Bible Timeline
The Bible is not one book but a library, and its story runs across roughly two thousand years — from a family of wandering herdsmen to a people, a kingdom, an exile and a return, and at last to Jesus and the church that spread out from Jerusalem. This is a map of that sweep, grouped into five broad periods and the eras within them: where each part of the story sits, which books belong to it, and how one age leads into the next.
A word on the dates. Biblical chronology is approximate and much debated. The earliest periods — the primeval chapters and the patriarchs — cannot be fixed to a calendar at all, and even later dates can vary by decades between scholars, depending on how the biblical figures are read against Egyptian, Assyrian and Babylonian records. The dates below are widely cited round numbers, given to show the order and span of events rather than to settle them; where a major alternative exists (such as the date of the Exodus) it is noted. Treat them as signposts, not settled fact.
- Patriarchs c. 2000–1700 BC
- Egypt & Exodus c. 1700–1250 BC
- Conquest & judges c. 1250–1050 BC
- United monarchy c. 1050–930 BC
- Divided kingdom 930–586 BC
- Exile 586–539 BC
- Return 539–430 BC
- Between the Testaments c. 430–6 BC
- Life of Jesus c. 6 BC–AD 30
- Early church AD 30–100
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Beginnings and the patriarchs — before history – c. 1700 BC
From creation and the primeval stories to the call of Abraham and the family that grew into Israel — the foundations laid in the book of Genesis.
Primeval prologue — before datable history
The opening chapters of Genesis (1–11) — creation, the garden and the fall, Cain and Abel, Noah and the flood, the tower of Babel — stand before any calendar. They are told as the deep background to everything that follows: how the world and humanity came to be, and how sin and scattering entered them.
The patriarchs — c. 2000–1700 BC
With Abraham the story narrows to one family through whom ‘all the families of the earth’ are to be blessed, down three generations into Egypt.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| c. 2000 BC | Abraham is called from Ur and Haran to Canaan; God promises a land and descendants (Genesis 12). |
| c. 2000 BC | Abram and Lot part ways; Melchizedek, priest-king of Salem, blesses Abram (Genesis 13–14). |
| c. 1910 BC | The covenant is confirmed; Hagar bears Ishmael (Genesis 15–16). |
| c. 1900 BC | Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed; Lot is delivered (Genesis 19). |
| c. 1900 BC | Isaac, the child of promise, is born; the binding of Isaac on Mount Moriah (Genesis 21–22). |
| c. 1840 BC | Jacob and Esau are born; Esau sells his birthright (Genesis 25). |
| c. 1760 BC | Jacob flees to Haran, marries Leah and Rachel, and fathers twelve sons and a daughter (Genesis 28–30). |
| c. 1750 BC | Joseph is sold into Egypt by his jealous brothers (Genesis 37). |
| c. 1720 BC | Joseph rises to govern Egypt; Jacob’s family settles in Goshen to escape famine (Genesis 41–47). |
From Egypt to the kingdom — c. 1800–930 BC
Israel grows into a people in Egypt, is delivered through Moses, takes the land under Joshua and the judges, and rises to its height under David and Solomon.
Egypt and the Exodus — c. 1800–1250 BC
The founding event of Israel’s faith, recounted in Exodus through Deuteronomy: slavery, deliverance, and the Law given at Sinai.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| c. 1800–1300 BC | Israel multiplies in Egypt and is reduced to slavery under a new dynasty (Exodus 1). |
| c. 1525 BC | Moses is born and drawn from the Nile, and later flees to Midian (Exodus 2). |
| c. 1446 or 1260 BC | The burning bush, the ten plagues, the Passover, and the Exodus from Egypt (Exodus 3–14). |
| that year | The crossing of the sea; manna in the desert; the Law and covenant given at Sinai (Exodus 14–24). |
| that year | The golden calf; the Tabernacle is built (Exodus 32–40). |
| + 2 years | The twelve spies; the people refuse the land and are sentenced to wander (Numbers 13–14). |
| + 40 years | Korah’s rebellion, the bronze serpent, and Balaam’s blessing of Israel (Numbers 16–24). |
| c. 1406 or 1220 BC | Moses’ farewell addresses and his death on Mount Nebo (Deuteronomy 34). |
Conquest and the judges — c. 1250–1050 BC
Israel enters Canaan and settles as a loose tribal confederacy with no king, repeatedly falling away and being rescued by raised-up judges (Joshua, Judges, Ruth).
