The Baptist Confession of Faith
Of The Holy Scriptures
Chapter 1 Paragraph 2
25 January 2026
Under the name of Holy Scripture, or the Word of God written, are now contained all the books of the Old and New Testaments, which are these:
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OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
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OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
All of which are given by the inspiration of God, to be the rule of faith and life.
The second paragraph of the first chapter of the Baptist Confession deals with the 66 books in the Bible. So, what we're going to be doing in the time that we have today is working out from a chronological order of the history from the Old Testament to the New where each of these books in the Bible fits into that history. So, if you're ever wondering when you're maybe reading through the Bible or you're going through parts of the minor prophets or some of the letters in the New Testament, where does this fit in in the grand scheme of the Old Testament story arc or at what point in the New Testament with Peter, Paul and others does this fit in? Well, this is what we're going to be aiming to do in these minutes. So, we're going to start right from the beginning and we'll go all the way to the book of Revelation.
Now a couple of other quick points to make. You've got a sheet in front of you and you can write down some notes there as well, but like I say, the transcript will be available. But you can, if you want to, tick when you hear a book in the Bible being mentioned to see if any is left out by the end of it. And after that, we'll take a short time to have discussion and then hopefully we'll be able to fit in a little bit of time to pray at the end.
So, we're going to go right back to the beginning. And we have the words in the beginning, not simply in the book of Genesis, but also in John Chapter 1. So, this is a reference to before time began, that which is the eternal time of God being the one who is the author of time, the one who is above and beyond all things. And we also have mentioned at the very beginning, of the Word which is Jesus Christ who is the Son of God. There's also reference in Colossians Chapter 1 verse 7 that He is before all things and we've also seen mention of this in Hebrews.
It's also worth noting that in Genesis 1:2 the Spirit of God is present before the creation of the world and so before time began, we have the existence of the triune God, in perfect harmony, one God in three persons. Now this is where it takes us to then the beginning of time itself and we would very clearly and emphatically teach that the earth is a few thousand years old as we trace it back to the beginning of Genesis. Being specific as to how many thousand years to six to ten thousand can be somewhat debated depending on the very beginning part. But this is something that we base on the beginning of the Bible in the book of Genesis. And so, when it comes to the very early parts of history, it's especially difficult to give precise dates. Now I should probably let you know that when I first put something like this together, I did try to be quite precise with dates. And I sent this to a couple of Bible scholars who were quite expert in this and they said the dates were pretty horrible so I'm going to be more vague with the dates and just give you a rough timeline on that front because it is difficult to pinpoint but around about the 6000 to 4000 BC that sort of time frame we have the very early parts of Genesis where there's not only the account of God's creation but the existence of the first created beings We have mention of Adam and Eve and then the fall of man and then what takes place after that.
Then we go to round about the kind of 6(000) to 4(000) to 2500 BC when we have the initial genealogy that begins from Adam and it works its way through to Noah. And this contains hundreds and hundreds of years of history in the early parts of Genesis and the great flood is quite a marked point in the history of humanity. That's when we see God's wrath being poured out against the world's sinful rebellion and only Noah and his family are the survivors with the animals who are on the ark. And that's where we have God's rainbow promise that's given.
Now, then we get to around about the 2500 to the 2100 BC and another crucial point in the early stages of Genesis is in Genesis Chapter 10, where we have the Table of Nations. So, this is a list of 70 nations that stem from Noah's three sons. So, there is Shem, Japheth, and Ham, who have all, and Ham particularly, who sinned against his father. And it's worth noting that the line of Shem is what eventually takes us to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now Ham's youngest son is called Canaan, and this genealogy, this line was to be in servitude to the other two groups as Canaan lost its land to the Hebrews which is why we have the land of Canaan and that being given to God's people.
Now each of these lines are quite worth noting because consequent generations that follow lead us to the existence of different groups and nations that exist today. So, for example the people that stem from Shem can mainly be found in the areas of Central Asia. For Japheth, that would be Europe and elsewhere. And for Ham, that would mainly be the region of North Africa. So, you can actually date some of this back to the very beginning parts of the table of nations in Genesis Chapter 10, which is quite interesting.
