The
Inspired Order of the Bible
By
Dr. Judd W. Patton, Professor of Economics
Bellevue University
The Bible contains
66 books, thirty-nine in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New
Testament. While there is no doubt or question that the Bible is complete,
the entire Word of God, nevertheless there is a question about the actual
number of books and their arrangement or order.
Would God design His Word with the mark of man on it? That is, man was
created on the sixth day of creation week. Six is the mark of man. This
theomatic design is seen throughout the Bible. Six and especially sixty-six,
which amplifies the element of man, seems, therefore, an unlikely number of
books for God to include in His Word.
Sixty-six books, however, is just a hint of a possible problem. The evidence
from the Bible itself is that there are in fact forty-nine books of the
Bible arranged in seven divisions. No scripture is lost, or added, by
counting them as God does, so don’t get shook up!
The most dramatic concern is that many of the books of the Bible have been
“scrambled,” so to speak, from the order or arrangement as originally
canonized and seen in the earliest manuscripts.
These truths may seem shocking, but they are easily proven. God has, for His
own purposes and reasons, permitted this re-arrangement to occur.
Nevertheless, the historical evidence and most importantly, the internal
evidence of the Bible itself, irrefutably demonstrate the actual number of
Bible books and the God-ordained order or sequence of those forty-nine
books.
Again, to state our conclusion up front, there are forty-nine books in seven
divisions in a God-inspired order. God has put each book in a special
position. He did not flip a coin, for example, to decide which book was to
be the final one in the Old Testament or which book was to be the first in
the New Testament! God could not have designed His Word in a haphazard
manner!
That is because God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33).
The traditional arrangement of the books of the Bible, when contrasted to
the Inspired Order, as the author likes to phrase it, will be seen as just
that – confusing. The Bible is indeed fitly joined together, God-breathed
and ordered.
Throughout this paper the author will refer to the contemporary arrangement
of the Bible that all of us are familiar with as the Traditional Order
and the original God-ordained order as the Inspired Order.
This paper seeks to demonstrate and prove this Inspired Order by letting the
Bible itself speak about its own order and principles for arrangement. When
the correct book order is restored, we’ll discover a marvelous and
eye-opening series of insights and a series of connected subjects and
organizational logic from Genesis to Revelation. All of the teachings in the
Bible become clearer and plainer.
The Influence of Jerome
The man most responsible for what became our traditional Bible of sixty-six
books was the Catholic theologian, Jerome. His Latin Vulgate translation,
written between A.D. 382 and 405, with his “new” arrangement of the books
for both the Old and New Testaments, became the standard for Protestant
scholars and translators. Of a truth once a tradition becomes established,
it is difficult to change. Yet Jerome knew better. He had a rationale, a
wrong rationale, for making these changes! Regardless, the Tradition lives
on today.
In A.D. 391 Jerome said the following, “As, then, there are twenty-two
elementary characters by means of which we write in Hebrew … so we reckon
twenty-two books, by which, as by the alphabet of the doctrine of God, a
righteous man is instructed…” 1 Yes,
Jerome understood that the Hebrew Old Testament contained 22 books
coinciding with the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, not 39. And to this
day the Jewish translations contain 22 Old Testament books. The books and
arrangement or order of the books has never been lost. Even Josephus, in
Book 1, Section 8 of his famous work, Antiquities of the Jews,
recognized “only 22 books.”
Concerning the New Testament, E.W. Bullinger in his Companion Bible made
this bold statement: “Our English Bibles follow the order as given in
the Latin Vulgate. This order, therefore, depends on the arbitrary judgment
of one man, Jerome. All theories based on this order rest on human
authority, and are thus without any true foundation.”
2 Dr. Bullinger has hit the nail on the head!
The scholar, now deceased, who has done the most research, in the author’s
assessment, on the issue of Bible book order, is Earnest Martin. His 1994
book entitled, Restoring the Original Bible, is the most systemic,
documented, referenced and scholarly work on the Inspired Order of the
Bible. It’s available for $24 from his Web site:
http://www.askelm.com.
Now, while Jerome is the primary figure responsible for the Traditional
arrangement of the books of the Bible, there is more to the historical
story. Earnest Martin details other “players” besides Jerome. Briefly,
sometime in the second or third centuries A.D., the Septuagint version of
the Bible, a Greek translation of the Old Testament, was put into book form
by Egyptian Christians, replacing the twenty-two separate and independent
scrolls of the Hebrew Bible. Simultaneously they abandoned the Hebrew order
of the books or scrolls as maintained at the Temple, and rearranged the
books into a more subject-oriented or topical arrangement.
