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The Bible Timeline
The whole story of the Bible in order, from creation to the last book written. Tap any event for the full story.
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In the Beginning
The beginning
Creation: In the Beginning, God
God made the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh. He made Adam and Eve in His own image and placed them in the Garden of Eden. The Bible gives no calendar year, but the traditional count from the genealogies puts it at 4004 BC.
Read the full story →The beginning
Adam and Eve and the Fall
The serpent tempted Eve, and Adam and Eve ate from the one tree God had forbidden. Sin and death entered the world. But in the same chapter God promised a Redeemer who would crush the serpent's head, and He clothed them with skins.
Read the full story →After the Fall
Cain and Abel: The First Murder
Adam and Eve's first two sons brought offerings to God. God accepted Abel's but not Cain's, and Cain killed his brother in a field. God put a mark on Cain to protect him as he wandered.
Read the full story →Traditional count about 3874 BC
Seth Is Born: The Line of Promise
After Abel's death, Adam and Eve had another son, Seth. His family line runs through Noah, Abraham and David all the way to Jesus. In Seth's day people began to call on the name of Yahweh.
Read the full story →Traditional count about 3382 to 3017 BC
Enoch Walked With God
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, walked with God for 300 years and then was taken by God without dying, at age 365. He was Noah's great grandfather. Jude quotes a prophecy of Enoch found in the ancient Book of 1 Enoch.
Read the full story →Traditional count about 2348 BC
Noah, the Ark and the Flood
When the earth was filled with violence, God told Noah to build an ark. Noah, his family and the animals were saved through the flood, and God set His rainbow in the clouds as a promise. The traditional count puts the flood about 2348 BC, when Noah was 600.
Read the full story →After the flood
The Tower of Babel
After the flood, people settled in the land of Shinar and built a city with a tower to make a name for themselves. God confused their language and scattered them over the earth. At Pentecost, God turned Babel around by letting people hear the gospel in their own languages.
Read the full story →
Abraham and the Patriarchs
Set in the days of the patriarchs
Job: Suffering and the Sovereign God
Job was a good man in the land of Uz who lost his wealth, his children and his health in a short time. His friends said he must have sinned, but God Himself answered Job from the whirlwind. Many believe Job lived around the time of Abraham, though the book's writing date is debated.
Read the full story →About 2000 BC, traditional count 2091 BC
God Calls Abraham
God told Abram to leave his country and go to a land He would show him. He promised to make Abram a great nation and to bless all the families of the earth through him. Abram was 75. He lived about 2000 BC, give or take a couple hundred years, and the traditional count puts his call at 2091 BC.
Read the full story →Traditional count about 2080 BC
Hagar and Ishmael
When Sarai had no children, she gave her Egyptian servant Hagar to Abram, and Hagar gave birth to Ishmael when Abram was 86. God met Hagar in the wilderness, and she called Him the God who sees me. Later Hagar and Ishmael were sent away, but God promised to make Ishmael a great nation.
Read the full story →Traditional count about 2067 BC
Abram Becomes Abraham: The Covenant of Circumcision
When Abram was 99, God appeared to him as God Almighty and renewed His covenant. He changed Abram's name to Abraham, father of many nations, and Sarai's name to Sarah. Circumcision became the sign of the covenant.
Read the full story →Traditional count about 2067 BC
Sodom and Gomorrah
God told Abraham He would judge Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham pleaded for the city if even ten righteous people lived there. Angels rescued Lot and his daughters, but Lot's wife looked back and became a pillar of salt. Fire and sulfur fell on the cities of the plain.
Read the full story →Traditional count about 2066 BC
Isaac Is Born: The Promise Kept
Twenty five years after God's first promise, Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90. His name means he laughs, because Sarah said God had made her laugh.
Read the full story →Traditional count about 2050 BC
Abraham Offers Isaac on Mount Moriah
God tested Abraham by telling him to offer Isaac on a mountain in Moriah. Abraham obeyed, trusting that God would provide, and at the last moment God stopped him and provided a ram. Moriah later became the site of the temple in Jerusalem.
Read the full story →Traditional count about 2006 BC
Jacob and Esau: The Birthright and the Blessing
Isaac and Rebekah had twins, Esau and Jacob, and Jacob was born holding his brother's heel. Esau traded his birthright for a bowl of red stew, and later Jacob tricked his blind father into giving him the blessing. Jacob fled for his life, and Esau became the father of Edom.
