1.15 Qual è la struttura dell’Antico Testamento?
L’Antico Testamento cattolico consiste di 46 libri. I primi cinque libri - Genesi, Esodo, Levitico, Numberi e Deuteronomio – sono chiamati il Pentateuco (la parola greca per “cinque rotoli”).
Il Pentateuco è seguito dai libri storici, che narrano la storia del popolo d’Israele, e dai libri profetici in cui i profeti ammoniscono contro il peccato e annunciano la venuta del Messia (Gesù). Infine ci sono i libri sapienziali. Questi sono raccolte di riposte a domande generali sulla vita che vengono poste dai credenti. Quello che noi chiamiamo Antico Testamento, è choamato dagli ebrei Tanakh.
What significance does the Old Testament have for Christians?
In the Old Testament God reveals himself as the Creator and preserver of the world and as the leader and instructor of mankind. The Old Testament books are also God’s Word and Sacred Scripture. Without the Old Testament, we cannot understand Jesus.
In the Old Testament a great history of learning the faith begins, which takes a decisive turn in the New Testament and arrives at its destination with the end of the world and Christ’s second coming. The Old Testament is far more than a mere prelude for the New. The commandments and prophecies for the people of the Old Covenant and the promises that are contained in it for all men were never revoked. In the books of the Old Covenant we find an irreplaceable treasure of prayers and wisdom; in particular, the Psalms are part of the Church’s daily prayer. [Youcat 17]
“The New Testament is hidden in the Old and the Old is made manifest in the New”,[138] as Saint Augustine perceptively noted. It is important, therefore, that in both pastoral and academic settings the close relationship between the two Testaments be clearly brought out, in keeping with the dictum of Saint Gregory the Great that “what the Old Testament promised, the New Testament made visible; what the former announces in a hidden way, the latter openly proclaims as present. Therefore the Old Testament is a prophecy of the New Testament; and the best commentary on the Old Testament is the New Testament”. [Pope Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini, n. 41]
