Fantasy New Testament Lineup

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:

1. John
2. I John
3. Philippians
4. Mark
5. Romans
6. James
7. Matthew
8. Hebrews
9. Galatians
10. Jude
11. Titus
12. Luke
13. I Peter
14. Colossians
15. Ephesians
16. II John
17. I Thessalonians
18. II Peter
19. III John
20. Acts
21. I Timothy
22. II Thessalonians
23. I Corinthians
24. II Timothy
25. II Corinthians
26. Philemon
27. Revelation

What do you think? What changes might you suggest?

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Supplementary Reading:

• Why the books are in their current order
• NT books in strictly chronological order