The Bible's story in 12 periods
- Beginnings Creation, the first people, the fall, the flood and Babel (Genesis 1-11). Scripture gives no dates we can fix to a calendar.
- The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph (Genesis 12-50), often placed around 2000 BC and after. Debated.
- The Exodus and the wilderness Moses leads Israel out of Egypt, God gives the law at Sinai, and Israel spends forty years in the wilderness (Exodus to Deuteronomy). About 1446 BC or about 1260 BC, depending on the view.
- The judges Joshua leads Israel into Canaan, then judges such as Deborah and Gideon lead the tribes (Joshua, Judges, Ruth), until about 1050 BC.
- The united kingdom Saul, David and Solomon reign over all Israel (1 Samuel to 1 Kings 11), about 1050-930 BC.
- The divided kingdom Israel in the north and Judah in the south go their own ways (1 Kings 12 to 2 Kings 17), from about 930 BC.
- The fall of Samaria and of Jerusalem Assyria takes Samaria in 722 BC; Babylon destroys Jerusalem and the temple in 586 BC (2 Kings 17-25).
- Exile and return Judah lives in exile in Babylon until Cyrus of Persia lets the exiles go home in 538 BC; the temple and the walls are rebuilt (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther).
- Between the Testaments A little over four centuries of Persian, Greek and then Roman rule, with no new books in the Protestant Old Testament.
- Jesus Born about 6-4 BC; his ministry, death and resurrection about AD 30 or 33 (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).
- The early church The Spirit comes at Pentecost, and the gospel spreads from Jerusalem to Rome (Acts and the letters), from about AD 30 to the 60s.
- The fall of Jerusalem The Romans destroy the city and its temple in AD 70. Revelation is written about AD 95.
BC dates count down toward the birth of Christ and AD dates count up from it. All dates are approximate.
Bible events in order
Key events from creation to the end of the New Testament, with approximate dates and where to read each one.
| Event | Approximate date | Where to read |
|---|---|---|
| Creation, the fall, the flood and Babel | No dates given in Scripture | Genesis 1-11 |
| God calls Abraham; Isaac, Jacob and Joseph | From about 2000 BC (debated) | Genesis 12-50 |
| Moses leads Israel out of Egypt | About 1446 BC or about 1260 BC | Exodus 1-15 |
| The law at Sinai; forty years in the wilderness | Right after the Exodus | Exodus 19-40; Numbers; Deuteronomy |
| Joshua leads Israel into Canaan | About 40 years after the Exodus | Joshua 1-6 |
| The judges (Deborah, Gideon, Samson) and Ruth | Before about 1050 BC | Judges; Ruth |
| Saul becomes Israel's first king | About 1050-1030 BC | 1 Samuel 8-10 |
| David becomes king | About 1010 BC | 2 Samuel 2-5 |
| Solomon builds the temple | Solomon reigned about 970-930 BC | 1 Kings 6-8 |
| The kingdom divides into Israel and Judah | About 930 BC | 1 Kings 12 |
| Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal | Mid-800s BC, in Ahab's reign | 1 Kings 17-19 |
| Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah preach | 700s BC | Amos; Hosea; Isaiah; Micah |
| Assyria takes Samaria; the northern kingdom ends | 722 BC | 2 Kings 17 |
| Sennacherib besieges Jerusalem in Hezekiah’s reign | 701 BC | 2 Kings 18-19; Isaiah 36-37 |
| Josiah's reform: the book of the law is found | About 622 BC | 2 Kings 22-23 |
| Exiles taken to Babylon: Daniel, then King Jehoiachin and Ezekiel | 605 BC and 597 BC | Daniel 1; 2 Kings 24 |
| Babylon destroys Jerusalem and the temple | 586 BC | 2 Kings 25; Jeremiah 52 |
| Persia defeats Babylon; Cyrus lets the exiles go home | 539-538 BC | Ezra 1 |
| The second temple is finished | 515 BC | Ezra 6 |
| Esther becomes queen in Persia | Reign of Xerxes I (486-464 BC) | Esther 2 |
| Ezra teaches the law; Nehemiah rebuilds the walls | About 458 BC and 445 BC | Ezra 7-10; Nehemiah 1-6 |
| Alexander the Great takes the region; Greek rule begins | From 333 BC | Not told in the Bible |
| The temple is rededicated after the Maccabees revolt | 164 BC | 1 Maccabees (in Catholic Bibles); John 10:22 |
