Books Of The Bible At-A-Glance (A Homeschool Coffee Break Review)

Pop Quiz: Which book of the Bible tells the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal? Which of these events happened first - Daniel in the lions' den, or Queen Esther saving the Jews from the evil plan of Haman? Who wrote the book of Acts? If you want a quick reference to find answers to these questions, and a lot of others as well, you may want to check out Books of the Bible At-A-Glance, a set of handy one-page reference sheets from Teach Sunday School. We got to review this resource and it is pretty neat!

Teach Sunday School is a source for turn-key lesson plans and other resources designed for Sunday School teachers and parents. They have a large collection of games, printables, crafts, and other tools to help make the Bible come alive for young students. And makes the job easy and fun for the teachers too. Although the name brought to mind Sunday morning stories and lessons for little children, the Book-by-Book Bible Printables we received can be used in many ways and with many age groups.

So, the Books of the Bible At-A-Glance set of printables is a reference package that gives a one-page overview of every book in the Bible. We received it as a zip file, and it's a total of 74 pages in pdf format. There are a couple of pages of introduction and suggestions on how to use the material at the beginning, and then one full page for every book.

Each page gives key information like the author, the date the book was written, the time period that it covers, famous stories and key passages, and some important facts about the book.

How did we use it? I used the pages as a reference for my personal Bible reading and study, and as a reference and guide available for adult Bible study groups my husband and I are involved with in our church. 

For example, one of the questions I posed in the pop quiz at the beginning of this review was about how the timeframes of the books of Daniel and Esther were related. Some of the same kings of the Medes and Persians are mentioned in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and Daniel, but I've often been curious about how many years passed between the events described in those books and whether they overlapped. Well, I printed out the pages and had a look. Turns out that although the books of  Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are grouped in that order in the history books of the Old Testament, the time periods they cover are not in that order. Ezra is indeed first, covering the years 550-510 BC. Daniel's story happens about halfway through those years, in 536-530 BC. Then there's a gap before Esther's story in 480-475 BC, and another gap before Nehemiah in 450-430 BC. 

(By the way, I was running low on colored ink, so the colors on my print-outs are not the way they are supposed to look!)

This is an example of how we can sometimes just assume that the order of the books as they appear in the Bible is more or less chronological - and in a lot of cases, it's not! A similar exercise would be to compare the time frames of the various OT books of prophecy with the historical books of the Kings and Chronicles. Or to realize that there's overlap in the time periods covered by the books of Judges, Ruth, and I Samuel. I actually hadn't thought about that until I read a historical novel that suggested that Samuel had begun his prophetic ministry before Samson's time as a judge of Israel ended. Huh. Who knew? But there it is. Entirely possible and makes total sense.

I'm involved in a small group studying the Wisdom books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job, so I printed out those pages to take along as a reference during the study. 

We recently did a small group study in which we talked about the missionary journeys of Paul. The At-A-Glance pages about the book of Acts and about Paul's epistles would have been a handy reference during those discussions. 

These pages would be very useful to teens doing Bible studies either in groups or on their own, or to homeschool students studying Bible history or the Bible as literature. I can see their value as a 'cheat sheet' study tool, as a reference to help in understanding the timeline of Bible history, or even as a spine for a homeschool course on Bible history. 

famous stories and verses in Genesis, and a summary of its history

Did you know that III John is the only Bible book that's a letter written to a woman?

Our bottom line: These Books of the Bible At-A-Glance printables can be used in so many ways, by individuals or groups, and by Bible students of all ages. I think these are a great reference tool for homeschools, Bible study leaders, and yes, even Sunday School teachers!

Would you like to take your own glance at the Books of the Bible? Here's what you need to know:

Visit the website:  www.TeachSundaySchool.com

Pricing: The Books of the Bible At-A-Glance package is available for $19. A special introductory price of $9 is offered, but only until a total of 250 have been sold.

You can follow Teach Sunday School on Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog for more information and to read other reviews.

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