The OT in the Key of “C”

~ David Guretzki

I stumbled across this little teaching aid in my files which I had developed years ago when I was pastoring. The goal was to give an overview of the Old Testament in a single evening service. It ain’t profound, but I enjoyed the memory! I hope you enjoy it, too. It is essentially a 50 step “chronology” of Old Testament history alliterated entirely with “C” words (i.e., the OT in the key of C)! I offer it to you in the spirit of Advent, knowing that the whole of the Old Testament is an anticipation of the One who is to come.

  1. Creator (Gen 1:1)
  2. Creation (Gen 1, 2)
  3. Creatures (Gen 1:27)
  4. Communion (Gen 3:8)
  5. Catastrophe (Gen 3:14-19)
  6. Castaways (Gen 3:23)
  7. Children (Gen 4:1-2)
  8. Crime (Gen 4:8) – Murder of Abel
  9. Cataclysm (Gen 6-9) – The Flood
  10. Confusion (Gen 11:1-9) – Babel
  11. Call (Gen 12:1) – Abram’s call
  12. Covenant (Gen 12:2-3)
  13. Circumcision (Gen 17)
  14. Confirmation (Gen 21) – Birth of Isaac as confirmation of covenant
  15. Cheater (Gen 27) – Jacob’s deception
  16. Conspiracy (Gen 37:12ff) – Joseph’s brothers sell him as a slave
  17. Congregation (Gen 47:27ff) – Jacob and sons gather in Egypt
  18. Commissioning (Ex 3) – Moses call
  19. Calamity (Ex 7-11) – Plagues
  20. Celebration (Ex 12) – Passover
  21. Chase (Ex 14:8) – Pursuit of Israel by Egyptians
  22. Crossing (Ex 14:21-22) – Of Red Sea
  23. Complaining (Ex. 16:2) – Israel grumbles
  24. Commandments (Ex. 19ff) – The Decalogue
  25. Calf (Ex 32)
  26. Chest and Ceremony (Ex 35ff, Leviticus) – Ark and the Levitical requirements
  27. Cloud, Circuit, Camp (Israel’s wanderings in the desert)
  28. Catharsis  (Num 14:21-23) – Israel purified for reentry to Land
  29. Combat (Joshua)
  30. Conquest (Joshua 1:3)
  31. Colonization (Joshua 13ff)
  32. Corruption (Judges 17:6) – “Everyone did as he saw fit”
  33. Champions (Judges) – Deborah, Gideon, Samson, etc.
  34. Confederation (1 Sam 8 ) – People ask for a king; get Saul
  35. Coronation (1 Sam 15-16) – God selects his own king David
  36. Capital (2 Sam 5:9-10) – Jerusalem established as Israel’s capital
  37. Comfortable (2 Sam 8:15) – Blessing of Israel under David
  38. Climax – (1 Kings 8 ) – Solomon builds temple of YHWH
  39. Civil War (1 Kings 12) – Kingdoms clash
  40. Collapse – Kingdom is divided
  41. Carnality (1 & 2 Kings) – prophetic call to repentance by prophets
  42. Cursed (2 Kings 17:7, 25:1) – Nations are judged
  43. Captivity (Exile of North in 722 BC, and South in 586 BC)
  44. Carte Blanche (Ezra 1) – God gives Israel permission to return home – [Ok…I was running out of English words!]
  45. Construction – Ezra 3:7ff – rebuilding of temple
  46. Celebration (Ezra 6:19ff) – Passover once again celebrated
  47. Confession (Ezra 10) – Israel repents and confesses sin
  48. Completion (Nehemiah) – rebuilding of the walls
  49. Complacency (Zechariah, Haggai, Malachi) – People fall into old routines
  50. Cessation – End of OT history

Published by David Guretzki

I am Resident Theologian and Executive Vice President of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, a post I’ve held since June 2017. Prior to this, I taught theology at Briercrest College & Seminary (Caronport, Saskatchewan, Canada) since 1993. I'm married to Maureen, have three kids (Joey, Chiante, and Sierra) whom I love dearly! I completed my PhD from McGill University in 2006 with a dissertation on "The Genesis and Systematic Function of the Filioque in Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics."

8 thoughts on “The OT in the Key of “C””

  1. I loved this David! (can I use it some time?) Only thing: point 50 didn’t end on either of the two “C” words I was expecting: “Christ” and/or “Completion.” A little latent dispensationalism there? 🙂 Anyways, I found it very moving and powerful to read through.

  2. Yeah, I’m not thrilled with the word “cessation” either. Oh, and its been a long time since I’ve been called a dispensationalist! 😉

    Christ or completion is theologically to what the OT points, but technically, the OT doesn’t end either with Christ or is it Complete. “Silence” is a better word, but it doesn’t start with C. Hmmm…Any other suggestions?

  6. Some great suggestions here!

    Merle, a music colleague of mine suggested:

    “Caesura–God is silent for 400 years at the end of OT history.

    In meter, caesura (alternative spellings are cæsura or cesura) is a term to denote an audible pause that breaks up a line of verse. In most cases, caesura is indicated by punctuation marks which cause a pause in speech: a comma, a semicolon, a full stop, a dash, etc. Punctuation, however, is not necessary for a caesura to occur.”

    I really like this one; the only problem is that I’d never heard of it, and I suspect the majority of people in the pew haven’t either.

    Maybe it is just “Comma.” The OT “ends” with a comma.

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