Around about 2100 BC-ish, we have the suffering of Job. And this would be where the book of Job would fit in. Now we can't exactly date precisely, but we do see that the flood is mentioned as past tense in Job Chapter 22 verse 16. So, we can be pretty clear that the events of Job take place after this. The customs of the people in the book of Job are consistent with a time period prior to Abraham, which is during ancient times. So we can sort of fit it in after the flood before Abraham. We also have examples of Job sacrificing to God as the head of the family and that's something that happened certainly before Moses time.
Now as we move on, we then have round about the time of the Tower of Babel in Genesis Chapter 11 where we have mankind trying to unite together to build a big tower, where they're trying to become gods themselves. And again, we see God thwarting that, confusing them with other languages. And this is when people really spread out throughout the entire world. Now this would include even regions as far as places like China. If you were to study the dynasties of China, it can date back, if you count it back to the time of Genesis 10 and particularly Genesis Chapter 11. So, the table of nations, the Tower of Babel - these are quite important and very interesting and fascinating points of very early history where some groups that exist, some nations that exist today, their history can be traced back to those points.
Then we get to round about 2090 BC to 1800 BC and this is where having dealt with so much that impacts much of the world's history, we then narrow it right down to see God calling Abraham, and issuing his covenant promise that he's going to have a son, an offspring that will be numerous, as numerous as the stars in the sky, which is something we see mentioned in Genesis 15:5 and elsewhere.
Also worth noting in that time, Abraham also initially has a son to a slave girl called Hagar, and their son is called Ishmael, and this begins the line that takes us to the modern-day Arabs and the formation also of Islam and its history.
Abraham's nephew Lot parts from Abraham and that occupies Sodom and Gomorrah before it's destroyed and we see that Lot is rescued and he fathers sons to his daughters, two groups that we considered this morning, which is the Moabites and the Ammonites.
We also have Abraham's promised son Isaac having two sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob is blessed by the aging Isaac and this will continue that line which will eventually take us to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The other son Esau has a line again which we considered this morning which is the Edomites and they're certainly a sinful people that will continue to be enemies of the people of Israel.
Israel itself is then formed from Jacob who is renamed Israel and he will have 12 sons, which will later on be renamed the 12 Tribes of Israel.
Now when the 10 older brothers leave their younger brother Joseph for dead, we then see that Joseph is sold into slavery and this is what eventually leads to Joseph and then all of the family being in Egypt. And they spend hundreds of years in Egypt. Initially it's a blessed time. and we see that they are fruitful and multiply and this one family of around about 70 people soon becomes a multitude of thousands and thousands and thousands and this is what leads to the Israelites in Egypt multiplying to the point where a new Pharaoh is not happy by their presence and so they're persecuted they're enslaved in Egypt and we date this to around about maybe 1539 BC to round about 1446 BC roughly, where the ten plagues are sent against the people of Egypt and God has called Moses to go back to redeem and rescue that people and they are eventually led out of Egypt and they are headed to the promised land. This promised land which was promised back to Abraham in the book of Genesis. But they spend 40 years in the wilderness. So not only do we have this recorded in the book of Exodus, but also there are the recordings of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, which contain the giving of the law and an account of Israel's time when they are in this wilderness period.
Then you get to 1499 to around about 1406 BC, when we have Joshua, who is then called. He is called to be the one who succeeds Moses and that will be the time when the people of Israel are led across the river Jordan and into the promised land.
Then following that time, we have the death of Joshua and then there is the time of the judges. So, in those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his eyes. That's Judges 21:25. And during this time, round about that period is when we have the Book of Ruth fitting into the historical timeline round about after the account of Gideon and the Midianites in Judges 6 to 8. However, it's worth noting that Judges and Ruth were likely written a good few hundred years maybe a couple of, yeah, a good few hundred years after that it would have actually taken place.
Then we get to maybe roughly 1200 to 1100 BC to round about 900 BC. And this is where we have first of all Samuel being born. This is after the judges, now we have Samuel being born. And 50 years after he is born, the Israelites, they demand a king. And this is where we see King Saul, Israel's first king, being anointed. And then after a time where he is obeying the Lord, he falls, and David is then anointed to be the king. And David is the great-grandson of Ruth and her husband Boaz is also part of this line of Jesus, which if we think back to Abraham and before that, we're continuing that line which will take us to the Lord Jesus.
Now the accounts in 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles, they record the account of King Saul and King David. And during this period of time, many of the Psalms were written around about the period, especially when David would have been alive. Then David is succeeded by Solomon, one of his sons, who becomes the next king of Israel. And Solomon is the one who is believed to have written Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. So that's where these three books fit in. King Solomon also built the temple in probably 966 BC.
