The Bible is a compilation of 66 individual books. When they were compiled and arranged, they were arranged in a chronological order beginning with Genesis and ending at Revelation.
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Timeline Of The Bible
The Bible is reported to be the biggest bestseller of all time and the greatest work of literature in human history. This Bible timeline offers a fascinating study of the long history of God’s Word from the beginning of creation to present-day translations.
The Bible Timeline
The Bible is a collection of 66 books and letters written by more than 40 authors over a period of about 1,500 years.
The central message of the entire Bible is God’s story of salvation—the author of salvation offers the way of salvation to the recipients of salvation.
As God’s Spirit breathed on the authors of the Bible, they recorded the messages with whatever resources were available at the time.
The Bible itself illustrates some of the materials used: engravings in clay, inscriptions on tablets of stone, ink and papyrus, vellum, parchment, leather, and metals.
The original languages of the Bible include Hebrew, koine or common Greek, and Aramaic.
The Bible Timeline
The Bible timeline traces the unparalleled history of the Bible down through the ages. Discover how God’s Word has been painstakingly preserved, and for extended periods even suppressed, during its long and arduous journey from creation to present-day English translations.
The Old Testament Era
The Old Testament era contains the story of creation—how God made everything including humanity with whom He would enter into an eternal covenant relationship.
Creation – B.C. 2000 – Originally, the earliest Scriptures are handed down from generation to generation orally.
Circa B.C. 2000-1500 – The book of Job, perhaps the oldest book of the Bible, is written.
Circa B.C. 1500-1400 – The stone tablets of the Ten Commandments are given to Moses at Mount Sinai and later stored in the Ark of the Covenant.
Circa B.C. 1400–400 – The manuscripts comprising the original Hebrew Bible (39 Old Testament books) are completed. The Book of the Law is kept in the tabernacle and later in the Temple beside the Ark of the Covenant.
Circa B.C. 300 – All of the original Old Testament Hebrew books have been written, collected, and recognized as official, canonical books.
Circa B.C. 250–200 – The Septuagint, a popular Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (39 Old Testament books), is produced. The 14 books of the Apocrypha are also included.
The New Testament Era and Christian Age
The New Testament era begins with the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Savior of the world. Through Him, God opens His plan of salvation to the Gentiles. The Christian church is established and the Gospel—God’s Good News of salvation in Jesus—begins to spread throughout the Roman Empire and eventually into all the world.
- Circa A.D. 45–100 – Original 27 books of the Greek New Testament are written.
- Circa A.D. 140-150 – Marcion of Sinope’s heretical “New Testament” prompted Orthodox Christians to establish a New Testament canon.
- Circa A.D. 200 – The Jewish Mishnah, the Oral Torah, is first recorded.
- Circa A.D. 240 – Origen compiles the Hexapla, a six-columned parallel of Greek and Hebrew texts.
- Circa A.D. 305-310 – Lucian of Antioch’s Greek New Testament text becomes the basis for the Textus Receptus.
- Circa A.D. 312 – Codex Vaticanus is possibly among the original 50 copies of the Bible ordered by Emperor Constantine. It is eventually kept in the Vatican Library in Rome.
- A.D. 367 – Athanasius of Alexandria identifies the complete New Testament canon (27 books) for the first time.
- A.D. 382-384 – Saint Jerome translates the New Testament from original Greek into Latin. This translation becomes part of the Latin Vulgate manuscript.
- A.D. 397 – Third Synod of Carthage approves the New Testament canon (27 books).
- A.D. 390-405 – Saint Jerome translates the Hebrew Bible into Latin and completes the Latin Vulgate manuscript. It includes the 39 Old Testament books, 27 New Testament books, and 14 Apocrypha books.
- A.D. 500 – By now the Scriptures have been translated into multiple languages, not limited to but including an Egyptian version (Codex Alexandrinus), a Coptic version, an Ethiopic translation, a Gothic version (Codex Argenteus), and an Armenian version. Some consider the Armenian to be the most beautiful and accurate of all ancient translations.
- A.D. 600 – The Roman Catholic Church declares Latin as the only language for Scripture.
