BibleMonkey

The problem

Studying the life of Paul usually means juggling a study Bible, a commentary, a map in the back, and a chronology chart that three scholars would each date differently — and trying to hold all of it in your head at once. The events of Acts and the letters don't arrive with a built-in timeline, the journeys are hard to picture without a map, and the moment you ask "wait, when was this, and who says so?" you're off into a stack of books.

BibleMonkey puts the whole arc on one surface. Paul's life and four missionary journeys lay out left-to-right as a timeline you can zoom into — from the wide sweep of his life down to a single city. Click an event and you get the description, the Scripture inline, and the scholar who dates it there. Sourced, not asserted.

How BibleMonkey works

1. Start at the master timeline. Paul's life and journeys run horizontally across the screen — conversion, the missionary journeys, the imprisonments — at a glance.

2. Zoom into a city. Scroll into a band — say Corinth — and the timeline resolves into individual events, each pinned to where scholars place it.

3. Click a pin, read the source. Every event opens with a plain-language description, the Scripture inline (KJV, with WEB and NET a toggle away), and a sourced citation — so you can see who dates it there, and why.

4. Overlay a chronology. Scholars disagree on Paul's dates; BibleMonkey shows that instead of hiding it. Toggle an alternate chronology (for example, N.T. Wright's) over the default and watch the events shift.

Sourced, open, and yours to share

Every dated claim traces back to a named scholar — the citations draw on eleven, among them Dunn, Sanders, Fredriksen, Meeks, and Keller, alongside Strong's and standard reference works. Nothing is presented as settled when the field is split; where the scholars diverge, you see the divergence.

The content is CC-BY-SA 4.0 — free to read, quote, and build on with attribution. No account is required for the public study: you land on the page and start exploring.

More than the timeline

BibleMonkey is growing into a small shelf of open, sourced Bible-study tools. The first beyond the Paul timeline is a free Spiritual Gifts test — 140 statements across 28 gifts, scored right in your browser, with no account and no email required.

What you get

• A zoomable horizontal timeline of Paul's life and four missionary journeys
• Click any event for a plain-language description with the Scripture inline (KJV, plus WEB/NET on toggle)
• Every date is sourced — citations from eleven scholars, never asserted as settled when it isn't
• Toggle alternate chronologies (for example, N.T. Wright's) to see where the scholarship disagrees
• Free 140-statement Spiritual Gifts test across 28 gifts — scored in-browser, no account
• Open content (CC-BY-SA 4.0), readable with no sign-up

Join the waitlist

BibleMonkey is in private beta. We'll email you when access opens. The fastest path today is the contact form — mention "BibleMonkey waitlist" and we'll add you.