Start reading the new testament and aside from the great story, you’ll eventually notice a few things. for one, the story of jesus is repeated four times, then you hear the story of the early church, and then you start reading letters that don’t seem to be in any kind of consistent order. why is the new testament organized as it is and not in another way? why is the canon of the new testament arranged in the order it is? why is the new testament not arranged in the order of its events? Or, to ask a slightly different question, why isn’t the New Testament laid out in the order it was written?
In this article, we will look at the main orders in which the New Testament can appear. First, we will consider the canonical order order: the order in which the New Testament writings appear in modern published Bibles. Second, we will consider chronological order: the order in which the events of the New Testament are described. And finally, we’ll consider several different proposals for the order of composition: the order in which the New Testament writings were written.
You are reading: Chronological order of new testament books written
As a final prolegomenological note, let me highlight my belief that each of these commands provides insight into the meaning and message of the New Testament. the context is very important; in fact, it governs the meaning of everything. While we often pay close attention to historical context when it comes to questions about the order and understanding of the New Testament, the literary context is also important. In short, where you find a particular book or passage in the collection known as the New Testament makes a difference and influences the interpretation of that book or passage. therefore, the canonical order, the chronological order, and the compositional order project (and reformulate) the New Testament writings in ways that are fruitful for faithful and critical readings of the text.
canonical order
First, let’s consider the canonical order: the order of the New Testament books that appears in modern published Bibles. Before we go any deeper, let me first point out that not all editions of the New Testament have included precisely the 27 books that modern readers are familiar with, nor have those books always been in exactly the order that we are used to having them appear.
To cite a historical example, codex sinaiticus (one of the oldest complete copies of the new testament) uses the following order: matthew, mark, luke, john, romans, 1 corinthians , 2 corinthians, galatians, ephesians, philippians, colossians, 1 thessalonians, 2 thessalonians, hebrews, 1 timothy, 2 timothy, titus, philemon, acts, james, 1 peter, 2 peter, 1 john, 2 john, 3 john, jude , revelation, epistle of barnabas, shepherd of hermas. there are obviously some key differences there, as well as some familiar patterns.
That said, there are two main reasons why the New Testament appears in the order it does today. First, the New Testament largely follows the organizational pattern of the Old Testament, with the central story (the Torah for the At, the Gospels for the NT), followed by historical accounts and other writings. obviously, the pattern doesn’t quite match, but it’s relatively easy to notice a threefold pattern of organization in both testaments.
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but a second reason the new testament looks like this is because collections of the now new testament writings circulated in the ancient world centuries before they made it into the new testament canon. Based on evidence from early Christian writers known as the Apostolic Fathers, it appears that collections of writings began to circulate in the late first century. While we are not 100% sure what these collections might have looked like initially, in the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries, several clear groupings emerged:
- gospels (often, but not always in the order of matthew, mark, luke, john, and sometimes includes a collection of acts of luke)
- epistles of paul (a often, but not always in order from largest to smallest, Roman to Pastoral, sometimes including Hebrew and sometimes not)
- general epistles (typically James to Jude)
There was no uniform standard in the early years of these collections, as utility and accessibility often governed what an early Christian community could have in its growing collection of writing. The gospels were the most widely circulated, followed by the works of Paul. everything else enjoyed a usage pattern that sometimes varied by geography. finally, in the early fourth century, we begin to see evidence of the new testament canon as we have it today:
- gospels: matthew, mark, luke, john1
- acts2
- epistles of pauline: romans, 1 corinthians, 2 corinthians, galatians, ephesians, philippians, colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon3
- General Epistles: Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude4
- revelation5
This order was popularized around the time of Athanasius of Alexandria’s Feast Letter 39 and eventually became the standard ordering of the New Testament canon.
chronological order
The chronological order of the New Testament is arranged a bit differently, with the main difference being that many New Testament letters overlap the narrative of events. Without going too deep into the minutiae, it probably looks like this:
- gospels6
- acts 1-14
- james / galatians7
- acts 15-18.18
- 1 thessalonians
- 2 Thessalonians
- Acts 18:19-19
- 1 Corinthians
- 2 Corinthians
- Acts 20:1-3</li
- romans
- acts 20.4-24
- colossians, philemon & Laodiceans8
- Ephesians
- Philippians
- Acts 25-28.29
- 1 Timothy
- Titus
- 1 Peter
- Hebrews
- Acts 28:30-31
- 2 Timothy</li
- judas
- 2 peter
- apocalypse 1-3
- 1 john
- 2 john
- 3 john
- apocalypse 4-22
There is much debate about some of this, but based on the events described or assumed to be contemporary with these writings and passages, this is a basic summary of a chronological reading of the New Testament.
composition order
A final way to think about the order of the New Testament is the order in which these documents were written. At first you might imagine this would parallel the chronological order, but that’s not quite right. Most scholars believe that 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, or James were the first written New Testament documents, all of which speak of events chronologically after the Gospels. This is due in large part to the fact that the Gospels are not media reports or live tweets about Jesus: they are literary biographies, composed by followers of Jesus to tell the story of Jesus as the first generation of Christians grew older.
