Major Old Testament Events
The purpose of this timeline is to set forth the most important biblical events in an orderly fashion, together with brief comments indicating how the events fit together. This can be very helpful for properly understanding particular biblical passages by placing them in context. Some of the dates, especially the earlier ones, are approximate.
1. Genesis 1-2. Creation. Creation is good. Relations with God and among people, and with the land, are orderly and peaceful. No violence, evil, or death is envisioned in God's original good creation.
2. Genesis 1-11: Humanity sins against God, and as a result, evil, chaos, and death invade the world. The once blessed relationships with God, among persons, and with the land, are destroyed. God judges humanity for its sin by expulsion from the garden, a flood, and by confusing human languages.
3. Genesis 12:1-3 and following. God makes a new beginning by forming a people, Abraham and his descendants, who will be a blessing to the whole world. Through them, the relationships with God, among peoples, and with the land, will be restored. Opinions vary, but Abraham is thought to have lived about 2100 years before Christ. Genesis 12-50 gives the early history of Abraham's descendants. They come to be named "Israel." They are also called Hebrews. Because of a famine, they enter into Egypt where they live for some time.
4. Exodus - Joshua. The people of Israel become enslaved in Egypt, but God delivers them under the leadership of Moses, approximately 1300 B.C. (Before Christ), and forms a covenant with them at Mount Sinai. The covenant entails mutual promises sealed by a sacrifice and a sacred meal. Israel promises to obey God's covenant law, and for his part, God promises to bless and protect his people if they are faithful to the covenant. Then God leads his people into the land of Canaan where they settle down to live according to the covenant. By liberating his people, establishing a relationship with them by covenant, and giving them the law and the land, God laid the foundation for a new way of life in which relations with God, among peoples, and with the land, were redeemed. This redemption is the foundation of the Old Testament revelation. These redemptive hopes were not realized by Israel, but they were fulfilled in Jesus who kept covenant with God and fulfilled Israel's ancient law.
5. Judges. For some 200 years after entering Canaan, the people of Israel were governed by judges that God appointed in times of crisis to deliver Israel from her enemies. The time of the judges came to an end with the appointment of Saul as Israel's first king.
6. I Samuel - II Chronicles. These books narrate the life and times of Israel's kings from the time of the first king Saul (1040-1010) B.C., and ending with the last of Israel's kings, about the year 586 B.C. Among these kings, David, Saul's successor, was the greatest, ruling from 1010 to 971 B.C. God promised to make his lineage an eternal kingly line, a prophecy that was fulfilled in Christ Jesus. In 931 B.C., the kingdom of Israel divided, forming a northern kingdom, Israel, and a southern kingdom, Judah. The northern kingdom was destroyed in 722 B.C. by the Assyrians, while the southern kingdom was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 and the people of Judah were carried away into captivity. The capital of the southern kingdom, Jerusalem, was razed to the ground and its temple destroyed.
7. Ezra - Nehemiah. After being carried away into Babylon, some of the people of Judah return home in 538 B.C. where they began to rebuild the temple and the walls of Jerusalem. The worship of the true God is restored and the priests increasing became the spiritual and temporal leaders of the people.
8. Throughout the period of the kings, and even after the return of the people from Babylon (point 7), God raised up prophets who proclaimed the judgment of God against Israel and Judah as witnessed in the destruction of both the northern and the southern kingdoms. These prophets also looked forward to a time of restoration, when God who send a righteous king to redeem his people and establish an eternal kingdom. There prophecies are contained in the biblical books of Isaiah through Malachi with Lamentations being understood as laments over the fall of Jerusalem. These prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus who fulfilled both the law and the prophets.
9. Daniel. Scholars of Daniel give different dates for its composition, either shortly after 539 B.C. or about 165 B.C. For our purposes, the book proclaims God's sovereign power over the nations, and speaks to times when the people of God are being persecuted by foreign powers.
These are the major Old Testament events. Along with these major events, there are the Psalms which, above all, were used in worship to proclaim the glory and wonder of God, as well as bringing to God the needs, hopes, and praises of his people. These were written over many, many years. There is also the wisdom literature, books such as Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, as well as the beautiful Song of Songs, and tales such as Ruth and Jonah. All of these have their various dates and significance which will become relevant as we proceed.
We may summarize this Old Testament timeline as follows: 1. Good creation. 2. Sin, death, the triumph of evil, and God's judgments against sin. 3. The call of Abraham and the formation of a people through whom God will redeem the world. 4. The liberation from Egypt, covenant, law, and gift of the land as God's first great attempt to redeem humanity. 5. Judges. 6. Kings, the promise of a righteous king, the destruction of the northern and southern kingdoms for violations of the covenant, and the beginning of the prophetic witness. 7. The prophetic witness continued and the return of the people from exile in Babylon. 8. The time of Daniel.
This history looks forward to a righteous king who would establish a kingdom in which humanity would be in right relationship with God, each other, and with the land. In this kingdom, sin, evil, the devil, and death would be defeated. This hope brings us to Jesus Christ and the New Testament.
Major New Testament Events
1. The birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ as narrated in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke (and the first few verses of Acts), and John. Jesus lived for 33 years at the beginning of the present era. These gospels record how Jesus established his kingdom, a kingdom in which believers entered into a right relationship with God, with each other, and with material possessions, defeating sin and the devil, and thereby fulfilling the hopes of the Old Testament. This Kingdom was established by Christ, but his Kingdom will not be fully established until Christ returns at the end of time. Until them, believers live with a Kingdom that has already begun but not yet completed.
2. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, shortly after Jesus died, around 33 A.D. (after Christ). This event established the church as the Holy Spirit witnessed to the person of Jesus alive and active in the lives of believers, creating the kingdom established by Jesus.
3. The establishment of the church with Jesus as her spiritual head and enlivened by Spirit as recounted in Acts and the various epistles, Acts - Jude. These New Testament books describe issues and events of the church of the first century.
4. The book of Revelation, probably written around 95 A.D. at a time of persecution. This last New Testament book proclaims the triumph of God over all things when God will finally and decisively establish the kingdom of Christ forever.
The saving work of Christ and the establishment of his kingdom, although begun in Christ and fully revealed in him, has yet to be completed throughout the world. The church, under the leadership of pastors obedient to Christ, completes Jesus' work by proclaiming Jesus in word and deed. By the power of the Spirit, the Lord Jesus acts today through the work of the church, and the church is best served by leaders who follow Jesus and carry out the business of redemption, establishing God's Kingdom throughout the world. Nothing is more important. It it is an honor to be engaged in this great work, and the people of God, regardless of the difficulty, or even, at times, of apparent defeat or persecution, play an important role in this process. This great work will continue until Christ comes again and believers enter into the "life of the world to come." Then God will be all in all and his saving work complete.
This is the biblical narrative, framing all of life from creation to the final day. The foundation of all is Jesus Christ, "the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2).
The Rev. Robert J. Sanders, Ph.D.