Read the full story →Traditional count about 1929 BC
Jacob's Ladder, Twelve Sons and a New Name: Israel
Running from Esau, Jacob dreamed of a stairway to heaven at Bethel, and God renewed Abraham's promise to him. In Haran he married Leah and Rachel and had twelve sons, who became the twelve tribes. On the way home he wrestled with God and was renamed Israel.
Read the full story →Traditional count about 1898 to 1805 BC
Joseph: From the Pit to the Palace
Jacob's favorite son Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers at 17. After years as a slave and a prisoner in Egypt, he explained Pharaoh's dreams and became second in command of Egypt. When famine came, he saved his family and forgave his brothers, saying God meant it for good.
Read the full story →
Egypt, the Exodus and the Promised Land
About 400 years in Egypt
Israel Becomes Slaves in Egypt
After Joseph died, Jacob's family grew into a great people in Egypt. A new king who did not know Joseph forced them into slavery and ordered their baby boys killed. God had told Abraham his descendants would be enslaved 400 years, and Exodus 12:40 counts 430 years in Egypt.
Read the full story →Traditional count about 1526 BC
Moses Is Born and Saved From the Nile
Pharaoh ordered every Hebrew baby boy thrown into the Nile. Moses' mother hid him in a basket among the reeds, and Pharaoh's own daughter pulled him out and raised him as her son. At 40 he killed an Egyptian and fled to Midian.
Read the full story →Traditional count about 1446 BC
The Burning Bush: God Tells Moses His Name
At 80 years old, Moses saw a bush on fire that did not burn up. God spoke from it, called him to free Israel from Egypt, and told him His personal name: I AM WHO I AM, Yahweh.
Read the full story →About 1446 BC, or about 1270 BC
The Ten Plagues and the First Passover
God sent ten plagues on Egypt when Pharaoh refused to let Israel go. On the last night the firstborn of Egypt died, but every home marked with the blood of a Passover lamb was spared. Israel walked out free the next morning.
Read the full story →About 1446 BC
Crossing the Red Sea
Days after the Passover, Pharaoh changed his mind and chased Israel to the sea. God drove the water back with a strong east wind all night, Israel crossed on dry ground, and the sea returned over Pharaoh's chariots.
Read the full story →About 1446 BC
Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments
Three months after leaving Egypt, Israel camped at Mount Sinai. God came down in fire and smoke, spoke the Ten Commandments and made a covenant with the nation. While Moses was on the mountain, the people made a golden calf.
Read the full story →About 1445 BC
The Tabernacle: God Moves In
At Mount Sinai God gave Moses plans for a portable tent where He would live among His people. Israel finished it one year after leaving Egypt, and the glory of Yahweh filled it. It held the ark of the covenant and was the center of Israel's worship for centuries.
Read the full story →About 1445 to 1406 BC
Forty Years in the Wilderness
Israel reached the edge of the Promised Land, but ten of the twelve spies said the giants were too big. The people refused to go in, so God had them wander forty years until that generation died. God still fed them with manna every morning.
Read the full story →Traditional count about 1406 BC
Moses Dies on Mount Nebo
At 120 years old, Moses climbed Mount Nebo, saw the whole Promised Land from the top and died there. God Himself buried him, and no one knows where. Joshua took over, and centuries later Moses appeared with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Read the full story →About 1406 to 1375 BC, or the 1200s BC
Joshua, Jericho and the Promised Land
After Moses died, Joshua led Israel across the Jordan River into Canaan. The walls of Jericho fell, Rahab was saved, and over about seven years Israel took the land and divided it among the twelve tribes. Joshua's last challenge was choose this day whom you will serve.
Read the full story →
The Judges
About 1375 to 1050 BC
The Time of the Judges
After Joshua died, Israel fell into a cycle: they turned to idols, enemies oppressed them, they cried out, and God raised up a judge to rescue them. Then they fell away again. Deborah, Gideon and Samson are the best known judges.
Read the full story →About 1100 BC, in the days of the judges
Ruth and Boaz
Ruth was a Moabite widow who refused to leave her mother in law Naomi and followed her to Bethlehem. There she met Boaz, a relative who acted as their kinsman redeemer and married her. Their son Obed was the grandfather of King David.
Read the full story →About 1100 to 1010 BC
Samuel: The Last Judge and the Prophet Who Anointed Kings
Samuel was born after his mother Hannah begged God for a son, and he grew up serving at the tabernacle in Shiloh. God called him as a boy, and he became Israel's last judge and a great prophet. When the people demanded a king, Samuel anointed Saul and later David.
