Bible timeline
There are lots of different ways of visualizing the whole biblical story in one diagram, and each one will choose to emphasize one aspect of the story over the others. For our Intro to Biblical Theology module we put together this bible timeline, which you are free to download and reuse.
Here’s an explanation of it:
The biblical story is broken down into ten different epochs, labeled at the top.
Solid lines indicate God’s people, while broken lines indicate people outside of God’s people. The space in the lower line in the Post-exile indicates the silent period (of about 400 years) between the completion of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament.
When lines are divided, the lower the line the “closer” that group of people are to the true people of God.
With the beginning of the church, the two parallel lines indicate how we are partially renewed by the Holy Spirit but also partially still of this world, waiting for our complete renewal on the last day (cf. 2 Corinthians 5).
Labels above the line in italics represent events in the biblical story, while labels below the line are notable people or groups.
The rough span of the biblical books is indicated at the bottom.
