Not everything in the Bible is written with chronology in mind. Imagine reading a story or watching a movie where the narrative features three separate events unfolding in three different locations simultaneously. When the author presents the story, they can’t tell what is happening in all three places at the same time, because writing is a linear action that happens letter by letter on a page, page by page in a book. Typically, a writer will describe one event and then use a transition word, such as “meanwhile,” to shift to another location and discuss another event. The writing would be a mess if they were trying to write about three faraway events happening simultaneously, because they would have constantly interjected to explain which event they were referring to.

In a movie, if the events are silent, the director can display three clips on screen simultaneously, with timestamps and the names of locations, to signify that these events are happening concurrently in different places. However, if there is dialogue, then they can’t present different dialogues from different people simultaneously, as the audience wouldn’t understand anything, especially if the dialogues are all in different languages. This is true for even history books; they will present one thing in one section, and then they will repeat events but from a different perspective in another section, because they can write about everything happening at the same time without confusing people, so they categorize. Consider how a US History book might portray 1960s America. There were the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, the Space Race, and other things. These events are all associated with the same era but are categorically different, with some overlap.

The same is true in the Bible; here are some examples. In Genesis, the first chapter provides an overall creation account that organizes the order of creation itself, while the second chapter zooms into the role of the Man and the Woman in the creation of the world. Chapter 1 serves as a prologue, explaining the creator’s role, and Chapter 2 outlines the roles of humanity and other creations, as well as their interactions with one another. Chapters 1 and 2 are written to set up the narrative, which begins in Chapter 3. A literary categorization is at work, with Genesis 1 having a global or universal scope and Genesis 2 having a local scope. They are not meant to be chronological but rather explanatory.

Another example: at the beginning of Genesis 25, we learn about Abraham’s death (Gen 25:1-11). Then, after that, we learn that Isaac and his wife Rebecca, whom he married in the previous chapter, struggled to get pregnant. He married her at the age of 40 (Gen 25:20), and God answered their prayers for children when Isaac was 60 (Gen 25:26). The birth of Jacob and Esau, twins, is recorded in Gen 25:12-26, which is after Abraham’s death. However, Abraham was 175 when he died (Gen 25:7). This means Isaac, who was born when Abraham was 100 years old (Gen 21:5), was 75 when Abraham died. 75 is 15 years after 60, so if Jacob and Esau were born when Isaac was 60, then they would have been 15 years old when Abraham died. Abraham’s death at the beginning of Genesis 25 marked the end of his saga; the rest of the writing then begins the story of Jacob, starting with his birth, which occurred before Abraham’s death. We don’t know if the rest of chapter 25 (Gen 25:27-34) happens right before Abraham died or afterward. However, we do know that the events in the next chapter are past Abraham’s death because Abimelech’s people take the wells that were promised to Abraham’s son, Isaac, through inheritance. Abraham made a covenant with Abimelech for the wells back in Gen 21:30-34, but Abimelech’s people broke that covenant because Abraham was dead; therefore, Isaac had to make a new covenant with Abimelech in Gen 26:28-33. From Genesis 35-46, there are 3 different timelines that span 22 years each. These 22 years are from the time Joseph was sold into slavery and taken to Egypt until the family reunion in Genesis 46. Genesis 37 is the story of Joseph from his perspective, and then that narrative continues in Genesis 39-45. Genesis 38 is Judah’s perspective on that timeframe, and Genesis 35 is Jacob’s perspective from around the time Joseph was sold because afterward, Rachel (his mother) died giving birth to Joseph’s younger brother Benjamin (Gen 35:16-20).

Another example of a fragmented chronology is found in the Gospels. According to all the gospel accounts, we know that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and then went into the wilderness for 40 days. Then, John the Baptist gets arrested at the end of the 40 days. Jesus takes over the ministry while John is in prison. However, in Luke’s account, he ends John’s saga in Luke 3:19-20, before mentioning Jesus’ baptism in verse 21. Does that mean Jesus was baptized by someone else? No, Luke frames the ending of John’s public ministry with him going to prison first, then introduces Jesus as an adult being baptized and beginning his ministry at around 30 in verses 21-23. The end of Luke 3 serves as a prologue that summarizes Jesus’ baptism and how he takes over for John in his mission. However, Luke chapter 4 goes back to the moment right after Jesus was baptized and filled with the Spirit, and he goes into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. In Luke 3:23, it concludes by stating that Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his public ministry, and then it traces his genealogy through Mary. Jesus didn’t begin his public ministry until after the baptism, right? So how can that be? Luke 3:23 serves as a prologue to prepare the reader for what is to come. His ministry begins in Luke 4:14, following his 40-day fast in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-13).

Another example is found in Luke 4:14-32, where Jesus was rejected in his hometown of Nazareth. He then moved to Capernaum, which would become his base of operations until he was crucified. Luke 4:38 mentions Jesus staying at Simon Peter’s (and Andrew’s) house, and even healing Simon’s mother-in-law, who was sick. However, he doesn’t meet Simon until Luke chapter 5. In fact, a new reader would ask the question “Who is Simon?” since he had not been fully introduced in chapter 4. Luke again is setting up a literary framework. Luke 4 provides an overview of Jesus establishing his base of operations in Capernaum after being rejected in Nazareth. Meanwhile, Luke 5:1-11 zooms in on what he did when he first arrived in Capernaum and shows how he met Peter (Simon), Andrew, James, and John. These men were all fishermen who left their jobs and joined him after he preached from Peter’s boat and did the miracle with a load of fish.

