In a past article, I talked about the benefit of chronological Bibles.
Tyndale just sent me a copy of their new Chronological Bible.
And I’m super impressed with it.
Out of all the Bibles I’ve held in my hands, The Chronological Life Application Study Bible is cosmetically the most beautiful.
This is a real work of art, inside and out.
The color schemes, fonts, layout, graphics, timelines, and design are all top-drawer.
For this reason, this Bible makes an impressive gift.
Some things I love about The Chronological Life Application Study Bible:
*The historical timelines appear at the beginning of each book. This situates each book of the Bible in its historical context. You can see what was happening around the world when a particular book was written.
*A colored Bible timeline at the top of each page. This way you know where you are in history as you read each page. Awesome.
* Stunning maps, graphical lists, and other helps throughout the pages.
* Life-application commentary. It’s not technical, so they would be helpful to any reader of any age.
*A summary of each book of the Bible at the end. And much more.
Two Other Observations:
The translation is NLT. As far as clarity goes, this is my favorite translation. (I prefer the NASB for accuracy.)
For the most part, I agree with their chronology. However, I wish they put the book of Galatians before the book of James.
I wish they didn’t mix literature. Meaning, when you’re reading the book of Acts, you’ll read James, Galatians, Thessalonians, etc. in the middle of certain parts of Acts.
Most of the new chronological Bibles do this. However, I think it would be better to put a marker saying when these books were written as you’re reading the book of Acts instead of inserting those books in the middle of it.
But that’s just personal preference. And there’s no problem with having a Bible that does this alongside the traditional arrangements of the books.
All told, this is an amazing Bible and it makes a great gift for a teen or adult.
Toward a Chronological Understanding of the New Testament
Does this version include chapters and verses? I’m looking for a good chronological bible (or at least NT) that excludes chapter and verse. Thanks!
It does, but they are not conspicuous or distracting. “The Books of the Bible” doesn’t have chapters or verses. And the “Readers Bible” doesn’t have verses, but it’s not in chronological order and it does have chapters.
I bought this after your recommendation and I think that it is really piece of art. Chronology is great and helpful. However it’s more for reading with explanation than in deep study Bible. Some additional texts are too shallow and are rather for new believers than person who is Bible reader from a long time. As you suggested I tried to check out The ESV Study Bible and I think that this one is much much richer and better to ‘in deep’ Bible study. So, after you rise (by “Pagan Christianity?”) a breed of ‘in deep’ Bible vampires, I can see that ESV is the best choice if someone wants only one study tool. However, Chronological Life Application Study Bible is a good additional tool, worthy to implement it’s chronology to daily Bible reading.
Hello would you mind stating which blog platform you’re working with? I’m going to start my own blog soon
but I’m having a hard time deciding between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your design seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something completely unique.
P.S Apologies for getting off-topic but I had to ask!
This is what I recommend. Read the whole post, especially the bottom: https://www.frankviola.org/2013/02/15/howtostartablog/
I purchased the Tyndale Chronological Bible. Any suggestions on how to divide it up so as to read it in one year or 6 months? thanks
Frank, I’m in a re-thinking everything mode, not about the scriptures, but about the canonization of the scriptures. I don’t know if i buy the popular reasons anymore regarding the order of the scriptures. When one reads the scriptures chronologically, you get the sense that there’s more, a progression if you will. Like maybe there would be epistles by Timothy, or Titus, etc.. throughout the ages to now.
The traditional way that the bible is canonized today, kind of gives one a sense of a cut off point, and to me, it’s not progressive. My rhetorical question’s are; Who would want to do this, Why, and What could anyone gain by canonizing the scriptures in this confusing manner? Is there a possible tie-in with “pagan Christianity”? Last question; Where are the subsequent “gentile apostles”, and their epistles?
