Finding Your Way Through the Books

Once you understand that the Bible is one story told through 66 different books, the next practical question is: how are those books arranged, and what should I know before I start reading one of them? These are not minor questions. The arrangement of the Bible can confuse even experienced readers, and opening a book without any orientation is like walking into a conversation that has already been going on for an hour. You can hear the words, but you may miss the meaning entirely. This section will give you the tools to orient yourself before you read, and to understand why the books are arranged the way they are.

The Old Testament is divided into four broad sections. The first is the Law, also called the Pentateuch or the Torah, which consists of the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These books lay the foundation for everything else. They give us creation, the fall, the patriarchs, the exodus from Egypt, the covenant at Sinai, the laws governing Israel's worship and life, and the journey toward the promised land. If you want to understand any part of the rest of the Bible, these five books are where the foundational vocabulary is established.

The second section of the Old Testament is history. Books like Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther trace the story of Israel from the conquest of Canaan through the period of the kings, the division of the kingdom, the exile to Babylon, and the return to the land. These are not simply records of political events. They are theological accounts, showing how Israel's faithfulness or unfaithfulness to God shaped the course of their history.

The third section is poetry and wisdom. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon belong here. These books speak to the deepest human experiences: suffering, worship, wisdom for daily life, the search for meaning, and love. The Psalms in particular are the prayer book and hymnal of God's people, and they are quoted more often in the New Testament than almost any other Old Testament book.

The fourth section is the prophets, divided by convention into the major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel) and the twelve minor prophets (Hosea through Malachi). The distinction between major and minor is simply a matter of length. A minor prophet is not less important than a major one. Amos or Micah may contain a single passage that unlocks a key New Testament teaching. The prophets spoke during the periods recorded in the historical books, which means that reading a prophet alongside the relevant historical books will greatly enrich your understanding of both.

The New Testament opens with the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each one presents the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They cover overlapping events, but each writer selects and arranges his material with a distinct purpose and audience in mind. Matthew writes with a Jewish audience in view and frequently connects Jesus to Old Testament prophecy. Mark moves quickly and emphasizes action. Luke is detailed and orderly, with a particular concern for Gentiles, women, and the poor. John is theological and reflective, written so "that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name" (John 20:31, KJV).

After the Gospels comes Acts, which records the birth of the church at Pentecost and the spread of the gospel through the ministry of Peter, Paul, and others. Acts is the bridge between the Gospels and the letters. It shows the church being established in the very cities to which the letters were later written. Reading Acts before reading the letters to the Romans, Corinthians, or Galatians will give you a much clearer sense of the situations those letters were addressing.

The letters, also called the Epistles, make up the largest section of the New Testament. Paul wrote the majority of them: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. Other letters include Hebrews (whose authorship is uncertain), James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2, and 3 John, and Jude. Each letter was written to a real person or a real community, in a real situation. Reading a letter without knowing anything about its recipient or occasion is possible, but understanding its occasion will open up its meaning considerably.

The New Testament closes with Revelation, a prophetic and apocalyptic book addressed to seven churches in Asia Minor, filled with visions and symbols drawn heavily from the Old Testament. It is one of the most misread books in the Bible, largely because readers approach it without the Old Testament background it assumes. Patience and careful reading will reward you.

It is essential to understand that the Bible's book order is not a single uninterrupted chronological account. Chronicles revisits the same history covered in Samuel and Kings, often from a different perspective and with different emphases. The prophets were active during the periods described in the historical books, but they appear in a separate section. The four Gospels cover the same period of Jesus' life from four different angles. Acts records the early church while Paul and others were simultaneously writing letters to the very churches Acts describes. The arrangement of the Bible is not primarily chronological. It is categorical, grouping books by type so that readers can find them.

Before you open any book of the Bible, it is worth pausing to ask a set of orienting questions. Who wrote this book, if we know? Who first received it? What was happening in their world when it was written? Why was it written, and what is the writer trying to accomplish? These questions will not always have simple answers. Some books identify their writer clearly. Others carry a traditional attribution that has been accepted for centuries. Some books do not name their writer at all. It is important to be honest about these distinctions. Do not present an uncertain authorship as a settled fact, but do not allow uncertainty to prevent you from reading carefully with whatever orientation is available.

The Bible itself gives us examples of writers receiving and engaging with earlier Scripture. Daniel, reading in exile, recognized the prophecy of Jeremiah: "In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem" (Daniel 9:2, KJV). Daniel was not reading ancient history with detached curiosity. He was reading a word from God that spoke directly to his own situation, and he responded with prayer and fasting. The apostle Peter, writing near the end of his life, referred to Paul's letters as part of the body of Scripture, acknowledging the wisdom given to Paul while also warning that some were twisting his writings: "even as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction" (2 Peter 3:16, KJV). The biblical writings are not isolated voices. They are in conversation with one another, quoting, explaining, and building on what came before.

The Gospels and the letters of the New Testament are filled with quotations from and allusions to the Old Testament. Recognizing these connections will transform your reading. When Paul writes "it is written" and then quotes Isaiah or the Psalms, he is not simply adding decoration to his argument. He is showing that what God has done in Christ is the fulfillment of what God promised through the prophets. Learning to trace these connections is one of the great rewards of growing in biblical knowledge.