The Bible I am reading through for this purpose of “discovering what it says about Israel” is “The Holman Ultrathin Bible - Classic Edition.” It is the New King James Version published by Broadman & Holman Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, Copyright 1988 Thomas Nelson, Inc. This is not a Study Bible. Apart from a not very useful concordance and a few maps at the back, its extras are limited to book introductions, center-column cross-references and footnoted textual variants.
As I prepared to work through this Bible I removed two pages - the ones bearing the titles “The Old Testament” and “The New Testament.” There are a few reasons why I don’t want them. First of all, I want to remove the sense of a break or hiatus between Malachi and Matthew (or between Chronicles and Matthew if your “Old Testament” is organized according to Jewish tradition). I want the one to flow directly into the other.
Another reason is the origin of the designation “The Old Testament.”
It has antisemitic roots.
According to The New Encyclopedia Britannica 15th Edition, 1994: “The term Old Testament [or Old Covenant] was devised by a Christian, Melito of Sardis, circa AD 170, to distinguish this part of the Bible from the New [Covenant or] Testament.”
Concerning Melito, the Encyclopedia Judaica says he wrote a treatise on Jesus’ death and preached it as a sermon that comprised “the oldest and one of the strongest accusations of deicide made against the Jews in early Christian literature.” Melito saw the Temple’s destruction and Bar Kochba’s defeat as consequences of the Jews’ murder of God, as a result of which Israel henceforth “lay dead” while “the broad grace” of Christianity was now conquering the earth.
Thus did the title “Old Testament” come from the mind of a man who embraced (and perhaps even “founded”) Replacement Theology or Supersessionism, and who thus saw the Hebrew Scriptures and/or the covenants contained in them as “old.”
And today many millions of believers will call themselves “New Testament Christians” and attribute more importance to the New Testament while viewing the “Old Testament” as passé. For them the Hebrew Scriptures make interesting reading because of Israel’s history, but with Israel’s rejection of Jesus as Messiah the Jews forfeited their calling to be God’s Chosen People and the Christian Church replaced them, meaning that we only really need The New Testament.
I reject this.
For me the Bible begins in Genesis and ends in The Revelation. It is an unbroken library of books - all adding up to the one, inerrant and still fully relevant Word of God.
Paul, writing to Timothy, underscored for him the incalculable value and purpose of the “Old Testament” when he said:
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Of course, the Apostle was not talking about the New Testament; it had not been written yet.
In summary then: The entries in “The Bible on Israel” section of my blog will stem from the premise that no greater value is accorded the New Testament than is accorded the Hebrew Scriptures, and that not one jot or tittle of God’s Law and Prophets has passed away.
The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever. (Psalm 119:160)
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)
Any questions on this may be posted as comments.
So! Without further ado, let’s get down to it.
Bravo… very well said.
Stan! Stan! Stan! I AM SO EXCITED! Over the past week I have been thinking how it would be such a good thing if you gave this challenge to all your readers…and now you have!
And BETTER YET - you are going to help us as we do this!! 
By posting blog entries on “The Bible on Israel”. To which we can comment and….ASK QUESTIONS! YES! 
For me this is exciting! I haven’t gotten very far on this journey yet - only to Genesis 22. I’m excited about how the Lord has been opening my eyes to see details and give me understandings within these chapters and verses that I never saw/understood before. Isn’t it strange how we can read scripture over and over again, and find new things every time? But this time there is an added dimension to this as I search for understanding on all things related to Israel. I also have to say that I already have about a million questions - well, maybe not a million - but LOTS of questions! But don’t worry - I won’t ask ALL of them - at least not all at once! 
Some of them aren’t specific to Israel, but are just things I have wondered about for years - like in Genesis 6:2 - who are the “Sons of God”? And the “Nephilim”….who exactly were they? And how, if they were destroyed in the flood, do they reappear in Numbers when Moses sends the 12 spies into the Land and the spies come back and report that they have seen the Nephilim there? (I never said these were questions you would WANT to answer!) But getting back to the Israel in the Word….
Thank you for your teaching on the anit-semitic origins of the “Old” and “New” Testament designations. Very enlightening. I do have a question:
How is the “Old Testament” organized according to Jewish tradition? What order do the books appear in? Are they chronologically more accurate than the way they appear in our bibles? Would that be a better order in which to read them?
Here’s someone who is looking forward to your first official commentary on “The Bible on Israel”!
Jan
I have never liked the terms of new and old “testaments”. I have no problems with old and new “covenants”, however. Throughout history God has made covenants with men, not one canceled what had been given before in its entirety. I have been studying the old covenant through a Jewish believer’s perspective, and his beliefs are the same as yours. And I agree with you both. I still believe the Jews need salvation, but never have I believed they were ever rejected of God as His chosen.
the whole bible is God inspired……all is relevant….so I`m ready too!…….nancy
Stan, you hit it right on as usual. As firm believers in Jesus and readers of the Holy Bible, people need to accept that “new” covenant that God places before us. But we must also accept, follow and study the old or past covenants as well to see where we have come from.
I see the Bible as a life lesson. All the heros of the Bible went through something that God wanted them to get through and we as believers can go to those stories to learn from them. Its necessary to study both the Old and the New.
God Bless you Stan. I pray that Gods face will shine upon you and bless your ministry, family and every other area of your life continuosly.
Sounds like you stand on solid rock, brother.