- A.D. 680 – Caedmon, English poet and monk, renders Bible books and stories into Anglo Saxon poetry and song.
- A.D. 735 – Bede, English historian and monk, translates the Gospels into Anglo Saxon.
- A.D. 775 – The Book of Kells, a richly decorated manuscript containing the Gospels and other writings, is completed by Celtic monks in Ireland.
- Circa A.D. 865 – Saints Cyril and Methodius begin translating the Bible into Old Church Slavonic.
- A.D. 950 – The Lindisfarne Gospels manuscript is translated into Old English.
- Circa A.D. 995-1010 – Aelfric, an English abbot, translates parts of Scripture into Old English.
- A.D. 1205 – Stephen Langton, theology professor and later Archbishop of Canterbury, creates the first chapter divisions in the books of the Bible.
- A.D. 1229 – Council of Toulouse strictly forbids and prohibits lay people from owning a Bible.
- A.D. 1240 – French Cardinal Hugh of Saint Cher publishes the first Latin Bible with the chapter divisions that still exist today.
- A.D. 1325 – English hermit and poet, Richard Rolle de Hampole, and English poet William Shoreham translate the Psalms into metrical verse.
- Circa A.D. 1330 – Rabbi Solomon ben Ismael first places chapter divisions in the margins of the Hebrew Bible.
- A.D. 1381-1382 – John Wycliffe and associates, in defiance of the organized Church, believing that people should be permitted to read the Bible in their own language, begin to translate and produce the first handwritten manuscripts of the entire Bible in English. These include the 39 Old Testament books, 27 New Testament books, and 14 Apocrypha books.
- A.D. 1388 – John Purvey revises Wycliffe’s Bible.
- A.D. 1415 – 31 years after Wycliffe’s death, the Council of Constance charges him with more than 260 counts of heresy.
- A.D. 1428 – 44 years after Wycliffe’s death, church officials dig up his bones, burn them, and scatter the ashes on Swift River.
- A.D. 1455 – After the invention of the printing press in Germany, Johannes Gutenberg produces the first printed Bible, the Gutenberg Bible, in the Latin Vulgate.
- The Reformation Era
- The Reformation marks the beginning of Protestantism and the widespread expansion of the Bible into human hands and hearts through printing and increased literacy.
- A.D. 1516 – Desiderius Erasmus produces a Greek New Testament, a forerunner to the Textus Receptus.
- A.D. 1517 – Daniel Bomberg’s Rabbinic Bible contains the first printed Hebrew version (Masoretic text) with chapter divisions.
- A.D. 1522 – Martin Luther translates and publishes the New Testament for the first time into German from the 1516 Erasmus version.
- A.D. 1524 – Bomberg prints a second edition Masoretic text prepared by Jacob ben Chayim.
- A.D. 1525 – William Tyndale produces the first translation of the New Testament from Greek into English.
- A.D. 1527 – Erasmus publishes a fourth edition Greek-Latin translation.
- A.D. 1530 – Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples completes the first French-language translation of the entire Bible.
- A.D. 1535 – Myles Coverdale’s Bible completes Tyndale’s work, producing the first complete printed Bible in the English language. It includes the 39 Old Testament books, 27 New Testament books, and 14 Apocrypha books.
- A.D. 1536 – Martin Luther translates the Old Testament into the commonly-spoken dialect of the German people, completing his translation of the entire Bible in German.
- A.D. 1536 – Tyndale is condemned as a heretic, strangled, and burned at the stake.
- A.D. 1537 – The Matthew Bible (commonly known as the Matthew-Tyndale Bible), a second complete printed English translation, is published, combining the works of Tyndale, Coverdale and John Rogers.
- A.D. 1539 – The Great Bible, the first English Bible authorized for public use, is printed.
- A.D. 1546 – Roman Catholic Council of Trent declares the Vulgate as the exclusive Latin authority for the Bible.
- A.D. 1553 – Robert Estienne publishes a French Bible with chapter and verse divisions. This system of numbering becomes widely accepted and is still found in most Bible’s today.