Now when we get to 931 BC to around about 586 BC, this is when we see this once united kingdom of Israel dividing into two. So, at the time after Solomon has died, the king of Israel moves in a very sinful direction. And we see that the Israelites rebel against Rehoboam, who is Solomon's son. And this results in Rehoboam being left with the southern part of Israel, which is now the Kingdom of Judah, the southern kingdom, which consists of two and a half tribes of Israel. And then this rebel Jeroboam, he becomes the king of the northern part, the Northern Kingdom, which is known as Israel, which is the remaining nine and a half tribes. And from 930 BC onwards, we've got these two historical accounts of the reign of two kings, one after the other after the other, of these two kingdoms. There is Israel in the north and there is Judah in the south.
Now Israel in the north, it had many kings in the subsequent centuries until 721 BC when they're taken captive by the Assyrian Empire. Now the accounts of the kings of Judah, that continues to the line of Jesus Christ, hence why we have the phrase about Jesus the lion of Judah. But the line of kings, that continues until Judah is taken captive by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Now during this time where we have the kings in the northern kingdom, the kings in the southern kingdom, is where many of these other Old Testament books fit in. So many prophets spoke God's word against the divided kingdom. In the north in Israel, we have Jonah prophesying to Nineveh, so that's where Jonah fits in around about 721 BC before then. We also have Amos and Hosea. They also speak and prophesy against Israel, especially in preparation for the pending exile caused by the Assyrians. And also, Obadiah and Joel also prophesied to Judah at this time. So, we've got Obadiah and Joel prophesying to Judah.
Now during the fall of Israel, the northern kingdom to the Assyrians at 721 BC, Isaiah prophesied to the southern kingdom that they would fall to the Babylonians but that there would ultimately be a restoration of that kingdom which will be fulfilled by Jesus Christ coming. Also, at the time of the Assyrian reign of Israel after they've exiled after 721 BC Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah prophesy in Judah, the southern kingdom. And the accounts before the fall of Judah to the Babylonians are also recorded in 1st and 2nd Kings and also in 2nd Chronicles.
Then we get to 586 BC to 516 BC and this is the time of the Babylonians. The Babylonians had defeated the Assyrians; remember they had struck down the northern kingdom. And their pending capture of Judah during that time is when a young prophet by the name of Jeremiah speaks against Judah. And it's also believed that during the destruction of Jerusalem, that at this time, Jeremiah also wrote the words of lament in the Book of Lamentations. So, during that time period. Also, the prophet Ezekiel was also alive during the time of captivity of the people of Israel and he also was captured along with the prophet Daniel as well that we have fitting into this chronology. So, Jeremiah and Daniel they prophesied about the deliverance of the people of Israel after 70 years of the Babylonian reign. And also, during this time the prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesied after the fall of Jerusalem against the sinfulness of God's people and about their pending return to the promised land.
Now this is where we come to the final part of the Old Testament history, 516 BC to around about 400 BC. So, this is after the Babylonian time and this is when the people of Israel are delivered from having been in exile and they're returning back to the promised land. So, in 515 BC roughly, the temple is rebuilt. And during this period of history, the post-exilic accounts of Ezra and Nehemiah take place. Ezra records the accounts of this priest who led a group of Judean exiles out of Babylon before reintroducing the Torah in the temple. And Nehemiah then follows Ezra from this account recording the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem in support of the city's dedication to God's law. And also, during this period there's the account of the life of Esther who becomes the queen of Persia and she faithfully stops an evil plan to wipe out the people of Israel which is also crucial which will take us eventually to the coming of Jesus Christ.
Then finally, around about 430 BC, the prophet Malachi comes, who once again prophesies against the waning of the people's commitment to God, despite their return once more from exile. And this is the final and last account, last book in the Old Testament.
We then have a period where there is no inspired scripture of around about 400 years. And then we come to the New Testament, which should be a bit more familiar. But first of all, round about 6 to 4 BC, we have John the Baptist being born, and then we have the Lord Jesus being born. There's Magi who visit, the baby Jesus is with his parents, and then they go to Egypt, spend time there, and then eventually return to Nazareth. And the gospels of Matthew and Luke, they record the birth narratives.