Read the full story →
The Kings of Israel
About 1050 to 1010 BC
Saul: Israel's First King
Saul was a tall, handsome Benjaminite whom Samuel anointed as Israel's first king about 1050 BC. He started humble and strong but kept disobeying God, so God rejected him and chose David. Saul died in battle on Mount Gilboa about 1010 BC.
Read the full story →About 1025 BC
David and Goliath
God sent Samuel to anoint Jesse's youngest son, the shepherd David, saying He looks at the heart. Soon after, the giant Goliath of Gath defied Israel for forty days, and young David killed him with a sling and a single stone in the Valley of Elah.
Read the full story →About 1010 to 970 BC
David Becomes King and God Promises an Eternal Throne
After Saul died, David ruled Judah from Hebron, then all Israel from Jerusalem, which he made his capital. He brought the ark to the city, and God promised that David's throne would last forever. David's sin with Bathsheba brought deep sorrow, but his repentance gave us Psalm 51.
Read the full story →About 970 to 930 BC; temple begun about 966 BC
Solomon and the First Temple
Solomon, son of David and Bathsheba, asked God for wisdom and became the wisest and richest king of his time. He built the first temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, begun about 966 BC. But his many foreign wives turned his heart to other gods, and the kingdom split after he died.
Read the full story →
The Divided Kingdom and the Exile
About 930 BC
The Kingdom Splits in Two
After Solomon died about 930 BC, his son Rehoboam refused to lighten the people's heavy load. Ten northern tribes broke away under Jeroboam and became the kingdom of Israel, while Judah and Benjamin stayed loyal to David's line in Jerusalem. Jeroboam set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan.
Read the full story →About 875 to 800 BC
Elijah and Elisha
Elijah confronted King Ahab and Queen Jezebel for leading Israel into Baal worship, called down fire on Mount Carmel and heard God in a still small voice. He was taken to heaven in a whirlwind, and his successor Elisha received a double portion of his spirit and healed the Syrian general Naaman.
Read the full story →About 800 to 700 BC
Jonah, Amos, Hosea and the Prophets Before the Fall
In the 700s BC God sent a wave of prophets. Jonah preached to Nineveh, Amos and Hosea warned the northern kingdom of Israel, and Isaiah saw the Lord in the temple and spoke of a coming Child called Immanuel.
Read the full story →722 BC
Assyria Conquers Israel and the Northern Kingdom Falls
In 722 BC Assyria captured Samaria after a three year siege and carried the people of the northern kingdom away. Foreigners were moved in, and their mixed worship gave rise to the Samaritans of Jesus' day.
Read the full story →701 BC
Hezekiah, Isaiah and the Assyrian Army
In 701 BC the Assyrian king Sennacherib swept through Judah and surrounded Jerusalem. King Hezekiah prayed, Isaiah promised deliverance, and the Bible says the angel of Yahweh struck down 185,000 Assyrians. Assyria's own records admit he never took the city.
Read the full story →About 622 BC
Josiah Finds the Book of the Law
Josiah became king of Judah at eight years old. In about 622 BC, workers repairing the temple found the Book of the Law, and Josiah led the last great revival before Babylon came. Jeremiah began to preach during his reign.
Read the full story →605 BC
Babylon Takes Daniel
In 605 BC Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took Daniel and other young nobles from Jerusalem. Daniel and his friends stayed faithful through the king's dream of a great statue, the fiery furnace and the lions' den.
Read the full story →586 BC
Jerusalem Falls and the First Temple Is Destroyed
In 586 BC the Babylonian army broke through Jerusalem's walls, burned Solomon's temple and carried the people into exile. Jeremiah had warned them for forty years, and Lamentations records the grief that followed.
Read the full story →586 to 538 BC
Seventy Years in Babylon
After Jerusalem fell, God's people lived as exiles in Babylon. Ezekiel saw the valley of dry bones, Jeremiah wrote that God had plans to give them a future and a hope, and Daniel read the writing on the wall the night Babylon fell.
Read the full story →
The Return and the 400 Quiet Years
538 BC
Cyrus Lets the Jews Go Home
Persia conquered Babylon in 539 BC, and the next year King Cyrus let the Jews return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Isaiah had named Cyrus as God's shepherd long before, and the Cyrus Cylinder shows his policy of sending peoples home.
