Timeline
The line is the Bible's order, not a scale of centuries. A short gap and a long gap take the same ink. What changes is the year, and whether we are reading a number the text counted, estimating, or setting a verse beside a find.
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A book with a cross is a biblical book. A plain book, or a scroll, is not in the canon. A flag is a great event. A crown is a king or a group of them. A diamond is a shorter note. With nothing picked you see everything. Pick one or more kinds, or a person, a book, or an era, and the line closes up around what you picked. Unroll a card for its events in order.
The Hebrew year on the early cards is the Masoretic count: creation is year 1, and the ages in Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 are added. In 2026 the printed Jewish calendar reads 5787. That calendar shortens the Persian years. Both get called a Hebrew year. This page always means the longer count from the genealogies, and after Moses it prefers the regnal year the book itself names.
Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs are not on the line. They were written across the years, and they are not a run of events. Job is left off because the book does not place itself. The arguments about when to put it belong in a lesson of their own.
The first pages do not offer a BC date. They offer days, then ages. The Hebrew year here is that count, with creation as year 1.
No measured BC yearYear 1
The Bible gives no yearYear 1, or soon after
The Bible gives no yearThe first family
A sum, not a findYear 130
The ages are in the text. No find dates them.Year 130 to year 1656
Writing: the wilderness generation, an estimateThe events above
If the ages are added straight on, the third millennium BC. That is a sum, not a layer in the dirt.Year 1656
No separate BC dateAfter year 1656
No inscription dates this dayIn the days of Peleg, about year 1757 and after
From Abram the text starts to count a family inside the nations. The years below assume Abram was born when Terah was 70. Acts 7 is the other reading, and the lesson says so.
No find dates Abram's departureThe call, year 2023. Isaac, year 2048.
In the ground. Ur and Haran are real places. That does not put a year on the day he left.
Open the lessonNo measured yearDuring Abraham's years in the land
A sum from the ages, not a findJacob born, year 2108
No Egyptian inscription names Joseph. The year is the biblical sum.Jacob enters Egypt, year 2238
Writing: the wilderness generationEvents through year 2238 and Joseph's 110 years
Two clocks are in the Bible itself: 430 years, and 480 years from the exodus to the temple. The lesson keeps both, and the late date beside them.
About 1446 BC if the 480 years to the temple are a straight count. About 1260 BC on the later reading.Year 2668, if the 430 years start when Jacob enters Egypt
In the ground. The Merneptah stele, about 1208 BC, names Israel as a people already in Canaan. The exodus is before that. The stele does not say the year they left.
Open the lessonThe same estimate as the exodusThe same year as the exodus, from the third month
Same estimate as the leavingThe exodus year
Same estimate as the leavingThe exodus year, at the tent
Same estimate, plus fortyThe forty years after the exodus year
Same estimateThe forty years
Same estimateThe end of the forty years
Joshua is a campaign. Judges is a long, uneven age. The years in Judges are not one straight sum, and the lesson says why.
If the exodus is about 1446, the crossing is about 1406. If the exodus is late, the crossing is later, and still before Merneptah.After the forty years
In the ground. Jericho's fallen walls are argued over. Kathleen Kenyon dated a destruction much earlier. Bryant Wood has argued the pottery and the scarabs fit a 15th-century fall. The lesson keeps both.
Open the lessonSame estimate as the crossingThe generation of the crossing
Roughly the centuries between the crossing and Saul, an estimateFrom Joshua's death until Samuel
Writing: once the kingdom existsThe judges' age
The writing is after David is known, perhaps in his reign or afterDuring the judges
Writing: once David's line is knownThe judges' age
From David on, some years can be set beside Assyrian and Babylonian records. Overlaps are coregencies, not two clocks fighting. The small reigns are grouped. The long stories stand alone.
Saul's reign is often put about 1050 to 1010 BC. The Bible gives no Assyrian year for it.The last generation of the judges
Writing: after the split, about 930 BC or laterSamuel through David
About 1010 to 970 BC. An estimate stepped back from the later kings.Seven years in Hebron, then Jerusalem
In the ground. The Tel Dan inscription, 9th century BC, names the house of David. It confirms the dynasty, not the year David took the throne.
Open the lessonAbout 970 to 930 BC. The foundation about 966 BC, counted back from the Assyrian anchors.Year 4 of Solomon for the foundation
About 930 BCThe year Solomon dies
In the ground. Shishak of Egypt, Sheshonq I, campaigns into the land about 925 BC. The Bible says he took the temple treasures in Rehoboam's fifth year. His own list names cities. It does not narrate the temple.
