Genesis covers the earliest topics in the Bible. With that, many believe that it is the oldest book within the Bible. Regardless of popular belief, the Bible isn’t chronologically arranged as per how it was written. The oldest in the Bible is seen in the middle of the Holy Book.

Although many scholars and Christians believe that Genesis is the oldest book in the Bible, experts prove that the book of Job is far older than Genesis. 

A Brief Intro to the Holy Bible’s Origins

The Holy Bible is one of the most widely known religious scriptures. It’s known as a book that guides Christians to live their lives rightly in the name of God. Not only that, but it also serves the purpose of sharing the Word of the Lord.

The Bible narrates the creation story of the Earth until the increasing growth of Christianity in the first century A.D.; both the Old and New Testaments have gone through numerous revisions.

The Holy Scripture begins with the Old Testament that started from the creation of the Earth, ending with the Jew’s exile to Babylon. The Old Testament of the Bible shares many similarities to the Tanakh or the Hebrew Bible, rooting its origins from Judaism.

Many Historians speculate that the writing of the Old Testament began in Hezekiah’s reign of Judah. Contrarily, the New Testament dates back to 40 years after creating the letters of Paul or the Epistles. Many books contain the collated letters of Paul. Paul wrote them with the intent to communicate with churches.

People working in the churches became influenced by Paul’s work. They began to distribute their personally-made letters, consequentially making experts believe that few of the books in the New Testament ascribed to Paul were made by imitators or followers and not Paul himself.

The dissemination of Paul’s work sparked the beginning of the church’s oral tradition. The wide telling of the stories of Jesus, teachings, and post-resurrection experiences formed the Gospel’s content.

The final book of the Gospel, known as the book of Revelation, is attributed to John. Made during the 95 A.D. on the coast of Turkey, many experts share the belief that the book of Revelation was an acknowledgment and response to the Great Temple and Jerusalem’s destruction. (Source: History)

The Oldest Book in the Bible

Many believe that Genesis, the first book in the Bible, is the oldest within the Sacred Text. With the writing, collating, and revisions of the Bible spanning thousands of years, sourcing the oldest made book isn’t an easy task.

Surprisingly, the oldest book isn’t Genesis or Exodus or Psalms, but it is the book of Job. The book of Job similarly formed to that of a drama, written during the Patriarchs’ period from 1900 to 1700 B.C. The Paleo-Hebrew language used within the book of Job is older than most of the Old Testament’s ancient Hebrew tongue. Arabic and Syriac expressions also comprise the book of Job.

Besides the language utilized, the creatures mentioned in the book are another indicator of its ancient age. The words used to depict animals in the book of Job described extinct or differently-named animals in the later books of the Bible. Moreover, mentions of Moses’ Law, priesthood, the covenant, Israelites, or the Promised Land remain absent within Job’s book. (Source: Beliefnet)

Many remain convinced that the Pentateuch is the oldest in the Bible because Genesis discusses events before Job. Although there is no definite date to when the book of Job was written, the book of Job is undoubtedly said to be 400 years older than the book of Genesis. (Source: La Vista Church of Christ)