3
That is, they grouped the historical books together (Genesis
through Esther). Then the poetic books were placed together (Job,
Psalms and Proverbs) followed by the poetic
works of Solomon (Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon).
Finally, the prophetic books were grouped together (Isaiah
through Malachi).
Check it out in your own Bibles. Perhaps some Bible students were unaware of
this organizational three-part rationale for this Traditional Bible book
order - historical, poetic and prophetic?
Jerome was well aware of both the Hebrew Bible order and the relatively new
Septuagint book order in his day. 4 He had a
choice to make. What should he do for his own translation? Well, he decided
to use the Septuagint order in his Latin Vulgate version of the Bible. The
rest is history, as the saying goes!
The point is that while Judaism did not lose the original Bible arrangement
of twenty-two books, Christianity did, primarily through the influence of
the Catholic theologian Jerome. Again, the Protestant translators, with few
exceptions, relied on the Latin Vulgate version of Jerome in their
translations and thereby the Protestant world lost the original book order.
Christ’s Comment on the Hebrew Scriptures
The whole issue about the arrangement of Bible books in the Old Testament is
easily resolved. Did Christ reveal His inspired order? Indeed He did!
Turn to Luke 24:44-45. “Then He said to them, ‘These are the words which I
spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled
which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and
the Psalms concerning me.’ And He opened their understanding, that
they might comprehend the scriptures.”
Christ identified the three great divisions of the Old Testament Hebrew
Scriptures in this New Testament passage. The Divisions consist of the
Law (also called the Torah or Pentateuch), the Prophets, and the
Writings. The latter section begins with the book of Psalms and has
also been identified in Judaism as the Hagiographa, meaning inspired
writings. It became known as the Royal Division since it was written by
kings, under the inspiration of God, of course, for priestly rulers and
leadership instruction.
See Table 1 of this three-part order or divisions at the conclusion of this
paper. Readers are encouraged to refer to the Inspired Order while studying
the next section.
The Law, Prophets and the Writings
Romans 3:2 states that, “Unto them (the Jews) were committed the oracles of
God.” Yes, they were God’s instruments in preserving the Old Testament
scriptures, and what they have preserved are twenty-two books, from the
twenty-two original scrolls. Let’s review these books.
The First Division is the Law consisting of Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. As an interesting
side-note, the original Hebrew titles of these books were taken from the
first verse of each book. Thus the real God-inspired book titles are: “In
the Beginning,” “These are the Names,” “The Lord Called,”
“In the Wilderness,” and “These are the Words.”
5
Read these book titles as a sentence. Interesting, isn’t it? The titles give
a good sense of the content and God’s purpose for the Torah. The Traditional
titles, by contrast, that we have become accustomed to are the Greek titles
originating from the Septuagint version, translated into Latin and English
thereafter.
The Second Division of the Old Testament is the Prophets. It consists
of only six books, though there may seem to be many more than that! The
first book is Joshua - Judges. It is counted as two separate books by
Traditional reckoning but only as one in the Hebrew Inspired Order. The
second book consists of 1&2 Samuel -1&2 Kings. It is one book or
scroll known historically as the Book of Kingdoms. Together these two books
are known as the Former Prophets because they are the upfront or
first books in the Division.
The next three books, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, are
called the Major Prophets because they are larger in size or contain
more pages than the books of the Minor Prophets, not because of
importance. Lastly, the Minor Prophets are one book in Hebrew but
consist of twelve prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah,
Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Together,
and in that historical, chronological order, they contain roughly the same
number of pages as any one of the Major Prophets.
It’s also important to distinguish the Latter Prophets, which refer
to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve books of the Minor Prophets,
from the Former Prophets, Joshua-Judges and the Book of
Kingdoms.
Finally, the Third Division, according to Christ as recorded in Luke 24:44
and in Hebrew tradition, is the Psalms, the first book of the
division and undoubtedly the reason Christ used it rather than the
“Writings” appellation. All books within this division were composed by
kings and leaders like David, Solomon, Daniel, Nehemiah, Ezra and Hezekiah
and written for kings and priestly rulers. Again, these books contains
leadership principles.
