Biblia Chronos
About & sources

Data: Theographic (CC BY-SA 4.0)

About Biblia Chronos

Biblia Chronos helps people explore the Bible through timelines, maps, and genealogies: how the people, places, and events of Scripture fit together. It's open source, and everything here is a static page built from data files anyone can review and correct.

Dates and chronology

Biblical chronology is contested. For now every date comes from one source, Theographic Bible Metadata, which follows a single traditional chronology close to Archbishop Ussher's: Abraham is born around 1996 BC and the Exodus falls in 1490 BC (the "early date"; many scholars prefer the 13th century BC). Dates for the divided kingdom's reigns also differ from widely used reconstructions such as Thiele's.

We present these dates as the source gives them rather than reinterpreting them. Where scholars differ, the plan is to show the alternatives side by side, each with its citation. That's the next round of work on the data.

People with a recorded birth and death get a lifetime on the timeline. Most people don't have one, so they appear over the years they're attested in: the dated events they take part in.

Eras

The timeline is divided into these eras. Their boundaries come from events in the same source data, so they agree with its chronology.

Patriarchs 1996–1707 BC
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: God's covenant with Abraham and the family it grew into, from Abraham's birth to Jacob's household settling in Egypt (Genesis 12–46). Bounded by Theographic's birth-of-abraham and joseph-s-brothers-go-to-egypt events.
Israel in Egypt 1707–1491 BC
Jacob's descendants multiply in Egypt and are enslaved (Genesis 47–50, Exodus 1–12). Bounded by Jacob's family arriving in Egypt and Theographic's exodus-from-egypt event.
Exodus & Wilderness 1491–1451 BC
The Exodus, the covenant at Sinai, and forty years in the wilderness (Exodus 12 – Deuteronomy). Bounded by Theographic's exodus-from-egypt and crossing-the-jordan-into-canaan events. Theographic follows the early date for the Exodus; many scholars prefer a 13th-century BC date.
Conquest & Judges 1451–1095 BC
Israel enters Canaan under Joshua, then is led by judges through cycles of apostasy and deliverance (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel 1–9). Bounded by the crossing of the Jordan and the start of Saul's reign in Theographic.
United Kingdom 1095–975 BC
Saul, David, and Solomon reign over all twelve tribes; Jerusalem becomes the capital and the temple is built (1 Samuel 10 – 1 Kings 11, 1 Chronicles). Matches Theographic's united-kingdom event.
Divided Kingdom 975–721 BC
After Solomon the kingdom splits into Israel in the north and Judah in the south (1 Kings 12 – 2 Kings 17, 2 Chronicles 10–28). Ends with the fall of the northern kingdom, matching Theographic's northern-kingdom-israel event.
Assyrian & Babylonian Exiles 721–536 BC
Assyria carries Israel into exile; Judah survives until Babylon destroys Jerusalem and the temple, then lives in exile in Babylon (2 Kings 18–25, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel). Ends with Cyrus's decree allowing the return (Ezra 1), which Theographic doesn't date: 536 BC follows the Ussher-style chronology the rest of the data uses; most modern scholars date it 538 BC.
Return from Exile 536–441 BC
Exiles return to Judah, rebuild the temple and Jerusalem's walls (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi). Ends with Malachi's prophecies, the last dated Old Testament event in Theographic.
Between the Testaments 441–6 BC
The centuries between Malachi and the New Testament, under Persian, Greek, Hasmonean, and Roman rule. Scripture records no events here, so this era is mostly empty on the timeline.
Life of Christ 6 BC – AD 30
The births of John the Baptist and Jesus, Jesus' ministry, death, and resurrection (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John). Bounded by Theographic's john-s-birth-predicted event and Jesus' death in AD 30.
Early Church AD 30–96
Pentecost, the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem to Rome, and the apostolic letters (Acts through Revelation). Ends at AD 96, the latest year in Theographic's data.

Draft records

The source data marks 2,781 of its 3,067 people as work in progress. They're shown by default, marked "draft" and in grey; turn off Show draft records in the menu to hide them.

Sources and licenses

The data derived from Theographic is shared under the same license, CC BY-SA 4.0. The code is MIT licensed.

Contributing

Found a wrong date, a misplaced city, or a missing link between people? Corrections live as small files in the repository's data/overrides/ folder, so a fix is an ordinary pull request. See the project on GitHub.

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