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| c. 1406 / 1220 BC | Israel crosses the Jordan; Jericho falls and Rahab is spared (Joshua 1–6). |
| c. 1380 BC | The land is conquered and divided among the twelve tribes (Joshua 11–21). |
| c. 1375 BC | Othniel, the first judge, delivers Israel; then Ehud (Judges 3). |
| c. 1200 BC | Deborah and Barak defeat Sisera (Judges 4–5). |
| c. 1190 BC | Gideon routs the Midianites with three hundred men (Judges 6–8). |
| c. 1100 BC | Jephthah’s rash vow; Samson’s exploits against the Philistines (Judges 11–16). |
| c. 1100 BC | Ruth the Moabite is gathered into Israel, great-grandmother of David (Ruth). |
| c. 1080 BC | Eli and the boy Samuel at Shiloh; the ark is captured by the Philistines and returned (1 Samuel 1–6). |
The united monarchy — c. 1050–930 BC
Israel asks for a king ‘like the other nations’, and under three reigns reaches its height; the Temple is built in Jerusalem (1–2 Samuel, 1 Kings).
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| c. 1050 BC | Samuel anoints Saul, Israel’s first king (1 Samuel 9–10). |
| c. 1025 BC | Saul is rejected; Samuel anoints David, who kills Goliath (1 Samuel 15–17). |
| c. 1010 BC | Saul and Jonathan die at Gilboa; David is made king of Judah (1 Samuel 31; 2 Samuel 2). |
| c. 1003 BC | David captures Jerusalem and brings up the ark (2 Samuel 5–6). |
| c. 1000 BC | God’s covenant with David; the affair with Bathsheba; Absalom’s revolt (2 Samuel 7–18). |
| c. 970 BC | Solomon succeeds David as king (1 Kings 1–2). |
| 966 BC | Construction of the First Temple begins (1 Kings 6). |
| c. 959 BC | The Temple is completed and dedicated (1 Kings 8). |
| c. 950 BC | The Queen of Sheba visits Solomon (1 Kings 10). |
Kingdoms, exile and return — 930–430 BC
The kingdom splits in two and slowly declines, falling to Assyria and then Babylon; after seventy years a remnant returns to rebuild. The prophets speak throughout (1–2 Kings, Chronicles, the prophetic books, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther).
The divided kingdom — 930–586 BC
After Solomon the kingdom divides into Israel in the north and Judah in the south, both drifting toward judgement despite the prophets’ warnings.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 930 BC | The kingdom splits: Jeroboam over Israel in the north, Rehoboam over Judah in the south (1 Kings 12). |
| c. 874–853 BC | Ahab and Jezebel reign in the north; Elijah defeats the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 16–18). |
| c. 852 BC | Elisha succeeds Elijah, who is taken up in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2). |
| 841 BC | Jehu destroys the house of Ahab and the worship of Baal (2 Kings 9–10). |
| c. 760 BC | Amos and Hosea prophesy in the north; Jonah is sent to Nineveh (Amos; Hosea; Jonah). |
| c. 740–700 BC | Isaiah and Micah prophesy in Judah (Isaiah; Micah). |
| 722 BC | Assyria destroys Samaria; the northern kingdom of Israel is exiled (2 Kings 17). |
| 701 BC | Sennacherib besieges Jerusalem; Hezekiah trusts God and the city is delivered (2 Kings 18–19). |
| 640–609 BC | Josiah reigns; the book of the Law is rediscovered and reform follows (622 BC) (2 Kings 22–23). |
| 627 BC | The call of the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1). |
Exile — 586–539 BC
Judah follows the north into ruin. Jerusalem falls to Babylon and the people are carried off — the great rupture of the Old Testament (Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel).
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 605 BC | Babylon’s first deportation; Daniel and his friends are taken to Babylon (Daniel 1). |
| 597 BC | A second deportation; the prophet Ezekiel and king Jehoiachin are exiled (2 Kings 24). |
| 586 BC | Jerusalem and the Temple are destroyed; the kingdom of Judah ends (2 Kings 25). |
| c. 586–539 BC | Ezekiel and Daniel prophesy among the exiles; the fiery furnace and the lions’ den (Daniel 3, 6). |
| 539 BC | Belshazzar’s feast and the writing on the wall; Babylon falls in a night (Daniel 5). |
Return and restoration — 539–430 BC
Persia overturns Babylon and lets the exiles go home to rebuild (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and the last prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi).
