Bible Book OrderDiscovery Story
The following describes how the realization came that Isaiah defines the Bible's book order.
An Idea
Sometime between 2000 and 2002 I was reading the Bible one afternoon and landed at Isaiah 40. As I began reading this familiar passage I came to verse 3.
13 Isaiah 40:3 3ק֣וֹל קוֹרֵ֔א בַּמִּדְבָּ֕ר פַּנּ֖וּ דֶּ֣רֶךְ יְהוָ֑ה יַשְּׁרוּ֙ בָּעֲרָבָ֔ה מְסִלָּ֖ה לֵאלֹהֵֽינוּ׃ (WLC)
13 Isaiah 40:3 3The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (KJV)
13 Isaiah 40:3 3The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (KJV/NC)
13 Isaiah 40:3 3The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah; make level in the desert a highway for our God. (ASV)
13 Isaiah 40:3 3¶ The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (LAM)
13 Isaiah 40:3 3A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (RSV)
13 Isaiah 40:3 3A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. (NIV)
13 Isaiah 40:3 3The voice of one who cries, Prepare youP in the wilderness the way of Yahweh; make level in the desert a highway for our God. (WEB)
13 Isaiah 40:3
3The voice of one who calls out,
'Prepare the way of the LORD in the wilderness!
Make a level highway in the desert for our God.(WEB/HNV)
13 Isaiah 40:3 3The voice of him who cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of Yahvah, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (BRB)
While reading I thought about John the Baptist since he quotes this verse to explain his ministry at the beginning of the New Testament.
While pondering John the Baptist I remembered that Isaiah has 66 chapters and the Bible 66 books. I also realized the 40th book of the Bible is the 1st book of the New Testament since there are 39 books in the Old Testament. I thought it very interesting and suspect that essentially the first person on the scene in book 40 would quote Isaiah 40:3.
The idea began to form in my mind that somehow each book in the Bible matches a chapter in Isaiah. To begin testing the idea I flipped to Matthew and found where John the Baptist quotes Isaiah 40:3.
41 Matthew 3:3 3ܗܢܘ ܓܝܪ ܗܘ ܕܐܡܝܪ ܒܝܕ ܐܫܥܝܐ ܢܒܝܐ ܩܠܐ ܕܩܪܐ ܒܚܘܪܒܐ ܛܝܒܘ ܐܘܪܚܗ ܕܡܪܝܐ ܘܐܫܘܘ ܠܫܒܝܠܘܗܝ ܀ (SYP)
41 Matthew 3:3 3For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. (KJV)
41 Matthew 3:3 3For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of 1 crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. (KJV/NC)
41 Matthew 3:3 3For this is he that was spoken of through Isaiah the prophet, saying,(ASV)
41 Matthew 3:3 3For it was he of whom it was said by the prophet Isaiah, The voice which cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, and straighten his highways. (LAM)
41 Matthew 3:3 3For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." (RSV)
41 Matthew 3:3 3This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:(NIV)
41 Matthew 3:3 3For this is he who was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying,(WEB)
41 Matthew 3:3 3For this is he who was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying,(WEB/HNV)
41 Matthew 3:3 3For it was he of whom it was said by the prophet Isaiah, The voice which cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, and straighten his highways. (BRB)
At the time I didn't realize that Isaiah defines a different book order, I just thought it would be cool if each chapter and book would match somehow. Since Matthew is traditionally the first book of the New Testament, and John the Baptist quotes Isaiah 40:3 in Matthew, I figured that was a match and began looking for other matches.
I remembered some of the wording in Isaiah 66 is similar to vocabulary at the end of Revelation.