Open the lessonAbout 930 to 874 BCRegnal years in 1 Kings 14 to 16
In the ground. The Mesha stele, about 840 BC, names Omri and Israel. A line some read as David is disputed.
The lessonAbout 930 to 848 BC, with overlap when a son is made coregentRegnal years in 1 Kings 14 to 22
Ahab about 874-853 BC. Ahaziah 853-852. Joram 852-841.Ahab's years, then his sons
In the ground. The Kurkh monolith puts Ahab of Israel at the battle of Qarqar in 853 BC. The Bible does not tell that battle. The stone shows he was alive that year.
Open the lesson841-814 BCJehu's reign
In the ground. The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III shows a king of Israel, called a son of Omri, with his face to the ground. The usual identification is Jehu, about 841 BC.
Open the lessonAbout 814 to 722 BCRegnal years in 2 Kings 13 to 17
About 793-753 BC for that reignJeroboam II
Middle of the 8th century BCUzziah and Jeroboam II
About 835 to 732 BC, with coregenciesRegnal years in 2 Kings 12 to 15
From the middle of the 8th century toward HezekiahThose four kings of Judah
About 740 to the end of Hezekiah's reignFrom the year Uzziah died through Hezekiah
Late 8th century BCJotham to Hezekiah
About 735-715 BCAhaz
In the ground. Tiglath-pileser III's annals name a king of Judah who paid him. The usual identification is Ahaz, under the name Jehoahaz.
The lesson722 BCHezekiah's 6th year, Hoshea's 9th
In the ground. Sargon II claims he conquered Samaria and deported its people. Shalmaneser V began the war and died in 722. The lesson holds both names.
Open the lessonReign about 715-686 BC. The siege of Jerusalem, 701 BC.Hezekiah, the 14th year for the sickness and the envoy
In the ground. Sennacherib's prism says he shut Hezekiah in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage. It lists tribute. It does not say he took the city. That silence fits the biblical ending.
Open the lessonManasseh about 697-642 BC. Amon 642-640.Manasseh, then Amon's two years
Between 663 and 612 BC. Thebes fell in 663. Nineveh fell in 612.No regnal year
In the ground. The fall of Thebes to Ashurbanipal in 663 BC is the Assyrian record. The book speaks of it as past.
640-609 BC. The death at Megiddo is 609.Year 18 for the book. His death in the encounter with Necho.
In the ground. Necho's march toward the Euphrates in 609 BC is the Babylonian setting. The Bible tells the death. The year is that campaign.
Open the lesson640-609 BCJosiah's reign
About 627 BC until after 586Year 13 of Josiah, then through the fall
Late 7th century BC, before or at the first Babylonian blow. An estimate.No regnal year
609 to 586 BCAfter Josiah
Not placed. The arguments belong in a lesson, not in a pretended year.No regnal year
Often read at the fall of Jerusalem. An estimate.No regnal year
The surrender of Jehoiachin, 597 BC. The burning, 586 BC. Some count Zedekiah's years to 587.Year 11 of Zedekiah. The burning, the 7th or the 10th day of the 5th month.
In the ground. A Babylonian chronicle records Nebuchadnezzar taking the city in his seventh year and appointing a king. That is 597 BC, Jehoiachin's surrender. The burning is dated from the biblical years after that.
Open the lessonThe last scene is about 561 BCSolomon to year 37 of Jehoiachin's exile
After 586 BCAfter the fifth month
From about 593 BCYear 5 of Jehoiachin's exile, and on to the years after the fall
The story runs about 605 to 539 BCFrom Jehoiakim's third year into Cyrus
The Persian kings are named in the books, and their years are known from their own records. That is as firm as this line gets.
About 561 BCYear 37 of the exile
Decree about 538 BC. Temple finished in Adar, 515 BC.Year 1 of Cyrus. Then year 2 and year 6 of Darius.
In the ground. The Cyrus Cylinder, 539 or 538 BC, tells a policy of restoring peoples and their gods. It does not name Jerusalem. It matches the kind of decree Ezra 1 records.
Open the lesson520 BCYear 2 of Darius, day by day
520 to 518 BCYear 2 of Darius, and year 4
If Ahasuerus is Xerxes I, about 483 to 473 BCYear 3 of Ahasuerus for the first feast. Year 12 for the danger.