- A.D. 1560 – The Geneva Bible is printed in Geneva, Switzerland. It is translated by English refugees and published by John Calvin’s brother-in-law, William Whittingham. The Geneva Bible is the first English Bible to add numbered verses to the chapters. It becomes the Bible of the Protestant Reformation, more popular than the 1611 King James Version for decades after its original release.
- A.D. 1568 – The Bishop’s Bible, a revision of the Great Bible, is introduced in England to compete with the popular but “inflammatory toward the institutional Church” Geneva Bible.
- A.D. 1582 – Dropping its 1,000-year-old Latin-only policy, the Church of Rome produces the first English Catholic Bible, the Rheims New Testament, from the Latin Vulgate.
- A.D. 1592 – The Clementine Vulgate (authorized by Pope Clementine VIII), a revised version of the Latin Vulgate, becomes the authoritative Bible of the Catholic Church.
- A.D. 1609 – The Douay Old Testament is translated into English by the Church of Rome, to complete the combined Douay-Rheims Version.
- A.D. 1611 – The King James Version, also called the “Authorized Version” of the Bible is published. It is said to be the most printed book in the history of the world, with more than one billion copies in print.
- Age of Reason, Revival, and Progress
- A.D. 1663 – John Eliot’s Algonquin Bible is the first Bible printed in America, not in English, but in the native Algonquin Indian language.
- A.D. 1782 – Robert Aitken’s Bible is the first English language (KJV) Bible printed in America.
- A.D. 1790 – Matthew Carey publishes a Roman Catholic Douay-Rheims Version English Bible in America.
- A.D. 1790 – William Young prints the first pocket-sized “school edition” King James Version Bible in America.
- A.D. 1791 – The Isaac Collins Bible, the first family Bible (KJV), is printed in America.
- A.D. 1791 – Isaiah Thomas prints the first illustrated Bible (KJV) in America.
- A.D. 1808 – Jane Aitken (daughter of Robert Aitken), is the first woman to print a Bible.
- A.D. 1833 – Noah Webster, after publishing his famous dictionary, releases his own revised edition of the King James Bible.
- A.D. 1841 – The English Hexapla New Testament, a comparison of the original Greek language and six important English translations, is produced.
- A.D. 1844 – The Codex Sinaiticus, a handwritten Koine Greek manuscript of both Old and New Testament texts dating back to the fourth century, is rediscovered by German Bible scholar Konstantin Von Tischendorf in the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai.
- A.D. 1881-1885 – The King James Bible is revised and published as the Revised Version (RV) in England.
- A.D. 1901 – The American Standard Version, the first major American revision of the King James Version, is published.
- Age of Ideologies
- A.D. 1946-1952 – The Revised Standard Version is published.
- A.D. 1947-1956 – The Dead Sea Scrolls are discovered.
- A.D. 1971 – The New American Standard Bible (NASB) is published.
- A.D. 1973 – The New International Version (NIV) is published.
- A.D. 1982 – The New King James Version (NKJV) is published.
- A.D. 1986 – The discovery of the Silver Scrolls, believed to be the oldest Bible text ever, is announced. They were found three years earlier in the Old City of Jerusalem by Gabriel Barkay of Tel Aviv University.
- A.D. 1996 – The New Living Translation (NLT) is published.
- A.D. 2001 – The English Standard Version (ESV) is published.
Biblical Timeline Vs Historical Timeline
In the most basic sense, the Bible timeline is endless and eternal, as it chronicles creation (date unknown; Genesis 1:1–31) through the end of ages (Matthew 28:20). From a more practical viewpoint, the Bible timeline on which most scholars agree begins with the calling of Abram, renamed “Abraham” by God (Genesis 17:4–6) in the year 2166 BC, and ends with the writing of the book of Revelation in approximately AD 95. Prior to Abraham’s birth, the Bible timeline beginning in Genesis contains a rich history of creation, Adam and Eve, the Fall of Man, extensive genealogies, stories of human travails leading up to Noah and the Great Flood (date also unknown), and much more.
Within the period between Abraham’s birth and the apostle John’s writing of the book of Revelation, history helps to place many of the events of the Old and New Testaments on the Bible timeline. For example, Moses is estimated to have been born in 1526 BC and Joshua to have entered the Promised Land approximately 1406 BC. The period of Israel’s ten judges ended about 1052 BC, the onset of King Saul’s reign, when most scholars agree that concrete, historically verifiable dating is possible.
