Question
Is the Bible in chronological order? (why the books are in the order they are)
Analysis
How the books are grouped
| Part | Group | Books |
|---|---|---|
| Old Testament | Law | Genesis to Deuteronomy |
| History | Joshua to Esther | |
| Poetry and wisdom | Job to the Song of Songs | |
| Prophets | Isaiah to Malachi | |
| New Testament | Gospels | Matthew, Mark, Luke, John |
| History | Acts | |
| Letters | Romans to Jude | |
| Prophecy | Revelation |
The prophets overlap the history books
Most prophets open by naming the kings they served under, and those kings appear in the history books:
| Prophet | Kings named in the opening verse | Where those kings reign |
|---|---|---|
| Isaiah 1:1 | Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah | 2 Kings 15 to 2 Kings 20 |
| Hosea 1:1 | the same four, and Jeroboam son of Jehoash of Israel | 2 Kings 14 to 2 Kings 20 |
| Amos 1:1 | Uzziah, and Jeroboam son of Jehoash | 2 Kings 14 to 2 Kings 15 |
| Micah 1:1 | Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah | 2 Kings 15 to 2 Kings 20 |
| Zephaniah 1:1 | Josiah | 2 Kings 22 to 2 Kings 23 |
| Jeremiah 1:2; Jeremiah 1:3 | Josiah, Jehoiakim, Zedekiah | 2 Kings 22 to 2 Kings 25 |
| Haggai 1:1 | the second year of Darius | Ezra 4:24; Ezra 5:1 |
"This is the vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah." (Isaiah 1:1, BSB)
Ezra's history even names two of the prophets at work: "Later, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them." (Ezra 5:1, BSB)
Chronicles starts again from Adam
The two books of Chronicles come after Kings in English Bibles, but they tell the story again from the beginning: 1 Chronicles opens with a list of names that starts "Adam, Seth, Enosh," (1 Chronicles 1:1, BSB). And 2 Chronicles ends with the decree of Cyrus in the same words that open Ezra: "In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:" (2 Chronicles 36:22, BSB). Ezra 1:1 reads word for word the same.
Inside one book: Jeremiah
| Chapter | Dated to | Its own words |
|---|---|---|
| Jeremiah 21:1 | King Zedekiah | "when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malchijah" (Jeremiah 21:1, BSB) |
| Jeremiah 25:1 | the fourth year of Jehoiakim | "in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah" (Jeremiah 25:1, BSB) |
| Jeremiah 35:1 | the days of Jehoiakim | "in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah" (Jeremiah 35:1, BSB) |
| Jeremiah 36:1 | the fourth year of Jehoiakim | "In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah" (Jeremiah 36:1, BSB) |
Zedekiah reigned after Jehoiakim: "Jehoiakim rested with his fathers, and his son Jehoiachin reigned in his place." (2 Kings 24:6, BSB) Then the king of Babylon "made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah." (2 Kings 24:17, BSB) So chapter 21 describes a later time than chapters 25, 35 and 36, though it comes first in the book.
Paul's letters: longest to shortest
Measured on the text we host, Paul's letters fall into two groups, letters to churches and then letters to individuals, and within each group they run from longest to shortest:
Letters to churches
| Letter | Words (BSB) | Words (Greek) |
|---|---|---|
| Romans | 9,410 | 7,180 |
| 1 Corinthians | 9,258 | 6,986 |
| 2 Corinthians | 6,012 | 4,497 |
| Galatians | 3,093 | 2,268 |
| Ephesians | 3,010 | 2,470 |
| Philippians | 2,167 | 1,628 |
| Colossians | 1,976 | 1,631 |
| 1 Thessalonians | 1,862 | 1,502 |
| 2 Thessalonians | 1,046 | 839 |
Letters to individuals
| Letter | Words (BSB) | Words (Greek) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Timothy | 2,331 | 1,623 |
| 2 Timothy | 1,645 | 1,273 |
| Titus | 920 | 680 |
| Philemon | 453 | 349 |
In English the pattern holds exactly. In the Greek text we host it holds with two near-ties: Ephesians is a little longer than Galatians, and Colossians and Philippians are almost the same length.
The Hebrew Bible's order
The Hebrew Bible holds the same Old Testament books in three parts:
| Part | Books |
|---|---|
| The Law | Genesis to Deuteronomy |
| The Prophets | Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings; Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve (Hosea to Malachi, counted as one book) |
| The Writings | Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the five scrolls (Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther), Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles |
Order as described in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia article on the canon of the Old Testament (1915, public domain), which counts 24 books.
Jesus names a threefold division: "Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms." (Luke 24:44, BSB)
Readers differ: does Matthew 23:35 point to this order?
"from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar." (Matthew 23:35, BSB)
Abel is killed in Genesis. A Zechariah is stoned "in the courtyard of the house of the LORD" in 2 Chronicles 24:21 (BSB), the last book in the Hebrew order.
| Reading | The case |
|---|---|
| From the first book to the last | Chronicles stood last in Jesus' Bible, so "from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah" (Luke 11:51, BSB) covers the whole Old Testament. A later murder, Uriah's under Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 26:23), is left out, which suggests Jesus was not counting by date. The ISBE article above makes this case, and calls it an inference that is justified only to a degree. |
| Not settled | The same article notes that the books were then written on separate scrolls, which weakens any argument from their order. And 2 Chronicles calls the murdered man "Zechariah son of Jehoiada" (2 Chronicles 24:20), while Matthew says "son of Berechiah". |
What the text shows either way
The books carry their own dates, and those dates overlap across the groups. The order of the books is about what kind of book each one is, not about when its events happened.