People have fantasy football teams, so I thought I might be allowed to dream when it comes to the order of the books in the Second Testament of the Bible. And dream is a good word, since I started thinking about this a few nights ago when I couldn’t sleep.
At first it was just about the order of the gospel accounts. (What we have is called the Augustinian order.) I thought that opening with John would be good because of the symmetry of the “In the beginning…” language with Genesis. But then I started thinking of not running the gospels consecutively at all, but pairing them with other books that were related.
Then it got more complicated. Because Matthew was written to a Jewish audience, I thought that pairing Hebrews with it would be most appropriate; but I also considered that a new believer, reading in the order I first imagined, might find Hebrews a little complex.
Also pairing Luke and Acts seemed so obvious. At first. Then I thought about how I wanted to construct the lower part of the list, and reconsidered that.
So this is all subject to revision, but here’s an example of how it might look:
- John
- I John
- Philippians
- Mark
- Romans
- James
- Matthew
- Hebrews
- Galatians
- Jude
- Titus
- Luke
- I Peter
- Colossians
- Ephesians
- II John
- I Thessalonians
- II Peter
- III John
- Acts
- I Timothy
- II Thessalonians
- I Corinthians
- II Timothy
- II Corinthians
- Philemon
- Revelation
What do you think? What changes might you suggest?
Supplementary Reading:
This is an interesting exercise… I’m always looking for a new order to read in… brings out different facets of the jewels… so I’m going to try yours next…
Comment by dgraceofgod — February 25, 2021 @ 8:44 pm
Thanks for the encouragement. Let me know how it works out.
Comment by paulthinkingoutloud — February 25, 2021 @ 10:56 pm