A Chonological Bible

For those who have never read much of the Bible, it can come as a surprise that the order of the books in the Bible do not have much to do with when they were chronologically written. True, Genesis comes first and Revelations comes last, but many of Paul's epistles were written in the midst of the action chronicles in Acts. Well, one scholar is looking to give us a different view of scripture by publishing a Bible that is arranged chronologically. Of course, not all Bible scholars agree, but I can see it being a useful tool for study.

So, for example, whole sections of Isaiah and Nehemiah are reordered to better reflect an accurate historical timeline; the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are merged into one based on Mark's chronology; and some of St. Paul's letters (which traditionally appear later in the New Testament) are woven into the Book of Acts.

Some biblical scholars, however, aren't buying the idea.

"I would say, generally speaking, that scholars would have no interest at all," said Pat Graham, a professor at Emory University in Atlanta. "What it ends up being is something that laypersons find helpful — or would think it would be helpful. Any biblical studies expert worth their salt would not have much interest in this at all, except as kind of a curiosity."