Bible Book OrderIntroduction to the Book Chain
The discovery that the books of the Bible connect together end-to-end across the Bible began several years ago while attending a college lecture. One of my favorite Bible professors took a rabbit trail from the main lecture, or so it seemed. What I learned that day stuck and grew into this study in the Book Chain.
My professor began to describe a Hebrew manuscript from antiquity that is noteworthy because it places the book of Ruth after Proverbs instead of in it's usual place in the Jewish book order which is after Song of Solomon. He told the class that this placement may well be justified given how the book of Proverbs ends and what we know about Ruth.
He went on and said "Remember how Proverbs ends, with the search for a virtuous woman?"
29 Proverbs of Solomon 31:10
10¶Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
He then went on to explain that it seems Ruth is the "virtuous woman" Proverbs was seeking and he read the following quote of Boaz from the book of Ruth.
30 Ruth 3:11
11And now, my daughter, fear not; I will do to thee all that thou requirest: for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman.
Boaz knew that Ruth was a virtuous woman. That was his justification for marrying her. I was excited by the idea that context extends past the end of books if the right book follows. I was so excited, in fact, that I spent most of the rest of the day looking for connections between other books. I was able to find some at the beginning of my Bible, but eventually gave up. I don't remember if it hadn't occurred to me to rearrange the books so the connections would work better or if that just seemed to daunting at the time.
A New Book Order
Fast forward several years. I'm out of college and doing social service work with young men and women and reading my Bible devotionally in my spare time. While reading the Bible on a day off from work I realized the book of Isaiah is like the TABLE OF CONTENTS for the Bible, providing a map for correctly ordering the books of the Bible. With this new idea I began matching each book in the Bible with a chapter in Isaiah.
Somewhere early in this process of studying the book order in Isaiah I remembered my professor's talk on Proverbs and Ruth and realized after reordering the books of the Bible using Isaiah they might just connect together. So I began comparing books that I had already placed using Isaiah and sure enough they were connecting in a manor clearly as fascinating and informative as the example from college.
As I continued matching the books of the Bible with their chapters in Isaiah I simultaneously checked to make sure the books connected end-to-end as a second witness or verification of the book order and was amazed to watch the books connect time and again. (There were a few instances that stumped me for awhile but eventually each linkage made sense). I finally called this system the "Book-Chain."
Ruth - Song of Solomon
Let's look at a couple examples in the book chain beginning with Ruth's connection to Song of Solomon. After the wedding, the book of Ruth ends with a short genealogy extending forward to King David. Here's the genealogy.
30 Ruth 4:18-22
18¶Now these are the generations of Pharez: Pharez begat Hezron,
19And Hezron begat Ram, and Ram begat Amminadab,
20And Amminadab begat Nahshon, and Nahshon begat Salmon,
21And Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed,
22And Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David.
Now the idea is to link the end of Ruth to the beginning of some other book in the Bible. Let's try the Song of Solomon. Here's the opening line.
31 Song of Solomon 1:1
1The song of songs, which is Solomon's.
Note that Solomon, the son of David, signs his name at the opening of this book. In effect what's happening by placing Song of Solomon after Ruth is the genealogy ending with David is extended one generation further to include Solomon.
The question is, "Does genealogy make sense as the topic or context connecting these books?" It clearly does. You will recall that Ruth is a wedding story. Song of Solomon depicts sexual relations between husband and wife, which of course produces offspring. So genealogy is an obvious theme to connect these books.
Stepping back for a minute and taking more of a bird's eye view we see that there's a theme developing in this section of the Bible. Proverbs ends with the search for a virtuous woman, Ruth fulfills the search by telling the story of Boaz and Ruth's wedding and Song of Solomon takes a look at the next piece of married life, which of course produces kids and brings the story full circle. We might dub this swath of the Bible "Family" or something like that (okay, family might not be that original, but you get the picture).
Micah - Jonah - Amos
Let's take one more example, this time across the books of Micah, Jonah and Amos. Micah ends with a reference to "God's mercy" and "throwing sins into the sea."
20 Micah 7:18-19
18Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
19He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
You can guess what book probably follows such an ending. If you didn't know, the book of Jonah includes the story of Jonah being thrown overboard while at sea.
21 Jonah 1:15
15So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
Jonah had been told to warn Nineveh that their wickedness was going to bring God's judgment on their city. Jonah took a boat in the opposit direction, God sent a storm, Jonah was thrown overboard, and if you don't know the rest of the story I don't want to spoil the good part. Suffice it to say that Jonah eventually arrived in Nineveh ready to obey God by warning the people of God's impending judgment, which wasn't so impending.
Afterwards Jonah had it out with God on a hill east of the city. He said plainly that he knew God was merciful and compassionate and would not destroy the city as Jonah had warned everyone.
21 Jonah 4:2
2And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
We see in Jonah's story and even his words an echo of the words spoken by Micah at the end of his book, namely that God is merciful and can throw sins into the sea to avert judgment on the remnant of his people. So the books of Micah and Jonah connect on the theme of God's Mercy.
Where Jonah ends with God's Mercy, the next book, Amos, opens with a list of eight places that are gonna get it no matter what. The first place is Damascus.
22 Amos 1:3
3¶Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron:
Note the specific language, "I will not turn away punishment" (ie like I did with Nineveh in the book you just read). This exact phrase is directed against eight places in the first two chapters of Amos and provides a startling contrast to the mercy shown to Nineveh.
While Micah and Jonah connect on the theme of God's Mercy, Jonah and Amos connect on the theme of God's Judgment. Backing up again for a bird's eye view, we see these two themes are opposits of sorts, like two sides of one coin. Reading through these couple books in order arms the reader with both sides of the story.
Read On
The other books of the Bible connect together just as the examples used above. You can read individual entries in the Book Chain by clicking any link in the left menu or read through page by page like a book by clicking the Next >> link in the footer. As a minimum each page has two scripture quotes showing how the books connect.
