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>
The Story of the Jews (book) review of the first volume for "The New York Times", Dwight Garner wrote: "Mr. Schama’s 'The Story of the Jews' is exemplary popular history. It’s engaged, literate, alert to recent scholarship and, at moments, winningly personal... Mr. Schama is Jewish, but not especially religious... His loyalty is obviously to the hard evidence. At the same time, he declares that “the ‘minimalist’ view of the Bible as wholly fictitious, and unhooked from historical reality, may be as much of a mistake as the biblical literalism it sought to supersede." Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, reviewing "Belonging" for the "New Statesman",