The same estimate as the storyThe years of Ahasuerus in the book
If this Artaxerxes is the first, Ezra in 458 BC and Nehemiah in 445 BCYear 7 of Artaxerxes for Ezra. Year 20, the month Nisan, for Nehemiah's request.
About 538 to 458 BC on the usual readingCyrus to Artaxerxes
About 445 BC and the decade after, if Artaxerxes IYear 20, and year 32
Writing: the Persian period, after 538 BC. A narrower year is a guess.The whole count, closing at Cyrus
Often put near Nehemiah, about 430 BC. An estimate.No regnal year
No prophetic book in the canon is set in these years. God is not absent. The canon simply has no new prophet's book until John the Baptist. The events inside this band are real history. The books that tell the Maccabean war are not Scripture. They are marked.
About 430 BC to the birth of JohnNo biblical regnal year
332 BC in this landNot in the Hebrew canon
In the ground. Alexander's siege of Tyre and his move through the Levant in 332 BC are Greek history, not a verse.
From the 3rd century BC. The Pentateuch first. An estimate for the start.Not a regnal year
167 BC, read from that countYear 145 of the Greek kingdom, in 1 Maccabees
164 BCYear 148 of the Greek kingdom, the 25th of Chislev
From 160 BC to Pompey's arrival in 63 BCNot in the canon
63 BCNot in the canon
In the ground. Josephus and the Roman historians tell the capture. No biblical book does.
King from 37 BC. Death usually placed in 4 BC, from Josephus.Not a biblical regnal formula
In the ground. The year of his death is Josephus, not a verse. The birth of Jesus is dated backward from it, so that BC year stays an estimate.
The Hebrew book about 180 BC. The Greek prologue about 132 BC.Not in the Hebrew canon
Tells about 175 to 134 BC. Writing near the end of that, an estimate.Not in the canon
The events are the 170s and 160s BC. The summary is later.Not in the canon
Writing: the last centuries BC. An estimate. The plots are not a clock.Not in the canon
Mostly the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. Estimates.Not in the canon
From here the years are AD, and the sources are the Gospels, Acts, and the letters. Nothing is added from later stories of how an apostle died.
About 6 to 4 BC. Herod's death, usually 4 BC, is from Josephus, so the year is an estimate.In the days of Herod
Writing: the generation of the apostlesThe days of Herod through the resurrection
Writing: before Acts was finishedHerod to the ascension
About AD 8, if the birth is near 4 BC. An estimate.Twelve years after the birth
About AD 28 or 29, counting from Tiberius's reign in AD 14. A window, not a day.Year 15 of Tiberius
In the ground. A stone from Caesarea names Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea. An ossuary names Joseph son of Caiaphas. They confirm the men, not the day of the baptism.
Open the lessonWriting: the generation of the apostlesThe ministry and the cross
Writing: the apostles' generation. No year printed here.The ministry to the resurrection
AD 30 or AD 33. Both are argued from the Passover and Pilate's years.At a Passover
The same year as the cross, fifty days after the resurrection SundayThe feast of weeks, that same season
Often placed a few years after the cross. An estimate.After Pentecost, the text gives no year
During the apostolic years. No date is printed on this line.No year in the letter
Agrippa's death is usually put in AD 44, from Josephus. The Bible tells the death, not that number.Acts does not number the year
About AD 46 to 49, stepped backward from the Gallio year. An estimate.No numbered year
About the late 40s, an estimateNo year in the letter
Gallio is proconsul of Achaia about AD 51 to 52A year and six months in Corinth
In the ground. An inscription from Delphi dates Gallio's proconsulship to about AD 51-52. It is the firmest peg in Acts.
Open the lessonAbout AD 50 to 51During the year and a half
About AD 53 to 57, stepped from GallioAbout three years in Ephesus
About AD 55 to 56Before a Pentecost, during the Ephesus years
About AD 57Before the last Jerusalem visit in Acts
About AD 57 to 62, stepped from GallioTwo years in Caesarea. Two years in Rome.
The story ends about AD 62Through the two years
About AD 60 to 62, if they belong to the Roman yearsDuring a captivity the letters describe
The apostolic generation. Not a later legend.No year in the letters
During the apostolic years, likely while the temple still stood. An estimate.No year
The mid 60s, only if the letters' own travel is granted. An estimate.After the two years Acts records
The apostolic generation. No year printed.No year
Either the 60s or the 90s. Both are argued. An estimate.The Lord's day on Patmos