The Hagiographa consists, then, of eleven books in three
sub-categories. These categories include three Poetic or Wisdom books (Psalms,
Proverbs and Job); five Festival Books also called the Megillot (Song
of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther); and three
Restoration Books (Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and 1&2 Chronicles).
Count them, please! There are a total of eleven books in the Writings
Division with Ezra-Nehemiah counted as one book and 1&2 Chronicles
counted as one book.
The five Megillot (meaning scroll) books, as they were called in Hebrew,
were designated by Ezra to be read on specific Festival or commemorative
days. That is, the Song of Solomon was to be read on the
Passover. Ruth was to be read on the Feast of Weeks or
Pentecost. Lamentations was to be read on the tenth day of the
month Ab (in August) commemorating the destruction of Solomon’s Temple.
Ecclesiastes was to be read on the Feast of Tabernacles, and
Esther was to be read on the Feast of Purim. 6
Understanding Ezra’s directive adds context for the meaning of these annual
Festivals or Feast days (see Leviticus 23), these commemorative days (Temple
destruction and Purim), and for the books themselves!
There is also a distinct feminine aspect of note to the Megillot books that
is significant and readily apparent 7. The
Song of Solomon is about a woman who wishes to court King Solomon or be
courted by him. Ruth is the grandmother of King David and the events
surrounding her experience relate to the meaning of the Feast of Weeks or
Pentecost. Lamentations is written in a style of a mother weeping for
her children who have been destroyed. Ecclesiastes deals with wisdom
and understanding which are feminine attributes, and Esther is about
Queen Esther and her role in saving her nation of Judah from destruction.
All of the Holy Day and feminine aspects to these five books are lost when
the books are scattered and dispersed in our Traditional arrangement of the
Old Testament. If God indeed placed these five Megillot books together and
inspired Ezra to have them read on specific Festival occasions, which the
author is convinced He did, then clearly knowledge and insights are lost by
dispersing them throughout the Old Testament.
Quick Comparison
Let’s notice some of the similarities and differences between the
Traditional 39 books and the Inspired Order of 22 books. First, the
similarities: the Law is the same in both orders – Genesis through
Deuteronomy, or perhaps more correctly stated as, In the Beginning
through These Are the Words. Joshua-Judges is the same in both orders
positioned after Deuteronomy, though split into two books by the Traditional
Order. Likewise, each book within the Minor Prophets are in the same order
from Hosea to Malachi, but they are positioned or pulled as a group to the
end of the Old Testament and counted as eleven separate books instead of
reckoned as one book in the Inspired Order.
Beyond those similarities, Jerome’s Septuagint-inspired order really
scatters the remainder of the books. The Restoration books are pulled
forward and split up with 1 & 2 Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah
positioned after 2 Kings, while Daniel is positioned just before the
Minor Prophets. The Megillot books are widely dispersed, with Ruth
and Esther placed in the Traditional Historical division,
Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon are grouped together after Proverbs in
the Traditional Poetic division while Lamentations, authored by
Jeremiah, is placed within the Major Prophets after the book of Jeremiah.
Finally, the Inspired Order poetic books are rearranged so that Job precedes
Psalms and Proverbs.
Such are some of the differences caused by replacing the Law, Prophets and
Psalms divisions in the original Inspired Order of the Bible with three new
groupings of the Traditional order: Historical, Poetic and Prophetic books.
With these changes came a loss of spiritual understanding. That’s our point!
Asking why Malachi, for example, is the last book of the Bible is a nonsense
question. Obtaining an answer is really nonsense! Failure to grasp the
Festival nature of the five Megillot books, for example, really limits and
hides knowledge contained within these books. These examples just indicate
the “tip of the iceberg” of the loss of meaning and confusion caused by the
Septuagint-inspired order adopted by Jerome. Stayed tuned!
Fitly Joined Together: Insights Derived from the
Inspired Order
Let’s notice two examples. First, the Inspired Order is Psalms, Proverbs,
and Job. It is not Job, Psalms, and Proverbs! Proverbs concludes
with Chapter 31 about the virtuous woman. Then Job begins with
righteous, upright Job (Job 1:1). What a perfect and logical lead into the
book of Job and the theme of becoming righteous before God. This fit is lost
in the Traditional Order.
What is the last book of the Old Testament? It’s Chronicles, not Malachi.
The book of Chronicles focuses on the lives and reigns of the
righteous line of King David, that is, the Kings of Judah: David, Solomon,
Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Yet it ends without getting
to the King of kings, the King of the Jews, the only truly righteous King,
Jesus Christ.
