Books of the Bible
Books of the Bible are listed differently in the canons of Jews, and Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox Christians, although there is overlap.
Old Testament (including Tanakh)
The Tanakh, or Jewish scriptures, have the following standard arrangement.
- the Law
- Genesis
- Exodus
- Leviticus
- Numbers
- Deuteronomy
- the Prophets
- the Former Prophets
- Joshua
- Judges
- Samuel
- Kings
- the Latter Prophets
- Isaiah
- Jeremiah
- Ezekiel
- the Twelve Prophets
- Hosea
- Joel
- Amos
- Obadiah
- Jonah
- Micah
- Nahum
- Habakkuk
- Zephaniah
- Haggai
- Zechariah
- Malachi
- the Former Prophets
- the Writings
- Psalms
- Proverbs
- Job
- the Five Rolls
- Song of Songs
- Ruth
- Lamentations
- Ecclesiastes
- Esther
- Daniel
- Ezra (including Nehemiah)
- Chronicles
The Protestant Old Testament is identical to the Tanakh in contents, but different in arrangement. The usual Christian arrangement of both Old and New Testaments is into historical, teaching and prophetic (past, present and future). This is not usually made explicit in the tables of contents of English Bibles, though it is commoner in German and Latin ones. The Roman Catholic Old Testament includes additional books (marked here with *) and passages in other books (marked with †).
- historical books
- Pentateuch
- Genesis
- Exodus
- Leviticus
- Numbers
- Deuteronomy
- Joshua
- Judges
- Ruth
- Samuel (2 books)
- Kings (2 books)
- Chronicles (2 books)
- Ezra
- Nehemiah
- Tobit*
- Judith*
- Esther†
- 1 Maccabees*
- 2 Maccabees*
- Pentateuch
- teaching books
- Job
- Psalms
- Proverbs
- Ecclesiastes
- Song of Songs or Song of Solomon
- Wisdom*
- Ecclesiasticus or Sirach*
- prophetic books
- Isaiah
- Jeremiah
- Lamentations
- Baruch*
- Ezekiel
- Daniel†
- Hosea
- Joel
- Amos
- Obadiah
- Jonah
- Micah
- Nahum
- Habakkuk
- Zephaniah
- Haggai
- Zechariah
- Malachi
The Eastern Orthodox Church has never considered it important to define a definite canon of scripture. On the whole, it theoretically recognizes only the Protestant canon of the Old Testament as fully canonical inspired scripture, but other works are regarded as part of the scriptures and in practice treated little differently. These include the works marked above and others, varying between branches: this too does not seem to be considered important. Early Protestant Bibles and some more recent ones included the extra books and some others in a separate section under the title Apocrypha, sometimes with notes explaining their inferior status.
New Testament
In general, among Christian groups the New Testament canon is agreed-upon, although book order can vary. The listing here is the normal order in English Bibles.
- historical books
- Gospels
- Matthew
- Mark
- Luke
- John
- Acts of the Apostles
- Gospels
- teaching books: Epistles
- ascribed to Paul
- Romans
- 1 Corinthians
- 2 Corinthians
- Galatians
- Ephesians
- Philippians
- Colossians
- 1 Thessalonians
- 2 Thessalonians
- Pastoral Epistles
- 1 Timothy
- 2 Timothy
- Titus
- Philemon
- Hebrews
- "Catholic" Epistles
- James
- 1 Peter
- 2 Peter
- 1 John
- 2 John
- 3 John
- Jude
- ascribed to Paul
- prophetic book: Revelation
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has a few additional books in its canon: Jubilees, Book of Enoch, the Shepherd of Hermas, 1 Clement, Acts of Paul, and some uniquely Ethiopian books. There is a matter of some controversy as to what constitutes "canon" in this religious body. The Peshitta excludes 2-3 John, 2 Peter, Jude, and Revelation, but Bibles of the modern Syriac Orthodox Church includes later translations of those books. Third Epistle to the Corinthians was once considered part of the Armenian Orthodox Bible.
See also
Notes
Return links: Tanakh/Tanakh — New Testament
External links
- Bible Prophecy and History – an Evangelical perspective Canon 325AD, translation issues, historically proven prophecy.
- The Canon of Scripture – a Catholic perspective Canon 1546AD
- The Tanakh at Breslov.com - Masoretic, Hebrew, Aramaic, JPS, Kaplan translations.
- Articles on Various Books from Biblical Resource Database
- Judaica Press Translation - Online Jewish translation of the books of the Bible. The Tanakh and Rashi's entire commentary.
- Protestant Bible at BibleGateway.com 50 versions in 35 languages, searchable by verse or keyword.
- Protestant Bible at BlueLetterBible.org King James Version with Strong's Hebrew/Greek Concordance, many tools.
- Slavonic Bible
- Books of the Apocrypha (from the UMC)
- Armenian Bible (an essay, with full official canon at the end)
- Ethiopian Orthodox "narrow canon" (from the UMC)
- The Book That Bridges Millennia (online video and exploration of Biblical beginnings, authority, canonization, translation, and interpretation from the UMC)