Thank you ! & Shalom !
http://rosemck1.tripod.com/bible.html check out this bible timeline. Pretty cool.
I find it interesting that you are writing about helping us all have a better understanding of the whole book so close to the end of the counting of Omer. It is always a great time to understand what G-d says about h-mself and H-s people. He is the same G-d with the same loving plan in Gen. as in Rev. Perception and the date change, not H-m. Can’t wait to see you reveal the promises, and H-s great love for Jerusalem, Israel. We should all have H-s heart toward this place.
Stan, at least you’re using the King James Version (also known as the “Authorized Version). Since I don’t know Hebrew or Keione Greek, I rely on the KJV for the english equivalent. All modern translations use different texts that were found in Alexandria, Eqypt and are perverted. No wonder YHVH took his people out of Egypt and told them never to look back. God bless.
Hey Stan
Praise God we must take the whole Bible or nothing at all for the only differnce between the Old & the New Testament is in the Old animals were the sacfrice for our sin’s and in the New Testament God’s only Son shed his Blood on the old ruged cross for our sin’s………………….
Praise God We Are Free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Praying For The Peace Of Jeruslam
Don
Stan, Took your advice and removed those two pages — caution, mishpochah, do it carefully, I almost lost another page as I connected Matthew to 2 Chronicles (TNK) in my Hebrew-English Bible NKJV (Thomas Nelson (c) 1982) by The Bible Society in Israel (c) 1996. This is exciting!!
Order of Scripture - Jewish Tradition - for Jan (hope you look back to this!)
The term TaNaKh is used, an acronym for Torah-Nevi’im(Prophets)-Ketuvim(Writings)
Torah (also known in Christianity as the Pentatuch): the first five books, are in the same order
Nevi’im: 20 books, Joshua, Judges, 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and then the 12 we call the “minor” prophets in the same order
Ketuvim: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, 1&2 Chronicles
Hope this helps us all!
I meant to add that many bible’s out there have changed the true meaning of the word..becareful..as those who change it are cursed..He said so !! In Rev, John the revelater tells us of His Kingdom,,and He saw the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven…what a wonderful exciting time..Tell them I am coming…He said, we must as their blood will be on our hands…Love them enough to tell them, You may be called a divider, radical or whatver, but I just remember how HE suffered too…
Hi Stan, I began my journey thru the Bible, specifically looking for what G-d says about Israel, two years ago. I was raised in an RT church, knew that theory was wrong, and wanted to know what G-d said. My large print Bible is now filled with pencilled notes, post-it notes, and highlighting. I am sooo looking forward to this study with you! I am daily in praise to G-d for His fulfillment of His promises to Israel, and for Jesus the Messiah! There is no doubt that He will continue to be faithful.
Cover to cover the sacred text is a love story between God and man…
Stan, Totally agree!!!! Looking forward to growing…you are a blessing from the LORD!!!
Hi Stan:
I believe that what those who have bought into “Replacement Theology”, missed the entire point of the Crucifixion. The Jews were ruled by Roman Law and did not have the ability to slay Jesus. They had to take Jesus too the Romans, plead their case, lie regarding his alleged misdeeds and then stack the crowd with shills who whipped up a frenzy by yelling “Crucify him, Crucify him!”
Pilot, the “hero” he was, told the Jewish Priests that is far as he was concerned, Jesus had done nothing wrong, certainly nothing that would warrant death and then became a coward when the crowd became unruly. He has a soldier bring him a basin of water so that he can symbolically wash his guilt from the affair. Fat Chance!
The Point to all of this is as I see it is, there were basically two groups at that time. The Jews, and if you were not a Jew, then you were a Gentile. That may be an over simplification of groupings, but the point is that it took both groups representing all of mankind to equally participate in the death of our Lord and Savior. ALL OF MANKIND IS GUILTY! We Gentiles aren’t special, and we have not replaced the Jews in the heart of God. The book of Ezekiel makes is clear that God would bring the Jews back into the land that he promised them and then Jesus would return and at that point, they would recognize him as the Messiah and God in the flesh.
Yes, Jews need salvation but it is being handled by God in the manner that he sees fit. We Gentiles are in no position to tell God how to get their salvation accomplished. Yes, if given an opportunity I will witness to a Jew, but I have every confidence that God has his plan well in hand.
If believers want to really help the Jews, then pray that our leaders will not sell Israel out for the sake of “Peace”. Give the “Palestinian” a home land and all you have given him is “safe areas” to launch a war against the Jews to “drive them into the sea.”
God Bless the nation of Isreal
Leslee & Gary Simler:
Not to worry….I ALWAYS check back to see if any more comments have been added to Stan’s commentaries!
Thank you so much for sharing the order of scripture according to Jewish tradition and the info related to it. I’d like to get a NKJV Bible, but haven’t yet found the right one. Perhaps I’ll have to see if Hebrew-English versions are availabe in Canada. (Can’t you just see me looking in all the wrong spots for the various books! :))
Bless you!
Hi Jan
Have found the following Bible to be invaluable in helping me better understand the Bible from the Jewish context. “Complete Jewish Bible: An English Version of the Tanakh (Old Testamant) and B’rit Hadashah (New Testament) by David H. Stern ” It has the Old Testament listed as it was originally supposed to be before it was changed. Also all the Hebrew names of the books are kept with the English equivalent next to them. Also in the New testament all the Apostles names are in their original Hebrew as is the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Well worth the investment, available from Amazon.
Hope this helps.