Matt, understanding the history of why the Scriptures were put into a canon will help with your question. Read F.F. Bruce’s “The Canon of Scripture.” I believe it will show that what we have in the canon are the divinely inspired books. If Timothy and Titus, et al. wrote letters, they didn’t survive. No, there’s no tie-in to Pagan Christianity when it comes to the Scriptures. I don’t subscribe to “DiVinci code” thinking as it’s lacking in fact. Read Bruce’s book and it will educate you on this subject.
Fair enough Frank. I believe that all of the Scriptures within the canon are divinely inspired, even if there were no canon, the scriptures hold their own anyway, so no argument here. However; To me, Chronologically canonizing them is more helpful, than the other way, and I know that our adversary is crafty, and still has an agenda. I will check out Bruce’s book. Thanks.
your post is a nudge from the Lord. b/c just this weekend, i was talking to a friend who was sharing w/ me about the chronological Bible. it was the 2nd time i’d heard mention of it, & i was incredibly drawn into the concept. so clearly, the third time’s a charm. 😉
thx so much for sharing your insights,
tanya
You wrote “I prefer the NASB for accuracy.”
NASB is the most literal word-for-word of the English translations (hence is less clear). NLT is not word-for-word, which contributes to its greater clarity. But that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily “inaccurate” — just non-literal.
So I’m wondering what you mean by “accuracy.” And can you give some examples of where NLT it not accurate? (Please use the latest revision, which was 2007.)
Scott: the purpose of this post wasn’t to argue that the NLT is “inaccurate.” That word was never used. I simply mentioned in passing that the NASB is more accurate to the original and the NTL is a clearer read. There is no perfect translation. If you’re genuinely interested in seeing some of the ways in which the NLT falls short in accuracy, just do a search on the Web. Several public critiques of it have been written for the different editions. That aside, the point of the post is that the new chronological Bible is great. I hope you’ll get a copy . . . especially since you appear to like the NLT. 😉 Have a great weekend.
Thanks. I agree my question was peripheral to your main point. Maybe somebody will write “Rethinking translation.”
I would, like you Frank, prefer the Bible in an essentially literal translation such as the ESV or the NASB. I simply have a hard time reading from the NLT. Too free for me. I will check out the NKJV Chronological Bible though.
I’ve been reading the NLT to my kids off my iPod. It’s a translation that works well for them (they’re 6 & 8), so this Bible definitely appeals to me in that respect. Plus I’ve read “Untold Story of the New Testament Church” and found it very refreshing and enlightening. Would like to experience the OT chronologically, especially as we use a timeline for school and have benefited from seeing how world events and Biblical events coincide. So I’m all about chronology. But how easy is it to actually USE this Bible? In particular, how easy is it to look up specific passages and such? I’m assuming it’s necessary to use a TOC to find things if some of the Epistles are tucked away inside of Acts?
How does it handle the Psalms? Are they interspersed throughout other books at the points in time and relating to events during which they were presumably written?
Not the easiest for reference. If one wants easy reference, tradition editions are best. The Davidic Psalms are all in one place in Chronicles. The others are elsewhere. It’s best to use this for chronological reading only. Looking things up can be managed, but it takes a little extra time.
I assume you’re reviewing the print edition and not the Kindle edition. I wonder how the Kindle edition would compare, what with search capabilities and the like.
Maybe I need a Kindle AND this Bible for Christmas…
Correct.
Does this mean you no longer think the Nelson NKJV Chrono is the ‘best’—–? Gee, I ran rite out and got one.
The Nelson Chrono is the best for the NKJV. The Tyndale is the best for the NLT. I own and like them both. If I had to choose only one, I’d get the Tyndale version. But that’s me.
Thanks for sharing this info. I am also fond of the NLT translation, but also the NIV. I recently acquired a Common English Bible, consulting other sources and using the Nestle Aland instead of the UBS text for the New Testament. I have a blog (www.bibledifferences.net) where I study the causes for the differences between older translations like the KJV and modern translations like the NIV and NLT. I look forward to have my own Chronological Bible soon.
God Bless
Herman Grobler.
Sweet!
Whoop. Super excited to check this out. Thanks for sharing.