What Comes After II Corinthians?

At church this morning, the pastor was talking with his puppet, Jake, about the books of the Bible.  Jake was trying to recite the names of the books of the Bible in order.

My Dad had us kids memorize the names and order of the books of the Bible when we were growing up.  I would say that my general knowledge of what and where the books are is due to that.

Still, what amazed me was that I was really struggling this morning as I tried to recite to myself the books.  For the Old Testament, I always had difficulties on which minor prophet came after which other minor prophet, so that was no surprise to me.  But I was surprised that I did not know what book came after II Corinthians in the New Testament!

I am sure that I could find Galatians, Philippians, Ephesians, or Colossians if I had to look something up in them.  But, this morning, as I tried to recite the books of the New Testament, my mind went blank after II Corinthians!

Maybe part of the problem is that I do not read much of the New Testament nowadays.  Over the past few years, my daily and weekly quiet times have been in the Hebrew Bible.

But haven’t I had to look things up in the New Testament?  Well, yes, but, over the past years, I have rarely if ever gone to a real book to do that.  I go to my Bibleworks computer program, or I type a reference in on google or blueletterbible.

For my daily quiet time, I am almost done with the Hebrew Bible.  I am reading the minor prophets right now.  My plan after I finish Malachi is to go straight to the New Testament (rather than the deuterocanonical writings).  Maybe that will help me to reacquaint myself with the order of the New Testament books!