Are the books in the (Christian) Holy Bible in chronological order?

by tylg

If not what would be the correct order?

talondearg

No, they are not in chronological order.

In the Christian Old Testament, books are arranged in 4 main blocks: The Law (Genesis through Deuteronomy), Historical Books (Joshua through Esther), Wisdom Literature (Job through Song of Songs), and Prophets (Isaiah through Malachi). This does not reflect the standard Jewish arrangement, which divides them also into 4 groups, but Law (Genesis through Deuteronomy), Prophets, divided into Former prophets (Joshus through Kings), then Latter Prophets (Isaiah through Malachi), then Writings (Psalms, all the wisdom literature, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles).

The Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments differ in including the deuterocanonical books and generally following a version of the Septuagint.

New Testaments are pretty standard across major Christian groups, arranged in genre: Gospels, Acts, Epistles, Apocalypse.

None of these attempt to be chronological nor is chronology their main guiding principle (sometimes length is, sometimes rough chronology).

To re-order them chronologically is difficult, because of the difficulty of dating some books (Job is particularly difficult). Also it depends whether you want to re-order them in compositional chronologically or subject-matter. Below is one possible suggested chronology. Personally, I don't find this task particularly enlightening, but I am willing to discuss the dating of individual books in greater detail, so follow-up questions fire away.

  1. Job
  2. Genesis
  3. Exodus
  4. Leviticus
  5. Numbers
  6. Deuteronomy
  7. Psalms
  8. Joshua
  9. Judges
  10. Ruth
  11. Song of Solomon
  12. Proverbs
  13. Ecclesiastes
  14. 1 Samuel
  15. 2 Samuel
  16. Obadiah
  17. Joel
  18. Jonah
  19. Amos
  20. Hosea
  21. Micah
  22. Isaiah
  23. Nahum
  24. Zephaniah
  25. Habakkuk
  26. Ezekiel
  27. Lamentations
  28. Jeremiah
  29. 1 Kings
  30. 2 Kings
  31. Daniel
  32. Haggai
  33. Zechariah
  34. Ezra
  35. 1 Chronicles
  36. 2 Chronicles
  37. Esther
  38. Malachi
  39. Nehemiah
  40. James
  41. Galatians
  42. Matthew
  43. Mark
  44. 1 Thessalonians
  45. 2 Thessalonians
  46. 1 Corinthians
  47. 2 Corinthians
  48. Romans
  49. Luke
  50. Ephesians
  51. Philippians
  52. Philemon
  53. Colossians
  54. Acts
  55. 1 Timothy
  56. Titus
  57. 1 Peter
  58. 2 Timothy
  59. 2 Peter
  60. Hebrews
  61. Jude
  62. John
  63. 1 John
  64. 2 John
  65. 3 John
  66. Revelation