Bible Timeline: The Whole Story From Creation to Revelation
The Bible’s story runs from creation to a new creation, and almost everything in between fits into ten big eras. Learn those ten and you’ll always know roughly where you are, whichever book you open.
One quick warning before the dates: early dates are approximate, and scholars disagree about several of them (the Exodus especially). Treat the older numbers as “around this time,” not as calendar facts. They get firmer as you move toward the time of Jesus.
The Bible timeline at a glance
| Era | Approximate dates | What happens | Where to read it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Beginnings | Undated | Creation, the fall, the flood, the Tower of Babel | Genesis 1 to 11 |
| 2. The patriarchs | About 2000 to 1700 BC | Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph; the family ends up in Egypt | Genesis 12 to 50 |
| 3. Exodus and wilderness | About 1450 or 1250 BC (debated) | Moses leads Israel out of slavery; the law at Mount Sinai; 40 years wandering | Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy |
| 4. Conquest and judges | Roughly the following 300 years | Israel enters Canaan; a cycle of rebellion and rescue | Joshua, Judges, Ruth |
| 5. United kingdom | About 1050 to 930 BC | Kings Saul, David and Solomon; the first temple | 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 Kings 1 to 11, Psalms, Proverbs |
| 6. Divided kingdom | About 930 to 586 BC | Israel splits in two; prophets warn both kingdoms; Assyria takes the north in 722 BC | 1 and 2 Kings, most of the prophets |
| 7. Exile | 586 to 538 BC | Babylon destroys Jerusalem and the temple; the people live in exile | Daniel, Ezekiel, Lamentations, Jeremiah |
| 8. Return and rebuilding | 538 to about 430 BC | Exiles go home, rebuild the temple and the walls | Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi |
| 9. Jesus | About 6 BC to AD 30 | Jesus’ birth, ministry, death and resurrection | Matthew, Mark, Luke, John |
| 10. The early church | About AD 30 to 95 | The church spreads across the Roman world; letters to churches; Revelation | Acts through Revelation |
Era by era
1. Beginnings
Genesis 1 to 11 covers huge ground fast. God creates a good world. People rebel. Things fall apart: a murder in the first family, a flood, a tower built to reach heaven. These chapters set up the problem the rest of the Bible works to solve. (We go deeper in our guide to Abraham, where the story narrows to one family.)
2. The patriarchs
God calls Abraham and promises that his family will bless the whole world. That promise passes to Isaac, then Jacob, then Jacob’s twelve sons. By the end of Genesis, Joseph has gone from slave to second-in-command of Egypt, and the whole family moves there to survive a famine.
3. Exodus and wilderness
Generations later, Egypt has turned Abraham’s descendants into slaves. God sends Moses, the plagues hit, and Israel walks out through the Red Sea. At Mount Sinai, God gives the law and makes a covenant with the nation. A lack of trust turns a short trip into 40 years in the desert.
4. Conquest and judges
Joshua leads Israel into Canaan. After he dies, the book of Judges shows a painful loop: the people drift from God, get conquered, cry for help, and God raises up a leader to rescue them. Then they drift again. The small book of Ruth sits in the middle of this messy stretch like a quiet bright spot.
5. United kingdom
Israel asks for a king. Saul starts well and ends badly. David, the shepherd who beat Goliath, becomes Israel’s greatest king and writes many of the Psalms. His son Solomon builds the temple in Jerusalem and becomes famous for wisdom.
6. Divided kingdom
After Solomon, the kingdom splits: Israel in the north, Judah in the south. Most kings lead the people away from God. Prophets like Elijah, Isaiah, Amos and Hosea warn them to turn back. Assyria conquers the northern kingdom in 722 BC. Judah lasts longer.
7. Exile
Babylon destroys Jerusalem and the temple in 586 BC and carries many of the people away. It’s the lowest point in the Old Testament. It’s also where Daniel ends up in the lions’ den and Ezekiel sees visions of dry bones coming back to life.
8. Return and rebuilding
Persia defeats Babylon, and King Cyrus lets the exiles go home in 538 BC. They rebuild the temple, and later Nehemiah rebuilds Jerusalem’s walls. Malachi, the last Old Testament prophet, writes roughly 400 years before Jesus.
9. Jesus
The four Gospels tell the story of Jesus from four angles. (His birth is usually dated around 6 to 4 BC, a quirk of how the calendar was calculated centuries later.) He teaches, heals, is crucified in Jerusalem around AD 30, and rises three days later.
10. The early church
Acts follows the apostles as the message spreads from Jerusalem to Rome. Paul, Peter, James and John write letters to young churches. Revelation closes the Bible with a vision of evil defeated and a new heaven and earth.
Why the books aren’t in timeline order
Your Bible is arranged by type (law, history, poetry, prophets, letters), not by date. So the prophet Jonah lived during the divided kingdom, but his book sits near the end of the Old Testament. Job may be one of the oldest stories of all, yet it’s in the middle. Our guide to all 66 books shows how that arrangement works.
If you’d rather read the story in the order it happened, a chronological reading plan does exactly that.
FAQ
How long a period does the Bible cover?
From Abraham to the end of the New Testament is roughly 2,000 years. The stories before Abraham in Genesis 1 to 11 aren’t dated.
When was the Bible written?
Over roughly 1,500 years, from the time of Moses to the late first century AD, when the last New Testament books were written.
What year was Jesus born?
Most historians place it around 6 to 4 BC. The odd “BC” date comes from a monk’s miscalculation when the calendar was set up centuries later.
What happened between the Old and New Testaments?
About 400 years passed. Greece and then Rome took control of Israel, the Jewish people revolted under the Maccabees, and synagogues spread. That’s the world Jesus was born into.
Why do Bible timelines give different dates?
Ancient sources don’t use our calendar, so scholars line up biblical events with other historical records. Early dates, like the Exodus, are still debated. Later dates, like the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC, are much more certain.
