Read the Bible from beginning to end - chronologically

One of the things I’d like to do during the sabbatical ahead of me – alongside resting, reflecting and spending time with loved ones – is to read through the Bible once. Not from cover to cover, page by page, but from start to finish in chronological order.

The Bible is partly organised by genre – for example, Job, the Psalms and Proverbs – partly by theme – for example, all the Prophets – and partly by length. In ancient libraries, scrolls were organised by size. This is still done to some extent today. On my bookshelf, I have a section for illustrated books and one for photo albums, because they are, of course, larger than most other books.

This arrangement has, for example, meant that the texts of the prophets are separated from the historical books that describe the events to which their prophecies refer. Or that Paul’s epistles are arranged in order of length, even though, for example, the Epistle to the Romans was written much later than the Epistle to the Galatians. Unfortunately, the ancient order has been retained to this day. And that sometimes doesn’t make much sense. Who, for instance, would arrange the letters from a loved one in order of length? It makes far more sense to arrange them chronologically in order to trace the development of their thoughts, recognise parallels in contemporary themes, and so on.

Wisely, researchers have set about bringing some order to the whole thing and developing an (approximate) chronological order for the biblical texts. These can be found, for example, online at YouVersion (first click on „English„, then enter “Chronological’ as a keyword) – you can tick them off as you go along once you’ve read the chapters. Or you can also use it to Print. And, of course, as a smartphone app. Personally, I’m really looking forward to trying it out.