That is where Matthew picks up the incomplete Davidic line by detailing the
genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David. In Matthew 2:2 he identifies
Christ as “King of the Jews.” What a beautiful fit! It doesn’t exist with
Malachi as the last book of the Old Testament.
Also, notice how 2 Chronicles 36:23, the last verse of the Old Testament,
correlates with and is the perfect lead into New Testament theology. That
is, Cyrus, a type of Christ, was given all power (Matthew 28:18) and was
commanded to build a house or spiritual temple. That is precisely what
Christ is now doing, building the New Testament Church and Temple of God. Is
there any question that Chronicles is the last book of the Old Testament?
New Testament Order
There is very little argument about the order of the twenty-seven books of
the New Testament. To quote Dr. Bullinger once again, “Our English
Bibles follow the order as given in the Latin Vulgate. All theories based on
this order rest on human authority.” That’s right, on the authority
of Jerome!
Scholars generally recognize four Divisions in the New Testament, though
some suggest five sections by letting Acts stand alone as a separate
division. The four Divisions are: The Gospels and Acts, the
General Epistles, the Pauline Epistles, and the Book of
Revelation. Please notice these Divisions in Table 2 at the end of this
paper.
There are just two basic questions to answer about the New Testament order.
Do the General Epistles come before or after Paul’s epistles? And secondly,
where does the book of Hebrews fit, as the tenth book within Paul’s
Epistles, or as the final book, i.e., the fourteenth? The answers are not
difficult to obtain.
In virtually all the early manuscripts the General Epistles precede the
Pauline letters or books. The General epistles consist of seven books:
James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude. And the
fourteen books of Paul include Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians,
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2
Thessalonians, Hebrews, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon.
Here is what Jerome did for his Latin Vulgate version. It is so easy to
understand his reasoning.
He left Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts in place, along with
Revelation as the last book of the Bible. He simply “pulled,” as a
group, the seven General Epistles down below Paul’s letters. And then he
“pulled” Hebrews down to be the final or 14th book of Paul’s letters.
His rationale was simply to enhance or give preeminence to Paul as the
Apostle to the Gentiles and to diminish or reduce the Jewish apostles and
simultaneously downgrade Jerusalem relative to Rome. 8
After all, Jerome was an early Roman Catholic.
It’s just that simple!
Notice the conclusion of Biblical scholar Dr. Scrivener who analyzed over
4,000 New Testament manuscripts: “Whether copies contain the whole or
a part of the sacred volume, the general order of the books is the
following: Gospels, Acts, Catholic Epistles, Pauline Epistles, Apocalypse.”
9 Catholic, of course, refers to general or
universal books, not the Catholic Church. These General Letters were not
written to specific congregations but were written by the “Jewish” apostles
James, Peter, John, and Jude. Jude was a half brother of Jesus.
Quick summary: There are twenty-seven books of the New Testament and
twenty-two Old Testament books. Do the math. The Bible contains a grand
total of forty-nine books. Forty-nine is seven times seven, reflecting
completeness. Moreover, there are a total of seven Divisions within the
Bible: The Law, Prophets, Writings, Gospels and Acts, General Epistles,
Pauline Epistles, and Revelation. That seems reasonable and complete too,
with seven, the Biblical number of completeness as God finished His work on
the seventh day of creation, the Sabbath (Genesis 2:1-3).
Logic of the New Testament Order
There is an obvious logic to the New Testament Inspired Order that is easy
to spot, especially by any teacher. It is organized in a systematic manner
from basic or elementary subjects and doctrines to the “weightier matters”
and deeper understanding of Christian doctrine. As the apostle Paul might
put it, “From the milk of the Word to the meat of the Word.” This
progressive doctrinal approach would not be true in the Traditional order.
Quite the contrary as will be seen.
Using an education analogy, 10 the Gospels and
Acts can be likened to elementary school. These five books reveal
fundamental Christian Principles as well as the life and works of Christ.
Matthew emphasizes Christ as King while Mark’s theme is Christ as servant.
Luke emphasizes Christ as Man while John’s theme is Christ as God.
The General Epistles represent or can be likened to the high school level.
The General Epistles deal with faith (James), hope (1 &2
Peter) and love (John). James teaches how to live as a Christian, and
Jude concludes the General Epistles by admonishing Christians to contend for
the faith once delivered.
