The Books of the Bible they speak will be evident." This new order is introduced because "the order in which today's readers are used to encountering the books of the Bible is yet another factor that hinders their understanding." The book order in "The Books of the Bible," and the rationale for it, is as follows: The Covenant History "The first quarter of the Bible unfolds as one continuous narrative." Genesis<br> Exodus<br> Leviticus<br> Numbers<br> Deuteronomy<br> Joshua<br> Judges<br> Ruth<br> Samuel–Kings The Prophets The prophets are presented in "what… is plausibly their historical order." Jonah Amos<br> Hosea<br> Micah<br> Isaiah Zephaniah<br> Nahum<br> Habakkuk Jeremiah<br> Obadiah<br> Ezekiel Haggai<br> Zechariah<br>
Development of the Old Testament canon "Apocrypha" ("hidden"). To counter Luther's "heresy", the fourth session of the Catholic Council of Trent in 1546 confirmed that the deuterocanonical books were equally authoritative as the protocanonical in the Canon of Trent in the year Luther died. Following Jerome's "Veritas Hebraica" (truth of the Hebrew) principle, the Protestant Old Testament consists of the same books as the Hebrew Bible, but the order and division of the books are different. Protestants number the Old Testament books at 39, while the Hebrew Bible numbers the same books as 24. The Hebrew Bible counts Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles as one book each,