Survey of the

Old Testament 1
History: Genesis–Esther
by Alfred Martin, Th.D.

MOODY DISTANCE LEARNING

Moody Bible Institute

820 North LaSalle Boulevard
Chicago, Illinois 60610
© 1961 by THE MOODY BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
Revised 1965, 1995, 2004, 2011, 2012, 2014.

Edited by Kelli Fleck.

All rights reserved. No part of this course may be reproduced in

any form without written permission from the publisher, except
in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and
reviews.

All Scripture quotations, unless indicated, are taken fromthe

HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright
© 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by
permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

All rights reserved.

Contents

Description 03

Requirements and Procedures 05

Academic Policies and Information 07

Lesson 1 What and Why 09

Lesson 2 Genesis 17

Lesson 3 Exodus 29

Lesson 4 Leviticus 45

Lesson 5 Numbers 53

Lesson 6 Deuteronomy 61

Lesson 7 Joshua 73

Lesson 8 Judges and Ruth 81

Lesson 9 1 and 2 Samuel 89

Lesson 10 1 and 2 Kings 101

Lesson 11 1 and 2 Chronicles 109

Lesson 12 Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther 117

Quiz Answer Key 129

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Description
To see the Scriptures as a whole is not only crucial to a good
understanding of the Bible; it can also be an exciting experience.
This lesson material is based in part on a former course by Dr.
James M. Gray. Exams, maps, and charts were prepared by
John Phillips. This lesson material is the first in a series of three,
designed to take you completely through the Bible.
• Survey of the Old Testament I: Genesis—Esther
• Survey of the Old Testament II: Job—Malachi
• Survey of the New Testament: Matthew—Revelation

Course Components
Your course consists of two components – this study guide and an
envelope containing four color-coded answer sheets.
The Study Guide
• The study guide contains all of the lessons and exams for this
course. There is a self-check quiz after every lesson (true and
false questions and/or multiple choice). An exam follows Lesson
3, 6, 9, and 12.

The Scantron Answer Sheets

• The color-coded Scantron answer sheets come with your course.
These correspond to the exams in your study guide. Please use
these sheets to mark your answers for each exam. Use only a #2
lead pencil to mark your answers. (Because these tests are
electronically graded, ink or harder leads are not acceptable.)

Moody Distance Learning / Survey of the Old Testament 1 3

Requirements and Procedures

Requirements
In order to receive credit, the four exams must be completed with
an overall average grade of 70% or better. A Grade Record Sheet is
provided at the beginning of your study guide to help you keep track
of your standing in this course.

Procedures
Please follow the procedures listed for completing the lessons and
exams in this course. As you complete each exam, mail the answer
sheet to Moody Distance Learning, 820 N. LaSalle Boulevard,
Chicago, IL 60610-3284, along with a self-addressed, stamped
envelope for the return of your graded answer sheet. If you prefer, you
may send multiple exams in one envelope. We request that you use the
envelopes provided for this purpose.
The Lessons
• Read the study guide at a time when you can concentrate. Pick a
time of the day you are most likely to be alert and relatively
uninterrupted.
• Read with a pencil or pen in hand. You will want to underline
words or phrases, even sentences, for later reference.
The Exams
• When you have completed all of the lessons that an exam
covers, go back and review the material in the study guide. You
may want to prepare by writing out your own outline of the
material covered. The outlines will help you focus on the major
truths discussed in each lesson.
• All exams are objective in nature and utilize the special answer
sheets, or Scantron forms, provided with this course.

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 When taking the exam, please follow these instructions:
• It is important that you select the proper answer sheet for each
exam. The answer sheet are as follows:
Exam 1 is blue
Exam 2 is green
Exam 3 is red
Exam 4 is tan
• Fill in the blanks at the top of your answer sheet. Please write legibly.
• We encourage you not to refer to your textbook or notes of any
kind while taking the exam.
• Please use a #2 lead pencil to mark your answers. Fill in the spaces
darkly and completely – be sure to erase any mistakes thoroughly.
• Mail your answer sheet to Moody Distance Learning along with
a self-addressed, stamped envelope for the return of your graded
answer sheet. If you prefer, you may send multiple exams of the
same course in the same envelope. Please use the envelope
provided with the course, for this purpose. Please do not send
the pages of the exam from the study guide.
• When you receive your graded answer sheet from Moody Distance
Learning, record your grade in the appropriate box on the Grade
Record Sheet. Please mail in the Grade Record Card with your last
exam(s). Keep your exams for future reference.

