This is the remnant of an exercise I began in 2006. Each "Year Book" is an early draft of an ongoing project. My goal here was to write out, exhaustively, the most we could say about everything that happened in each year. Going month by month and season by season often makes the story choppy, but that was the point of the exercise - precise, exacting event sequencing... even if some of it required filling in a few blanks along the way.
Thus far, this has been an attempt to reconstruct, one year at a time, every EVENT in the New Testament within the context of the world events that surrounded it all. When complete, these 79 Year Books should tell one story, blending scripture and history together from 9 BC to 70 AD, one year at a time. This has been an attempt to tell everything that happened, precisely as it most likely happened.
Be aware there are definitely spots in need of revision and outright correction. Research done here should be verified elsewhere. Hopefully, another site will someday replace this one, a site fully fact checked by a team of professionals. Until then, there is only me, unfortunately, because I'm the only one doing such a thing. Contact me if you want to help, and to everyone else, thanks very much for your patience and understanding during this incredibly long process.
**Under Construction (23 of 79 done)**
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Last Year Book: 14 AD (part 2) - posted on 10/12/08
**Scroll down for Year Books**
Clearly a work in progress this site is the ongoing result of one man's studies that began in 1996. It's going to take many more years to finish, and publish, and establish. So bookmark Year-by-Year, tell your friends, and watch it grow. There's a lot left to be done.
For now, here's what it's all about.
The New Testament, as it is, is out of order. Experts claim the timeline is unclear. People pick verses out of anywhere and make them say anything. (Hmmm. These problems seem somehow related.) But what can we do about it?
Maybe, we can focus on the facts. The truth is, things are usually simple. Lots of stuff happened. Some details are more clear than others but very, very little is completely unknown. Actually, we know quite a lot.
Thanks to scholars and historians, the facts and solutions are out there. They're piling up fast. A lot of critical work has been done on New Testament issues in the past 50 years. Really, solidly reliable solutions to old timeline problems have been published. So... why don't you know about it?
Here's one reason. Up until now, nobody's put it all together in one place. All of it. In order. Altogether.
Here's another reason. A lot of christian Bible teachers (ministers and 'laymen' both) rest on the out-of-date stuff their own mentors taught them. They don't stay current. And it's hard to blame them. So much research is so sadly partisan! Even scholars sometimes seem to shift the timeline to defend their pet doctrines, or the basis for their entire denomination! It's as if creeds have commanded them to twist facts.
Now, it may not be my place to say these things. But they really do need to be said. I honestly believe the biggest thing keeping people in the dark on NT Chronology is just the stubbornness and fear of a religious system that - to some degree - seems to want us to stay in the dark!!! (Certain people can make a lot more hay while the sun doesn't shine.)
For a thousand years, the clergy kept the scriptures to themselves. When the people got the scriptures, the reformation erupted. But the protestant clergy kept things under control in their own ways, too. One of their methods, was making the Bible available, and yet claiming you had to be educated and well-trained to really use it properly. (This still goes on. A lot.)
Look, if the Holy Spirit is really inside you, then that's all you need to interpret the scriptures. Really! I don't think the HS is going to tell you something crazy, either. I believe the HS is going to show you Jesus Christ and God's Purpose and nothing less. Think about it. Whenever the Spirit shows you anything at all in the scriptures, isn't that really all it does? It points you to Christ!
So everyone can understand the Bible. It's just all about Jesus. (Duh!)
If you believe God wrote the book then God is also capable of writing on your own heart what he feels is important as you look at each and any page. The Spirit in you already knows what God thinks is important! Every page speaks the Name of Who is most important! Jesus Christ! And the Spirit (and the Bible) love to point Him out to us.
You don't need to read Year-by-Year to find Jesus in scripture...
So why is it here?
Because all of it happened, back then and there.
I think all christians deserve to know the whole story. It's much more than verses. I believe people who read the Bible want to see the whole Bible. It's much more than chapters and books. And I truly feel that believers in Jesus Christ want to see the New Testament as a sequence of EVENTS, during which some WORDS also got spoken.
