What is the origin of the order of the books of the Bible?

Not all translations of the Bible have the same order.  However, most Protestant Bible translations follow the order found in the King James Version (KJV), such as the NKJV, RSV, NASB, and NIV.  For brevity this article just refers to the KJV.  Let’s take a look at how the books of the KJV came to be ordered the way they are.

The Old Testament

What is known as the Old Testament of the Bible to Christianity is known as the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh to Judaism.  According to Jewish tradition, the Hebrew Bible is divided into three sections:  Torah (Law), Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings).  The name Tanakh is an acronym formed from the first letters of these three sections.

The Tanakh has 24 books in total, ordered as follows.

  • Torah (5 books): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
  • Nevi’im (8 books):
    • Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel (1 & 2 combined), Kings (1 & 2 combined)
    • Latter Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, The Twelve Minor Prophets (counted as one)
  • Ketuvim (11 books): Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra–Nehemiah (combined), Chronicles (1 & 2 combined)

Jesus Christ referred to these three sections in Luke.

Luk 24:44  Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.”

In other places He spoke of “the Law and the Prophets”, for example here in Matthew.

Mat 5:17  “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

Mat 7:12  Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

The Old Testament KJV has the same content as the Hebrew Bible; however the ordering and grouping of the books are different resulting in 39 books, ordered as follows.

  • Law (5 books): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
  • History (12 books): Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther
  • Poetry and Wisdom (5 books): Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs
  • Major Prophets (5 books): Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel
  • Minor Prophets (12 books): Hosea through Malachi

This ordering most likely came from the Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate. 

The Septuagint is an ancient translation (280–250 BCE) of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, which gets its name from its 70 translators. (The Latin word for 70 is septuaginta.)  The Septuagint has the deuterocanonical books (7 additional books which are not found in the Hebrew Bible); however, ignoring these, the order of books in the Septuagint is exactly the same as those in the KJV.

The Latin Vulgate is a translation of the Bible (New and Old Testaments) into Latin, completed primarily by Jerome (a brilliant scholar fluent in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew) about 405 AD.  The Old Testament of the Latin Vulgate has the deuterocanonical books; however, ignoring these, the order of books is also exactly the same as those in the KJV.

Although Jerome translated most of the Old Testament from Hebrew, rather than the Septuagint, it appears that he followed the order of the books as found in the Septuagint. 

Early English translations of the Bible (such as Wycliffe, Tyndale, Coverdale) relied heavily on the Latin Vulgate, and it appears they just followed the order of the books as found in the Latin Vulgate.

So where did the order of the books of the Old Testament KJV come from?  It appears it can be traced back to the Latin Vulgate and beyond that to the Septuagint. 

Do the books of the Old Testament have an original order?  It could be argued that the 24 book order of the Tanakh (Jewish tradition) takes precedence over the later ordering found in the Septuagint.

The New Testament

The order of books in the New Testament KJV is exactly the same as that of the Latin Vulgate.

There are four major codices on which most New Testament translations rely heavily on.  These are Vaticanus , Sinaiticus , Alexandrinus , and Ephraemi Rescriptus all of which date to 300s-400s AD.  The following table shows the order of the books.

VaticanusSinaiticusAlexandrinusEphraemi Rescriptus
GospelsGospelsGospelsGospels
ActsRomans to 2 ThessActsActs
James to 3 JohnHebrewsJames to 3 JohnRomans to 2 Thess
Jude1 Timothy to PhilemonJude1 Timothy to Philemon
Romans to 2 ThessActsRomans to 2 ThessHebrews
HebrewsJames to 3 JohnHebrewsJames to 3 John
 Jude1 Timothy to PhilemonJude
 RevelationRevelationRevelation
Missing Hebrews 9:14–end, 1 Timothy to Philemon, RevelationMissing 2 Corinthians 4:13–12:6Missing 2 Thess, 2 John

Book order of the four major codices

The order of books of the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptusis exactly the same as that of the Latin Vulgate (and KJV).  The Codex Ephraemi Rescriptuswas discovered in 1840, long after the Latin Vulgate was translated (405 AD); however, the fact they have the same book order suggests they relied on a common manuscript no longer extant.

So where did the order of the books of the New Testament KJV come from?  It appears it can be traced back to the Latin Vulgate and beyond that to the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus. 

Do the books of the New Testament have an original order?  It’s hard to make a case for any particular order given the variation in the available codices.

Conclusion

The order of books in the KJV (and most Protestant Bible translations) appears to come from the Latin Vulgate, which in turn appears to come from the Septuagint for the Old Testament and the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus for the New Testament. 

Possibly the Old Testament books have an original order (following Jewish tradition), but not so for the New Testament.