The young Christian

As a young Christian, brought up in a church devoid of any real Christian education, or teaching, I knew nothing.

For many years, while I gradually came to grips with aspects of the Bible as anthology (without knowing that word), it's overall form and 'story' escaped me.

From Sunday School, it struck me as a bunch of disconnected stories and precepts. Not helpful

I came to university knowing nothing of theology, of the history of the church, or the chain of themes that made the Bible the story of reality,  to borrow Greg Koukl's phrase.

One thing conspicuously absent was a table of contents, a meaningful one, of the Bible. A list of Books was only minorly helpful, and only for navigation. A list of the pages of Chapters would have been of some minor use in the early years of Bible reading, but what I needed, I think what everyone needs is a list of contents that are the actual thematic content of the Bible. After all, the navigation aids were as useful for this as discussing a holiday by giving the latitudes and longitudes that one had visited.

The Twentieth Century NT in some editions has such a table of contents, but it is a little too much.

But recently I found in the back pages of my NRSV just the thing. Crossed with the editorial paragraph headings of the NASB, I've adapted these and compiled just what I would have been much helped by (along with teaching of the biblical theology) as a teenager.

I hope it helps you too.

The Old Testament

                                       Book   Topic                                                          Chapter         

The books of the law (Torah) and history: The Pentateuch
	GENESIS	The Creation	1, 2
		The Fall	3
		Genealogies	5
	2350 BC	The Flood	7
		Babel	11
	2091 BC (call)	Abraham	12
	2066 BC (b)	Isaac	22
	2006 BC (b)	Jacob	27
	1915 BC (b)	Joseph	37
	EXODUS	Moses out of Egypt	3
	1446 BC	Israel out of Egypt	12
		Israel at Mt Sinai	19
		The Law	20
		The declaration of creation	31:17
		The exodus continues	33
	LEVITICUS	Sacrifices	1
		The priesthood ritual	7
		Unclean things and the law	11
		Day of Atonement	16
		A holy congregation	19
	NUMBERS	The camp at Sinai	2
		Called out of Sinai	10
		A wandering people	21
	DEUTERONOMY	The Ten Commandments	5
		The Book of the Covenant	12
		God’s chosen people	28
		Blessing from Moses	33
The historical books:
	JOSHUA	The Promised Land	1
	1406 BC	Each tribe’s allotment	13
	JUDGES	Tribal conquests	1
	1224 BC	Deborah	4
	1177 BC	Gideon	6:11
		Jephthah	11
		Samson	13
	RUTH	Ruth and Boaz	1
	1 SAMUEL	God calls Samuel	3
	1043 BC	Saul	9
	1011 BC	David	16
	2 SAMUEL	David, King of Judah	2
		Absalom’s conspiracy	15
	1 KINGS	Solomon	2
	930 BC	A torn kingdom	12
		Elijah	17
	2 KINGS	Elisha	2
		Samaria conquest	17
		Jerusalem destruction	25
	1 CHRONICLES	Official lists	1
		The city of David	11
		The ark of the Lord	13
		Temple appointments	23
	2 CHRONICLES	Building the temple	2
		Solomon’s reign	8
		Kingdom of Judah	11
		Josiah’s reform	34
		Babylonian captivity	36
	EZRA	Return to Jerusalem	3
	536 BC	The great assembly	10
	NEHEMIAH	Ancient walls and gates	2
		The dedication	12:27
	ESTHER	Haman and Mordecai	4
The Poetical Books
	JOB	Job’s affliction	1
		The questioning	4
		God’s blessing	42
	PSALMS	Book 1	1-41
		Book 2	42-72
		Book 3	73-89
		Book 4	90-106
		Book 5	107-150
	PROVERBS	Proverbs of Solomon	1
		Guidance for wise living	22
		Words of Agur	30
		Words of Lemuel	31
	ECCLESIASTES	Quest for wisdom	9:13
	SONG OF SOLOMON	The song of songs	1
The Major Prophets
	ISAIAH	Isaiah and Ahaz	7
		Prophesies about the nations	13
		Isaiah and Hezekiah	37
		Captivity prophesied	39
		Concerning the return	40
		Cyrus	45
		The Lord’s anointed	61
	JEREMIAH	God calls Jeremiah	1
		The prophet’s persecution	27
		Concerning the nations	46
	LAMENTATIONS	The fall of Jerusalem	1
	EZEKIEL	The sins of Jerusalem	4
		God’s judgement	20
		After the fall of Jerusalem	33:21
		The temple of the Holy City	40
	DANIEL	Nebuchadnezzar’s dream	2
	607 BC	The golden image	3
		Omen at the feast	5:5
		Daniel’s visions	7
The Minor Prophets
	HOSEA	Hosea’s experience	1
		God yearns for Israel	11
	JOEL	The day of the Lord	1
	AMOS	Judgement of the nations	1
		God and Israel	2:6
		Amos at Bethel	7
	OBADIAH	The pride of Edom	1
	JONAH	The prophet’s disobedience	1
		The prophet’s education	2
	MICAH	Deliver from Bethlehem	5
	NAHUM	The end of Nineveh	2
	HABAKKUK	At the watchtower	1
	ZEPHANIAN	The day of the Lord	1
	HAGGAI	Rebuilding the temple	1
	ZECHARIAH	Visions of the night	1
		Visions of prosperity	8
	MALACHI	A call to remembrance	4

