The One Year Chronological Bible

If your yearly reading of the Bible has become too predictable, I would highly recommend the One Year Chronological Bible to shake things up a bit. Instead of the traditional sequence of the 66 books, the Chronological Bible places them in the order they were written. The book of Job appears right in the middle of the book of Genesis.

Seeing the familiar books "out of order" definitely kept me on my toes. And it was very helpful to read passages close together that explained each other. (For example: Amaziah's foolish behavior is not spelled out in the II Kings passage, but the corresponding passage in II Chronicles makes it very clear.)

Interspersed in the stories of the wicked kings of Israel and Judah are the prophetic warnings of God's judgment from Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc. I loved having I and II Samuel, I and II Chronicles, and the Davidic psalms together. (It was unsettling to have the book of Psalms all chopped up, though.) Some psalms come after the Exile.

The Song of Solomon and Proverbs are inserted during the Bible passages on Solomon's reign. Later the Epistles are woven into the book of Acts. So you can see how this Bible can be disconcerting and wonderful at the same time. It made me sit up and pay attention.

I'm very much looking forward to returning to a slower, more careful reading of the Scriptures in 2019, but I appreciated this bird's-eye view of the Bible in chronological form.

Blessings,