Read the full story →About 520 to 516 BC
The Second Temple Is Built
The exiles laid the foundation of a new temple soon after they came home, but opposition stopped the work for years. In 520 BC the prophets Haggai and Zechariah stirred the people, and under Zerubbabel the temple was finished about 516 BC.
Read the full story →About 483 to 473 BC
Esther: For Such a Time as This
In the Persian capital of Susa, a Jewish orphan named Esther became queen to King Xerxes. When Haman plotted to wipe out the Jews, she risked her life to stop him, and the Jews still celebrate their rescue at Purim.
Read the full story →458 and 445 BC
Ezra Teaches the Law and Nehemiah Rebuilds the Walls
Ezra, a priest and scribe, came to Jerusalem in 458 BC to teach God's Law. In 445 BC Nehemiah, cupbearer to the Persian king, came to rebuild the city walls and finished them in just 52 days. Then Ezra read the Law aloud to the people.
Read the full story →About 430 BC
Malachi and the 400 Quiet Years
Malachi was the last prophet of the Old Testament, preaching about 460 to 430 BC. He promised God would send a messenger and Elijah before the Lord came. Then for about 400 years no new prophet spoke, until John the Baptist.
Read the full story →333 to 323 BC
Alexander the Great and the Greek World
Alexander the Great conquered the Persian empire between 334 and 323 BC, then died at 32 and his kingdom split four ways. Daniel 8 pictures this as a goat whose great horn breaks into four. His conquests made Greek the common language, which is why the New Testament is in Greek.
Read the full story →About 250 BC
The Septuagint: The Old Testament in Greek
The Septuagint is the Old Testament translated into Greek by Jews in Alexandria, Egypt, starting with the Law around 250 BC. It became the Bible of the early church, the New Testament often quotes it, and it included the extra books later called the Apocrypha.
Read the full story →167 to 164 BC
The Maccabees and the First Hanukkah
In 167 BC the Greek king Antiochus IV outlawed Jewish worship and set up a pagan altar in the temple. A priest's family called the Maccabees fought back, and in 164 BC they cleansed and rededicated the temple. That is the first Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication Jesus attended in John 10.
Read the full story →63 BC
Rome Takes Jerusalem
In 63 BC the Roman general Pompey captured Jerusalem after a three month siege and walked into the Most Holy Place of the temple. Judea became a Roman client state, setting the stage for Herod, Caesar Augustus and the world Jesus was born into.
Read the full story →37 to 4 BC
Herod the Great and the Temple Jesus Knew
Herod the Great ruled Judea for Rome from 37 to 4 BC. He was a brilliant builder who rebuilt the temple Jesus knew, plus Masada, Herodium and Caesarea, and a paranoid ruler who killed his own family and the boys of Bethlehem.
Read the full story →
The Life of Jesus
About 6 to 4 BC
The Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem
Jesus was born in Bethlehem about 6 to 4 BC, before Herod the Great died. Mary, a virgin, gave birth and laid Him in a manger. Angels told shepherds, Magi followed a star, and old prophecies came true.
Read the full story →About AD 8
Jesus at the Temple at Age 12
When Jesus was twelve, His family went to Jerusalem for Passover. On the way home Mary and Joseph realized He was missing, and after three days they found Him in the temple, listening to the teachers and asking questions. It is the only story the Bible tells about Jesus as a boy.
Read the full story →About AD 26 to 29
John the Baptist and the Baptism of Jesus
John the Baptist began preaching in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, calling Israel to repent. Jesus, about thirty years old, came to be baptized in the Jordan. The Spirit came down like a dove, the Father spoke from heaven, and then Jesus went into the wilderness for forty days.
Read the full story →About AD 27 to 30
Jesus' Ministry: Teaching, Miracles and the Twelve
For about three years Jesus traveled through Galilee and Judea, teaching, healing and calling people to follow Him. He chose twelve apostles, preached the Sermon on the Mount, turned water into wine, fed the 5,000 and raised Lazarus from the dead. John's Gospel mentions three Passovers, which is how we know His ministry lasted about three years.
Read the full story →AD 30 or 33
The Crucifixion of Jesus
At Passover in AD 30 or 33, Jesus shared a last supper with His disciples, prayed in Gethsemane, was arrested, and was tried by the Jewish council and the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. He was crucified outside Jerusalem and died with the words It is finished. Roman and Jewish historians outside the Bible also record His execution.
