After reordering the Protestant canon of Scripture for the Old Testament, I will place the books of the Apocrypha in chronological order in between these Bible books.
I have used capital letters for the books belonging to the Protestant canon, and small letters for the additional books of the Catholic canon of Scripture.
For each book I’ve tried to ascertain the following:
- Who the author was
- The date it was written
- The subject matter
- The genre or type of writing it belongs to
Bible Books, Authors and Dates Summary
- Job – from Uz or Edom 2200-2500 BC, written by Jobab
- Genesis – compiled by Moses from early sources
- Exodus – The Israelites flee from Egypt in about 1440 BC, written by Moses
- Leviticus
- Numbers
- Deuteronomy – summary of events written at the end of Moses’ life after 40 years in the desert 1400 BC, written by Moses with post-script
- Joshua – 1400-1340 BC, written by Joshua
- Judges – written by Samuel ~1020 BC
- Ruth
- Joel – written by Samuel’s first born son, Joel ~1000 BC
- Psalms – written by King David and Temple musicians ~990 BC, 515 BC
- Song of songs ~970 BC
- Proverbs – collected by Solomon
- Ecclesiastes ~940 BC, written by King Solomon
- Obadiah – Edomite in Jerusalem 845 BC
- Jonah – he died in Nineveh in 800 BC
- Amos – 750 BC
- Hosea – 750 BC
- Micah – 750 BC
- Isaiah – Jerusalem 740-680 BC
- Nahum – Nineveh, prophesying 663-612 BC
- Tobit – exiled to Nineveh in 722 BC, died ~630 BC
- Zephaniah – prophesying in Jerusalem between 640-609 BC
- Habakkuk – prophesying in Jerusalem between 597-530 BC
- Ezekiel – started his ministry in Babylon in 593 BC
- Jeremiah – called in 626 BC and exiled to Egypt in 586 BC
- 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings
- Lamentations – one of these 7 books written by Baruch around 586 BC
- Baruch – 581 BC
- Daniel – 606-486 BC, he lived for 120 years
- Haggai – returned to Jerusalem in 538 BC, massage proclaimed in 520 BC
- Zechariah – returned from exile in Babylon in 538 BC
- Esther – married to Xerxes I (zerk-zeez) 486-465 BC
- Ezra / 1 Esdras – written in Babylon before 538 BC
- Nehemiah – second part of book of Ezra
- 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles – 2 of these 7 books written by Ezra who returned from exile in 465 BC
- 2 Esdras
- Malachi
- 2 Maccabees – letter written by Judas Maccabeus in 160 BC
- 1 Maccabees – history covering 170-130 BC written by Simon Maccabeus with post-script
- Sirach – Written by Yeshua ben Sira in 180 BC / translated and additions made after 132 BC by his grandson.
(The other five books of the Apocrypha I would not include in the Bible).
= 45 books in total + 5 books that I would not include in the Bible
39 of these books are included in Protestant Bibles. The 6 books of the Apocrypha listed here are not included in the Protestant canon.
Merry and True 