Without a good foundation for reading the Bible, we can end up getting bits and pieces, but always feeling a bit lost, never quite knowing how things fit together. Many people try to read the entire Bible in a year and give up after a few weeks. The most common reason is that after Genesis and Exodus, the Bible no longer reads like a story in chronological order and people can get lost.
To help you read the Bible, we recommend the following 14 narrative books. If you read through these 14 narrative books, you can follow the entire story from the beginning of Creation to Jesus and the Apostles in a sequential story-like manner that people are more familiar with.
This narrative approach is not the only way to read the Bible, but it is the best I have seen for people to get a foundation. Once they have this foundation, the narrative approach helps for any future Bible study and listening to individual readings at church.
Instead of taking a year to read the bible, this can be completed in 1-3 months, depending on how much you like to read.
- The narrative approach is like gaining landmarks and milestones in the Bible that can help you for the rest of your life.
- There are many ways to read the bible. It depends on your goals, your mood, the group of people in your Bible study, and the amount of time you have. The narrative approach can enhance them all.
- Many people can’t complete a year-long Bible study but can complete the Narrative approach in 1-3 months
- The Bible is different than a Novel in that the Bible is about real people and real events imparting spiritual lessons.
What is the narrative approach?
Most people enjoy reading a good novel. The storyline usually flows in an easy to read manner. It usually has events in chronological order. People enjoy reading for the enjoyment of discovering the story.
When it comes to the bible, the narrative approach is similar. It follows events in chronological order and you can read to enjoy discovering the story. As with a Novel, there may be some small side stories to add detail, but it does not get off the main story for too long.
- If one reads the bible from cover to cover, the books are not all in chronological order. Some books repeat events. Some books are not in a story format. It is easy to get confused.
- The Narrative approach simplifies reading the Bible into 14 Chronological books.
Let’s Start the Narrative Approach
(Note: You will need a Bible that has the Deuterocanonical or Apocrypha books to read Maccabees)
Here are the 14 books…
- Genesis
- Exodus
- Numbers
- Joshua
- Judges
- 1 Samuel
- 2 Samuel
- 1 Kings
- 2 Kings
- Ezra
- Nehemiah
- 1 Maccabees
- 1 Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) Mark is the simplest.
- Acts
Keep in mind the narrative approach is just to help you get an initial foundation. Once you have this foundation, you can more easily read other books later and continually add to what you know.
I have seen many people complete the narrative approach. When most are done they want to read even more of the Bible.
The Narrative Approach is like a Skeleton Framework of the entire Bible. Once you are familiar with it, you can read other books and add them to the framework to help improve your understanding.
- Tip: Write down the 14 books on a piece of paper and use that as your bookmark so you don’t lose track of the main storyline.
- Tip 2: Write down www.HolyWord.com/how-to-read-through-the-bible on the same piece of paper so if you get stuck or lose track of the story, you can come here to find the section to get back on track!
Tips when reading the 14 Books
When people start reading the 14 books of the narrative approach, there are still a few areas where people can get hung up where the Bible doesn’t read like a modern Novel. Here we will list some areas to look out for, so you don’t get stuck and stop. We want you to finish.
- Tip: Get a Bible Atlas (set of Maps). The 14 books will cover a lot of geography and name many places. Seeing where the journeys and places are located will help your understanding. Don’t skip them, get a Bible atlas.
Genesis
If you have already read Genesis or gotten further along in previous studies you may read the summaries below as a quick refresher and then continue to the next book that you haven’t read yet.
Although Genesis is very rich, and you can always come back to it again and again, we don’t want you to get stuck in it and never get to the rest of the Bible. If you have already read it, great, keep going to the other 13 books.
Genesis is one of the longer books, almost like 2 books in one.
Creation
Genesis begins with the creation of events. Be careful not to get caught up in scientific questions. The main point is that God created everything, it is good. When we lost trust in God, that is when problems happen.
Sin
The Fall of Adam and Eve is a reminder that we all have a choice to trust God or not in various actions throughout each day. All sin is rooted in Pride, not choosing to follow God, but choosing to follow after something else.
Marriage
The woman (rib) is made to be close to the man (heart). God will work His creation through the marriage bond (the two shall become one).
Gen 3:15 – Hint of Good News
After the Original Sin, the story is not over. God promises that there will be an ongoing battle between the Devil and man (male and female). This is the first hint of good news (protoevangelium) considering the alternative could have been eternal condemnation.
