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I discussed with my wife this weekend the Alphabet. The alphabet is properly A B C D E F etc. She explained several reasons why this sequence is important, including the reason a standard for learning. This prompted my above question, is there a specific purpose to the sequence of books in the Bible?

2007-02-26 03:37:39 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture Religion & Spirituality

6 answers

You know something it's funny because the Torah aka the old testament is lined up slightly differently from the Jewish standpoint and is differently from how Christianity lines up certain books.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible

2007-02-26 03:54:00 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

Dear Mayor,

Dewcons gave you an excellent explanation.

I would like to add that reading the Bible is what is important. I first read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation 15 years ago. Before that I had looked up various topics and then read the appropriate Bible verses which served a purpose at that time.
But reading the Bible from the beginning to the end was an eye-opening experience for me.

As I was reading Kings and Chronicles I kept wondering was there anybody speaking to the Israelites about what was going on. I know that the prophets were speaking but I didn't get to them until after Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes which is close to half the Bible.

One year I did read a Chronological Bible but I realized there is a difference in chronological in terms of when things happened and there is chronological in terms of when the material was written. For 2006 I read The Daily Bible in Chronological Order.

I think that with your orderly mind you should read the Bible and let us know what you think about the sequence of the books.

2007-02-27 13:27:02 · answer #2 · answered by JOYfilled - Romans 8:28 7 · 0 0

The Old Testament is usually divided into three sections, the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets.

The Law consist of the history books, about the first half of the Old Testament. They run from Genesis to Esther. Those books are arranged in historical order. (Same of the books like 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles over the same period, but from different authors).

Second section is books of poetry and wisdom. Those go from Job to Song of Solomon, and are usually called the Pslams, after the largest book in the bunch.

Then you have the prophets. There are considered to be three major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel). They are arranged in order of length - longer to shortest - which was common in that era. After that are the 12 minor prophets. Each of those prophets books came to be associated with one of the 12 feast of the Jewish calendar. So the books are in the order they would be read according to the calendar, not chronological, which can make them fun to understand.

New Testament:
Opens with the four accounts of the life of Christ.
Because the Book of Matthew is written to show how the Old Testament scriptures are fulfilled in the New Testament life of Jesus, it was plalced first to serve as a bridge between them. After that, the others are ordered by date written. Mark was the first, John the last.
Then you get Acts, which is the history of the church. It follows chronologically from the gospels.
Then the 13 letters of Paul, which are arranged from longest (Romans) to shortest (Philemon). They are not chronological.
After that Hebrew, a letter sometimes accredited to Paul, but it is unsigned so the author is not knewn for certain.
After that you have the letters of other apostles, based on their importance (Peter and John were "more famous" then James and Jude) and then by length.
Finally the book of Revelation closes the Bible as it also closes history.

So there is no "simple" answer to the order of the books. And it is also NOT commonly held that the order was divinely inspired.

2007-02-26 03:42:05 · answer #3 · answered by dewcoons 7 · 1 2

The bible itself does not seem to teach that God has a preference for the exact sequence of bible books. Instead, the order seems to be one of benign tradition, and the resulting convenience of consistency from one translation to another (KJV, ASV, NWT).

The bible books are absolutely NOT consistently sequenced chronological.

Interestingly, the New World Translation uses the terms "Hebrew/Aramaic Scriptures" and "Christian Greek Scriptures" rather than "Old Testament" and "New Testament" as a matter of preference rather than principle. True Christianity recognizes the importance of the so-called "Old Testament" in understanding the richness of true worship and brilliant prophetic imagery of hundreds of events in the Hebrew Scriptures.

2007-02-26 03:49:50 · answer #4 · answered by achtung_heiss 7 · 0 1

The Bible is written in chronological order, starting with Genesis and ending in the Revelations.

2007-02-26 03:41:51 · answer #5 · answered by Maverick 6 · 0 3

Does not matter what sequence you read the bible because it was not written at one time but please read it

2007-02-26 03:43:29 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

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