The Word is about the Lord... it's not about words. Jesus CAME. He LOVED. He FORGAVE. He HEALED. He TRAVELED. He SPOKE. He TAUGHT. He DID lots of things. But those things were not words on a page. The things Jesus did (and said) were EVENTS.
I think it's too easy to miss that. The sense of scriptures as EVENTS.
One more thing - those events have an ORDER. Jesus' life didn't happen four seperate times with different parts included every time. His world turned around one year at a time. The Gospels actually go together very nicely, once you see how they fit. But even if we couldn't see it, it happened.
Either way, the Gospel EVENTS ought to be known in the order they happened.
Why would any christian believer NOT want to know these things?
Did you know Paul's letters are printed in order of length? But Romans was written in 57 AD, 1st Corinthians in 54, 2nd Corinthians in 56, Galatians in 50... and so on. The book of Acts runs from 33 to 61 AD, but you can't tell for reading it. Sometimes Luke skips over years in a half of a sentence! Somewhere in Acts, there's one spot at which Paul sits down and actually WRITES to the Galatian saints. (That was an EVENT!) Then, someone had to carry the letter! (Guess who? It was Titus!)
We deserve to see this view of Scripture.
So why hasn't it happened before now? Could it be because verse-quoting is easier when you don't have a full, total context? Could it be, at least partly, because verse-quoting works better for men who need to build up doctrines and denominations? That was certainly true 500 years ago, at the Protestant Reformation. Maybe the rest of us just learned from them. (?) But maybe... just maybe... we need to un-learn.
No more "verses". Verses are fine sometimes, but we all deserve the WHOLE WORD! The printed Word is not merely "words". It's words AND events. It's words in the total context of those events. The whole reason He spoke those words in the first place was to affect those events, at that time!
Don't you want to know this Whole Word? :)
When you're done reading Year-by-Year, the Bible will not have been changed. The Word of God will not have been injured. His Holy Spirit will still have the same message - Christ is first above all things! But what might happen to our view of this Christ?
Who knows how He will sound to us, when we line up everything he did and said... and everything his followers did and said... dare we believe it?...
In the order it all really happened?
That is the goal here, of Year-by-Year.
This is a radical idea. It's going to take some time, to get it done. Feel free to stop by anytime, and often. Contribute however you like. And pray. This is all I'm doing, while I care for my family. I pray the Lord blesses it. I pray it will grow into something he wants, and give him something he can use, here on Earth. For His Purpose, here.
I pray, and believe...
This is worth quite a lot.
---------------
Bill Heroman
March, 2008
For now, here's what it's all about.
The New Testament, as it is, is out of order. Experts claim the timeline is unclear. People pick verses out of anywhere and make them say anything. (Hmmm. These problems seem somehow related.) But what can we do about it?
Maybe, we can focus on the facts. The truth is, things are usually simple. Lots of stuff happened. Some details are more clear than others but very, very little is completely unknown. Actually, we know quite a lot.
Thanks to scholars and historians, the facts and solutions are out there. They're piling up fast. A lot of critical work has been done on New Testament issues in the past 50 years. Really, solidly reliable solutions to old timeline problems have been published. So... why don't you know about it?
Here's one reason. Up until now, nobody's put it all together in one place. All of it. In order. Altogether.
Here's another reason. A lot of christian Bible teachers (ministers and 'laymen' both) rest on the out-of-date stuff their own mentors taught them. They don't stay current. And it's hard to blame them. So much research is so sadly partisan! Even scholars sometimes seem to shift the timeline to defend their pet doctrines, or the basis for their entire denomination! It's as if creeds have commanded them to twist facts.
Now, it may not be my place to say these things. But they really do need to be said. I honestly believe the biggest thing keeping people in the dark on NT Chronology is just the stubbornness and fear of a religious system that - to some degree - seems to want us to stay in the dark!!! (Certain people can make a lot more hay while the sun doesn't shine.)
