As we read through the New Testament in 2021, you will notice that we’re using a different order compared to what is found in a standard Bible. We strongly believe that the words in the books of Scripture are inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16). But we have no reason to think that there is a particular order of these books that is authoritative. In fact, a case can be made that the normal arrangement has some deficiencies that can be overcome with a revised order. Here is a comparison between the standard arrangement of the New Testament books and the order that we are using.

The main change with our order is that the four gospels are separated. Because they cover many of the same events, it’s helpful to spread them out instead of reading them consecutively. They will feel more fresh and less repetitious that way. This change allows us to read the book of Acts right after Luke’s gospel. Both of them were written by Luke and were meant to be read together as a two-volume set of early Christian history. This change also allows us to put the letters with the gospels to which they are most closely connected. James goes with Matthew’s gospel because both of them were written to Jewish Christians and cover many of the same themes. In fact, much of James seems to flow from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5–7. Paul’s letters naturally go with Luke’s gospel because these two men ministered together for a long time. Paul even quoted from Luke’s gospel and put his stamp of approval on it (Luke 10:7; 1 Timothy 5:18).

Unfortunately the standard order of Paul’s letters is not particularly helpful. They are arranged first of all by the type of recipient: the first nine were written to churches, and the last four were written to individuals. Within these groups they seem to be in order from the longest to the shortest. But a better approach would be to read them in the order in which they were written. We can’t be certain about what this order should be in some places. For example, Colossians may have been written before Ephesians, and 1 Timothy may have been written before Titus. But our order keeps 1 and 2 Timothy together as well as Colossians and Philemon since they were probably sent together to the same city. Hebrews follows Paul’s letters because even though we don’t know for certain who wrote it, we can say that the author knew Timothy, who was one of Paul’s most loyal companions (Hebrews 13:23). Therefore the writer was most likely Paul or one of his associates like Luke.

In our order Mark comes after both Matthew and Luke because the earliest church historians believed that Mark’s gospel was the third one to be written. They also believed that Mark’s gospel was based on Peter’s preaching, and indeed we see a close connection between these two men in Scripture (1 Peter 5:13). Therefore Peter’s two letters follow Mark’s gospel in our order. Jude naturally follows 2 Peter because they confront the same kind of false teaching. In fact, Jude may have been familiar with Peter’s second letter and borrowed from it. John’s writings come at the end because these five New Testament books were the last ones to be written. Reading John’s first letter right after his gospel helps us to see the many connections between them. Most likely he wrote this letter to elaborate on some of the themes that he covered in his gospel. We pray that reading through the New Testament in this revised order will be an enlightening and edifying experience.