In what order were the Hebrew Scriptures originally put together?

Historical Hebrew manuscripts abound and are really helpful for getting back to the original order of the ancient Hebrew texts, but it may come as a surprise to some that the order we have received the Old Testament books comes not from the most ancient Hebrew witnesses, but from an updated Greek ordering.

The fourfold division based on the Greek ordering consists of (1) the Pentateuch (or the first five books), (2) the historical books, (3) the poetic books, and (4) the prophets consisting of the major and minor prophets.

It needs to be said that there’s nothing wrong with ordering the books this way. It doesn’t take away from anything they say, nor does it obscure some important biblical truths.

That being said, this isn’t the original order of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Originally, the order would have been threefold—(1) the Torah (or the instructions or law, (2) the Nevi’im (or the prophets) consisting of the former and latter prophets, and then (3) the Ketuvim (or the writings or psalms).

The cool thing is that we can see this order being referenced by Jesus in the New Testament. In Luke 24:44 Jesus says, “…everything that is written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.” It seems Jesus was comfortable referencing the Hebrew order as a way to encapsulate then entirety of the Old Testament storyline, even though the Greek order was available.

So, are we reading the Old Testament in the order it was originally put together? It doesn’t look like it. But even though the order is often different, the texts remain the same.