For a thousand years, the clergy kept the scriptures to themselves. When the people got the scriptures, the reformation erupted. But the protestant clergy kept things under control in their own ways, too. One of their methods, was making the Bible available, and yet claiming you had to be educated and well-trained to really use it properly. (This still goes on. A lot.)
Look, if the Holy Spirit is really inside you, then that's all you need to interpret the scriptures. Really! I don't think the HS is going to tell you something crazy, either. I believe the HS is going to show you Jesus Christ and God's Purpose and nothing less. Think about it. Whenever the Spirit shows you anything at all in the scriptures, isn't that really all it does? It points you to Christ!
So everyone can understand the Bible. It's just all about Jesus. (Duh!)
If you believe God wrote the book then God is also capable of writing on your own heart what he feels is important as you look at each and any page. The Spirit in you already knows what God thinks is important! Every page speaks the Name of Who is most important! Jesus Christ! And the Spirit (and the Bible) love to point Him out to us.
You don't need to read Year-by-Year to find Jesus in scripture...
So why is it here?
Because all of it happened, back then and there.
I think all christians deserve to know the whole story. It's much more than verses. I believe people who read the Bible want to see the whole Bible. It's much more than chapters and books. And I truly feel that believers in Jesus Christ want to see the New Testament as a sequence of EVENTS, during which some WORDS also got spoken.
The Word is about the Lord... it's not about words. Jesus CAME. He LOVED. He FORGAVE. He HEALED. He TRAVELED. He SPOKE. He TAUGHT. He DID lots of things. But those things were not words on a page. The things Jesus did (and said) were EVENTS.
I think it's too easy to miss that. The sense of scriptures as EVENTS.
One more thing - those events have an ORDER. Jesus' life didn't happen four seperate times with different parts included every time. His world turned around one year at a time. The Gospels actually go together very nicely, once you see how they fit. But even if we couldn't see it, it happened.
Either way, the Gospel EVENTS ought to be known in the order they happened.
Why would any christian believer NOT want to know these things?
Did you know Paul's letters are printed in order of length? But Romans was written in 57 AD, 1st Corinthians in 54, 2nd Corinthians in 56, Galatians in 50... and so on. The book of Acts runs from 33 to 61 AD, but you can't tell for reading it. Sometimes Luke skips over years in a half of a sentence! Somewhere in Acts, there's one spot at which Paul sits down and actually WRITES to the Galatian saints. (That was an EVENT!) Then, someone had to carry the letter! (Guess who? It was Titus!)
We deserve to see this view of Scripture.
So why hasn't it happened before now? Could it be because verse-quoting is easier when you don't have a full, total context? Could it be, at least partly, because verse-quoting works better for men who need to build up doctrines and denominations? That was certainly true 500 years ago, at the Protestant Reformation. Maybe the rest of us just learned from them. (?) But maybe... just maybe... we need to un-learn.
No more "verses". Verses are fine sometimes, but we all deserve the WHOLE WORD! The printed Word is not merely "words". It's words AND events. It's words in the total context of those events. The whole reason He spoke those words in the first place was to affect those events, at that time!
Don't you want to know this Whole Word? :)
When you're done reading Year-by-Year, the Bible will not have been changed. The Word of God will not have been injured. His Holy Spirit will still have the same message - Christ is first above all things! But what might happen to our view of this Christ?
Who knows how He will sound to us, when we line up everything he did and said... and everything his followers did and said... dare we believe it?...
In the order it all really happened?
That is the goal here, of Year-by-Year.
This is a radical idea. It's going to take some time, to get it done. Feel free to stop by anytime, and often. Contribute however you like. And pray. This is all I'm doing, while I care for my family. I pray the Lord blesses it. I pray it will grow into something he wants, and give him something he can use, here on Earth. For His Purpose, here.
I pray, and believe...
This is worth quite a lot.
---------------
Bill Heroman
March, 2008
