Subject: Why are NT epistles in that Bible order? |
Bible Note: It seems to me that the order in which the epistles are arranged is of no importance at all except, perhaps, when two or more letters have been addressed to the same recipient. The books of the Bible cannot possibly be placed in perfect chronological order and attempts to do it are not necessary except, perhaps in tracing the history of the Jews. (I will welcome a correction on that point). Some books are undated, some are contemporaneous, and some are, in a manner of speaking, just timeless. It is clear that the revelation given to us in the Bible is gradual. We need to understand that the information given in Genesis precedes what we have in, say, Malachi, and that Exodus comes before Deuteronomy. However, I see no reason to read Romans before Ephesians or Timothy before Titus. Far more important, it seems to me, is the need to understand the context of each individual book. The Bible is the book of books, a library, if you will. The writings are by individual authors and, in the case of the epistles especially, they were meant to be read as individual messages. I have been recommending that people read an entire epistle through, ignoring chapter and verse divisions, in order to really get the message. There is virtue in reading one book at a time. Obviously, there are common themes in the books of the Bible, and the epistles are no exception. Cross-referencing is a very useful idea. But neither the chapter and verse divisions nor the ordinal placement of the books are inspired things. Again, except when two or more letters are addressed to the same recipient, the order in which they are arranged in the Bible does not seem to matter. |