In the period AD 29–30, Jesus spent most of His time in Judea, preaching, teaching, performing miracles-including the raising of Lazarus from the dead-and further equipping the disciples to continue on after His death. Jesus’ ministry lasted about three and a half years. Jesus began His public ministry in circa AD 26, beginning with His baptism (Matthew 3:13–17). Nothing is recorded of Jesus’ life for the next decade or so, until we see a twelve-year-old Jesus astounding the teachers in the temple (Luke 2:40–52). After the death of Herod the Great in 4 BC, Jesus and His parents returned to Nazareth in Galilee (Matthew 2:19–23). In approximately 5 BC, Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel, was born in Bethlehem.

The Bible timeline continues in the New Testament. What follows on the Bible timeline is the intertestamental period, lasting approximately 430 years. The Jews restored Jerusalem between this time and approximately 432 BC, when the last book of the Old Testament (Malachi) was written. The exile of Judah lasted until about 538 BC when Persian King Cyrus directed Ezra to return to Israel and build a temple for God at Jerusalem (Ezra 1). Various kings ruled the north (Israel) and the south (Judah) until the fall of the northern kingdom in 722 BC and the fall of Jerusalem (capital of the southern kingdom) in 586 BC. In 931 BC, after King Solomon’s reign, Israel was divided into a northern and a southern kingdom.

The Bible timeline includes King Saul, the famous King David-from whose family Jesus Christ would be born-and David’s son, the wise King Solomon, presided over a united kingdom of Israel. The period of Israel’s ten judges ended about 1052 BC, the onset of King Saul’s reign, when most scholars agree that concrete, historically verifiable dating is possible. For example, Moses is estimated to have been born in 1526 BC and Joshua to have entered the Promised Land approximately 1406 BC. Within the period between Abraham’s birth and the apostle John’s writing of the book of Revelation, history helps to place many of the events of the Old and New Testaments on the Bible timeline. Prior to Abraham’s birth, the Bible timeline beginning in Genesis contains a rich history of creation, Adam and Eve, the Fall of Man, extensive genealogies, stories of human travails leading up to Noah and the Great Flood (date also unknown), and much more. From a more practical viewpoint, the Bible timeline on which most scholars agree begins with the calling of Abram, renamed “Abraham” by God (Genesis 17:4–6) in the year 2166 BC, and ends with the writing of the book of Revelation in approximately AD 95. In the most basic sense, the Bible timeline is endless and eternal, as it chronicles creation (date unknown Genesis 1:1–31) through the end of ages (Matthew 28:20).

Timeline of bible books infographic