Another conundrum arises at the end of Luke 4 (verses 42-44), where it is stated that they begged Jesus to stay in Capernaum. However, he says he must also minister to other people in Judea and the surrounding area, so he leaves. In Matthew 8, it is stated that Jesus returns to Capernaum in verse 5, and it is here in this chapter that Matthew records the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. So, which is it, did Jesus heal Peter’s mother-in-law before or after going to Capernaum?

Let’s take a look at the choreography between Matthew and Luke. The story of Peter’s mother-in-law in Luke is categorized alongside a number of healings in Capernaum, so it wasn’t placed based on chronology. Matthew’s Gospel is more chronological in this section because he meets Peter and the others in Matthew 4:18-22, after Jesus gets baptized in chapter 3, fasts for 40 days in Matthew 4:1-11, and then moves to Capernaum in verses 12-17. Then Jesus takes the fisherman-turned disciples with him to many towns and cities (Matt 4:23-25). The following three chapters are all one sermon (The Sermon on the Mount) that Jesus taught outside of Capernaum (possibly in Judea). Then, when he comes down the mountain from teaching the Sermon on the Mount, he heals a man with Leprosy in Matt 8:1-4, which corresponds with the time jump between Luke 5:11 and verse 12. Luke 5:12-16 is when he healed the leper from Matt 8:1-4; this all takes place outside of Capernaum. In Matt 8:5, Jesus returned to Capernaum, and the rest of the chapter shows that he healed a bunch of people in that city, including Peter’s mother-in-law in Matt 8:14. Jesus lives in Capernaum until the end of his ministry, we see later that he is still staying in Capernaum in Matt 17:24-27.

Let’s continue through the gospels and look at some more. Luke again makes a time jump between Luke 5:16 and 17. In Luke 5:17-39, Jesus heals the paralyzed man, calls Levi (also known as Matthew) the tax collector to be his disciple, and engages in discussions about fasting with John the Baptist’s disciples, which corresponds with Matthew 9:1-17. Matthew’s Gospel records several events that occur between Matthew 8:5 and 34, which Luke omits. Events like Jesus healing the Roman soldier’s servant (Matt 8:5-13), Jesus teaching people in Capernaum about the cost of following him (Matt 8:15-22), Jesus calming the storm on the sea of Galilee as they sailed across to Decapolis (Matt 8:23-27), healing the legion possessed men in Gadarenes which was their destination in Decapolis (Matt 8:28-34). Matthew continues with the healing of Jairus’ daughter and the woman with the bleeding disorder (Matt 9:18-26). Luke skips those, for now, saving them for Luke 8. Luke 6 begins by referencing later discussions on the Sabbath, which carry over from the theme at the end of Luke 5. Luke seems to categorize the parable of the wineskins together with the discussions about the Sabbath because they topically discuss the same theme of abuse of the law vs the proper understanding of the law.

Then, Luke 6:12-16 shows when Jesus isolates the main 12 disciples from the rest. From Luke 6:17 onward to chapters 7 and 8, Luke recounts the events he previously skipped in Matthew, as well as some other details that Matthew mentions later in his gospel. In addition, Luke has collected several different stories that Matthew and Mark didn’t record, such as the Sermon on the Plain, which is essentially the same teaching as the Sermon on the Mount, but delivered to a different audience in a different location. Remember, Luke said in Chapter 1 that he collected numerous witness testimonies concerning everything in Jesus’ life. He even discussed details concerning Jesus’ birth with Mary, which is why Luke’s Gospel has more intimate information about the Christmas story than Matthew’s. Luke has Mary’s genealogy in chapter 3, while Matthew has Joseph’s genealogy in chapter 1. Lastly, Luke 9:1-6 presents Jesus sending out the twelve on their own for the first time. This is a shorter version of Matthew chapter 10, which is a whole chapter of Jesus explaining how to evangelize, before sending out the twelve apostles.

It goes on and on like this, but my point is that Luke often categorically organizes the topics discussed by Jesus, rather than presenting the sermons in chronological order, unless necessary. Luke has a lot of stories that aren’t in the other gospels, so the placement of those in the larger timeline is not exactly clear, but context clues like transition phrases will tell you how to read these things. Luke wrote his Gospel after Matthew’s, in response to questions that Theophilus (likely a wealthy Roman aristocrat) had about Matthew and Mark’s Gospel accounts. This is explained in Luke 1:1. Luke has an entirely different purpose from Matthew with his Gospel account. It’s like if a preacher had a bunch of recorded sermons and one person organized them by date recorded (Matthew) and another person organized them by topic (Luke). The exception to the topic organization would be if they were part of a multipart mini-series, then that would have to be bundled together.

This is just one example of how reading the Bible is an art form. Some parts are written linearly, while others have overlapping sections. It also depends on each author’s purpose for writing their respective books and how they obtained their information. If it is the author’s own words, then it is usually linear (like most of the Torah). If the author references something from before their time, they are likely using prior written chronologies, such as Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. If the author is referencing events they didn’t witness, then they may construct the narrative in a particular way to illustrate a point, like Genesis. Some books are not narrative at all and are either legal code (most of Leviticus and some parts of Exodus and  Numbers) or poetry (Psalms, Song of Solomon), or prose discourse (the letters of Paul). There are four Gospels, telling the same stories from four different perspectives, each with its own particular emphasis on certain elements, and only two of them are written by eyewitnesses (Matthew and John). Luke and Mark are built on the testimonies of others. The Bible is a unified work and must be studied as a whole. We cannot cherry-pick certain parts and invent theology. Scripture must inform scripture. Read it slowly and study it; if one rushes through it, they will miss important principles, patterns, and connections.