Paul’s Epistles, from Romans through Hebrews, can be likened to college
level work. Here we see the ABC’s and XYZ’s of Christian doctrine in detail
and depth. Romans focuses on the basic doctrines of repentance, faith,
baptism, laying on of hands, resurrection from the dead, and eternal
judgment. Hebrews however is for mature Christians going on to perfection by
building on the foundational principles covered in the immediately preceding
epistles. Lastly, Paul’s pastoral epistles of 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus and
Philemon, a clear sub-group of Paul’s letters, can be likened to Master’s
level studies in leadership instruction for Christians.
Finally, the Book of Revelation has to be at the Ph.D. level of education
with all its symbolism and prophetic utterances. Moreover, it brings the
Bible to a conclusion with end time events, the return of Christ and the New
Jerusalem.
By contrast in the Traditional order, Paul’s Epistles are positioned before
the General Epistles. Notice, though, in 2 Peter 3:16, Peter tells us that
Paul’s epistles contain subject matter that is “hard to understand.” Thus
the “hard matters” are positioned before the more basic exposition of love,
faith and hope. No teacher would approach any subject or discipline in this
manner!
Principle: “To the Jew First”
There is a second reason why the General Epistles must be positioned before
Paul’s epistles. In Romans 1:16, Paul states that the gospel of Christ is,
“the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek.” Likewise, in Acts 13:46 we see Paul and Barnabas
telling the Jews that, “It was necessary that the Word of God should first
have been spoken to you, but seeing you put it from you…we turn to the
Gentiles.”
Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13), but he always went to
the Jews first whenever he taught (Acts 11:19; 13:14; 14:1; 17:1,10; 18:4;
19:8; 28:17). 11 Even Christ Himself sent His
twelve disciples (apostles) to the Jews first. In Matthew 10:5-6 Christ
commanded the twelve, “Go not into the way of the Gentiles…but go rather to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Surely God had and has an order or priority in preaching the gospel, just
has he had in designing His Word. He is consistent. Thus one would expect
the precept “To the Jew first” to be seen in the Inspired Order of the books
of the Bible as well. And that is exactly what we discover!
That is, the General Epistles were authored by James, Peter, John and Jude
who were commissioned to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God to the
Jewish people, as Galatians 2:9 shows. Therefore, the epistles of these
Jewish apostles must precede Paul’s epistles, the apostle to the Gentiles.
Notice the contrast of the Inspired Order verses the Traditional order.
The very first verse of the book of James validates the principle of going
to the Jews first: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to
the twelve tribes scattered abroad, greeting.” But Paul’s greeting in
Romans, his first book begins with, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called
to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God…to all that be in Rome”
(Romans 1:1,6). To place Paul’s epistles prior to the General Epistles is to
clearly contradict the Biblical principle of “To the Jew first.” The
Traditional Order of the Bible by Jerome therefore follows the unbiblical
proposition “To the Gentles or Romans first.”
Principle: Eldership and Rank
There is yet another reason that the Bible demands that the General Epistles
come before Paul’s Epistles. It is the principle of eldership and rank.
12 In Galatians 2:9 we find that James, Peter and
John were the pillar apostles. Yet in 1 Corinthians 15:9 Paul identifies
himself as “the least of the apostles” because he persecuted the Church of
God. It would be a contradiction to place the works of “the least apostle”
before the works of “pillar apostles.” Eldership and rank demand otherwise.
God, nevertheless, honored Paul by using him to author the most books in the
New Testament, fourteen.
Conclusion: Paul’s Epistles must follow the General Epistles based on
Biblical evidence and precept, let alone the historical evidence. The
principles of: (1) eldership and rank, (2) to the Jew first, and (3) “milk
to meat” progressive doctrinal teaching are sufficient to establish this
truth.
Book of Hebrews
Another truth that is readily established is that the book of Hebrews should
not be positioned as the last book of the Paul’s epistles, and thus the book
that precedes the General Epistles. Why?
The historical record, Dr. Bullinger informs us, is that, “In the best
and oldest Codices, Hebrews follows 2 Thessalonians instead of Philemon.”
13 Again, the Bible itself removes any doubt.
The first seven books of Paul expound the ABC’s and XYZ’s of Christian
theology, Romans through Colossians. These letters were written to six
specific churches with the Corinthians receiving two letters. The seventh
church letter, the eighth and ninth of Paul’s fourteen, is Thessalonians,
which also gets two letters apiece. It is interesting that the letters of
the seventh church area address end-time events (1 Thessalonians
4:13-17 and 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3).