13 Isaiah 66:22 22כִּ֣י כַאֲשֶׁ֣ר הַשָּׁמַ֣יִם הַ֠חֳדָשִׁים וְהָאָ֨רֶץ הַחֲדָשָׁ֜ה אֲשֶׁ֨ר אֲנִ֥י עֹשֶׂ֛ה עֹמְדִ֥ים לְפָנַ֖י נְאֻם־ יְהוָ֑ה כֵּ֛ן יַעֲמֹ֥ד זַרְעֲכֶ֖ם וְשִׁמְכֶֽם׃ (WLC)
13 Isaiah 66:22
13 Isaiah 66:22 22For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. (KJV)
13 Isaiah 66:22 22For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. (KJV/NC)
13 Isaiah 66:22 22For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. (ASV)
13 Isaiah 66:22 22For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will snake shall remain before me, says the LORD, So shall your descendants and your name remain. (LAM)
13 Isaiah 66:22 22"For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, says the LORD; so shall your descendants and your name remain. (RSV)
13 Isaiah 66:22 22"As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me," declares the LORD, "so will your name and descendants endure. (NIV)
13 Isaiah 66:22 22For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says Yahweh, so shall your seed and your name remain. (WEB)
13 Isaiah 66:22 22For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the LORD, so your seed and your name shall remain. (WEB/HNV)
13 Isaiah 66:22 22For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make will remain before me, says Yahvah, So your descendants and your name will remain. (BRB)
66 Revelation 21:1
66 Revelation 21:1
66 Revelation 21:1
66 Revelation 21:1
66 Revelation 21:1
66 Revelation 21:1
66 Revelation 21:1
66 Revelation 21:1
66 Revelation 21:1
66 Revelation 21:1
Since Revelation is the last book of the Bible I counted this as a match, but I had trouble finding other matches. I eventually gave up looking and figured I had just been lucky or it was coincidence that Isaiah 40 and 66 have matching books.
A Second Try
Several years later, in December of 2004, I was reading my Bible and turned to Isaiah 40 at random. As I began reading the idea to match the chapters and books came back to mind. Despite wanting to look into the idea further I began to push it out of my mind since it had not panned out originally even with considerable effort.
Then I remembered a book I had read somewhere in the intervening time period, The First Edition of the New Testament, by David Trobisch (Throckmorton-Hayes Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Bangor Theological Seminary in Maine).
In his book Professor Trobisch demonstrates there must have been a first Greek New Testament that all Greek New Testaments derive from. The reason is something like 99% of all Greek manuscripts have the same book order, highly unlikely if different groups of people were amassing and publishing the writings of the New Testament independently. He also demonstrates the Greek New Testament book order is more coherent than English Bible New Testaments and asks for a return to printing Bibles with the Greek book order.
It took reading this book for me to realize the Bible I know, the New International Version and other English Bibles, is not the same as the early Greek New Testament because the book order is different.
Return to the present, where I am trying to figure out how the chapters and books match. Suddenly I realized the problem. The books and chapters do match in a different order. Since the order is defined by matching the books of the Bible to Isaiah's chapters, not the other way around, the order is based on scripture and something of an inspired book order.
Testing the Theory
I flipped to the beginning of Isaiah and started reading chapter 1 for material that might match Genesis. I found reference to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah from Genesis 19.
13 Isaiah 1:9 9לוּלֵי֙ יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֔וֹת הוֹתִ֥יר לָ֛נוּ שָׂרִ֖יד כִּמְעָ֑ט כִּסְדֹ֣ם הָיִ֔ינוּ לַעֲמֹרָ֖ה דָּמִֽינוּ׃ (WLC)
13 Isaiah 1:9 9Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.(KJV)
13 Isaiah 1:9 9Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.(KJV/NC)
13 Isaiah 1:9 9Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah. (ASV)
13 Isaiah 1:9 9Except the LORD of hosts had left to us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and we should have been like Gomorrah. (LAM)
13 Isaiah 1:9 9If the LORD of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomor'rah.(RSV)
13 Isaiah 1:9 9Unless the LORD Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah. (NIV)
13 Isaiah 1:9
9Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant,
We would have been as Sodom;
We would have been like Gomorrah.(WEB)
13 Isaiah 1:9
9Unless the LORD of Hosts had left to us a very small remnant,
we would have been as Sodom;
we would have been like Gomorrah.(WEB/HNV)
13 Isaiah 1:9 9Except Yahvah of hosts had left to us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and we should have been like Gomorrah. (BRB)
I thought, okay, that's a match, what about Isaiah 2 and Exodus. I began reading and was pleased to find a powerful match.
