Bible Reading

[Zephie]

I grew up Protestant…reading the Bible daily and all that. During my 2 years away from God as an atheist/agnostic/random spirituality I haven’t picked up a Bible at all. I’m a bit skittish at the thought of picking one up. One of my reasons is the Protestant (namely Baptist and A/G) habit of “getting something” out of what I read…like a life changing revelation or whatever. I would feel as though I wasn’t reading the Bible right or something. My understanding is that the pressure to “get something” out of the Bible is removed when I become a Catholic because the majority of the interpretation is from the Church…that’s not to say that I can’t ask questions or think…just that I don’t have to fret over whether I’ve necessarily learned or been comforted or whatever. Sometimes when I read, I do it just because I like to…well…read. Can’t this apply to the Bible as well? I mean I don’t fret if I read a book about history and don t get some life altering revelation or if I read a good work of fiction…why would/should I fret over the Bible? Any thoughts?

 

[GRATEFULONEjim]

Pick up your Bible and read. Better yet,pick up a Catholic Bible. It has books in it that you probably have not read yet. Get rid of your misconception that Catholics don’t read scripture daily and need the Church to interpret it for them. This a a protestant fallacy.

 

[MaryT777]

Pick up your Bible and read. Better yet,pick up a Catholic Bible. It has books in it that you probably have not read yet. Get rid of your misconception that Catholics don’t read scripture daily and need the Church to interpret it for them. This a a protestant fallacy.

 

[Zephie]

Pick up your Bible and read.

Slowly but surely…slowly but surely

Better yet,pick up a Catholic Bible. It has books in it that you probably have not read yet.

Yep, I’ve only seen snippets and am quite put out that they were cut. It’s like thinking you got the Director’s Cut of a film when in fact you got the Edited for TV/Time version.

Get rid of your misconception that Catholics don’t read scripture daily and need the Church to interpret it for them. This a a protestant fallacy.

Ouch. I hope I didn’t offend. If that is the case then I probably didn’t get my point across correctly…my understanding was that the Church and Scripture were the major source of doctrine that it wasn’t up to us to glean extra meaning from the scripture…I hope this is coming across correctly. deep breath So what I was really saying was is there this big pressure to glean extra meaning from the scripture when you read it or can you just enjoy it for what it is? Like for example, say you’re reading a passage out of…oh…Numbers when they are doing this massive geaneology…and you finish your reading and are like well that was really watches brain ooze to the floor as opposed to when you read something like Psalm 51 and are like wow yes…glad I read that. So is there this extra pressure that like Protestants have (at least I did from both denominations I was in) to glean meaning from what you read every day? Or can it be like exercise where some days it’s great and some days not so much. Is that a better explanation of my meaning?

 

[MaryT777]

Slowly but surely…slowly but surely

Yep, I’ve only seen snippets and am quite put out that they were cut. It’s like thinking you got the Director’s Cut of a film when in fact you got the Edited for TV/Time version.

Ouch. I hope I didn’t offend. If that is the case then I probably didn’t get my point across correctly…my understanding was that the Church and Scripture were the major source of doctrine that it wasn’t up to us to glean extra meaning from the scripture…I hope this is coming across correctly. deep breath So what I was really saying was is there this big pressure to glean extra meaning from the scripture when you read it or can you just enjoy it for what it is? Like for example, say you’re reading a passage out of…oh…Numbers when they are doing this massive geaneology…and you finish your reading and are like well that was really watches brain ooze to the floor as opposed to when you read something like Psalm 51 and are like wow yes…glad I read that. So is there this extra pressure that like Protestants have (at least I did from both denominations I was in) to glean meaning from what you read every day? Or can it be like exercise where some days it’s great and some days not so much. Is that a better explanation of my meaning?

You have been most charitable and haven’t offended at all. It can be like an exercise where some days it’s great and some days not so much. Numbers is not as fun to read let’s face it as the Psalms for most people.

Enjoy it, pop in and ask questions and visit a Mass maybe and see how the Church
daily in many areas proclaims the Word!

Peace,
Mary.

 

[Celtic_Maiden]

 

[Razanir]

Yep, I’ve only seen snippets and am quite put out that they were cut. It’s like thinking you got the Director’s Cut of a film when in fact you got the Edited for TV/Time version.

To me, it’s more like the book vs. the movie. Some scenes get cut out (Esther and Mordecai’s prayers, the Song of the Three Holy Children in Daniel), some subplots get removed (Tobit, Judith, Maccabees), and some minor but flavorful details get skipped (the text of the two proclamations in Esther).