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Lesson 1 What and Why

What and Why

It is very important to have a clear picture of the Bible in its
entirety before attempting a detailed study of its various parts. In this
lesson, we will consider the aim of our study and the scope of the
lessons that follow.
The Bible is the Word of God. Consequently, it is essential that we
learn what is in it and what it means. We must know the content of the
book before we can know its interpretation. In other words, we have
to know what the Bible says before we can understand what the Bible
means. Our aim should be at least fourfold.
• To get a mastery of the factual content of the Bible
• To recognize the unity of the Bible, noting the relationships
of the various books to one another and to the Bible as a
whole
• To see the Lord Jesus Christ in all the Scriptures
• To make practical application to our own lives

The Theme and Purpose of the Bible

The Bible does not claim to be the complete history of the universe
or even of the human race. Rather, it is the history of redemption,
illustrating the outworking of God’s purpose in saving humanity
through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of this, we should
expect to see the Lord Jesus in all parts of the Bible—in the Old
Testament as well as in the New. After His resurrection from the dead,
Jesus said to His disciples, “This is what I told you while I was still
with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the
Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44).

The Structure of the Bible

It is easy to see that the Bible falls into two main divisions—the Old
Testament and the New Testament. The word testament, as it is used

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here, means a covenant or an agreement. The Old Testament is God’s
covenant with humanity before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ
into the world. The New Testament is God’s covenant with humanity
through Jesus Christ.
Interestingly, the Old Testament is three times as long as the
New. Since God has given this large amount of material in the Old
Testament, we can rightly infer that He must want His people to study
it. It is impossible to understand many of the doctrinal references in the
New Testament without knowing a good deal about the Old.
The Old Testament contains 39 books written over a period of many
hundreds of years, from the time of Moses (approximately 1500 b.c.)
to the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi (approximately 400
b.c.). We usually speak of these books as falling into four categories:
books of the Law, books of history, books of poetry, and books of
prophecy. The books of prophecy are often further divided into the
Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets. A convenient memory device
is the use of the figures 5, 12, 5, 5, 12—that is, five books of the Law,
twelve books of history, five of poetry, five of the Major Prophets, and
twelve of the Minor Prophets.
The New Testament can be divided into books of history, books of
teaching (the Epistles), and one book of prophecy; that is, five books
of history (the four Gospels and the book of Acts), twenty-one epistles
(from Romans to Jude), and the single book of prophecy (Revelation).
This survey is divided into three volumes, two of which will focus
on the Old Testament and one on the New. In this first volume we study
the books of the Law and the books of history–seventeen books in all.
The entire Old Testament, lengthy as it is, is anticipatory. It looks
forward to the coming of the promised Redeemer into the world. We
could write over the whole of it, “He is coming; He is coming; He
is coming!” From the very first prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ in
Genesis 3:15, and on through the entire Old Testament, the definite
line that is followed is the line of this promised Redeemer.
We need to understand the unity of the Word of God, a unity in
spite of variety. Here are 66 books, produced by about forty different
writers over a period of many hundreds of years, and yet manifesting
incredible harmony, centering around one person—the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Bible declares itself to be from God. “All Scripture is God-

