What Are the Benefits of Reading the Bible Chronologically?

What is the value of reading Scripture in the order its events occurred? Today, Stephen Nichols considers how this approach to Bible study can shape our understanding of God’s redemptive work throughout history.

NATHAN W. BINGHAM: Joining us in the studio is Dr. Stephen Nichols, president of Reformation Bible College and also the chief academic officer at Ligonier Ministries. Dr. Nichols, what benefits are there for a Christian when they use a chronological Bible reading plan?

DR. STEPHEN NICHOLS: You know, as we look at the Bible, we get it what we call canonically—it comes to us with the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament in a certain order. And this is different though; the order of the Old Testament is different from the Jewish Bible. In fact, the Jewish Bible is called the Tanakh, and it arranges those books of the Old Testament around the literary groupings. So, Torah is the Law, and that’s the first five books. And then the Nevi’im is the Hebrew word for prophet or Prophets, and so that’s the Prophetic Books. And then the Ketuvim is the Writings. So, that’s the order of the Jewish Old—of course, they don’t call it the Old Testament, they call it the Tanakh. So the final book and the Jewish Bible is 2 Chronicles, whereas in the Protestant Bible, we have Malachi as the final book. So, that’s how we tend to understand the Bible, but these books are not in a chronological order. Of course, Genesis is the beginning, so, “In the beginning,” and Revelation, well, it is the end, but the middle is not in order. And I think sometimes, because of that, we miss connections.

And so, let’s get specific here. I think one of the benefits of reading the Bible is we see better how the pieces of the puzzle fit into the whole puzzle. So the whole puzzle, of course, is not just simply Genesis to Revelation, but it is God’s grand scheme and plan, as Jonathan Edwards called it, of the progress of redemption—that it’s an arrow headed to the bullseye of the target. And the Bible unfolds from this grand story of creation, to the fall, to redemption and all the aspects of it, and then to the restoration and recreation and the new heavens and the new earth—from Genesis 1 to Revelation 20–22. But as we read pieces of Scripture, we need to know, Where does this piece, where does this puzzle piece fit? And when we begin to see where that puzzle piece fits on the puzzle, I think we have a better understanding of that particular text.

To use another metaphor, we could speak of a tapestry. And now, texts and books are the threads that weave together that tapestry. If we come at it just canonically, we’re sort of going all over the tapestry rather than seeing it unfold before our very eyes.

So, in terms of how then to read the Bible, this is especially helpful when we think of the Prophets and the Old Testament Prophetic Books in light of the Historical Books. So where are these prophets fitting? We have pre-exilic prophets, and we have post exilic prophets. And we have prophets to the north; these are the northern tribes. And then we have prophets to the south; these are the southern tribes of Israel. And when we put the Prophets within the frame of the Historical Books, now we can begin to see, “Ah, that’s where this prophetic message fits,” and it helps us understand.

Same thing when we come to the book of Acts in the New Testament and the Epistles; Paul’s Epistles and the General Epistles. We have all these epistles to the churches. We can go back to the book of Acts, and now we can see where this fits in Paul’s journey and where he was and how many times he was at this church, and it just gives us a better understanding of what’s taking place.

And then we go to the Gospels themselves, and each of them a contained literary unit—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But it’s interesting to put them together, and we speak of a harmony of the Gospels, where we pull together the Synoptics, especially—Matthew, Mark and Luke—and then John, which is unique, but it still follows a chronological pattern there. And now we have an understanding.

Well, let me give you three specific examples that you can use to see if this chronological reading of the Bible is actually beneficial. The first is, we all know Psalm 51: David’s great Psalm of the confession of his great sin and God’s great forgiveness. It’s a pretty epic Psalm, Psalm 51. And it comes not abstractly; it comes out of a context that is recorded in 2 Samuel 12, and it is David’s sin against Bathsheba, which then evolved into a sin against Uriah. And of course we have Nathan the prophet coming on the scene to call on David for his sin, and then we have David’s confession. So, I think it could be very instructive to read those two texts together.

A key event in the Old Testament, of course, is the siege of Jerusalem and then the destruction of the walls and the destruction of the temple. Well, we’ve got it recorded for us in 2 Kings 25. And so there’s your historical account. It’s also recorded for us by the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 39 and 52. And there it’s sort of a blend of a historical account and also a poetic account because this is a prophetic book, and he brings that genre in. But then we have the Lamentations, and now we have this book that is one big lament for this singular event of the siege of Jerusalem, and it is presented from the perspective of those who endured it and witnessed it, and we see the depth of suffering that that event was, and the hearts cry out to God.

One final example is looking at, say, Acts 20, at the end there where Paul’s with the Ephesian elders, and then reading the book of Ephesians, and you see that this isn’t just some letter that Paul writes to some church that’s out there. This is a church that Paul probably spent the longest time with, and it’s also a church that Paul had deep relationships with. In fact, if you’re reading through Ephesians or studying the book of Ephesians, go back and read the entirety of Acts on Paul at Ephesus, of Acts 19–21, and then read Ephesians, and now we have that context.

The idea of the chronology of the Bible, I think—just lastly to say this—reminds us that the Bible unfolds in space and time as God is truly interacting with real people in space and time in the unfolding of His plan of redemption for all the ages. So, I would strongly encourage that you read the Bible chronologically.