Bible students know that Christ will return at the seventh trumpet.
“Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were voices in heaven,
saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and
of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’” (Revelation 11:15).
After Christ returns to the earth, He reigns forever, but He reigns for a
thousand years before the second resurrection (Revelation 20:5).
Interestingly, in the book of Hebrews the millennium is addressed. Paul
speaks of “the world to come” in Hebrews 2:5, the millennial rest in Chapter
4, the New Covenant in Chapter 8, and in Hebrews 11:16 the City of God, the
New Jerusalem.
The millennium, of course, follows the end-times or latter days and the
return of Christ. Likewise, the Feast of Tabernacles (picturing the 1000
year reign of Christ) follows the Feast of Trumpets as seen in Leviticus 23.
Let’s connect the dots. 1 & 2 Thessalonians, covering the doctrine of the
end-times and the second coming of Christ, must logically precede the book
dealing with the millennium - Hebrews! Hebrews, therefore, follows 2
Thessalonians without a doubt.
Jerome should not have let his prejudice for Rome and Gentiles over Jews
prevail in his Latin Vulgate translation by pulling Hebrews to the end of
Paul’s books.
Once this order is recognized, another small but significant insight
emerges. Paul introduces Timothy in the last few verses of Hebrews. “Know
that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you
if he comes shortly. Greet all those who rule over you, and all the
saints.”
The first letter to Timothy is the book that follows Hebrews in the Inspired
Order. Thus Paul introduces the young minister Timothy at the end of Hebrews
and even leads into the book’s purpose of ministerial leadership principles
and proper rulership. This fit does not occur when Hebrews is shifted to the
end of Paul’s books, i.e., after Philemon.
One final point, the last four books of Paul’s epistles, known as the
pastoral epistles, are: 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon.
They obviously go together as books providing ministerial instruction. These
four books of the Bible provide information on church government,
encouragement to maintain pure doctrine, and principles to be effective
leaders in the congregations of God. They are fitly joined together in
purpose. By contrast the book of Hebrews is doctrinal in nature, not
pastoral. Here is another proof that it does not belong as the last book of
the Pauline epistles, as the Traditional Order maintains.
Conclusion
There is indeed an Inspired Order of the books of the Bible. Historical and
Biblical evidence reveals that there are forty-nine books divided into seven
divisions. These divisions are the Law, Prophets, Writings, Gospels and
Acts, General Epistles, Paul’s Epistles and Revelation.
The Traditional order of sixty-six books owes its origin to the ideas and
prejudices of Jerome contained in his Latin Vulgate translation. Jerome’s
arrangement of the books of the Bible, as shown in this paper, are contrary
to the historical record and Biblical precepts that God gives us in His
Word.
Earnest Martin had it right: “All the teachings in the Bible become clearer
and plainer when the Biblical books are placed back in their correct order.
It is truly amazing what the books of the Bible have to tell us when we read
the Holy Scriptures in the context that was first intended by God and those
who officially canonized the Bible.” 14
It’s time to recognize this truth and reject a tradition of man. Any
publishers who want to break with an erroneous tradition and publish the
Bible in the God-ordained Inspired Order?
Table 1 Inspired Order of the Old Testament: |
Table 2 Inspired Order of the New Testament: |

(Click image to enlarge) |

(Click image to enlarge) |
Endnotes
___________________________
1 Earnest Martin, Restoring the Original Bible
(Ann Arbor, Michigan: ASK Publications, 1994), p. 20.
2 E.W. Bullinger, The Companion Bible (Grand
Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1974), p. 139 (Appendix).
3 Martin, Restoring the Original Bible, pp.
17-18.
4 For additional proof and quotes from numerous Bible
scholars, see Chapter 1 of Martin’s book.
5 The Introductory remarks of the New King James
Bible also point out this relatively unknown fact about the Hebrew titles of the
books of the Torah (Law).
6 Martin, Restoring the Original Bible, pp.
477-478.
7 Ibid., pp. 130-131.
8 Ibid., pp. 9-10.
9 Ibid., p.8.
10 I owe this analogy to Earnest Martin.
11 Martin, Restoring the Original Order, pp.
346-347.
12 Ibid., pp. 348-350.
13 Bullinger, The Companion Bible, p. 139
(Appendix).
14 Martin, Restoring the Original Bible, p.6.
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