By Kraig McNutt
I was sitting next to a young Liberian mother a couple years ago during a Bible conference. I noticed she had the numbers 5–12–5–5–12 / 4–1–21–1 scribbled on a piece of paper. I asked her what the numbers were for and she said she uses the memory chain to teach her little boy the books of the Bible and their order. Brilliant—yet so simple!
That memory chain is a great way to learn the order of the English Bible, and a little peeling back of the layers reveals something about the genres of biblical writing, which are key to properly understanding what we are reading.
Here is a very short history lesson. No single council decreed the order of the English Bible. It emerged over centuries, shaped by Jewish scholars, the Greek Septuagint (around 250–100 BC), and Jerome’s Latin Vulgate (around AD 405). The arrangement isn’t chronological. It’s theological. Each block of books does distinct work in telling one story—creation, covenant, breakdown, promise, fulfillment, consummation. Once you see the shape (5–12–5–5–12 / 4–1–21–1), the whole Bible starts to read differently.
The Old Testament Section: 5–12–5–5–12
Those who “constructed” the book order for the Old Testament wanted it to tell a story, and it clearly does if you look closely enough. It tells the story of God’s covenant people in three grand arcs: creation, collapse, and coming—the creation of all things, the collapse of the kingdoms, and the promise of the coming Messiah.
Block 1: Pentateuch (5)
The first five books of the English Bible are called the Pentateuch, also known as the Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The reader is taken on a grand journey in the Torah, including creation, the fall, the call of Abraham, exodus from Egypt, giving of the Law at Sinai, and journey to the edge of the Promised Land. In short, God chooses a people and establishes a covenant. This is where the story begins and where every other block finds its roots.
Block 2: Historical Books (12)
Next comes Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1–2 Samuel, 1–2 Kings, 1–2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. What is going on here? The Israelites enter the land, we are introduced to the era of the judges (at first), then the rise of the united monarchy under Saul/David/Solomon, the divided kingdom, the fall of the northern kingdom (Israel) to Assyria in 722 BC, the fall of the southern kingdom (Judah) to Babylon in 586 BC, the exile period, and the return to Jerusalem.
The undergirding theological element is simple enough: the covenant people of Israel try to live
out the stipulations in the Pentateuch, but they fail miserably at being faithful to God.
Block 3: Poetic-Wisdom (5)
This block is made up of the book of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. Whereas, the first two blocks are largely narrative in genre form, block three is songs, prayers, questions, pithy wisdom sayings, and love poetry. These books are intended to address the interior life of covenant faith, addressing questions like how covenant people pray, grieve, hope, question, love, and pursue a life of covenant obedience from the heart.
This block or section is meant to provide an inner compass that helps a covenant people align
their hearts toward God so that covenant obedience is possible.
Block 4: Major Prophets (5)
Consisting of the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel, this block is designed to speak into the background and setting of the collapse of the two kingdoms; southern Judah and northern Israel. They are only “major” because they are long books. The theological work being done is to name sin, announce judgment, promise restoration, and unveil the coming Messiah. In short, these five prophetic voices hold out hope in the midst of darkness for God’s covenant people.
Block 5: Minor Prophets (12)
The English Old Testament closes in this order: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. They are “minor” prophets only because they are shorter than the previous five books, but they are essentially doing the same theological work. Yet, they each have a distinct theme: Hosea’s tenderness, Amos’ fire, Jonah’s mission, Haggai’s rebuilding, etc.
Conclusion
The Old Testament ends with Malachi and a promise of a coming messenger, an Elijah-like figure who will prepare the way. The Old Testament ends leaning forward. If the Old Testament were a five-act play it would be: Foundation → History → Interior Life → Prophetic Voices → Forward Lean.
Creation gives us the foundation. History, wisdom, and prophecy trace the covenant people through the collapse. And the coming—the leaning forward—is the last word of the Old Testament.
The New Testament (4-1-21-1)
Our English Bible can be life-changing but also quite confusing if one doesn’t understand how it was put together and why. When I first gave my life to Christ at age 14, I started reading through the New Testament, beginning with the Gospel of Matthew and worked my way through the gospels. About halfway through the book of Luke, I stopped and scratched my head, “Boy, it sure seems like I have already read this before.”
