V17.4 literary chronology
Biblical Literature Through Time
The timeline of events is not the timeline of writing. This register separates when a book is set, when its literary layers were composed or edited, and when its earliest surviving manuscripts appear.
Interpretive controls
How to read literary dates
Canon scope
This interface follows the project’s 66-book Protestant arrangement for continuity. The Jewish Tanakh counts the same core Hebrew collection as twenty-four books, while Catholic and Orthodox traditions include additional books and use different arrangements. Canon count must therefore be stated rather than assumed.
Project’s 66-book register
Narrative setting, composition, and witnesses
| Book | Narrative setting | Composition / formation | Earliest witnesses | Assessment |
|---|
Gospel and Acts models
Composition ranges and alternatives
| Work | Common critical range | Earlier model | Later model | Controlling evidence |
|---|
Frequent confusion
Common literary-history errors
Research base