Simplified Time-line of the Old Testament

The historical narrative of the Old Testament is not uniform — sometimes the narrative flies over centuries in a few verses, sometimes it slows down and takes up a whole book to tell us about a period of thirty days. We will reap great benefits in our study of the OT if we understand this fact, and try and perceive the speed of the narrative.

The graphic below presents a global vision of the historical books of the OT (Genesis to Esther) plotted along a time-line that stretches from the Creation of the world to the birth of Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Some key events (the Flood, the Exodus, etc.) are marked in the time-line, but the main purpose of the graphic is to show the period of time occupied by each book, and the chronological relation between the books.

Correction re Neo-Babylonian chronology

Dear readers,

My family's moto, since the 13th century, has been “Veritas vincit omnia” (“Truth conquers all”). What really matters, at the end of the day, is not what I think or what I prefer, but what is right.

In this post I would like to acknowledge that I was wrong in relation to the chronology of the Neo-Babylonian period (626 to 539 B.C.). What I have presented in written and spoken ministry (mostly in Portuguese) was wrong, and even though it is a detail which will only interest a small portion of the small readership of this blog, it is a detail that, to those who mind, really matters.