Yet chronological Bibles can be very helpful for understanding the sequence of how God and his people have acted throughout history. This is not ideal for discovering authorial intent. (This would place Psalm 8 somewhere in 2 Samuel, during the time of David.) Since there is uncertainty about when many books were written, and since many books cover large swaths of time (think of Chronicles, which covers the entire OT period!), a lot of chronological Bibles use a mixture of both sequencing methods.Īll chronological Bibles end up slicing and dicing Bible books so that you are no longer reading books as literary wholes. (For example, Psalm 8, which describes creation, might be right up front with Genesis 1.) Others sequence things according to when Bible books were written. Some chronological Bibles sequence things according to when historical events happened. The basic idea is to rearrange the entire Bible in time sequence, rather than according to literary or topical categories, as in traditional Jewish or Christian practice. (But wait till after Christmas… you never know. Or perhaps you will buy one for your own reading in the new year. Perhaps you will buy one for a friend for Christmas (last minute shoppers, anyone?). Recently a friend invited my advice in selecting a chronological Bible, so I thought I’d share my thoughts here as well.
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