Tip: Don’t expect perfect sinless people in the Bible. The Bible was written for sinners. Everyone is a sinner so you will see sin appear in various ways, even among the people you hope will be the best. The Bible shows how people sin, the consequences of sin, and the forgiveness of God when the people repent, and the ongoing battle with sin.
Noah
Sin spreads, a great flood wipes out almost everyone. However, we see that sin continues. Where people have free will, sin can exist. Here, in the genealogy of family ancestry, we also see God’s promise continue.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Judah
The Patriarchs. See how the Lord’s promise continues through succession from one generation to the next. Even though Joseph has the more colorful story that gets narrated, Judah gradually transforms from a sinful self-serving individual to a self-sacrificing person for the family and gets the blessing of succession.
- the Messiah will come from the tribe of Judah
Captivity in Egypt
Israel spends 400 years in captivity.
Exodus
Exodus is about Moses and the deliverance of the Israelites from slavery under Egypt.
Moses
The young are killed (like Herod later kills the young in Jesus’s time). Moses is raised Egyptian but eventually finds out he is Hebrew and leaves to the wilderness, Moses is chosen by God at the burning bush to deliver the people from captivity.
The 10 Plagues
Try not to get caught with people trying to explain all the plagues by natural phenomena. They occurred at the right time and the right place to help the Hebrew people to get out of Egypt.
Passover.
Pay some extra attention to Passover, the meal of the lamb, the bread, the exodus from slavery. (Jesus at the last supper represents exodus from sin; Many parallels to the Exodus.
The Exodus (Exit from Egypt)
The Israelites are freed from slavery in Egypt. They cross the sea and into the wilderness.
- God provides for their needs
Golden Calf
After leaving Egypt, the people fall into grave sin by worshiping the Egyptian gods while Moses is on Mt. Sinai. The event results in a new priesthood of Levites and a whole new book (Leviticus) which contains many additional laws to try and rehabilitate the people with the new priesthood. We won’t read the book of Leviticus now, just know it fits in the Exodus time period right after the Golden Calf.
Mt. Sinai
They get the 10 Commandments, the tent of the Tabernacle, and the Ark of the Covenant.
Numbers
Numbers is about the departure from Sinai, failure to listen to the Lord, and subsequent wanderings in the wilderness.
Census and Marching Order
Numbers starts out with a lot of names and census figures. This may not be the most interesting reading, but consider the Bible has a lot of great historical facts that help prove it is describing real people in real events.
Tip: If you get to the point where you are finding it difficult to read this part, keep in mind the journey will start to pick-up again in Chapters 9 and 10. Skip to Chapter 9 if you are really starting to feel lost, but don’t give up.
- Don’t feel bad if your eyes start to skip long lists of names.
The Passover Meal – Chapter 9
2 years after the Exodus, they are repeating the Passover, notice more details about the Passover and the food they are eating, bitter herbs, unleavened bread, and a lamb without any broken bones.
Departure from Sinai
After a couple of years, the Israelites leave Sinai. There are many complaints, but the Lord provides.
Survey of Canaan – Chapter 13
This is an important event. If the Israelites had trusted the Lord, they could have entered the promised land at this point and avoided later bloodshed and disasters.
Instead, they sin and don’t listen to the Lord. As a result, they have to spend 40 years in the desert wilderness waiting to enter the promised land.
- Once again their sin causes separation from God as our sin does to our relationship with God.
Continued Rebellion
While in the Desert, there are several uprisings against Aaron and Moses that fail. The Priesthood of Aaron and the Levites is re-emphasized in a couple of chapters.
- Tip : Sacrifices
Sacrifices and Tithes are supposed to remind people to give a portion of their livelihood to the Lord so they trust the Lord, not totally on themselves. Many Israelites in this period were herdsmen, so animal sacrifice would have been a common tithe instead of money.
Additionally, the gods of Egypt were animals, so sacrificing an animal to God would hopefully break them from Egyptian animal worship.
40 years of wandering in the Wilderness
The people continue for 40 years in the desert. A few of the events are mentioned in Numbers; The Waters at Meribah, The Bronze Serpent, Edom, Moab, Amorites, Balaam, and Balak.
Worship of Baal of Peor
Just as things were about to look good for the Israelites, 40 years after the Golden Calf worship, they started to worship the gods of Moab, the Baals. This is as bad as the Golden Calf incident. Phinehas finished those who sinned.
Joshua
Joshua is appointed leader after Moses
Other
Numbers continues with offerings and vows, consequences of sin and violent battles in the desert.
Reminder: We are dealing with sinful people who could have avoided all these problems if they had listened to the Lord 40 years earlier.