10 Moody Distance Learning / Survey of the Old Testament 1

breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training
in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). The men who wrote the Bible
were spokesmen for God, as the Bible itself tells us: “For prophecy
never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they
were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).
As we begin the study of this lesson material, it is important that we
know what it is we are studying. The word Bible comes from a Greek
word which originally meant “book.” Through usage, this came to be
regarded as a plural form, translated “books.” Of course, either the
singular or the plural is appropriate. Undeniably, the Bible is a single
book, distinct from all other books; at the same time, it is a collection
of books, numerous writings forming one unified whole.
The most common term the Bible uses for itself is the Scriptures.
This means “writings.” Sometimes the adjective holy is joined with this
word; the Holy Scriptures are the writings that are set apart, distinct
from all other writings—the writings that came from God.
The study of the Bible is both like and unlike the study of other
literature. It is like other studies in that it requires personal diligence
and application. It is unlike the study of human literature in that it
includes a spiritual as well as an intellectual element. The Holy Spirit
is the author of this Book and He must be its interpreter as well. An
unsaved person can read and study the Bible but cannot actually
understand its spiritual content because he or she does not have the
indwelling Holy Spirit. “The man without the Spirit does not accept
the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually
discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Therefore, the first qualification for
real Bible study is that the student be born again through faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:3, 7, 16).
Even believers, however, can be hindered in their understanding
of the Bible if they are not living in right relationship to the Holy
Spirit. So, a second qualification is a surrendered life. Paul told the
believers at Corinth that humanity is divided into three groups as to
their understanding of the Word of God. The first is the natural man,
who is unsaved and cannot receive the things of God. In contrast, there
is the spiritual man, a believer who is correctly related to the Holy
Spirit and, therefore, able to discern all things. In between is the carnal

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man, a believer who is not yielded to the Holy Spirit and, therefore, a
babe in Christ (1 Corinthians 2:14–3:4).
Yielded Christians, even though they may not have much
formal education and may have only a limited intellectual capacity
can, nevertheless, make great progress in their understanding of
the Word of God because they know the Teacher and have daily
fellowship with Him.

The Theme of the Bible

The general theme of the Bible, as we have noted, is redemption
through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. After His resurrection
from the dead, on the walk to Emmaus with two disciples, Jesus began
“with Moses and all the prophets” and “explained to them what was
said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). Of course,
this is true of the New Testament as well. That the message of the Bible
is indeed Christ in His person and work is also shown in the words of
our Lord to the Pharisees. “You diligently study the Scriptures because
you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures
that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John
5:39, 40). It is possible to know the factual content of the Scriptures
without ever knowing the person to whom the Scriptures point.

The Incompleteness of the Old Testament

Every part of the Word of God is perfect because it is the Word of
God. But the Old Testament by itself, as long as it is, is incomplete. We
have seen that it is anticipatory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the New
Testament speaks of the fulfillment of that expectation. “But when the
time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under
law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of
sons” (Galatians 4:4, 5). If we had only the Old Testament, we would
feel that the story is far from complete. From beginning to end, it is a
book of promise, looking forward to something not yet fulfilled.

How the Story Unfolds

God is the God of history, and much of the Bible story grows out
of His dealings in history with His chosen people. Beginning with a

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brief review of early human history, the story line of the Bible soon
focuses on Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the founding fathers of
the Hebrew race. The descendants of Jacob, known as the children
of Israel, grew to nationhood in Egypt, eventually settled in the
promised land of Canaan, and there became a powerful people.
Their early history in the land, however, was marked by constant
apostasy. God had given them the Law, the tabernacle, the Aaronic
priesthood, and a rich heritage through the ministry of Moses. But
the Israelites stubbornly ignored God’s warnings against idolatry
and soon became involved in the vile religious orgies of their
heathen neighbors. For the purpose of judgment, God allowed them
to be delivered again and again into the hands of their foes, and
these oppressions were only temporarily relieved by the occasional
appearance of godly judges.
The nation finally became a monarchy. Saul’s disastrous reign
was followed by the founding of the royal house of David, the
“man after God’s own heart,” who greatly extended Israel’s borders
and brought peace to the land. David and his son Solomon made an
important contribution to the poetical sections of the Old Testament.
After a brief period of prosperity and power, however, the united
kingdom fell apart, mainly because Solomon’s indulgences
reintroduced idolatry to the nation. The kingdom was split in two
after Solomon’s death (931 b.c.). Two of the tribes remained true to
the throne of David, but the other ten set up a rival monarchy in the
north, with Samaria eventually becoming its capital. The southern
kingdom, with Jerusalem as its capital, was known as Judah. (In
Matthew 1 the human ancestry of the Lord Jesus is traced through
the line of the kings of Judah, right back to David.) The northern
kingdom was known as Israel, or sometimes as “Ephraim,” its
dominant tribe.
The history of the divided kingdom was turbulent. Not a single
good king sat on the throne of Israel. Eventually the northern
kingdom fell to the evil Assyrians, and its people were carried away
into captivity (722 b.c.). The kingdom of Judah outlasted Israel for
about 135 years. Some of Judah’s kings were good and some bad,
but apostasy and idolatry ultimately prevailed, and the Babylonians
became God’s instrument to punish Judah. Jerusalem was sacked,
the magnificent temple of Solomon was destroyed, and the people
were deported to Babylon (586 b.c.).

