A NEW BIBLE that chops up the Old and New Testaments to fit a chronological sequence is to be published next month. One Anglican theologian has warned that it could mislead students.
The publisher, Thomas Nelson, says in its introductory material to The Chronological Study Bible that it has “rearranged the Bible texts according to nine epochs of time”. Whole books of the Bible are relocated; others are mixed up. For example, parts of the books of Psalms and Proverbs have been reassigned to fit into their historical “epochs” and appear interleaved with the lives of King David or King Solomon. The books of Exodus to Deuteronomy are located in the time of the exodus, 1500 to 1300 BC, even though they were probably written long after that.
Dr John Court, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Kent, said that if he was advising students he would say that they should have a traditionally ordered Bible in one hand if they had the chronological Bible in the other.
“Too much cutting up texts could leave the editors open to the accusation that they were being like Marcion” (the second century heretic who left out bits of the Bible he didn’t like). “There are a lot of problems with this sort of approach,” he said.
The Chronological Study Bible is available mid-October ($44.99).
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