Bible in a Year and Bible Timeline do NOT go in order

The Bible in a Year Reading Plan is designed as a companion piece to The Bible in a Year podcast. For a full explanation of why the podcast doesn't just go straight through in one line from Genesis to Revelation, I recommend you listen to the first full-length episode of the podcast, where Father Mike and Jeff Cavins discuss that.

In case you missed that episode, I'll give you a brief summary: The podcast is based on The Great Adventure Bible Timeline Study System developed by Jeff Cavins. This system focuses on the 14 narrative books of the Bible that tell the whole story of salvation history.

Since not every book is meant as a narrative story, those who attempt to read the Bible from cover to cover will eventually come across long stretches which have no narrative, and this is why many people stop when they get to Leviticus. As mentioned, there are plenty of other Old Testament books which are not narrative in nature. The Bible Timeline system suggests an order focusing on the 14 books that will describe the story of salvation, and also points out where the rest of the Bible fits into this story.

Similarly, when one gets to the New Testament, since there are four Gospels, and it would be repetitive to read Christ's life over and over again 4 times in a row, so the podcast will intersperse some of the Gospel stories as necessary to add context to what's being discussed during an old testament reading.