Bible -> Catechism, or vice versa?

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Phalanx

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Hey

I bougth a Bible about a month ago and began to read it for the first time. But the book of Genesis has taken me forever to get through. Its a hard read, alot of names and places… its hung up on peoples ages, and sons yada yada. All and all its very confusing and not making me compelled to read. It gets abit better towards the end with the wars but still. Alot of names and places, and wierd stuff all around. I want to read the bible from begining to the end without skipping around. And it will probably take me a good 3-4 months to do so at this pace.

The thing is I heard alot of awesome about the catechism, so I went and bougth the “Youcat”. I read through the first few pages and its SO good. I wish it had been published when i was a kid, my life could have been so different. Anyways, I am super eager to read it.

Question time. Should i power through the bible first? Or should i just go ahead and devour the Youcat? Im not really in a position read them in parallel because i have alot of studying to do in school, and i know that if i try i’ll end up not reading the bible at all.

Opinions needed 🤷
 
In my opinion, if your time is limited, and you are excited about the YouCat, you should read that first. Since it is not the full-blown Catechism of the Catholic Church, it is easy reading and it shouldn’t take you that long. Doing this would have the added benefit of having a better grasp of your Catholic Faith before seriously tackling the Bible, a much more complicated and not-at-all self-explanatory work.

At the same time, you should not entirely deprive yourself of reading God’s Word directly. If you have time, you might look up and read the Scripture readings for daily and Sunday Mass and make them a point of contemplation and meditation. If you don’t have time to look at all the readings, at least the Gospel.

When you are ready to take up the Bible again in a more focused vein, reading it straight through is highly over-rated. There are a number of good guides for reading the Bible in a context that makes sense and will help you understand it better. When that time comes, come back to these forums and ask about it, and I’m sure you’ll find lots of people willing and able to help point you in that direction.
 
Phalanx said:
Hey

I bougth a Bible about a month ago and began to read it for the first time. But the book of Genesis has taken me forever to get through. Its a hard read, alot of names and places… its hung up on peoples ages, and sons yada yada. All and all its very confusing and not making me compelled to read. It gets abit better towards the end with the wars but still. Alot of names and places, and wierd stuff all around. I want to read the bible from begining to the end without skipping around. And it will probably take me a good 3-4 months to do so at this pace.

The thing is I heard alot of awesome about the catechism, so I went and bougth the “Youcat”. I read through the first few pages and its SO good. I wish it had been published when i was a kid, my life could have been so different. Anyways, I am super eager to read it.

Question time. Should i power through the bible first? Or should i just go ahead and devour the Youcat? Im not really in a position read them in parallel because i have alot of studying to do in school, and i know that if i try i’ll end up not reading the bible at all.

Opinions needed 🤷
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Well it’s unfortunate that you can not read them in parallel because that would have been my suggestion. 🙂 Any good Catholic Bible study will have references to the Catechism such as this one…

ignatius.com/IProducts/36534/the-book-of-genesis.aspx

From the Catechism…

113 2. Read the Scripture within “the living Tradition of the whole Church”

But if you are enjoying the Youcat then by all means go for it. But also try and take the time to read the daily Mass readings.
 
The Catechism is a complete teaching and interpretation of the Christian Faith. There is lots of Scripture quotes in it. Scripture is not an interpreter of the Christian faith, it requires an interpreter itself. Scripture tells us many things about what we are to believe, but its not systematic and many doctrines and teachings are scattered throughout and usually never revealing a complete doctrine in one passage, but parts here and there. It is very important to learn about the Bible and its numerous authors, themes, and categories of books, before you dive in. Otherwise you will probably be lost in left field without getting a summary of what the Bible is and its contents.

There is a system to the arrangment of the books. The Catechism teaches about the Bible. I would take the time and read what it says about the Bible, that way you will be prepared to understand it better. Look in the index of the Catechism and find what paragraph to begin concerning the Bible itself.
 
I’m not sure that reading the Bible cover to cover is necessarily the best approach. If you don’t quit before then, you’ll probably stop when you hit all the legal codes.

Why not start with the gospels? Read about Jesus, his life, ministry, miracles, and message. Get to know him better. And read the Youcat along with it. It sounds like that would be much more engaging.
 
The Bible isn’t in chronological order, either. I would recommend doing a Bible timeline class like Great Adventure or Our Father’s Plan, to help you see the basic narrative thread, main themes, and trajectory of Scripture as salvation history. It makes so much more sense! Afterwards, it’s easier to go back and go deep with some of the books along the way. Then a canonical read-through (cover to cover) makes more sense once you’re oriented to where this book fits in the bigger picture.

I’ve been going deep with Jeremiah because of a paper I’m writing. 👍
 
KentuckyLiz and SuscipeMeDomine are exactly correct.

There are 14 books of the Bible which tell the story. The rest of the books of the Bible are supplemental to the 14 narrative books. If you want to follow the story then you must skip around or you will be completely lost. If you want to read cover to cover then you must understand what you are reading because it is not in chronological order, some books are supplemental to others, some are training manuals, some dry military statistics, etc.

I recommend getting into a Bible Study which gives an overview of the Bible such as The Bible Timeline from Jeff Cavins/Great Adventure.

biblestudyforcatholics.com/catholic-bible/study-information/111/timeline-adventure-story-salvation

A study like this will give the foundation needed to understand the context of each book.

-Tim-
 
This may sound odd, but I would start by reading the early church fathers. Not only do you get good exegesis and catechesis, you learn how to look at the written word in a whole new way. They are also much more interesting to read in my opinion. I have read the bible cover to cover in the past, but it wasn’t until i read Augustine, Ambrose, Irenaeus, etc. etc. … that bible verses which I would mechanically read over, all of the sudden began to pop out and reveal deeper meanings.
 
Try just reading a chapter a day rather than just plowing through it. At a chapter a day, in a little under 4 years you will read the entire Bible!
 
Alternately, by reading 4 chapters a day, you can read the Bible in a year.
 
I recently finished the New Testament and the Catechism. I actually started the CCC first and then stop and began reading the NT. I found reading the NT first allowed me to have a better understanding of where it all came from when I read the CCC. By only reading the NT there was still a few things that I had not covered in stripture but the majority were covered in the NT. I also recommend reading the entire CCC the reason for this is it builds on itself as it goes, by using it only as a reference or reading a condensed version in my opinion you lose the flow that you find in the complete CCC.

I am also glad to see someone that is trying to truly understand the faith. I think ever Catholic should read the CCC, this would solve a lot of problems.

Matt
 
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