The New Testament does not arrange the letters in the order they were written. They are grouped by author and roughly by length — which is a sensible way to file them and a confusing way to read them. This page puts them back in time order, so you can see which part of the story each one belongs to.

The years are the standard scholarly estimates, and they are estimates. Where a date is seriously disputed I have said so. Nothing about how you read a letter depends on pinning it to a particular year; what helps is knowing roughly where in the story it sits and what was going on.

From Jerusalem, before the journeys

James · c. A.D. 46–49, from Jerusalem
Probably the earliest book in the New Testament. Written by the brother of Jesus to Jewish believers scattered abroad, before the Gentile question came to a head. Part Five.

The Second Journey

Galatians · c. A.D. 48–51
Dated anywhere in that range depending on which Galatia is meant and whether it precedes the Jerusalem Council. Written to churches Paul had planted, against teachers insisting his Gentile converts be circumcised. Part Five.

1 Thessalonians · c. A.D. 51, from Corinth
Written weeks after Timothy brought news of a young church Paul had been forced to leave early. Part Five.

2 Thessalonians · c. A.D. 51–52, from Corinth
A follow-up, correcting a rumor that the day of the Lord had already come. Part Five.

The Third Journey

1 Corinthians · c. A.D. 55, from Ephesus
Answering reports and a list of questions from a divided church in a hard city. Part Six.

2 Corinthians · c. A.D. 56, from Macedonia
The most personal letter, written after his authority there had been challenged. Part Six.

Romans · c. A.D. 57, from Corinth
Written to a church he had never visited, ahead of a journey to Spain he hoped they would support. The fullest statement of what he preached. Part Six.

From house arrest in Rome

Ephesians · Colossians · Philemon · c. A.D. 60–62, from Rome
Carried out together by Tychicus. Colossians answers a local teaching; Ephesians covers the same ground more broadly; Philemon is a private note about a runaway slave. Part Seven.

Philippians · c. A.D. 61–62, from Rome
Written after the Philippians sent money and a man to help him. The letter about joy, written under guard. Part Seven.

After the release

1 Timothy · Titus · c. A.D. 63–65
Working letters to two younger men left in charge at Ephesus and on Crete. They describe travels that do not fit inside Acts, which is the main reason we think Paul was released and travelled again. Part Eight.

1 Peter · c. A.D. 64, from Rome
To believers under pressure across northern Asia Minor, about the time of Nero’s persecution. Part Eight.

Hebrews · c. A.D. 65–68
Anonymous, and it never claims otherwise. To Jewish believers tempted to return to the temple system — written, it appears, while that system was still standing. Part Eight.

Jude · 2 Peter · c. A.D. 65–68
Both against teachers exploiting the church from inside; the two overlap so closely that one knew the other. Part Eight.

2 Timothy · c. A.D. 66–67, from Rome
Paul’s last letter, from a second imprisonment. Bring the cloak, the books, and Mark. Part Eight.

Old age at Ephesus

1, 2 and 3 John · c. A.D. 85–95, from Ephesus
The last apostle, insisting on two things at once: that Jesus really came in a body, and that love is the test of whether any of it has taken. Part Ten.

Revelation · c. A.D. 95
Written to seven churches of Asia. It falls at the very end of this timeline, and it is the subject of a separate study.

Two things worth noticing

Every one of Paul’s letters is occasional — written into a particular situation, usually a problem, usually in a hurry. None of them were composed as timeless treatises, which is exactly why they are so blunt and so useful. Read Acts alongside them and you can generally see what he was reacting to.

And the whole collection was written within about fifty years of the events it describes, by people who had either been there or had talked at length with those who were. For documents of the ancient world that is a remarkably short gap.