Biblical chronology

[jt4Jesus]

can anyone here PLEASE tell me the chronological order in which the Bible was written? been trying to read it this way for ages, but nobody agrees even on when Genesis was written, or where the book of Job fits in. pls help...

 

[jt4Jesus]

by the way, this is historical stuff(!) & the writings are an important part of the history of the church, aren't they?

any1 with anything at all 2 say, much appreciated

 

[wayseer]

Sorry - there is no definitive chronological order.

There are some texts which can be place with some historical accuracy but even here there is no real consensus.

The Torah is a collection of stories all rolled into something of an order but the stories themselves are from another era to when they were finally committed to script.

We have a better understanding of the NT but even here there no real consensus.

We know that Paul wrote (his genuine letters) before Mark who wrote before Matthew who wrote before John and last Luke/Acts.

 

[Hairy Tic]

can anyone here PLEASE tell me the chronological order in which the Bible was written? been trying to read it this way for ages, but nobody agrees even on when Genesis was written, or where the book of Job fits in. pls help...

## There is a large book called "The Bible in Order", that was published about 25 years ago, that might help - it presents the books & parts of books in the order in which they are thought to have been written.

Not only are there at least three different proposals for the date of Job; it is not agreed whether the book is a unity:whether the speeches of Elihu & the framing narratives at the beginning & end of the book originally belonged to it has been both affirmed & denied.

As for Genesis, the situation is more complicated. Most of it can be divided between the Jahwist, the Priestly writer, & a number of other writers, as well as a Redactor who united & edited the work of P & J, & perhaps a disciple of P who is referred to as P1. An "Elohist" writer or source, E for short, used to be credited with a hand in the composition of the texts that make the book, but he seems to have fallen by the wayside.

The book falls into three main sections; chapters:

• 1 to 11 - "The Primeval History"
• 12 to 36 - "The Patriarchal History"
• 37 to 50 - "The Joseph Story"

Deuteronomy is mostly attributed to D, the Deuteronomist, & Chronicles to the Chronicler. D is usually dated to no later than 622. IIRC, Joshua to 2 Kings, except Ruth, are attributed to one main author. Genesis to Joshua are sometimes taken together, as a Hexateuch or work of six books, rather than having a Pentateuch of five books from Genesis to Deuteronomy.

Isaiah ? Perhaps as many as 12 different hands are detectable: the book is traditionally divided into:

• Isaiah of Jerusalem - chaps. 1 to 39 except for 24-27 & a few others (c. 700)
• Second Isaiah - most of 40 to 55 (c.538)
• Third Isaiah - 56-66 (later still)
• various other sections such as 24-27, 38-39, possibly most of 14 (depending on whom one considers the "King of Babylon" to be)

The chronology of the NT books is affected by the question of whether one thinks the nominal author to be the true author. If one thinks 2 Peter is by St Peter, it will be read before Revelation; if one thinks it is by a disciple of St. Peter, it may be as late as 125 AD, & be the last NT book to read.

The order of the Gospels depends on what theory of their relationship one adopts; the common view is that Mark was first, then Matthew, then Luke then John. Other prefer to have Matthew prior to Mark & Luke. And there are other possibilities

In many or most cases, the dates of books or their parts are approximate, & uncertain. Most NT scholars agree that Hebrews is not by St.Paul - whether he was responsible for Ephesians, and Colossians, is debated; but it seems ti be certain that 1 & 2 Thessalonians are his first letters, from about 51/52 AD; & maybe even the earliest NT writings - though the late Bishop John Robinson, in "Redating the New Testament", suggested Matthew might be the earliest (his book is an argument that the all the NT books are to be dated before 70 AD).

Sorry to be so unhelpful

 

[jt4Jesus]

thnx guys, at least now i know that there really is no general order, & that i wasn't going slightly mad b4, just trying 2 find it. shame, i really have been wanting 2 study the bible from a historical point of view as well as a spiritual 1...

