Books of the Bible

God creates the world and man falls; after the flood, God calls Abraham, and the promise follows his family through Isaac and Jacob to Joseph in Egypt.

The LORD brings Israel out of bondage in Egypt by Moses, binds them to himself in covenant at Sinai, and comes to dwell among them in the tabernacle.

The laws the LORD gave Moses from the tabernacle at Sinai, by which a sinful people could come near a holy God and live as his own.

Israel’s journey from Sinai to the plains of Moab, in which the generation that refused the land dies in the wilderness and their children are numbered to inherit it.

Moses’ last addresses to Israel on the plains of Moab, retelling the forty years, giving the law again for the land, and renewing the covenant before he dies.

Joshua leads Israel over Jordan into the land sworn to their fathers, defeats its kings, divides it among the tribes by lot, and renews the covenant.

After Joshua’s death Israel forsakes the LORD again and again, and he raises up judges to deliver them, until every man does what is right in his own eyes.

A Moabite widow follows Naomi home to Bethlehem, and the kinsman who redeems the family’s land marries her and becomes David’s great-grandfather.

Samuel, the last of the judges, anoints Israel’s first two kings: Saul, rejected for disobedience, and David, the youngest son of Jesse, chosen in his place.

David reigns over Judah, then all Israel, receives the LORD’s promise of a house for ever, and after his sin with Bathsheba is chastened within his own house.

Israel’s history from David’s last days to the death of Ahab: Solomon’s temple, the kingdom torn in two, and Elijah sent against Baal.

The kings of Israel and Judah from Elijah’s departure until Samaria falls to Assyria and Jerusalem to Babylon, as the LORD’s word by the prophets comes to pass.

Genealogies from Adam to the return from Babylon, then the reign of David: the ark brought to Jerusalem, God’s promise of a house, and the temple prepared.

The kings of David’s line in Jerusalem, from Solomon’s building of the temple to its burning, closing with Cyrus’s decree that the house be built again.

Exiles return from Babylon under Cyrus’ decree and rebuild the house of God at Jerusalem; Ezra the scribe follows with the law and leads the people in confession.

Nehemiah, cupbearer to the king of Persia, goes up to rebuild Jerusalem’s broken wall; then the people hear the law read and bind themselves by covenant to keep it.

A Jewish orphan made queen of Persia goes uncalled before the king to save her people from Haman’s decree, and their deliverance is kept as Purim.

A blameless man of Uz, tested with God’s leave, loses his children, wealth and health, disputes with three friends, and is answered by the LORD out of the whirlwind.

Israel’s prayers and praises to the LORD: a hundred and fifty psalms in five books, from Moses’ day to the captivity.

Solomon’s proverbs and the words of other wise men, gathered in named collections, teaching a son the way of wisdom, which begins in the fear of the LORD.

The Preacher, king in Jerusalem, tests everything done under the sun, calls it vanity, receives joy as God’s gift, and concludes: fear God and keep his commandments.

Solomon’s song of a bride and her beloved king, sung in turns with the daughters of Jerusalem, whose love is “strong as death.”

Five poems over Jerusalem after the temple was burned: the city weeps, owns her sin as the cause, and prays to the LORD who brought it on her.

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz: judgment on Judah and the nations, comfort for Zion, and the servant of the LORD who bears the sin of many.

The prophecies of Jeremiah, of the priests of Anathoth, who warned Judah for some forty years that Babylon would take Jerusalem, and foretold a new covenant.

A priest among the captives in Babylon sees the glory of the LORD leave the temple before Jerusalem falls, and return to a temple shown him in vision.

Daniel, a captive in Babylon, serves its kings without forsaking his God, and sees the kingdoms of men give way to the kingdom of the Son of man.

At the LORD’s command Hosea marries an unfaithful wife, and the marriage becomes the LORD’s case against the northern kingdom and his promise to love them freely.

A locust plague in Judah becomes the LORD’s call to return, answered with restored harvests, his Spirit poured out on all flesh, and the nations judged.

A herdman of Tekoa carries the LORD’s word to Israel at Bethel: judgment on the nations and on Israel, then the fallen tabernacle of David raised.

A vision against Edom, the nation of Esau, for its violence against its brother Jacob, closing with deliverance on mount Zion.

Sent to cry against Nineveh, Jonah flees and is swallowed by a great fish; sent again, he preaches, the city repents, and he is angry when God spares it.