| Rome takes Jerusalem; later Herod the Great rules | 63 BC; Herod reigned 37-4 BC | Matthew 2:1 |
| Jesus is born in Bethlehem | About 6-4 BC | Matthew 1-2; Luke 2 |
| John the Baptist begins to preach; Jesus is baptized | About AD 28-29 | Luke 3 |
| Jesus is crucified and rises from the dead | About AD 30 or 33 | Matthew 26-28; Mark 14-16; Luke 22-24; John 18-21 |
| The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost | The same year | Acts 2 |
| Saul of Tarsus (Paul) meets the risen Jesus | Mid-30s AD | Acts 9 |
| The Council of Jerusalem | Late 40s AD | Acts 15 |
| Paul's journeys around the Aegean; his first letters | From about AD 50 (1 Thessalonians, about AD 50-52) | Acts 16-20; 1 Thessalonians |
| Paul under house arrest in Rome; Acts ends | About AD 62 | Acts 28 |
| Fire of Rome; Nero blames Christians; Peter and Paul die | AD 64; the 60s | 2 Timothy 4:6-8; John 21:18-19 |
| The Romans destroy Jerusalem and the temple | AD 70 | Foretold in Matthew 24:1-2 and Luke 21:20-24 |
| John's visions on Patmos (Revelation) | About AD 95 | Revelation 1:9 |
Dates are approximate and follow standard reference works. Where scholars disagree, see the next section.
What happened between the Old and New Testaments?
The Protestant Old Testament ends with Malachi, about 460 BC, and the New Testament opens with the birth of Jesus a little over four centuries later. Those years were full of change.
Persia ruled the land until Alexander the Great marched into Syria in 333 BC and conquered the Persian Empire. After his death in 323 BC, Judea came under Greek rulers. One of them, the Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, defiled the temple. Jewish rebels led by the Maccabee family won it back and rededicated it in 164 BC, an event Jews still remember at Hanukkah, the Festival of Rededication. John mentions Jesus in the temple at that feast: “the feast of the dedication, and it was winter” (John 10:22, KJV).
The Maccabees' family ruled until Rome took control in 63 BC. Rome later made Herod king of Judea; he reigned from 37 BC until his death in 4 BC, and Jesus was born in his last years. Catholic Bibles include 1 and 2 Maccabees, which tell part of this story; Protestant Bibles do not (see how many books are in the Bible).
How to read the Bible in chronological order
Follow the main story line
Genesis to 2 Kings tells the story from creation to the exile, mostly in order.
Slot the prophets into Kings
Read Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah with the 700s BC (2 Kings 14-20); Jeremiah, Habakkuk and Zephaniah near the fall of Jerusalem (2 Kings 22-25); Ezekiel and Daniel in the exile; and Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi after the return.
Finish the Old Testament story
Read Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther for the years after the exile. Many psalms are linked with David, while others, such as Psalm 137, come from the exile.
Read the Gospels, then Acts with the letters
After the four Gospels, read Acts and stop to read each of Paul's letters where it fits; 1 Thessalonians, for example, belongs with Acts 17-18.
End with Revelation
John's visions close the Bible with the promise that God will live among his people for ever (Revelation 21-22).
For the prophets in more detail, see Prophets in the Bible; for Paul's journeys, see the apostle Paul. If you would like a plan to follow, try the Bible reading plan. And if you would rather listen, Faithero reads any chapter aloud, verse by verse, and keeps going into the next chapter, even with your screen locked.
“And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”
Frequently asked
How long is the Bible's timeline?
From Abraham, often placed around 2000 BC, to the last events of the New Testament at the end of the first century AD, the Bible covers roughly 2,000 years of history. Before Abraham, Genesis 1-11 tells of creation, the first people, the flood and Babel without giving dates we can fix to a calendar, so this timeline does not date them.