13 Isaiah 2:2-3 2וְהָיָ֣ה׀ בְּאַחֲרִ֣ית הַיָּמִ֗ים נָכ֨וֹן יִֽהְיֶ֜ה הַ֤ר בֵּית־ יְהוָה֙ בְּרֹ֣אשׁ הֶהָרִ֔ים וְנִשָּׂ֖א מִגְּבָע֑וֹת וְנָהֲר֥וּ אֵלָ֖יו כָּל־ הַגּוֹיִֽם׃ 3וְֽהָלְכ֞וּ עַמִּ֣ים רַבִּ֗ים וְאָמְרוּ֙ לְכ֣וּ׀ וְנַעֲלֶ֣ה אֶל־ הַר־ יְהוָ֗ה אֶל־ בֵּית֙ אֱלֹהֵ֣י יַעֲקֹ֔ב וְיֹרֵ֙נוּ֙ מִדְּרָכָ֔יו וְנֵלְכָ֖ה בְּאֹרְחֹתָ֑יו כִּ֤י מִצִּיּוֹן֙ תֵּצֵ֣א תוֹרָ֔ה וּדְבַר־ יְהוָ֖ה מִירוּשָׁלִָֽם׃ (WLC)
13 Isaiah 2:2-3 2And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORDS house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 3And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (KJV)
13 Isaiah 2:2-3 2And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 3And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (KJV/NC)
13 Isaiah 2:2-3 2And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 3And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. (ASV)
13 Isaiah 2:2-3 2And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established above the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall look to it. 3And many people shall go and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (LAM)
13 Isaiah 2:2-3 2It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, 3and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (RSV)
13 Isaiah 2:2-3 2In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.
3Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (NIV)
13 Isaiah 2:2-3
2It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of Yahweh's house shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be raised above the hills;
And all nations shall flow to it.
3Many peoples shall go and say,
'ComeP , let's go up to the mountain of Yahweh,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
And he will teach us of his ways,
And we will walk in his paths.(WEB)
13 Isaiah 2:2-3
2It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established on the top of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
and all nations shall flow to it.
3Many peoples shall go and say,
'Come, let's go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
and he will teach us of his ways,
and we will walk in his paths.'(WEB/HNV)
13 Isaiah 2:2-3 2And it will come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of Yahvah's house will be established above the mountains, and will be exalted above the hills; and all nations will look to it. 3And many people will go and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahvah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of Yahvah from Jerusalem. (BRB)
All the overarching themes of Exodus are mentioned in this brief quote in Isaiah 2. The mountain, the law, the house of God, and even the nations. Okay, another match.
I then read Isaiah 3 hoping to find material related to Leviticus, but I couldn't see any correlation. On a later date I reread Leviticus and realized the robe placed on Aaron at his ordination as High Priest matched the story in Isaiah 3 really well.
I found material matching the book of Numbers in Isaiah 4. Remember the cloud by day and fire by night in Numbers 9? Isaiah 4:5 uses the same imagery to tell it's own story.
13 Isaiah 4:5 5וּבָרָ֣א יְהוָ֡ה עַל֩ כָּל־ מְכ֨וֹן הַר־ צִיּ֜וֹן וְעַל־ מִקְרָאֶ֗הָ עָנָ֤ן׀ יוֹמָם֙ וְעָשָׁ֔ן וְנֹ֛גַהּ אֵ֥שׁ לֶהָבָ֖ה לָ֑יְלָה כִּ֥י עַל־ כָּל־ כָּב֖וֹד חֻפָּֽה׃ (WLC)
13 Isaiah 4:5 5And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. (KJV)
13 Isaiah 4:5 5And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. (KJV/NC)
13 Isaiah 4:5 5And Jehovah will create over the whole habitation of mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory shall be spread a covering. (ASV)
13 Isaiah 4:5 5And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, round about, a cloud by day, and the smoke and shining of a flaming fire by night; for the glory of the LORD shall be a shelter over all. (LAM)
13 Isaiah 4:5 5Then the LORD will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy and a pavilion. (RSV)
13 Isaiah 4:5 5Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over all the glory will be a canopy. (NIV)
13 Isaiah 4:5 5Yahweh will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy. (WEB)
13 Isaiah 4:5 5The LORD will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy. (WEB/HNV)
13 Isaiah 4:5 5And Yahvah will create on every dwelling place of mount Zion, all around, a cloud by day, and the smoke and shining of a flaming fire by night; for the glory of Yahvah will be a shelter over all. (BRB)
I continued that afternoon through Isaiah 9 or 10, matching books along the way. Each match was fairly obvious, but often worked differently than I would have expected. Such is learning.
Over the next several months I worked to match all of the Old Testament books to Isaiah whenever I had free time. The order is quite different in places from any other known book order and took lots of reading and contemplation.
My main tool for this process were 3" x 5" note cards. I made one for each chapter in Isaiah and taped them to the wall. Then I made a note card for each book. Each time I matched a book and chapter I taped the book note card under the corresponding Isaiah chapter.
