The Bible is not written like a normal book. Though it has a continuous story, it is difficult to understand this story by reading it cover to cover, like a novel. Instead, the Bible is best understood by looking at the characters and events in their historical and literary contexts.

But because not every book of the Bible contributes directly to the overarching story of salvation, this can be difficult to do on our own. So with biblical scholar Jeff Cavins, we laid out the 14 books that outline the story of God’s people through 12 distinct time periods in an authentic, intuitive format. The remaining 59 books are what we call ‘supplemental’ to the story.

Want to understand the story of Scripture? Just start by reading the 14 narrative books!

Reading the Bible according to the 12 biblical time periods and 14 narrative books outlined above is called The Bible Timeline® Learning System. This method of reading Scripture was developed by biblical scholar Jeff Cavins to help Catholics understand the most important book of their Faith: the Bible.

By leading Catholics through the story of Scripture page by page, chapter by chapter, this system brings the characters, events, and locations of Scripture to life. It illuminates God's love for his people from the beginning of time and reveals why this story is so important to our Catholic Faith.

Built into The Great Adventure Catholic Bible, this format allows the faithful to better understand Scripture while they’re reading—and this has changed the way Catholics have approached Scripture ever since.