 

[ebia]

thnx guys, at least now i know that there really is no general order, & that i wasn't going slightly mad b4, just trying 2 find it. shame, i really have been wanting 2 study the bible from a historical point of view as well as a spiritual 1...

Don't entirely give up. You're not going to get a simple definitive answer because much of it is in the "we don't really know" category, but it is worth reading at least a primer on different thoughts about when different parts were written.

 

[jt4Jesus]

ok, thnx ebia

 

[miamited]

Hi Jt,
Any good study bible will give you the best 'guess' for when the various books were written. Understand that most of the Scriptures were written between 2,000 and 3500 years ago. There weren't even such things as dates, as we think of them, in those days. Our concept of AD/BC time is a relatively new construct. If you look into most of the Scriptures you will find that they are dated by the reign of the ruler of that day. However, if you look further back to the days of Noah, Abraham, Adam, etc. you will find that no one had any thought of numbering years as we do today. Of the civilizations that did begin to number years they started out with different beginning points.

Consider that there were no 30 year mortgages or 6 year car payments or anything beyond the next few days that anyone was particularly concerned about. There was no such thing as a conversation that began, "Well, I'll see you in 6 months." So, we find that when a 'date' was needed people would say, "In the first year of the reign of King Darius..." Since communication was limited to pretty much just the immediate area, everyone knew when that was. There was probably no need to figure future dates beyond tomorrow or next week.

Keeping all that in mind, one must understand then, that dating the Scriptures can be a challenge. It is believed by some that the book of Job was the first book to be penned. It describes a man who apparently did not live among the Hebrews and so it may, therefore, predate any of the penteteuch, which is believed to have been written shortly after the Hebrews left Egypt. However, this is just a best guess.

If we discard the book of Job, we begin with the pentetceuch, then follow through to Joshua, and then the judges. This describes the creation and then God's call to the generations of Abraham to be His special people upon the earth. After Joshua began the settlement of the promised land, God instituted the legal authority of the judges to rule over His people. Ruth is believed to have been written after the period of the judges, but we also know that the account of the judges was probably written after they lived and served as God's judges or His people. Samuel pretty much overlaps the time of the judges and carries us to the days of the kings of Israel and it overlaps much of what is in the books of the kings also. Then we have the kings and a fairly accurate and full writting of who they were and the things that they did. In the chronicles we find a retelling of much of the time of the kings, but either of these books could have been written about the same time. Then we find the historical books of the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. These are accounts that are fairly personal to just a particular individual among the Israelites. They provide us a glimpse of history, but only as it pertained to the actions of these three individuals. Esther is an account of one particular time during the reign of one particular king of Persia and his dealing with the Jews in while in captivity. It is believed that time told of in Esther actually predates the days of Nehemiah, whose writting also tells of a time that begins with the Jews still in captivity. It is during the time recounted in Nehemiah that the Jews begin to return to their homeland. All of these books to this point are purely historical in nature. While they speak of God and His dealing with His people, their main purpose seems to be to recount the history of the Jews up to the intertestament period, about 400 BC.

Then we come to just various books of godly wisdom that were written by many authors and at various times. Most of the Psalms were written by King David back in the days of the second king of Israel. However, some were written by other contemporaries of that day. The Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs were believed to have been predominantly written by King Solomon in his day and so they can be read along with the kings and chronicles if one wants to read things in some sort of chronological order.

Finally, to round out the OT, we have the books of the various prophets of God who lived at various times. Joel may have been the earliest, about 800 BC. Isaiah and Amos are believed to have been written before Nebudchudnezzar overran Israel and took them captive to Babylon. Hosea was also a prophet contemporary of Isaiah. Jeremiah, who wrote his own book of prophecy and the book of Lamentations, and Daniel wrote about the same time. Daniel even mentions that his understanding of the duration of Israel's captivity under the Babylonian's came through Jeremiah's prophecies. Many of the lesser prophets wrote before and after Israel's captivity and some of their dates of authorship are still questioned, so assuring that they are read in order can be an unknowable task.

