Introduction

The discovery that the books of the Bible connect together thematically began several years ago while attending a college lecture. One of my favorite Bible professors took a rabbit trail from the lecture, or so it seemed. What I learned that day stuck and grew into this study on the Book Chain.

The Lecture

My professor began to describe a Hebrew manuscript that is noteworthy because it diverges from the most common book orders (Jewish and Christian) by placing Ruth after Proverbs. 1 He said this arrangement may be justified given the way the end of Proverbs complements the story of Ruth.

He reminded us that Proverbs ends with the search for a "virtuous woman."

Then he said Ruth was the virtuous woman and read Ruth 3:11 to us.

He said Ruth satisfies the search for a virtuous woman from Proverbs, and I have to agree. Other women in the Bible may be virtuous, but only Ruth is called the virtuous woman.

The take away was that Proverbs and Ruth make sense together. Proverbs describes a virtuous woman and Ruth models it. The side by side connection enhances both stories and provides a satisfying model where books in the Bible reinforce each other.

Despite the example in class coming from a manuscript that diverged from the traditional Jewish and Christian book orders, I spent the rest of the day trying to link books together in the traditional Christian book order. It didn't work very well, so I gave up not realizing the idea was right and most books in the Christian book order were simply in the wrong sequence. When I found myself working on a new book order several years later it was clear the original attempt had failed because of an assumption I held about the book order used in modern Christian Bibles.

A New Book Order

With the books in a new order based upon Isaiah I thought they might actually form a meaningful chain, so I resumed the search. From even a quick survey of the situation it was obviously working much better then before. For one, Ruth was following Proverbs and that link was already known. More importantly, other books where linking together compellingly.

Lamentations, ending with a prayer for restoration, was followed by Ezra, beginning with the decree to return and rebuild. Third John, with a request to visit face to face, was followed by a personal visit from Jesus in Revelation. Numerous other books were chaining together in amazing ways, though some stumped me for awhile and a few still do.

The Book Chain will be complete when there is a satisfying link, with explanation, between each book of the Bible. To date a page exists for each link in the Book Chain, but most only suggest a theme and await further attention.

By Ryan Eaton
Posted Friday, Issachar 20, 13002

1 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aleppo-HighRes3-Ketuvim3-Job-Proverbs-Ruth-Song.pdf