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 Eventually the Babylonian Empire was replaced on the stage of
history by the Persian Empire, and the Jews were given permission to
return to Palestine. Under great difficulties, the small remnant returned
(539 b.c.) and rebuilt Jerusalem and the temple. The entire period of the
divided kingdom, the Captivity, and the return from captivity gave rise
to the prophets, whose books form a large part of the Old Testament.
The New Testament opens on Israel with an intensely nationalistic
remnant in the land but with a large Jewish population dispersed in
all parts of the world. Christ was born in the zenith of Roman power.
He was crucified by the Romans at the insistence of the Jews, who
had rejected Him and His claims to be their King and Messiah. His
resurrection and ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the
Day of Pentecost introduced a new era—the era of the church. Peter
and Paul dominated the early history of the church, taking the gospel
to both Jews and Gentiles. Peter concentrated mainly on Jerusalem
and Palestine, and Paul, after his spectacular conversion, became the
Apostle to the Gentiles and the most famous missionary of the church.
Much of the New Testament is comprised of letters written by the
apostles to churches and converts throughout the Roman Empire—
letters intended to encourage, instruct, and reprove. The Bible closes
on a note of prophecy, anticipating the second coming of Christ, the
final fulfillment of all outstanding prophecies, and the consummation
of all God’s purposes with man.
One good way of fixing in your mind the history of the Bible is to
think of it in terms of patriarchs, great leaders, kings, foreign rulers,
Christ, and the church.

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Self-Check Quiz 1
This self-check test will help you evaluate what you have learned in
the preceding lesson and will also help you prepare for upcoming
exam. Indicate your answer to each of the following questions.

1. True or False: We must know the content of a book before we can

know its interpretation.
2. True or False: The Bible is a complete history of the universe.
3. True or False: It is possible to know the factual content of the
Scriptures and still remain a stranger to Christ.
4. True or False: The Old Testament is of little value, now that we
have the New Testament.
5. True or False: The entire Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit
6. Which of the following Scripture references can be used to prove
that the Bible is inspired by God?
a. 2 Timothy 3:16
b. Titus 2:15
c. James 1:22
d. John 3:36  
7. Which of the following names or events came first, according to
the historical order given in the lesson material?
a. King David
b. Abraham
c. Judah goes into captivity
d. Israel goes into captivity
8. The first qualification essential to real Bible study is:
a. A good education
b. Ability to name the books of the Bible from memory
c. A careful reading of the Bible from cover to cover
d. New birth through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ

continued on next page 

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 9. The second qualification essential to real Bible study is:
a. A taste for good literature
b. A teachable spirit
c. A life surrendered to the Spirit of God
d. An alert mental attitude  
10. Which figure gives the correct number of books in each of the
following main divisions of the Bible?
a. Old Testament history: 21
b. New Testament history: 5
c. Old Testament Law: 4
d. New Testament prophecy: 2

Refer to the answer key at the end of this study guide. Please do not
send your answers to Moody Distance Learning.

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