The Early Christians: Christians, Jews or Both?

Why is the New Testament Not in Chronological Order?

One of the things that anyone researching dating of the New Testament realizes is that the New Testament is not arranged in chronological order. Instead, it is arranged by literary type. To a researcher trying to figure out the time frame of events, this is puzzling. Why are the books not in chronological order? The short answer has to do with the way the New Testament writings developed and circulated in the first century. For example, the present-day Gospels that recount the life of Jesus are not the earliest surviving New Testament writings. Paul’s letters include the earliest writings that we still have today. His letter writing seems to have developed in response to the needs of the churches he helped establish. With the establishment of churches came problems and theological questions: sexual misconduct, lawsuits, disputes over food sacrificed to idols, questions about circumcision, and many more.

During the earliest decades of Christianity, individual books circulated independently. A church in Corinth might have had a copy of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, believers in Philippi a copy of Philippians, and the Christians in Rome a copy of Romans. No congregation had everything. Instructions within Paul’s letters indicate that Paul wanted them to circulate among congregations. For example, in 1 Thessalonians 5:27, Paul asks that the letters be read to all the believers (“I adjure you by the Lord that this letter be read to the brothers.”). In Colossians 4:16, he instructs the Colossians to exchange letters with Laodicea (“And when this letter is read before you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and you yourselves read the one from Laodicea.”). Since such circulation required additional handwritten copies, Paul’s letters may have already begun to be copied during his lifetime.

By the latter part of the first century (around 70-90 CE), scholars believe that, after Paul’s death, churches began gathering copies of his letters into collections. 2 Peter 3:15-16 reflects this view, as the author writes, “Our beloved brother Paul…also wrote to you…as he does in all his letters.” This use of the term “all his letters” suggests that the author recognizes Paul’s letters as a body of writing rather than as individual letters sent to congregations. The dating of 2 Peter is disputed (Proposals range from 65-95 CE), but whether one dates 2 Peter early or late, this passage implies that by this period in the first century Paul’s letters were likely beginning to circulate as a collection rather than simply as isolated documents.

When Paul’s letters began circulating as a collected body in the late first century, the editor or editors had to decide on an order, and they probably could not have arranged them with confidence chronologically, so they decided instead to arrange them by recipient type and then approximate length. This basic arrangement eventually became the order we still use today.

Here is that order:

Church recipient	Approximate length	Approximate date
Romans	Longest	56–57 CE
1 Corinthians		53–55 CE
2 Corinthians		55–56 CE
Galatians		48–55 CE
Ephesians		60–90 CE
Philippians		54–62 CE
Colossians		57–62 CE
1 Thessalonians		50–51 CE
2 Thessalonians	Shortest	50–52 CE

Individual recipient	Approximate length	Approximate date
1 Timothy	Longest	62–100 CE
2 Timothy		62–100 CE
Titus		62–100 CE
Philemon	Shortest	54–62 CE

As you can see, the canonical order goes backwards and forwards in time. For example, 1 Thessalonians probably was among the earliest surviving letters, and it is almost at the end of the church letters. Romans, one of Paul’s later surviving letters, comes first simply because it is the longest. Galatians may be one of the earliest letters, yet it appears fourth.

In any case, the New Testament preserves the book order of those early editors, and Paul’s letters are today still arranged by length, not chronology.