The Bible timeline includes King Saul, the famous King David—from whose family Jesus Christ would be born—and David’s son, the wise King Solomon, presided over a united kingdom of Israel. In 931 BC, after King Solomon’s reign, Israel was divided into a northern and a southern kingdom. Various kings ruled the north (Israel) and the south (Judah) until the fall of the northern kingdom in 722 BC and the fall of Jerusalem (capital of the southern kingdom) in 586 BC.
The exile of Judah lasted until about 538 BC when Persian King Cyrus directed Ezra to return to Israel and build a temple for God at Jerusalem (Ezra 1). The Jews restored Jerusalem between this time and approximately 432 BC, when the last book of the Old Testament (Malachi) was written. What follows on the Bible timeline is the intertestamental period, lasting approximately 430 years.
The Bible timeline continues in the New Testament. In approximately 5 BC, Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel, was born in Bethlehem. After the death of Herod the Great in 4 BC, Jesus and His parents returned to Nazareth in Galilee (Matthew 2:19–23). Nothing is recorded of Jesus’ life for the next decade or so, until we see a twelve-year-old Jesus astounding the teachers in the temple (Luke 2:40–52). Jesus began His public ministry in circa AD 26, beginning with His baptism (Matthew 3:13–17). Jesus’ ministry lasted about three and a half years.
In the period AD 29–30, Jesus spent most of His time in Judea, preaching, teaching, performing miracles—including the raising of Lazarus from the dead—and further equipping the disciples to continue on after His death. Then come the most significant events in the Bible timeline: early in the year 30, Jesus set His face toward Jerusalem. During the last week of His life, Jesus celebrated the Passover with His friends, where He instituted the Lord’s Supper (Luke 22:14–20) and gave His farewell discourse. Finally, He was betrayed, arrested, tried, crucified, and resurrected (Matthew 26:36–28:8). The risen Christ completed a forty-day ministry, which ended with His ascension to heaven (Acts 1:3–11; 1 Corinthians 15:6–7).
The Bible timeline continues through the first century AD as the apostles begin to fulfill the Great Commission. Shortly after Jesus was crucified and resurrected, His apostles and followers wrote the New Testament. The first book of the New Testament to be written (either Galatians or James) could have been written as early as AD 49, or within two decades of Jesus’ death and resurrection. This means that the original texts were written by eyewitnesses, providing firsthand accounts of what took place. John wrote the final book of the New Testament, Revelation, around AD 95.
Below is a list of major events in the Bible timeline, with the date for each. Note: All dates are approximate. Also, the dates for early human history (prior to Abraham) reflect the viewpoint of young earth creationism.
- 4000 BC (?)— Creation of the world
- 2344 BC (?)— Noah and the ark
- 2166 BC — The birth of Abram
- 2066 BC — The birth of Isaac
- 1526 BC — The birth of Moses
- 1446 BC — Israel’s exodus from Egypt
- 1406 BC — Israel’s entrance to the Promised Land
- 1383 BC — The death of Joshua
- 1052 BC — The coronation of King Saul
- 1011–971 BC — The reign of King David
- 959 BC — Solomon’s temple completed
- 931 BC — The dividing of the kingdom
- 875–797 BC — The ministries of Elijah and Elisha in Israel
- 739–686 BC — The ministry of Isaiah in Judah
- 722 BC — The fall of the northern kingdom to Assyria
- 586 BC — The fall of the southern kingdom to Babylon
- 538–445 BC — The Jews’ return to Jerusalem after exile
- 515 BC — The second temple finished
- 5 BC — The birth of Jesus Christ
- AD 29–33 — Christ’s ministry, ending in His death and resurrection
- AD 34–35 — The conversion of Saul of Tarsus
- AD 48–49 — Paul’s first missionary journey
- AD 49 — The Jerusalem Council
- AD 60 — The imprisonment of Paul in Rome
- AD 95 — John’s vision on Patmos and the writing of Revelation