 The New Testament

The Gospels
	MATTHEW	The saviour is born	1
		His baptism, temptation	3:13
	27 AD	In Galilee	4:23
		In Jerusalem	21
		The crucifixion	27:32
	30 AD	The resurrection	28
	MARK	Jesus in Galilee	1
	29 AD	Jesus in Judea	10
		Passion week	11
	LUKE	Saviour’s birth, youth	2
		His baptism, temptation	3
		His message, mission	5
		Journey to Jerusalem	9:51
		Death and resurrection	23:26
	JOHN	Here is the lamb of God	1:29
		The first Passover	2:13
		The second Passover	6:4
		The third Passover	13
		High priestly prayer,	17
		Passion, Resurrection	18
The Early Church
	ACTS OF THE APOSTLES	In Jerusalem	1
		In Judea, Samaria	8
		In Antioch	11:19
	47 AD	First mission journey	13:4
		Council at Jerusalem	15
	50 AD	Second mission journey	15:22
	53 AD	Third mission journey	19
		Paul in Jerusalem	21:17
	59 AD	Paul goes to Rome	27
Letters of Paul
	ROMANS	Message of salvation	1
		The Jews and Gospel	9
		Life in Christ	12
	1 CORINTHIANS	Dissension in the church	1
		The Lord’s Supper (church gathering)	11
		Gifts of the Spirit	12
		The resurrection	15
	2 CORINTHIANS	God’s comfort and mercy	1:3
		Ambassadors for Christ	4:16
		Paul’s suffering	11
	GALATIANS	The gospel of Christ	1:6
		Life in Christ	5
	EPHESIANS	The household of God	1
		Christian living	4
	PHILIPPIANS	The mind of Christ	1
	COLOSSIANS	The supremacy of Christ; creator	1
	1 THESSALONIANS	His coming is at hand	5
	2 THESSALONIANS	Prayer and praise	2
Paul’s pastoral letters
	1 TIMOTHY	The Christian ministry	1:3
	2 TIMOTHY	The servant’s duties	2
	TITUS	Stewards of God	1
Paul’s personal letter
	PHILEMON	The runaway slave	1
Other apostolic letters
	HEBREWS	Christ our high priest	4:14
		The better covenant	8
		Heroes of faith	11
	JAMES	Strength through faith	1:2
		Faith and action	2:14
	1 PETER	Hope in Christ	1:3
		Stewards of God’s grace	4
	2 PETER	False prophets	2
	1 JOHN	Fellowship with the father	1
	2 JOHN	Love one another	1:4
	3 JOHN	Co-workers	1
	JUDE	Resist evil ways	1
Prophesy
	REVELATION	Letters to seven churches	1
		Heavenly worship	4
		Opening the seals	6
		Trumpet blasts	8
		The church triumphant	14
		Judgement visions	17
		The New Creation	21

Link to download a PDF of this guide.