When was the Bible written?
Over many centuries. Tradition credits Moses with the first five books, which would place them at the time of the Exodus (about 1446 or 1260 BC). The last Old Testament prophets wrote after the return from exile; Malachi dates from about 460 BC. Many scholars date the final form of some books later than tradition does, such as Daniel, which they place in 167-164 BC. The New Testament was written in the first century AD: Paul's letters from about AD 50, beginning with 1 Thessalonians; Matthew, Mark and Luke between the late 50s and about AD 100, depending on the scholar; and Revelation about AD 95.
What year was Jesus born?
Probably about 6-4 BC. Matthew says Jesus was born “in the days of Herod the king” (Matthew 2:1, KJV), and Herod died in 4 BC. That sounds odd, since BC means before Christ, but the custom of counting years from Christ’s birth comes from Dionysius Exiguus, who placed it a few years too late.
When did Jesus die?
The two dates most often given are AD 30 and AD 33, both at Passover time; John says it was “the preparation of the passover” (John 19:14, KJV). Scholars still weigh the evidence, including Luke’s dating of John the Baptist’s ministry (Luke 3:1) and the Passovers mentioned in John’s Gospel.
How many years are there between the Old and New Testaments?
A little over four centuries. Malachi, the last book of the Protestant Old Testament, comes from about 460 BC, and Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem about 445 BC; Jesus was born about 6-4 BC. Catholic Bibles include 1 and 2 Maccabees, which tell part of the story of those years.
Is the Bible in chronological order?
Not entirely. Genesis to 2 Kings mostly runs in order, and so do Ezra and Nehemiah, but the prophets, the poetry books and the letters are grouped by kind, not by date. Even within a book the order can jump: Jeremiah 21 comes from King Zedekiah's reign, while Jeremiah 25 is dated earlier, to the fourth year of King Jehoiakim.
One story
A timeline can make the Bible look like a list of dates, but it is one story, and its writers knew it. Paul says that “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son” (Galatians 4:4, KJV). Two thousand years of promises, failures, exiles and returns were leading somewhere.
The same God is still at work in history, including yours. The people on this timeline did not know how their chapter would turn out. Abraham “went out, not knowing whither he went” (Hebrews 11:8, KJV), and the exiles wept by the rivers of Babylon (Psalm 137:1). God kept his word to them, and he keeps it still.
Which Bible dates are certain, and which are debated?
Fairly firm. From the time of the kings, dates become much firmer. Samaria fell to Assyria in 722 BC, Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC, and Cyrus let the exiles return in 538 BC. In the New Testament era, the fire of Rome in AD 64 and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 are firm.
The patriarchs. Genesis gives the ages of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but no fixed starting point, so dates for them are estimates. Study Bibles such as the ESV place Abraham around 2000 BC. Counting back from the Exodus with Exodus 12:40, which gives Israel's stay in Egypt as 430 years, gives different answers depending on which Exodus date you begin with.
The Exodus. There are two main views. The early date, about 1446 BC, counts back from the building of Solomon's temple, which began “in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt” (1 Kings 6:1, KJV). The late date, about 1260 BC, places the Exodus in the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II, partly because Exodus 1:11 says the Israelites built a store city called Raamses. Both views take the Exodus as history; they differ on how to read the numbers, and the dates of the judges move with them.
The birth of Jesus. Matthew says Jesus was born “in the days of Herod the king” (Matthew 2:1, KJV), and Herod died in 4 BC, so Jesus was born before then, probably about 6-4 BC. That sounds strange, since BC means before Christ. The custom of counting years from Christ's birth goes back to Dionysius Exiguus, who placed the Incarnation in the year 754 of Rome; Herod died in the year 750, so the count is a few years off.
The death of Jesus. Luke dates the start of John the Baptist's preaching to “the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar” (Luke 3:1, KJV), about AD 28-29, and John's Gospel mentions at least three Passovers during Jesus' ministry (John 2:13; 6:4; 11:55). The two leading dates for the crucifixion are AD 30 and AD 33, and both have careful defenders. Whatever the year, its meaning is the same: see what the gospel is.