Getting Ready for Canaan
The later part of this book ends with preparing the people for entry into the promised land.
Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy is Moses’ re-telling of the 40 years in the desert and re-telling of the laws. This is not in our list of 14 books as some of it repeats Numbers and Leviticus. If you want more details about the wandering period and Moses’ final words, you can read this later; remembering it fits at the end of Numbers, but before Joshua, when the people enter the promised land.
Joshua
Joshua is about the Israelite’s entry into the promised land of Canaan.
Crossing the Jordan River
Joshua leads the people into the promised land across the Jordan River. It dries up for their passing like Moses with the sea. Once they cross over and can eat the new food, the daily manna in the desert ends.
Because they didn’t listen to the Lord 40 years earlier, hardened themselves with battles in the desert, and are weakened by worshiping the gods of Baal, they now have enemies prepared for battle in Canaan.
Jericho
Pay attention to the battle of Jericho with the ark. This is echoed later in John’s Apocalypse in Revelation. Rahab’s household is the only Canaanite’s willing to turn toward the Lord. Jericho falls.
Conquest of Canaan
Through a series of military battles, Joshua leads the people to victory until they have the promised land. It would have been better if they followed the Lord’s way 40 years earlier, but they were still favored by the Lord over the Canaanites who worshiped almost any god except for the Lord.
- Tip: It is easy to lose interest in reading all the military battles. Skim these if needed, but don’t give up. At least get the main concept.
- Despite the sinful nature of the Israelites, the Lord continues to be with them.
- Despite our sin, the Lord continues to be with us if we ask Him to be.
The 12 Tribes Settle
Ever since the Lord promised Abraham the land a few hundred years earlier, the Israelites have longed for this time.
- The land is divided among the 12 tribes.
- The Levites as the priests are not given territory, but instead cities throughout all the tribes to act as their priests.
- Joseph does not get 1 territory but 2 for his sons (Ephraim and Manasseh). Manasseh is further divided into two parts, west, and east of the Jordan.
Judah is the south
The key tribe to keep an eye on is Judah in the south. Benjamin is smaller and also in the south.
Renewal of the Promise
Joshua renews the Covenant promise between the Israelites and God.
“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”
Judges
Judges is about the Israelites falling into cycles of sin, worshiping false gods, becoming weak, and falling prey to outside countries. After each fall, a Judge(leader) from among one of the 12 tribes would rise up to free Israel.
False gods
Several tribes did not remove all the Canaanites out of the land. As a result, they would be tempted and snared by the Canaanite false gods for centuries.
List of Judges (mostly good, but not all of them all the time)
- Othniel
- Ehud
- Shamgar
- Deborah & Barak
- Gideon
- Abimelech
- Tola
- Jair
- Jepthah
- Ibzan
- Elon
- Abdon
- Samson
Samson and Delilah
Samson’s strength is not about losing hair. It is about not living up to our promises to the Lord. Samson was under the Nazirite vow (Numbers 6), a part of which was not cutting one’s hair until an appointed time of completion before the Tent of the Lord. Samson was foolish to reveal this vow to Delilah, forgetting his vow to the Lord, thus losing all his spiritual strength and will to fight.
Closing
The book ends with a tragic series set of events, with every man doing what was right in his own eyes.
Ruth
Ruth is a small book set in the time of the Judges. It is a good story about faithfulness that connects to the line of David.
1 Samuel
- Eli
- Samuel
- Saul
- David
This book is about the prophet Samuel, the selection of king Saul for Israel, and subsequent selection of David.
1 Samuel has some of the most interesting narration. It flows in a continuous story from Eli to Samuel to Saul to the rise of David.
Eli
Eli was priest of the Temple. Elkanah and Hannah dedicated their son, Samuel to grow up under Eli in service to the Lord. Samuel grew stronger and stronger spiritually. Once he learned how to listen to the Lord, he began to prophesy the truth so that eventually all of Israel knew that the Lord was with him.
The Ark captured
The Philistines captured the ark, Eli died at the news. The Philistines placed the ark next to their god Dagon but after finding Dagon toppled over face down and they getting afflicted with tumors, they sent the Ark back to Israel.
Samuel
Samuel calls upon the people to return to the Lord and put away false gods and the people listened.
A King
The elders of Israel request Samuel to appoint for them a king, like all the other nations. This is a key point as Moses warned about the problems of having a king. Samuel was also against it but the Lord told Samuel they were rejecting Him, not Samuel. The Lord told Samuel to solemnly warn them about what their king will do to them. The people did not listen and demanded a king.