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The order in which the New Testament writings were composed is a subject of much scholarly debate. On the one hand, many contemporary scholars advance the writing of certain documents well into the second century and speak at length about the anonymous and pseudonymous authorship of certain writings. On the other hand, there are many scholars who advocate much older (and more traditional) dates, with some scholars even suggesting that the contents of the New Testament were written before Rome’s destruction of the Second Jewish Temple in AD 70. 9
Consider Marcus Borg’s list of New Testament books in the order they were written in the evolution of the word (including their probable dates10):
- 1 Thessalonians (50 AD)
- Galatians (50 AD)
- 1 Corinthians (50 AD)
- Philemon (mid 50s AD) )
- Philippians (mid 50 AD)
- 2 Corinthians (mid 50 AD)
- Romans (58 AD)
- Marks (70 AD)
- Santiago (70-80 AD)
- Colossians (80 AD)
- Matthew (80-90 AD)
- Hebrews (80-90 AD)
- John (90 AD)
- Ephesians (90s AD)
- Apocalypse (90s AD)
- judas (90s ad)
- 1 juan (100 ad)
- 2 juan (100 ad)
- 3 juan (100 ad)
- luke (ad 100)
- acts (ad 100)
- 2 Thessalonians (ad 100)
- 1 Peter (ad 100)
- 1 Timothy (100-110 AD)
- 2 Timothy (100-110 AD)
- Titus (100-110 AD)
- 2 Peter (120-110 AD)
- 2 Peter (120-150 CE)
Similarly, consider the “consensus dates”11 that New Testament scholars often use as a point of reference for discussing when the New Testament writings were written:
- Galatians (48 CE)
- 1 Thessalonians (51 CE)
- 2 Thessalonians (51 CE)
- 1 Corinthians (53-57 ce)
- philippians (54-55 ce)
- philemon (54-55 ce)
- 2 corinthians (55-58 ce)
- romans (57-58 ce)
- jude (60-110 ce)
- colossians (62-70 ce)
- mark (65-73 ce )
- james (65-85 ce)
- 1 peter (75-90 ce)
- matthew (80-90 ce)
- luke (80-90 ce)
- acts (80-90 ce)
- hebrews (80-90 ce)
- ephesians (80-90 ce)
- john (90-110 ce)
- 1 john (90-110 ce)
- 2 john (90-110 ce)
- 3 john (90-110 ce)
- revelation (95 ce)
- 1 timothy (100 ce)
- 2 timothy (100 ce)
- titus (100 ce)
- 2 peter (110 ce)
a final proposal
Alternatively, my own research suggests a much narrower writing window:
- Galatians (48-49 AD)
- James (48-49 AD)
- Council of Jerusalem (50 AD)
- Mark (50-60 AD)
- Judas (50-60 AD)
- 1 Thessalonians (51-52 AD)
- 2 Thessalonians (51-52 AD)
- 1 Corinthians (54 AD)
- 2 Corinthians (56 AD)
- Romans (56-59 AD)
- Colossians (58 or 61 AD)
- Philemon (58 or 61 AD)
- Laodiceans (58 or 61 AD)
- matthew (~60 CE)
- luke (60-62 CE)
- Philippians (61-62 CE)
- ephesians (61-62 CE)
- 1 Timothy (62 AD)
- Titus (62 AD)
- Acts (62-64 AD)
- 2 Timothy (64 d.c.) )
- Paul’s death (64 d.c.)
- 1 peter (64-66 d.c.)
- hebrews (64- 70 a.c.) )
- 2 peter (66-68 a.c.)
- death of peter (68 a.c.)
- apocalypse (68 -70 AD) )
- destruction of jerusalem (70 AD)
- juan (70-80 AD)
- 1 juan ( 70-80 AD) )
- 2 juan (80-100 AD)
- 3 juan (80-100 AD)
There are two driving ideas behind this proposal. first, i find robinson’s argument in updating the new testament generally convincing (as countless scholars have echoed and amplified) that the implications of the destruction of jerusalem should be noted in early christian writings after of its occurrence. Particularly in New Testament writings written for a Jewish audience, the lack of clear signs about this event is extremely revealing. The detailed arguments in Hebrews, for example, make little sense if they were written after the fall of Jerusalem; in that case, why not simply spell out the disastrous implications of Judaism, as later anti-Jewish Christian writers would?12
The second driving idea behind my proposal is that early Christian writing occurs around events. that is, for a missional and eschatological movement like early Christianity, a clear impetus was needed to take the time to write something down and then preserve it. religious movements that expect an imminent end do not usually write much for the sake of posterity. there needs to be certain developments, debates or deaths to drive such a change. In my opinion, the chart below indicates some of the influences that were probably at work in the composition of the New Testament texts.
why does the new testament appear in the order in which it appears? for a variety of reasons, perhaps including reasons influenced by, but not limited to, the chronology of events or the order of composition. Considering alternative orders to the New Testament, especially the chronological and compositional, provides a useful lens for considering what the New Testament says and means. in fact, there is much to learn when considering alternative commands. as we drink and read, therefore, let us be mindful of how literary context shapes and influences how we approach scripture.
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