I’m confused. A brother mentioned what I understood to mean that Job was to be the first book in the Bible and not Genesis. Since then I have done my own research and am now seriously confused. The way I see it is “Does it really matter?” There are considerably good points brought up either way. Regardless, what does it prove either way? The way I see it and “I could be wrong,” that wouldn’t hurt my feelings, but it doesn’t really change anything regardless of which one is first. The good thing about all of this is that I opened my Bible and did some research, as did many others I would hope. If I’m totally wrong and causing trouble which I certainly don’t want to do, please feel free not to reply to me. However, if it does make a significant difference let me know.<\/p>\n
Thank you both for the time you have taken to review my question. May the Lord Jesus bless us all.<\/p>\n\t
If the Bible was ordered by the date when a book was written, then, yes, Job is probably the first book of the Bible written. The events in that book take place roughly in the time of Abraham and if we assume it was written soon after the events, then it predates the writings of Moses.<\/p>\n
However, the Bible is\u00a0not<\/strong> laid out in the order the books are written. They are grouped by the type of books. For the Old Testament: Law (5 books), History (12 books), Wisdom (5 books), Major Prophets (5 books), Minor Prophets (12 books). For the New Testament: Gospels (4 books), History (1 book), Letters of Paul to Churches (9 books), Letters of Paul to Individuals (4 books), General letters (8 books), Prophecy (1 book). Within each group, the books are roughly in time order.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I’m confused. A brother mentioned what I understood to mean that Job was to be the first book in the Bible and not Genesis. Since then I have done my own research and am now seriously confused. The way I see it is “Does it really matter?” There are considerably good points brought up…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[219,189,752,268],"class_list":["post-44973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-bible","tag-genesis","tag-job","tag-old-testament"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13194,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-book-is-the-oldest-in-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":44973,"position":0},"title":"Which book is the oldest in the Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Which book is believed to be\u00a0the oldest book in the Bible? I found the following points: Many scholars agree that Job is the oldest book in the Bible, written by an unknown Israelite about 1500 B.C. Others hold that the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67321,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-does-the-bible-say-the-people-of-babel-defied-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":44973,"position":1},"title":"Where does the Bible say the people of Babel defied God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, I'm slightly confused about Scripture and interpretation here. The story of Babel is always propped up as a story of man's defiance of God's will, but nowhere do I see the Bible actually state that they defied God. Yes, they did go against God's command. God wanted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94182,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-there-be-evil-from-the-lord\/","url_meta":{"origin":44973,"position":2},"title":"How Can There Be “Evil from the Lord”?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 22, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Roger Campbell Sometimes, students of the Bible are shocked and confused to read in the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit at times describes the thoughts and actions of God as \"evil.\" For example, in the Book of Jeremiah alone we read that Jehovah \"brought\" evil (Jeremiah 4:6), He \"thought\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28307,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-genesis-11-say-there-was-nothing-except-god-before-the-beginning\/","url_meta":{"origin":44973,"position":3},"title":"Does Genesis 1:1 say there was nothing except God before the beginning?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Here's another question and it may seem silly but all I want is you to answer it in the best way you can. Genesis 1:1 \"in the beginning there was nothing except God.\" or \"in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth\" (different versions of the Bible)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9161,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-did-adam-eve-and-the-bible-come-into-existence\/","url_meta":{"origin":44973,"position":4},"title":"When did Adam, Eve, and the Bible come into existence?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My girlfriend and I were discussing things in the Bible, and we were wondering when did Adam and Eve come into existence, and when did the Bible come into existence? We were just wondering. I have heard this question asked before in other people's conversations and didn't get a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29829,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-no-such-thing-as-prehistoric-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":44973,"position":5},"title":"Is there no such thing as prehistoric times?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Bible times start from the beginning of time. The Bible is recorded history and prehistoric means before recorded history. Dinosaurs were in the Bible, and dinosaurs are often referred to as prehistoric, but they were recorded, so does all this mean that there is no such thing as prehistoric\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}