Micah of Moresheth warns Samaria and Jerusalem of judgment for their idols and their rulers’ greed, and promises a remnant, a ruler from Bethlehem, and a God who pardons.

The burden of Nineveh: the LORD, slow to anger but never acquitting the wicked, foretells the fall of Assyria’s great city and the breaking of its yoke from Judah.

A prophet asks the LORD why violence goes unpunished, is answered with the Chaldeans and the word “the just shall live by his faith,” and ends in song.

A prophet in Josiah’s days announces the day of the LORD on Judah and the nations, and the LORD’s joy over the humble remnant he gathers.

Four messages from the LORD, dated to the day in the second year of Darius, stir the returned exiles to rebuild his house and promise it a greater glory.

Eight night visions encourage the exiles rebuilding the temple; two burdens then foretell Zion’s lowly King, the smitten shepherd, and the LORD king over all the earth.

The last of the Minor Prophets: the LORD disputes with Judah after the exile over his love, his name and his covenant, and promises his messenger and Elijah.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ, son of David and son of Abraham, told as the fulfilment of the prophets, with his teaching gathered into five discourses.

The shortest Gospel: Jesus’ works in Galilee, his road to Jerusalem, and his death and resurrection there, told as “the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

An orderly account, written for Theophilus, of the birth, ministry, death, rising and ascension of Jesus, the Saviour come “to seek and to save that which was lost.”

The fourth Gospel: the eternal Word made flesh, his signs and sayings, his last night with his disciples, his death and resurrection, written “that ye might believe.”

The second account written to Theophilus: the ascended Christ pours out the Holy Ghost, and his witnesses, Peter first and then Paul, carry the gospel from Jerusalem to Rome.

Paul’s letter to the church at Rome, setting out the gospel in which the righteousness of God is revealed, for Jew and Gentile alike, by faith.

Paul’s letter to the church he founded at Corinth, answering its divisions, its disorders and its written questions from the gospel of Christ crucified and risen.

Paul writes again to Corinth to defend his ministry, to complete the collection for the saints at Jerusalem, and to answer rivals who despised his weakness.

Paul calls the churches of Galatia back to the gospel he received from Christ: a man is justified by faith in Christ, not by the works of the law.

Paul writes from prison of what God has done in Christ, making Jew and Gentile one body, and of how that body is to walk.

Paul writes from prison to thank the church at Philippi for its gift, and sets before it the mind of Christ, who humbled himself and was exalted.

From prison Paul writes to a church he had not seen: Christ is the image of the invisible God, and in him they are complete.

Paul writes to a young church he could not return to: thanks for its faith, an account of his conduct, and teaching on holy living and the Lord’s coming.

Paul’s second letter to the persecuted Thessalonians: rest comes when the Lord Jesus is revealed, the day of Christ has not yet come, and the idle must work.

Paul’s charge to Timothy at Ephesus: how the church of the living God prays, chooses bishops and deacons, cares for its own and keeps sound doctrine.

Paul’s last letter, written from prison in Rome as his death drew near, charging Timothy to guard the gospel, to suffer for it and to hand it on.

Paul writes to Titus, whom he left in Crete to ordain elders, on sound doctrine for every household and the grace that saves a people for good works.

Paul’s letter from prison to Philemon, sending back his servant Onesimus, now a believer, and asking that he be received as “a brother beloved.”

A letter of exhortation showing that Jesus, the Son of God, is the high priest of a better covenant, written to believers tempted under trial to draw back.

A letter from James to “the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad” on trials, wisdom, the tongue and riches, and on faith that without works is dead.

Peter’s letter to Christians scattered through five provinces of Asia Minor, teaching them to hope, to live as strangers, and to suffer for doing good as Christ did.

Peter’s last letter, written as his death drew near, to keep believers growing in the knowledge of Christ against false teachers and scoffers at his coming.

A letter without greeting or signature, from one who saw and handled the Word of life, written so that believers may know that they have eternal life.

The elder writes to “the elect lady and her children”: walk in love, and receive no teacher who denies that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.

A short letter from “the elder” to Gaius, commending his welcome of travelling brethren, rebuking Diotrephes for refusing them, and vouching for Demetrius.

Jude, brother of James, warns the saints against ungodly men crept in among them, charges them to contend for the faith, and commits them to God.

The prophecy God gave Jesus Christ to show his servants, sent to John on Patmos: seven letters, then the throne, the Lamb, judgment and all things new.