Old Testament Plan

The Old Testament Bible Reading Plan

The Old Testament contains 39* books and covers the formation, existence, and demise of the nation of Israel: the timeframe prior to the life of Jesus. The Old Testament books are grouped as follows:

  • The books of Moses (the first five books of the Bible)
  • Historical books (focusing on the nation of Israel)
  • Wisdom literature (books of poetry, advice, and wise sayings)
  • The Prophets (the life and sermons of some of God’s key messengers)

View or print a PDF file of the annual Old Testament reading schedule.

Instead of reading straight through from Genesis to Malachi, our Old Testament reading plan mixes the various books together for a more varied reading schedule.

For a good summary of the Old Testament, see Acts 7:2-46; Acts 13:17-23 is even more concise. For more information, see the overview of books in the Old Testament.

* Some Bibles include additional books in the Old Testament.
See Apocrypha for more info.