UPDV Updated Bible Version

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Arrangement of Books

🔗Overview

The UPDV arranges its books differently from the traditional Bible order. The New Testament comes first, and within the New Testament, John opens the canon rather than Matthew. These choices are editorial — no single arrangement carries divine authority — but they are grounded in historical precedent and reflect the UPDV's priorities as a translation.

🔗New Testament First

The New Testament is placed before the Old Testament because it contains the clearest expression of the faith. The Old Testament points forward; the New Testament delivers what was pointed to:

For I say to youâș, that many prophets and kings desired to see the things which youâș see, and did not see them; and to hear the things which youâș hear, and did not hear them. (Luke 10:24)
For the law having a shadow of the good [things] to come, not the very image of the things... (Hebrews 10:1)

The New Testament does not replace the Old — the UPDV includes both — but the reader encounters the substance before the shadow.

🔗John Opens the Canon

The UPDV places John's Gospel first, before Matthew. This reverses the standard order found in most modern Bibles but draws on a principle attested in the earliest manuscript tradition.

The apostolic dignity tradition. The Gospels appear in at least nine different arrangements across the surviving manuscript tradition.1 The two most prominent are the standard order (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) and the so-called "Western order," which placed the apostolic eyewitnesses before their non-apostolic companions: Matthew and John (apostles) before Luke and Mark (associates of Paul and Peter respectively).

The Western order is attested early in Greek witnesses and occurs in the majority of Old Latin codices.2 The surviving portions of the early-third-century Chester Beatty Papyrus P45, one of the earliest Gospel codices, have been reconstructed as belonging to a codex ordered Matthew, John, Luke, Mark, Acts, although that order cannot be fully affirmed.3 Codex Bezae (D/05, ca. 400 AD), the leading manuscript of the Western text tradition, has the Gospels in the same order: Matthew, John, Luke, Mark.4 About half a dozen other Greek majuscules follow the same pattern.5 Daniel Wallace has argued that the Western order "may well have been the oldest arrangement of the Gospels made once the codex form was large enough to accommodate all four," reflecting a growing canon consciousness in the second century in which "priority seems to have been given to" the apostles.6

The UPDV's adaptation. The UPDV adopts this apostolic dignity principle but places John first rather than Matthew, ordering the Gospels as John, Matthew, Mark, Luke. This is an editorial decision resting on two factors.

First, John's Gospel opens with language that mirrors Genesis ("In the beginning was the Speech, and the Speech was with God, and the Speech was God") placing the reader at the same starting point where the Old Testament begins. Starting the Bible with John creates a thematic bridge between the Testaments: both begin "In the beginning," both describe God's creative act, and both move from creation to covenant.

Second, the UPDV's text of Matthew is reconstructed. The UPDV identifies the canonical Greek Matthew as a secondary composition drawing on multiple sources, and has restructured its content accordingly (see The Book of Matthew). From the distinct standpoint of reconstructing the life of Jesus—not of comparing the textual stability of the canonical Gospels—Folker Siegert writes, "In the present writer's opinion, Matthew can be completely forgotten in favour of John."7 Beginning the Bible with a reconstructed text would undermine reader confidence. John's text, while it has its own editorial questions (see The Gospel of John), presents a more stable foundation.

🔗Early Christian Writings

The Epistle to the Greeks is placed between the Gospels and the Epistles — the position formerly occupied by the Book of Acts, which is not included in the UPDV (see The Book of Acts).

This is not a replacement for Acts. Greeks is an apologetic epistle, not a historical narrative. But this is the natural point in the canon where an introduction to the Christian movement belongs. The Gospels tell the story of Christ. The Epistles address the internal theology and life of the churches. Greeks stands between the two, answering the questions an outsider would ask after reading the Gospels: what is this new movement, and why does it exist? See Greeks for more information.

🔗Notes

1 Daniel B. Wallace, "Medieval Manuscripts and Modern Evangelicals: Lessons from the Past, Guidance for the Future," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 60.1 (2017): 5–34, at 9. Wallace identifies nine distinct arrangements of the Gospels across the manuscript tradition.

2 H. A. G. Houghton, The Latin New Testament: A Guide to Its Early History, Texts, and Manuscripts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 12, 26, 210–16, https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198744733.001.0001. Houghton identifies Matthew–John–Luke–Mark as the sequence "in the majority of Old Latin codices" (12) and as "the standard Old Latin order" (26), and the manuscript catalogue records that order for Codex Palatinus (VL 2), Vercellensis (VL 3), Veronensis (VL 4), Bezae's Greek–Latin codex (VL 5), Corbeiensis secundus (VL 8), and Brixianus (VL 10) (210–16).

3 Philip W. Comfort and David P. Barrett, The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts, corrected and enlarged edition (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 2001), s.v. "P45 (P. Chester Beatty I)." The entry dates P45 to the early third century and documents surviving passages from all four Gospels and Acts. Its "Physical Features" section reports Kenyon's probable reconstruction of the original order as Matthew, John, Luke, Mark, Acts, but cautions that, because the portions arrived separately, "this cannot be fully affirmed," and gives Skeat's reconstruction of a 224-page codex. The Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, s.v. "Chester Beatty Papyri," states the result more simply: "in papyrus I, the order of the Gospels is Matthew, John, Luke, and Mark."

4 Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis (D/05) originally contained the four Gospels in the order Matthew, John, Luke, Mark. See "Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis" in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992). The Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible confirms: "The Gospels are arranged in the Western order (Matthew, John, Luke, Mark)."

5 Wallace, "Medieval Manuscripts," 9. Among the Greek manuscripts, the Western order "is rare, but significantly it is found in the third-century papyrus P45 and about half a dozen Greek majuscules."

6 Wallace, "Medieval Manuscripts," 10.

7 Folker Siegert, "The Jesus Narrative embedded in the Fourth Gospel" (2012), 3, https://www.uni-muenster.de/imperia/md/content/evtheol/ijd/jesus_narrative.pdf.