My previous post 'Charting 1 Peter and 2 Peter' inspired this one, 'Ordinal and Cardinal' due to the widespread confusion within the church regarding the proper pronunciation of multi-volume book titles in the Bible.
However, this explanation clarifies that it doesn't have to be confusing:
Order is ordinal, ironically enough.
Consider three birds on a podium, each in position numbers one, two and three.
The birds are in finishing order as first, second and third.
The red bird, in position one came first.
The blue bird, in position two claimed second.
The yellow bird in position three finished third.
First is the ordinal form of the cardinal number one.
Second is the ordinal form of the cardinal number two.
1 Peter was the first letter written by Peter to the church and is pronounced as "First Peter", while 2 Peter is pronounced "Second Peter".
The same applies for 1, 2 and 3 John (that is, First, Second and Third John), and all other multi-volume books in both the Old and New Testaments:
1 Samuel and 2 Samuel
1 Kings and 2 Kings
1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles
1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians
1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy and 2 Timothy
1 Peter and 2 Peter
1 John, 2 John, and 3 John
The term ordinal refers to the position or order of sequential numbers, such as first, second, and third. Images like the birds on a podium, where each position reflects an order or specific placing, help us remember which are ordinal numbers. Cardinal numbers simply tell us how many or what number. The number of multi-volume books in the Bible are cardinal, but their order of writing is ordinal.