Read the full story →Sunday, AD 30 or 33
The Resurrection: He Is Risen
Early on Sunday morning, the third day after the crucifixion, women came to Jesus' tomb and found it empty. Over the next forty days Jesus appeared alive to Mary Magdalene, to Peter, to the Twelve, to Thomas, and to more than five hundred people at once. The resurrection is the center of the Christian faith.
Read the full story →
The First Church
AD 30 or 33
The Ascension and the Day of Pentecost
Forty days after His resurrection, Jesus was taken up into heaven from the Mount of Olives and told His followers to wait in Jerusalem. Ten days later, on the Jewish feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came with wind and fire, the believers spoke in other languages, Peter preached, and about 3,000 people were baptized. Christians call it the birthday of the church.
Read the full story →About AD 34
Stephen, the First Christian Martyr
Stephen was one of seven men chosen to care for widows in the Jerusalem church. Full of grace and power, he was dragged before the council and stoned to death while a young man named Saul looked on. His death set off a persecution that scattered the believers, and everywhere they went, they spread the gospel.
Read the full story →About AD 34 to 35
Saul Meets Jesus on the Road to Damascus
Saul of Tarsus was a strict Pharisee who arrested followers of Jesus. On his way to Damascus to arrest more, a light from heaven knocked him to the ground and Jesus spoke to him. Blinded for three days, he was healed and baptized, and the church's worst enemy became its greatest missionary.
Read the full story →About AD 40
Peter, Cornelius and the Gospel for Every Nation
A Roman centurion named Cornelius saw an angel who told him to send for Peter. At the same time Peter saw a vision of unclean animals and heard God say not to call unclean what He made clean. When Peter preached in Cornelius' house, the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles listening, and soon at Antioch the believers were first called Christians.
Read the full story →AD 44
James Is Beheaded and Peter Escapes Prison
King Herod Agrippa I had the apostle James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword, making him the first of the Twelve to die for Jesus. Herod then jailed Peter, but an angel led him out while the church prayed. Soon after, Herod was struck down at Caesarea, and the Jewish historian Josephus also records his sudden death in AD 44.
Read the full story →About AD 46 to 57
Paul's Missionary Journeys
From about AD 46 to 57, Paul made three missionary journeys from Antioch across Cyprus, Turkey and Greece. He planted churches in cities like Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth and Ephesus. Along the way he wrote letters that are now in the New Testament, including Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Corinthians and Romans.
Read the full story →About AD 49 to 50
The Council of Jerusalem
About AD 49 to 50, the apostles and elders met in Jerusalem to settle a hot question: did Gentile believers have to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses to be saved? Peter, Paul, Barnabas and James spoke, and the council agreed that people are saved by grace through faith. They asked Gentile believers to avoid a few practices that would hurt fellowship with Jewish believers.
Read the full story →About AD 60 to 62
Paul in Chains in Rome
After two years in prison at Caesarea, Paul appealed to Caesar and was shipped to Rome. A storm wrecked the ship on Malta, but all 276 people survived. In Rome Paul spent two years under house arrest, welcoming visitors and writing Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon.
Read the full story →AD 64 to 67
The Great Fire of Rome and the Deaths of Peter and Paul
In July AD 64 a great fire destroyed much of Rome, and the emperor Nero blamed the Christians, as the Roman historian Tacitus records. Many believers were killed in cruel ways. Early church tradition says Peter was crucified upside down and Paul was beheaded in Rome during these years, and letters like 1 and 2 Peter, 2 Timothy and Hebrews come from this time.
Read the full story →AD 70
Rome Destroys Jerusalem and the Temple
In AD 66 the Jews of Judea revolted against Rome. In AD 70 the Roman general Titus besieged Jerusalem, and in late summer his soldiers burned the temple and leveled the city, just as Jesus had warned about forty years earlier. The last rebel fortress, Masada, fell in AD 73 or 74.
Read the full story →About AD 95
John on Patmos: The Book of Revelation
Near the end of the first century, the apostle John, the last of the Twelve still living, was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching about Jesus. There he saw the visions of the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible to be written, about AD 95 under the emperor Domitian. Some scholars date it about AD 68, under Nero.
Read the full story →About 1440 BC to AD 95
When Was Each Book of the Bible Written?
The Bible was written over about 1,500 years, from Moses in the wilderness about 1440 BC to John on Patmos about AD 95. This page lists all 66 books in the order they were most likely written, with the author and date The Owner's Manual gives, plus the main scholarly view in one line.
Read the full story →
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