Through a process of elimination the last handful of Old Testament matches went together quickly after weeks of work. It was a good feeling to have those books matched to the first 39 chapters of Isaiah.
A Prophetic Attaboy
The day I finished the Old Testament books I went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner with Phil, a close friend who had been watching my progress. After dinner the bill came along with a couple fortune cookies. The message inside my fortune cookie read "A job well begun is half done." A nice little affirmation for the work that had been completed on the Old Testament.
New Testament
I moved on to the New Testament and for several weeks had trouble placing the letters. The Gospels were quick and I knew Revelation was last, but I wasn't sure how the letters organized between Acts and Revelation.
Probably my own assumptions about the New Testament were blocking me from simply using Isaiah to place the books, but with help from Phil and another discovery we were propelled through the New Testament in an afternoon.
I had matched Philippians with Isaiah 45, but was stuck so I asked Phil to look at the problem. He wanted to reread Isaiah 45 to see if he agreed that it matches Philippians. We started reading, but some of the imagery in the chapter reminded Phil of the story of Paul and Silas being freed from jail. We found the story in Acts 16 and realized the city where Paul and Silas were jailed and then freed was Philippi. We were stunned for awhile.
After a minute or two Phil suggested that perhaps Paul's travel itinerary in Acts is also the order of the letters of the New Testament. We continued reading in Acts. The next city Paul and friends visited was Thessalonica. We checked Isaiah chapters 46 and 47 for a match with First and Second Thessalonians. It was working.
In the space of a few hours we were able to match the New Testament letters with Paul's travel itinerary in Acts. Whenever Paul traveled to a town that doesn't have a New Testament letter we substituted a personal letter, like Second John, based on matching content with the story in Acts. Each step of the way we checked for a match with the corresponding chapter in Isaiah. We didn't consider a match unless Acts, the book and Isaiah agreed.
Another Prophetic Attaboy
Phil and I had a guest visiting from out of town who watched the New Testament book order come together that afternoon. Our guest had been in China as a missionary and the next day while being tourists we stopped at a Chinese restaurant for lunch. Sitting there, having completed the New Testament order the day before, I remembered my fortune cookie about "half done" after finishing the Old Testament book order. I told the story to our guest and explained I was curious to see what my fortune cookie would say after lunch.
After lunch the bill came and everyone was given a fortune cookie. I opened mine and was blown away to read these words... "You should be able to undertake and complete anything you desire." That was two for two on fortune cookies talking about the book order project. One for being "half done" and one for being "complete." I've heard it said that God speaks in mysterious ways, and I guess the fortune cookies are one example.
Confirming Studies
In the months after getting the books in order with Isaiah several other studies surfaced that confirm the book order. Phil thought to translate the names of the books and we found they tell the Bible's story in summary form with twelve sentences. Another study came with the belief that the books should connect together with a shared context if they are truly in order. The Book Chain was born. A third study maps the Hebrew letters, with their pictographic meanings, to the books. These studies came quite quickly after getting the books in order and add a robustness to the order that would be otherwise missing.
We revisited Acts also and learned more than we could have imagined at the time. After using Paul's travel itinerary in Acts to organize the New Testament letters we began to think the earlier parts of Acts should match the earlier books of the Bible. We eventually found that Luke and Acts together form what we called a "replay" of the 66 books in order.
Once there was a "replay" in Luke-Acts, which wasn't based on chapter breaks like Isaiah's replay, the possibility opened for replays to exist anywhere in the Bible. There appear to be many and we have been attempting to document them since. This web site used to have a [REPLAY] section for that purpose, but we recently started a new web site dedicated to replays at www.bibledots.org.
The Web Site
This web site was launched in February of 2006 to share the research. Most of 2006 and 2007 were busy learning how to build a web site amongst other things. Work remains to be done here. There are still blank pages waiting for a writeup.
One of the other things that has drawn me away from working on this web site is we began to work on the question of how to publish Bibles with Isaiah's book order. We needed Book Order Bibles to go forward with the research and friends following the project were also keen to get a copy. So we put lots of time into the question and finally came out with a first draft the end of 2007.
We will be offering a series of Classic English Bibles as Book Order Bibles to the public very soon. If you're interested you can watch for the release at www.bibletimepress.com.
http://www.biblebookorder.org/home/welcome/discovery/
- Home
- | Contact
- | Search
- | Site Map
- | Change Log
- | Bibliography
- | Scripture Index
- | License
- | Donate