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{{Christianity|state=collapsed}}
The '''Old Testament''' (abbreviated '''OT''') is the first part of [[Bible#Christian Bibles|Christian Bibles]], based primarily upon the [[Hebrew Bible]] (or Tanakh), a collection of ancient religious writings by the [[Israelites]]{{Sfn | Jones | 2001 | p = 215}} which is believed by most Christians and religious Jews to be the sacred [[Authorship of the Bible|Word of God]].<ref>Preface to the [[New Revised Standard Version]] Anglicised Edition</ref> The second part of the Christian Bible is the [[New Testament]].
The [[Books of the Bible|books that comprise the Old Testament canon]], as well as their order and names, differ between [[Christian denominations]]. The [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] canon comprises 46 books, and the canons of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] and [[Oriental Orthodoxy|Oriental Orthodox]] Churches comprise up to 51 books{{Sfn | Barton | 2001 | p = 3}} and the most common [[Protestantism|Protestant]] canon comprises 39 books. The 39 books in common to all the Christian canons correspond to the 24 books of the Tanakh, with some differences of order, and there are some differences in text. The additional number reflects the splitting of several texts ([[Books of Kings|Kings]], [[Books of Samuel|Samuel]] and [[Books of Chronicles|Chronicles]], [[Ezra–Nehemiah]] and the minor prophets) into separate books in Christian bibles. The books which are part of a Christian Old Testament but which are not part of the Hebrew canon are sometimes described as [[Deuterocanonical books|deuterocanonical]]. In general, [[Protestant Bible]]s do not include the deuterocanonical books in their canon, but some versions of [[Anglican]] and [[Lutheran]] bibles place such books in a separate section called [[Biblical apocrypha|Apocrypha]]. These extra books are ultimately derived from the earlier [[Greek Septuagint]] collection of the Hebrew scriptures and are also Jewish in origin. Some are also contained in the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]].