This brings us to the NT and we have much better dating for these writings because, 1) It covers a much shorter time span and 2) Our knowledge of more recent history has some better extrabiblical confirmation. However, even in these writings there can be discrepencies of 10 or 30 years in our ability to provide exact dating.

Hope this helps.
God bless you.

In Christ, Ted.

 

[jt4Jesus]

big help, Ted
certainly puts things in a clear linear perspective, which is exactly what i wanted. thnx so much.
bless u 2 xx

 

[Codger]

can anyone here PLEASE tell me the chronological order in which the Bible was written? been trying to read it this way for ages, but nobody agrees even on when Genesis was written, or where the book of Job fits in. pls help...

As far as the New Testament is concerned the best book out there is by Frank Viola titled "The untold story." It goes through the books of the Nt in the order that they were written and gives the historical background that goes with them. You can pick up a used book quite inexpensively.

Amazon.com: frank viola

There are several chronological Bibles - two of the cheaper ones are...

"The one year chronological Bible" in the NIV by Tyndale.

"The Reese chronological Bible" in KJV by Bethany house.

Both document events as they happened historically.

Larry

 

[jt4Jesus]

larry, thanks so much! this is an answer to prayer.

 

[OzSpen]

jt,

can anyone here PLEASE tell me the chronological order in which the Bible was written? been trying to read it this way for ages, but nobody agrees even on when Genesis was written, or where the book of Job fits in. pls help...

HERE is one estimate of the chronological order of the Bible.


Here’s another estimate of the Chronological order of the books of the Bible.


See also: When were the books of the Bible written?


Sincerely, Spencer

 

[racyhall11]

According to the Biblical chronology the earth is almost exactly 6000 years old, and approximately 4500 years ago the global flood completely destroyed all terrestrial life except those saved by God through his instructions to Noah. Aardsma whose recent paper argues that the Ussher chronology is too short by exactly a millennium.

 

[jt4Jesus]

thanks spencer - much appreciated. i haven't actually gone back to the study, so i shall report back my findings when i do. i hope to gain an entirely fresh and much deeper perspective as i read. racyhall11, i'm very interested in what you have shared, i shall look up the Ussher chronology. bless you all very much, and thank you for your help.

 

[Agonaces of Susa]

Aardsma whose recent paper argues that the Ussher chronology is too short by exactly a millennium.

He's right.

Sharuhen is mentioned in the Book of Joshua: Joshua 19:6

And Bethlebaoth, and Sharuhen; thirteen cities and their villages:​

Sharuhen was destroyed by Pharaoh Ahmose I whose reign (the beginning of the New Kingdom) has been radiocarbon dated to 1570 and 1544 B.C.

Ramsey, et al., Radiocarbon-Based Chronology for Dynastic Egypt, Science, Volume 328, Number 5985, Pages 1554-1557, Jul 2010

Our radiocarbon data indicate that the New Kingdom started between 1570 and 1544 B.C.E.​

Therefore the Exodus must have preceded the reign of Ahmose I, and therefore also preceded the traditional Exodus date of 1450 B.C.

The Pharaoh preceding the Exodus was Pepi II Neferkare and the Exodus occurred circa 2200 B.C.

Exactly 430 years before Pepi II Neferkare and the Exodus lived Vizier Joseph (aka Imhotep) and his Pharaoh Djoser.

"Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years." -- Exodus 12:40

 

[Codger]

jt,

HERE is one estimate of the chronological order of the Bible.


Here’s another estimate of the Chronological order of the books of the Bible.


See also: When were the books of the Bible written?


Sincerely, Spencer

Every time I look at one of these charts - they are all different. My conclusion is that no one really knows the exact Chronology. They are mostly guess-timates. We don't even know what year Jesus was crucified.