Now when we get to around about 8 AD, this is where we have the account of Jesus as a boy in the temple in the Gospel of Luke. And then when we get to 26 to 30 AD, this is where we begin the ministry of the Lord Jesus being recorded in all the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. So 26 AD we have John the Baptist preparing the way, and Jesus is baptized. Then in 27 AD, we have Jesus calling his first disciples to follow him. Also, we have accounts of the wedding at Cana, which is one of the first recorded miracle in John 2. We have Jesus’ teaching Nicodemus in John 3. We also have the encountering of the Samaritan woman in John 4. And then we also have the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7. These are all the earliest recorded accounts of Jesus' earthly ministry.
Roughly 28 AD, many of the parables of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 13 and Mark 4, as well as a number of special healings which would have taken place, including the feeding of the 5,000. Also at this time, John the Baptist is beheaded in Mark 6. When we get to 29 AD, we have Peter confessing that Jesus is the Christ. in Matthew 16, Mark 8 and Luke 9 and more of Jesus' teaching to the disciples and the crowds take place then. We get to 30 AD, Jesus is speaking more parables, Luke 12 to 16, He raises Lazarus from the dead in John 11 and then we come to the account of Jesus' final week on this earth. The triumphal entry into Jerusalem which leads to His death on the cross and then three days later Jesus rises from the dead and all four gospels account for this in great detail with some different angles being given.
Then we get to 30 to 40 AD, Jesus ascends to go to heaven and then we have the Book of Acts where the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples who are the apostles and the early church begins to form and it grows rapidly. The church is then persecuted for its faith led by a man named Saul, which results in the first Christian being martyred, which is Stephen in Acts 7. This man, Saul, is then converted. He's renamed Paul, and Paul and Peter, they begin to preach to the Gentiles and increasingly continuously to the Jews in Acts 10 to 11. During this time, in a roughly 45 AD., the letter of James is written. So, it's one of the earliest letters that is written. In 48 AD, we have Paul going on his first missionary journey accompanied by Barnabas. Paul ministers in Pisidia, Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe in Acts 13 to 14. Then in 49 AD, Paul goes on his second missionary journey, which includes journeying to Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea and Athens in Acts 15 to 17. Then in 51 AD, Paul goes to Corinth and also writes to the people in Thessalonica and this is where we have 1 Thessalonians being written. 52 AD, Paul writes another letter to the same people, 2 Thessalonians. Paul visits Ephesus in 54 AD, that's when he writes 1 Corinthians and Galatians. Then in 57 AD, he visits Macedonia and Greece and also writes Romans and 2 Corinthians. 59 to 60 AD, Paul then returns to Jerusalem and he's then imprisoned in Caesarea, which is the account we find in Acts 21 to 24. Then 62 to 63 AD, Paul is facing these many trials. He then sails to Rome before being shipwrecked and during this period in the latter stages of Acts, this is when he would have written Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and 1 Timothy.
64 AD Peter wrote 1 Peter. 66 AD Paul writes his epistle to Titus. 67 AD Paul writes 2 Timothy and Peter also writes 2 Peter. We then have in 68 AD the letter to the Hebrews and the Book of Jude being written and then we go all the way to 90 AD when John wrote 1 John, a couple of years later wrote 2 John, then 94 AD he wrote 3 John, and then likely 95 AD he wrote the Book of Revelation. And that is the closing of the canon of Scripture. The dates as I've said can be debated because they're certainly not expert, but this is where we fit in roughly speaking the chronology of where all the books of the Bible fit in.
Let's pray together. Father, we pray that what we have looked at and considered of the books of the Bible is something we pray we would have an interest and a hunger to know more of, to think of the context where it fits in the timeline and the significance of all of these 66 books of Scripture, which is the inspired Word of God, profitable to our souls to teach, to rebuke, to instruct, to guide us in righteousness. Oh, Father, we pray. that even in discussions that take place, the fellowship that we have as we study your Word, may it be for your glory and honour, for we ask all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
STUDY QUESTIONS
How specific should we be in identifying Bible timelines? Particularly regarding the age of the earth and time periods before the flood.
Are you familiar with the context of the books of the Bible and where they fit into the ‘Bible chronology’? How can this help your reading of Scripture?
Read 2 Timothy 3:16-17. Discuss the importance of Scripture in the life of a Christian.
In what ways can and should you study the Bible? Individually? Collectively?