Guide

How to use Bible Timeline

Bible Timeline has four main pages, a page for each of its events, and three tools that work on every page: search, language and night mode.

Which page do I need?

The home page. It tells the whole story from Creation to Revelation, one era at a time.

The star fieldEvery star at the top of the page is one event, and the brightest are the turning points. On a computer, move the pointer over a star to see its name and click to open it. On a phone, tap a star to see its name and tap it again to open it.
The eleven erasThe row of pictures under the star field is the whole story in eleven eras. Choose one to jump straight to it.
The era barWhen you scroll down, a bar with one icon per era stays at the top of the screen. Choose an icon to move to that era. Only one era is shown at a time.
Key events or All eventsThe switch at the end of the era bar sets how much you see. "Key events" shows the main moments; "All events" adds every detailed entry.
More eventsWhen an era has more events than fit, the button at the end of the list shows the next ones.
Event cards"Read more" opens the full event page. The Bible reference on the card opens that passage in a new tab.
Next eraAt the end of each era, the card with the next era's name takes the story on.

Every event has a page of its own. Open it from a card, a star, the map or the search.

The topThe picture, the title and the date, with a label showing how certain the date is. The most important events carry a "Key event" badge.
You are hereThe small bar beside the text shows which era the event belongs to and its place in the whole story, for example "Event 173 of 567".
At a glanceThe date, its status, the type of event and its theme, in one box.
About this dateWhat the date rests on, any note about the chronology, and a link to "How dates are handled".
Bible referencesEach reference opens the passage on bible.com in a new tab: the New International Version (NIV) in English and the Persian Contemporary Bible (PCB) in Persian. Parallel passages, where there are any, are listed separately.
Further contextA longer explanation of the event, with an estimate of the reading time.
Moving on"Previous" and "Next" at the bottom lead to the neighbouring events. The link above the title goes back to the event's era.

The story on a map of the biblical world. The 185 events with a known place play one after another, and the map moves to each one.

Playing the storyThe large round button plays and pauses. The buttons beside it go to the previous or next event, and ×0.5, ×1 and ×2 set the speed.
The event cardShows the event now on the map, its places with the number of events at each, a link to the full event page and the name of the next event.
Moving the mapDrag the map to move it. Zoom with + and −, or hold Ctrl (⌘ on a Mac) and scroll. The round arrow button brings the map back to the current event.
PlacesChoose a dot on the map to list everything that happened at that place. On a phone the map shows the places of the current event as small pictures without names: tap a place once to see its name, and tap it again to list its events.
Eras and the time stripThe coloured buttons under the map jump to an era. The short marks above them are the events; drag along them to move quickly through the story.
KeyboardWith the map selected, the space bar plays or pauses and the arrow keys step from event to event.
The list under the mapLists the events of the era on the map and follows along as the story plays. Search by event or place, pick one place, or switch to all eras. "Show on the map" plays the story from that event.

Shows where each of the 66 books speaks into the story, and lets you follow one book through the events it records.

The dot mapEach row is a book and each column an era. The bigger the dot, the more events that book records in that era. Choose a dot or a book's name to open that book.
The list of booksThe books are grouped: Torah, History, Poetry & Wisdom, Major and Minor Prophets, Gospels, Early Church, Letters and Revelation, each group with its own small picture. Type in "Find a book" to go to one by name.
One bookThe bar at the top shows how many of the book's events fall in each era, and the events below are grouped by era. An event where the book is only cited as a parallel passage is marked as such.
Going back and sharing"All books" returns to the overview. The address in the browser changes for each book, so you can bookmark it or send it to someone.

Explains how firm each date is and how to read the way dates are written.

Seven labelsEvery event carries one of seven date statuses, from "Relatively established" to "Unknown". The coloured bar shows how the 567 events divide between them, and each label links to an example.
Certainty by eraThe same labels era by era, so you can see which parts of the story are dated firmly and which are not.
Reading a date"c." means approximate. Two years joined by a slash are competing dates, a dash marks a span of time, and a date in brackets is the main alternative.

The buttons at the top and bottom of every page.

SearchThe magnifying glass opens the search. Type part of an event's name, then click a result or use the arrow keys and Enter. On a computer, Ctrl+K (⌘K on a Mac) or the / key opens it as well.
LanguageThe two flags switch between English and Persian, and you stay on the same page.
Night modeThe moon button darkens the site for reading at night and the sun brings the light version back. Your browser remembers the choice.
On a phoneThe page links move into the menu button (☰) at the top of the screen.
At the bottomEvery page ends with links to all the pages of the site, including About us, this guide and Donate.