<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The Old Testament (abbreviated OT) is the first part of Christian Bibles based primarily upon the Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh), a collection of ancient religious writings by the Israelites believed by most Christians and religious Jews to be the sacred Word of God . Its counterpart is the New Testament, the second part of the Christian Bible . The books that comprise the Old Testament canon differ between Christian Churches as well as their order and names . The most common Protestant canon comprises 39 books, the Catholic canon comprises 46 books, and the canons of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches comprise up to 51 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 (Kings, Samuel and 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 . In general, Protestant bibles do not include deuterocanonical books in their canon, but some versions of Anglican and Lutheran bibles place such books in a separate section called Apocrypha . </P> <P> The Old Testament consists of many distinct books by various authors produced over a period of centuries . In the most accepted hypothesis, the canon formed in stages, first the Pentateuch by around 400 BC, then the Prophets during the Hasmonean dynasty (140 - 116 BC), and finally the remaining books . </P>

What are the first books of the bible called