the problem, people just, you know, looking for the quick fix, drive through, he goes, save me.

Let's roll.

That ain't the way it works.

No, it's not.

And I'm just now learning some of this that like, you know, it's not just saying, yes, I do believe in God.

That's not everything you got to do.

But anyway, that's the reason why I'm having questions about it.

And then, you know, I don't know, we get sidetracked.

So in that Bible reading plan, you know, I stumbled on this.

It's not like I found it or it was some genius, but I never had heard about it, never had done it until a few years ago.

I've still worked on the chronological.

Read chronological things in order because the Bible is not written in order, especially the Old Testament, you know, the Old Testaments you got.

So you asked about the last prophet and you know, or the last book, Malachi, he's a prophet.

Those guys, those things are not put into order.

So that chronological reading plan that I put you on is going to let you read those things as, as the history unfolds.

Okay.

You know, so.

But again, I don't have that answer.

And I'm going to look and I'm going to study and see if, if I've missed something and try to give you if there is an answer out there about the, the Dark ages and why there was this 400 year Wade.

But at the end of the Old Testament.

For whatever reason, today's podcast, God decided he was done talking 400 years.

Right.

He had set the stage for his son to come on the scene, but it was 400 years in the future.

So in 400 years later, then when you're introduced to a guy by the name of John the Baptist, and John the Baptist comes proclaiming and proclaiming the coming of Christ.

Right, Exactly.

Jesus's forecast.

And so we'll get into that.

But, but as we're getting ready, we're approaching 30 minutes into this episode, so we're gonna, we're gonna close this one out.

We're going to keep these episodes fairly short and so somebody can listen to them when you back and forth work.

We'll pick up another, another episode.

Episode number three, we'll go into the New Testament.

I'll try to explain a little bit about the New Testament and the story behind it and this New Covenant and why this New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant and how it replaced the Old Covenant.

Right.

I appreciate this question.

I hope, I hope, I hope you gave some clarity.

Yeah, absolutely.

But it also, like, I mean, not.

You're not going to get all the answers just by, I mean, you got to do the work and read.

I mean, it's one thing that I'm learning.

But anyway, yeah, let's pick back up next time on the New Testament.

Is that, Is that, I mean, is.

That what we're going to do?

No.

Next podcast, we'll.

We'll pick up on the, on what the New Testament's all about.

And one of the.

What is the, the New Testament, the New Covenant, and why is it better than the Old Covenant?

Right.

And then we'll just go, hey, thank you, everybody.

Maybe the four or five people that actually watch this.

I also turned out to be more.

But, you know, if.

Hope y' all like it.

And then if you do, you know, share.

Yeah, like.

And share.

But I'm mainly more interested in, like, comments.

You know, hey, you know, I would like to hear about this because, I mean, I'm not the only person that has questions for the Bible and I do have plenty of questions, but I mean, if somebody else come up, we can talk about it and we'll pray about it and we'll see what the book has to say about it, because that's what we're here for.

Absolutely.

All right, thank you, everybody.

Thank you very much.

See you guys next time.