Acts 13:15

And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, " Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. "

1. Law and Prophets - This verse mentions two of the major divisions of the Old Testament scriptures as the Jewish people arranged them.

2. The Jews had the same 39 books that now appear in our Old Testament with some changes in the order and arrangement of the books.

3. Most of their study was from the Law (5 books of Moses) and the Prophets (sometimes meaning the major books of prophecy and sometimes used to refer to all the rest of the Old Testament scriptures. There was the Law and all the rest were the Prophets. Jesus used the term this way in Luke 24:44. Jesus added the Psalms (books of poetry) to the list of divisions.

4. It was customary to read a section of the Law. They had divided the Law into 53 sections. So each week they would read one section and on special days read the other section. The Law would be read through each year of Sabbaths.

5. They would also read sections from other parts of the Old Testament.

6. It was also customary to allow men to expound, explain and exhort everyone to understand and keep the commands they had just read.