What I really meant was that sometimes even within a book it may not have been written in the order in which the events occurred.
Ooooh! That’s different.
The answer to that would be: sometimes. In general (and we’re primarily talking about the gospels, here), even though the four evangelists are telling the same story, sometimes they arrange the sequence of the stories a little differently, even ommiting or adding some, depending on the particular theological emphasis of the Gospel they are writing. They didn’t make anything up, of course, but they were pointedly selective in what material at their disposal they used. This is not a problem as long as we keep in mind that --while they were relating true, historical events --they were not writing history in the manner we are accustomed to in the 21st century, where it is a strictly linear presentation of events. The Gospels are both *history *and
theology.
The Acts of the Apostles is more linear than the Gospels, although it greatly compresses the time of events. It might seem to us that the events related in Acts happened rather quickly, but they actually took place over a long expanse of time; decades, in fact.
The remainder of the NT is mostly letters and timelines are not an issue. The Book of Revelation, as a specialized type of prophecy called apocalyptic, is in a class by itself, and describes events that can in no way be chronologicalized, as many are symbolic, and the one’s that aren’t often happen simultaneously, or even back-track.
Hope that’s more helpful.
I don’t think we have the time for a seminar on the topic but do not rule it out. Thanks for your help.
If you’ll scroll down a bit on the website, you’ll see you can listen to the series on tape or CD at your leisure (as I did), without attending the seminar.
