Wikipedia: Old Testament

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The Old Testament constitutes the first major part of the Bible. It contains 39 books, beginning with the book of Genesis. They are usually divided into the categories law, history, poetry and prophecy. All of those books were written before the birth of Christ.

Loosely speaking, the Christian Old Testament corresponds to the Jewish Scriptures (Tanach) , except that both versions have a a slightly different order (of books). The Christians call this group of books the Old Testament, because of a belief (taught in the Epistle to the Hebrews) that there is a new covenant or testament between God and mankind, after the coming of Jesus. There is some debate among christian scholars over the issue of whether the New Testament applies to Jewish people, but there is very little debate over its applicability to Gentiles. Similarly, the degree to which the Old Testament and its laws applies to christians is a debated point.

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