King Saul
Samuel appoints Saul as king of Israel. Saul defeats the Ammonites and grows in power, but has serious problems following the Lord.
Samuel gives a farewell speech warning the people about a king and to stay faithful to the Lord.
Saul’s problems
Saul’s problems started when he impatiently looked at a worldly situation and took it upon himself to do Samuel’s priestly duties. This was a fatal decision and Samuel informed Saul he would be replaced by another.
Saul continues to disobey God until the Lord leaves him and an evil spirit torments him.
David
Samuel anoints David of Bethlehem. Saul does not know.
Saul calls for a musician and when he learns of David’s many abilities, Saul takes David into his house as his armor-bearer. David plays the lyre to help keep the evil spirit away from Saul.
Goliath
When the army of Israel was challenged to 1-on-1 combat by a giant Philistine named Goliath, Saul and his army were all dismayed. Meanwhile, David was going back and forth between serving Saul, his father’s sheep, and his brothers who were in Saul’s army, when he learned of the problem. While everyone else wanted to flee from Goliath, David saw Goliath as nothing compared to God.
Saul’s jealousy
After David defeats Goliath, Saul puts him in charge of the military. As David’s victories mount up and exceed Saul’s, Saul becomes jealous to the point of trying to kill David.
Saul’s Obsession with David
Saul hunts David but Saul’s son Jonathan helps David escape on several occasions. David spares Saul’s life on more than one occasion, but the evil in Saul keeps coming back.
Saul dies in battle.
2 Samuel
King David
For the 2nd Book of Samuel, it might help to remember it as the kingdom of David. Saul and Samuel are dead and David’s rule is just beginning. Saul’s house begins to diminish while David’s grows. Jerusalem is finally under the control of Judah and made the Capital. The Philistines are repulsed. The Ark is brought to Jerusalem. David and the Lord form a Covenant.
United Kingdom
We might begin to think that the rightful one, David, is finally on the throne, the kingdom is united, and all is well. Jews of the future will remember this time and talk about restoring Israel back to the days of King David.
But not all was well. Sin is still present. Where there is power there can be corruption. David the King holds great power.
A Temple
David is still a man, thinking like a man. He wants to build the Lord a Temple like the other nations have, but the Lord is not in need of one. The Lord finally relents and will allow David’s son to build one. The Jews take this literally as Solomon, but it also is a long term promise for Jesus, the Messiah.
David’s greatest Sins
Just when we think there is finally peace and prosperity in the land, we are reminded that God is still dealing with sinners. David commits adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. When Bathsheba is found pregnant, David uses an evil tactic he learned from Saul and leaves Uriah on the front lines unprotected, where he is killed. Nathan confronts David and he is punished by losing the child.
David Repents
David repents for his grave sins. Instead of continuing to turn away from God, he repents and returns to the Lord.
- No matter what we have done wrong, if we are sorry, we can return to the Lord like David.
Internal unrest
While David’s military was highly successful against outside forces, serious internal family problems began. One of David’s sons, Ammon committed a terrible sin against his half-sister, Tamar. As a result, Ammon was killed by his half brother Absalom, who then flees his Father, David. After some time, Absalom was welcomed back by David.
Absalom tries to take the Throne.
Absalom repaid David’s forgiveness with deceit, He intercepted all who came to the King for judgment and agreed with all their claims, winning over Israel’s heart until he declared himself King. David was forced to flee as he did not want a fight with his son.
Joab
Joab is a formidable military commander under David, but also at times disobedient and self-serving. When David’s army went to battle against Absalom’s army, Joab was given orders to deal gently with Absalom. Joab ends up killing Absalom causing David to go into debilitating mourning.
Dissension between Israel and Judah
When David started to return home, the tribe of Judah was the last to welcome him back while the other tribes were eager to have him as their king. This event added to the growing rift between Judah (in the south) and the rest of Israel (in the north).
The other tribes (Israel) resented that David ended up going back to Judah instead of with them. As a result, Sheba arises as the new king of Israel, but before there is a civil war, Joab tracked him down and killed him. The threat was over.
David is Weary
After the death of Absalom, David started to grow weaker. He had to stop attending to battles with the Philistines. The book closes with a pestilence & David’s repentance to keep it from spreading.
What started out as a potential united kingdom of great promise under David, turned into great sin; the murder of Uriah, a series of grave family problems, a usurping of the throne, and threats of civil war.
- David’s saving grace was that he did have a repentant heart
That is a quick summary of the 1st 7 books in our narrative selection of narrative books. for the second half, [click here]
In Part II find out what happened to the united kingdom of David.
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