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 539 BC | Cyrus of Persia conquers Babylon (2 Chronicles 36). |
| 538 BC | The decree of Cyrus; the first return of exiles under Zerubbabel (Ezra 1–2). |
| 536 BC | The foundation of the Second Temple is laid (Ezra 3). |
| 520 BC | Haggai and Zechariah urge the work on; rebuilding resumes (Ezra 5; Haggai). |
| 516 BC | The Second Temple is completed and dedicated (Ezra 6). |
| 479 BC | Esther becomes queen of Persia and later saves her people (Esther). |
| 458 BC | Ezra returns to Jerusalem to teach the Law (Ezra 7). |
| 445 BC | Nehemiah rebuilds the walls of Jerusalem against opposition (Nehemiah 1–6). |
| c. 430 BC | Malachi, the last prophet of the Old Testament (Malachi). |
Between the Testaments — c. 430–6 BC
Some four centuries with no biblical book, but the years that shape the world of the New Testament — the spread of Greek, the rise of synagogue and Pharisee, and the longing for a deliverer under foreign rule.
The silent centuries — c. 430–6 BC
From the close of the Old Testament to the eve of the Gospels, under Persian, then Greek, then Roman power.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 333–331 BC | Alexander the Great conquers the Persian empire; Greek language and culture spread. |
| 323 BC | Alexander dies; his generals divide the empire into the Ptolemaic and Seleucid kingdoms. |
| c. 250 BC | The Hebrew scriptures begin to be translated into Greek — the Septuagint — in Alexandria. |
| 167 BC | Antiochus IV desecrates the Temple; the Maccabean revolt breaks out. |
| 164 BC | Judas Maccabeus cleanses and rededicates the Temple (commemorated as Hanukkah). |
| 142–63 BC | The independent Hasmonean (Maccabean) Jewish kingdom. |
| 63 BC | Pompey takes Jerusalem; Judea comes under Roman power. |
| 37 BC | Herod the Great is installed as Rome’s client king of Judea. |
| 20 BC | Herod begins his grand rebuilding of the Temple. |
The New Testament age — c. 6 BC–AD 100
The life of Jesus and the spread of the church that grew from it across the Roman world — the Gospels, Acts, the epistles, and Revelation.
The life of Jesus — c. 6 BC–AD 30/33
The four Gospels tell of Jesus of Nazareth — his birth, his teaching and healing, and his death and resurrection. (Our calendar miscounts: Herod died in 4 BC, so Jesus’ birth is placed a year or two before it.)
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| c. 6–4 BC | Jesus is born in Bethlehem; the visit of the magi and the flight to Egypt (Matthew 2; Luke 2). |
| 4 BC | Herod the Great dies; the family settles in Nazareth. |
| c. AD 8 | The boy Jesus is found among the teachers in the Temple (Luke 2). |
| c. AD 26 | Pontius Pilate becomes governor of Judea; John the Baptist begins to preach. |
| c. AD 27 | Jesus is baptised and begins his ministry; he calls the Twelve (Mark 1). |
| c. AD 28–29 | The Sermon on the Mount, the parables, and the miracles in Galilee and Judea. |
| c. AD 30 or 33 | The triumphal entry, the Last Supper, the crucifixion, and the resurrection in Jerusalem. |
| 40 days later | The ascension (Acts 1). |
The early church — AD 30–c. 100
Acts and the epistles trace the gospel’s spread from Jerusalem across the Roman world. Most of the New Testament was written within this single lifetime.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| c. AD 30 | Pentecost — the Spirit comes and the church is born in Jerusalem (Acts 2). |
| c. AD 34 | Stephen is martyred; Saul is converted on the road to Damascus (Acts 7–9). |
| c. AD 44 | James son of Zebedee is killed; Peter is freed from prison (Acts 12). |
| c. AD 46–48 | Paul’s first missionary journey with Barnabas (Acts 13–14). |
| c. AD 49 | The council of Jerusalem opens the church to the Gentiles (Acts 15). |
| c. AD 49–52 | The second journey: Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth (Acts 16–18). |
| c. AD 53–57 | The third journey, based at Ephesus; the major letters are written (Acts 19). |
| c. AD 57–62 | Paul is arrested, tried, and taken under guard to Rome (Acts 21–28). |
| c. AD 64 | The fire of Rome and Nero’s persecution; by tradition Peter and Paul are martyred. |
| AD 70 | Rome destroys Jerusalem and the Second Temple. |
| c. AD 95 | John, exiled to Patmos, writes Revelation — the last book of the New Testament. |
From here the canon closes, but the story it tells — promise, exile, return, and a kingdom that begins small and spreads — is meant to be read as one arc. For the books themselves, set in their original languages beside an English translation, see the Bible; for the people who move through this story, the Bible characters.
The dates in the tables on this page were compiled with the help of AI tools and may contain errors. Biblical chronology is in any case approximate and much debated — especially for the earliest periods — so these figures are offered in good faith as a rough guide only, and should be checked against scripture and reliable scholarship before you rely on them.