“Once upon a time there lived a man…”
When we read this, we immediately know that we’re in the realm of fairy tale. The era isn’t specified, nor, usually, is the place (except maybe “At the edge of a deep, dark forest”, or “By the mountains of [fantasy name]”). We know, from these few, simple signals, that the story we are about to read is not true.
On the other hand, if we read, “On 30 July 1966, Geoff Hurst walked onto the pitch at Wembley stadium…”, we expect the following story to be true. The name, date and place enable us to look it up and verify the facts.
Much of the Bible is the same. Sometimes Jesus tells stories about ‘a man’ or ‘a woman’, and we recognise these as parables – stories told to make a teaching point, not related as factual. But when the Bible includes names, places and especially dates, they are there for a reason, and it is worth considering what that reason might be.
For example, if you heard, “A man stepped onto the beach in Greece in the middle of July”, you would expect a very different story, and have a very different mental image, to “A man walked into a florist’s on 13th February”, or “A man stood on the streets of New York on 31st December”. These places and dates have associations in our minds, as they would have for the original audiences of the Bible.
It would take years of practice for us to get to a similar level of familiarity, but there’s only one way to build that familiarity: start. For some things you’d need a doctorate in the significance of Hebrew names and numbers to be able to figure out what they were saying. But most of the time you just need a few tools.
Bible timeline
First you need to know roughly when in the big story of the Bible each event occurred. Now I would love to be able to present you with a nice link to a clear and simple timeline, but it’s not really that easy. Here’s a screenshot of various options:
As you can see, none of them are simple or straightforward! For one thing, the divided kingdom immediately means you have to have two timelines in one towards the end of the Old Testament. And if you want to try to indicate which prophets lived when, and who they prophesied to, that adds another layer of complexity. Especially since we’re not sure of the dates of many of the prophets’ lives, so timelines can disagree wildly.
I’ve got a couple that I use, but they’re copyrighted and I don’t know the original source, so I can’t point you to them. I suggest you look around on your preferred search engine and find one that makes sense to you.
Or if you want a nice project, try to build your own. There’s a comprehensive list of dates (with Bible references) on Bible Hub, and Got Questions has got a video and a list of many key points in history, with dates. Have a look at them and see if you can put together a timeline that is useful to you.
Chronological Bible
A Bible that has the whole of scripture arranged in order of when the events took place can also be helpful, especially with books like Isaiah and Psalms, that span a lot of time, or Ezra, Daniel and Haggai, which take place roughly at the same time, but are spread a long way apart in our Bibles.
If you don’t want to buy another Bible, there are plenty of reading plans that help you read through the whole Bible in a year chronologically. Even if you don’t take it up as a reading challenge, it’s a useful reference. There’s a nice, downloadable one from Joni and Friends here.
Maps
Once you know when the events are taking place, it’s good to see where they are, too. My husband, Dave, really likes this part, and has made me notice place names and think about them a bit more. When we were reading Joshua, we used maps a lot to see the progress of Israel into the promised land, the sites of all the battles, then the areas Joshua allotted to them.
The tool we use for this is called StepBible.org. Here’s an example from the New Testament. I’ve spotted a place name in the text and clicked it. That has opened up a side bar which tells me a bit about it (including how many times it appears in the Bible – you could click that link and find the other references to it too, if you liked). The side bar also has a button you can click to see a map.
On this occasion, the map it initially brings up isn’t that helpful:
But if you click the ‘Time of Jesus’ tab at the top, you get a zoomed-in view, which also shows Azotus, the place Phillip started from, so you can see just how far he travelled on his preaching journey. (Did you even know Phillip went on a preaching journey after meeting the Ethiopian eunuch? I didn’t!)
As you can see, I have the Greek running along beneath the English text, as I like to click on those words sometimes, too. You can click on most of the words to see their meaning, usage etc etc, and of course, the Old Testament is also included (for which you can add in a Hebrew interlinear version, if you’re so inclined). I’ve got it set up the way I like to use it, and bookmarked an OT and and NT passage so I can easily get back to the set up I like.
It’s a powerful tool, and I’m sure I only scratch the surface of its uses. Play around and see what it can do for you.
Most Study Bibles also have maps in the back, but some of the more obscure places can be hard to find, plus, using a Study Bible for reading makes it too easy to look to the footnotes for explanations of texts, instead of forcing you to use your brain first! I keep mine as a reference resource, like a dictionary or concordance, to be turned to after I’ve had a go at understanding a passage for myself and with others.
Take it to the next level
I said last week that this post had been inspired by something that happened last time I led a group through Haggai. Someone asked why such specific dates were given for the oracles.
What a great question.
I had used those dates to build a timeline, and to set us early in the reign of King Darius, but it had never occurred to me to wonder whether the first day of the sixth month, or the 21st day of the seventh month had any particular significance.
The person asking wondered if they aligned with any of the Jewish festivals, and when we discovered that Haggai’s name means ‘festive’ or ‘my festival’, it definitely seemed worth looking into.
This week’s download is a sheet that will help you do just that. You might find it helpful to create your own list or table of the feasts, festivals and other remembrances to keep somewhere handy, in case the question arises again sometime (there are a couple of pointers in the download to get you started).
The overall principle, though, is ‘turn on your curiosity’. Notice times, dates and places given in the text. They are there for a reason. Get into the habit of looking them up, and before too long you’ll start to have a sense of the shape of the year and the geography of the area in your mind. And you’ll begin to notice echoes and resonances for other times that date/season/location has cropped up, many of which will add new layers of meaning to the text.
See you next week!
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This post is part of a series of ideas for how to get started with studying the Bible either for yourself or as a small group leader. Follow this link to find the other posts in the series.
PS All these resources are absolutely free, but if you find them useful, consider making a small donation through my Ko-fi page. Thank you!