What I didn’t know then was that Matthew, Mark, and Luke share so much material because they tell the same story, just from different angles.
Here is the structure of the New Testament.
Block 1: The Gospels (4)
There are four accounts of the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Why four? Because the early church recognized four accounts, from four different angles, that faithfully preserved the life of Christ. Two of the writers were apostles and eyewitnesses (Matthew and John). Mark preserved the eyewitness testimony of Peter. Luke, a physician, carefully investigated the story and set it down in order (Luke 1:1–4).
Matthew reveals a Jewish angle. Mark approaches it from a Roman audience. Luke writes for a Gentile audience. John writes to show that Jesus is God the Son from all eternity.
Remember how everything in the Old Testament was leaning forward toward the expected coming Messiah? Well, the New Testament picks that hope up from the very beginning with the Gospel of Matthew and announces he has arrived—and his name is Jesus—Immanuel. God with us!
Interestingly, the gospels were not the first New Testament books written—but they are foundational to everything that follows. The entire arc of the Old Testament finds its fulfillment in Jesus.
Block 2: Acts (1)
Block two is just one book, The Acts of the Apostles. It is written by the physician Luke, the same Luke who wrote the gospel attributed to him by name. This means that one person, Luke, wrote about 27 percent of the New Testament content (by a word count). As one might expect, a physician pays attention to detail, so who better to write down the authoritative historical narrative of the church’s birth and spread from Jerusalem to Rome (roughly AD 30–62)?
If it weren’t for Acts, we wouldn’t know how the story of the small band of Jewish disciples in Jerusalem spread like wildfire across the Roman Empire as a community of Messiah-believing followers of Jesus of Nazareth. Acts is the bridge from Jesus to the church—the historical connective tissue that makes the next block (the Epistles) make sense.
Block 3: the Epistles (21)
The Epistles—Pauline and General—account for roughly 33 percent of the entire New Testament by word count. The apostle Paul wrote 13 epistles (Romans, 1–2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1–2 Thessalonians, 1–2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon). Several other authors account for the so-called General Epistles: Hebrews, James, 1–2 Peter, 1–3 John, and Jude. Paul’s letters are arranged first by length (longest to shortest), and secondarily by audience. Letters to churches (Romans through 2 Thessalonians) come first, then letters to individuals (1 Timothy through Philemon).
Sandwiched between Paul’s letters and the General Epistles is the Book of Hebrews, whose author is unknown. The General Epistles after Hebrews are named for their authors (James, Peter, John, Jude), unlike Paul’s letters, which are named for their recipients.
All 21 epistles are considered a genre unto themselves, not narrative, but more pastoral in tone and feel. Think of them simply as pastoral letters. They were written to real churches and real individuals—dealing with real problems: doctrinal questions, ethical conflicts, false teaching, persecution, discouragement, questions about church order, and relational conflict.
Is there an underlying theological arc to the epistles? Yes, at the risk of over-simplifying, one could argue that the epistles are simply laying out the practical guidelines for how a fully devoted follower of Jesus, experiencing life in the context of a small Christian community, can live his or her life “in Christ”. Paul himself uses the phrase “in Christ” at least 70 times.
Block 4: Revelation (1)
The last book in the Christian Bible is The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John, also simply known as Revelation. It is defined by its use of “apocalyptic” language, known for symbols, cosmic imagery, and prophetic vision (a vision of the victory of Christ over evil and the renewal of all things). John was writing around AD 95 from exile on the island of Patmos.
Revelation unpacks theological themes of Christ’s return, God’s judgment of evil, and the new heavens and new earth. Near the end, John records the ultimate promise, “Look, God’s dwelling
is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God” (Revelation 21:3).
So, from cover to cover (all 66 books), we see that the story of the Bible ends where it began—with God dwelling with his people. Genesis opens with God walking in the garden of his people and closes with God dwelling in the city with his people.
Truly, the whole Bible can be summed up in two words—With God!
