Why are the books of the Bible in the order that they are in?

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

II Timothy 3:16–17

“For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” II Peter 1:21

All of God’s Word (the Bible) is inspired by God, which means that He is its originator and author. He chose to use men with different gifts, backgrounds, and unique abilities to write it as He spoke to them by the Holy Spirit. As a result, the Bible Is God’s Word and contains no errors, or mistakes, and cannot be changed by anyone. However, the format of the Bible (chapter and verse breaks, headings, names of the books, and order of the books) is not inspired. They have been organized this way by men over the centuries to make the books and passages within the Bible easier to find and read. The English Bible contains sixty-six books and is broken up into two major sections: the Old Testament (spanning from creation to about four hundred years before Christ) and the New Testament (encompassing approximately one hundred years, starting about a year before the birth of Christ and closing with a prophecy describing the end of the world). The former contains thirty-nine books and the latter twenty-seven.

These books are not organized in chronological order, but rather by theme or type. The Old Testament is broken down into four sections: Law (Genesis - Deuteronomy), History (Joshua - Esther), Wisdom literature (Job - Song of Solomon), and Prophecy (Isaiah - Malachi). Likewise the New Testament is five sections: Gospels (Matthew - John), History (Acts) Paul’s Epistles (letters) (Romans - Philemon), other Epistles (Hebrews - Jude), and Prophecy (Revelation). Obviously, these are only general categories or themes that each book falls into; for history, prophecy, and law are contained in nearly every book of the Bible, not just the ones found in their categories. Moreover it would be difficult to place them in a purely chronological order, as many of the books cover similar time periods and overlap.