While undertaking formal Bible studies here in Sydney, I attended the myriad of seminaries. There was the Wesley Institute, SMBC, Moring College, Christ College, and the Australian College of Ministry. Phew! It was dizzying. One of the things I discovered along the way is that the Jews order the books of the Old Testament in a different way to Christian. They also do not call it the “Old” Testament since, to them, Jesus is not the Messiah of the world and, therefore, there is no “New” Testament. Consequently, they call their Bible the TaNaK, which = Law (Torah), Prophets (Neviim), and Writings (Ketuviim). The Jews also order and name the books of the Tanak differently to us. For instance, 1-2 Samuel is one book that is simply named ‘Samuel’. (It’s the same with 1-2 Kings and 1-2 Chronicles.) Many of the OT books are named differently to the way that we know them as; in fact, their monikers are actually more dynamic and inventive than the ones we call them. The flatly named ‘Numbers’ (which sounds like a mathematics textbook) is named Ba-Midbar (which means In the Wilderness) and Deuteronomy is named Devariim (which means Words). ‘Lamentations’ is actually called ‘How?!’, or ‘Alas!’ You get the idea.
The Jews, as mentioned before, also ordered the books in a different way. Rather than necessarily categorising them chronologically, as we do, they organised them more thematically. A great example of this is the book of Ruth. In our English Bibles, it is located between Judges and 1 Samuel since that makes chronological sense: Ruth is set in the dark days of Judges, we are informed. However in the Tanak Ruth is positioned after Proverbs, most likely because Ruth epitomises the godly wife described in the last chapter of Proverbs. Ruth is also a part of The Megillot (The Five Festal Scrolls), which also includes Song of Solomon, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. Each of these five short books were read by Jews to mark specific holidays.
Lamentations takes the middle position within in the Megillot because on the 9th day of the 11th month (9-11!) Jews observe Tisha B’Av, a national day of lament and solemn introspection. That is a more natural place than where it has sadly been placed in the English canon (i.e. between the giants of Jeremiah and Ezekiel). Lamentations was placed here because many wrongly assumed that Jeremiah penned it. (Jeremiah didn’t, since the author never named himself.) But the Jews seemed to have found a better place to put it in.
Then there is the New Testament. Those books were arranged in a particular, and peculiar way. Matthew’s Gospel is placed first because it was regarded as the template from which the other synoptic Gospels were written. It is also the most Jewish in flavour because of its direct and frequent quoting of the Old Testament; it has the most of Jesus’ teachings and the most deliberate attempts to parallel Jesus to Moses (e.g. the Sermon on the Mount). Mark and Luke then came second and third, respectively, since they (like Matthew) are also synoptic. But since John’s Gospel is more theological than chronological, it was wedged between the Synpotics and Acts. This is somewhat unfortunate since Luke wrote both the Gospel named after him as well as Acts; as such, Acts is meant to be read after the Gospel of Luke. But if you put Acts directly after Luke, then where does the Gospel of John slot in? It’s not an easy thing to decide, admittedly.
When it comes to the Epistles of Paul, James, Peter, Hebrews, John, Jude and Revelation these are placed where they are for various reasons. Why is Revelation placed at the end? Well, it describes the last hurrah of history, so that’s obvious enough. But why was Romans placed after Acts? Because it is the most compact, didactic, and significant theological treatise about the person and work of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. After that comes Paul’s pastoral letters of I Corinthians, II Corinthians, and the rest all the way down to Philemon. These are actually not placed in chronological order: they are placed according to the size of the letters: Romans and 1 Corinthians are both a whopping 16 chapters each while Philemon, like the lonely books of Obadiah, 3 John, and Jude, is only one chapter long … And yet despite the fact that 2 Timothy is Paul’s final swan song before he left this earth, it is not the last of his letters in the canon … Titus comes afterwards, as if the apostle is writing from the grave!
So the letters are arranged according to size. In some ways this does the reader a disservice, since Philemon (for instance) is very intimately connected with Colossians; both books name the same individuals and circumstances. Colossians is also regarded as a ‘trimmed down’ version of Ephesians, and yet Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon are all spread apart from one another.
Another issue is where the book of Hebrews fits in. Since the author, like Lamentations, is unnamed, it is somewhat a challenge to know where to place it? Hebrews is a magnificent tome of theological richness and is, to my mind, as deep as Hebrews. And yet it’s slotted in just after Philemon, the last of Paul’s letters. To me this does Hebrews, and Bible readers, a major disservice. It’s a positioning that privileges Paul and while there is absolutely nothing wrong with Paul’s writings (heaven forbid that I would ever say such a thing!) our canon treats Paul with a higher status – for want of a better word – than the other authors of holy writ. As such it can give the impression that Hebrews ‘takes a back seat’ to what Paul taught.
Considering all these issues, I have decided to write a one-year Bible reading plan albeit with a differing book order. Feel free to use it yourself and give any feedback of what you think: Nahum’s Hebraic Bible Reading Plan (PDF). It is different to what Bible readers are used to but it does so in the attempt of being more faithful to the original texts. No doubt those who first arranged the canon were doing so out of a faithful duty to honour God’s Word but the order itself is not written in cement (although the contents therein certainly are). If I know what the chronological ordering of the New Testament books are, I may order them accordingly, but this is my best effort thus far. I pray that it will help you too to walk more intimately with God.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Pastor Nahum Sennitt.
Liquørice Fjørds 