[1. The Former Prophets: There are four books. The first one is Joshua. The Jews treat the book of Joshua as one of the books of the prophets, instead of as history as we see it. The second book is Judges, which is also treated as a book of the prophets. The third book is Samuel. First and 2 Samuel were one book in the original Hebrew Bible. There was no distinction of 1 and 2 and it was called the book of Samuel. The fourth book is Kings. First and 2 Kings were also one book in the Hebrew Old Testament, having no distinction between 1 and 2 either.
Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles were divided up into first and second books in the Septuagint when the Old Testament was translated, because these books were too long and it was not convenient to roll them up into one sheepskin. In the original Hebrew Old Testament, these books were together as entire books without the distinctions of first and second books.
The Jewish rabbis call these four books, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, the Former Prophets.
2. The Latter Prophets: There are also four books, which are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the minor prophets. The minor prophets mentioned here include the twelve books which the Jewish rabbis take as one.
Historically, the order of the minor prophets is not always the same. Sometimes they place this one at the front, and sometimes they place another one at the front. The usual order is as follows: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. This is the usual order of these twelve books. Sometimes the order is changed slightly. The Jewish rabbis treat the books after the Pentateuch generally as the books of the prophets, with the four books of the earlier period and four books of the later period totalling eight altogether.]
[These include Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah, 1 and 2 Chronicles, totalling eleven books. The Jews consider Ezra and Nehemiah as one book and 1 and 2 Chronicles as one book. These eleven books plus the eight books of the prophets add up to nineteen books. With the five books of the Law of Moses, there are altogether twenty-four books. The ancient church fathers combined these into twenty-two books to match the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This is why during the first, second, and third centuries they were called the twenty-two books of the Old Testament. Josephus, who was the most authoritative historian among the Jews, also called these the twenty-two books of the Old Testament when he spoke of it.]
[Our Lord Jesus also had a way of subdividing the Old Testament. This is mentioned in Luke 24:44. This way is very similar to that of the Jewish rabbis; there is not much difference between the two. He also divided it into three categories: