Have you read the Bible?

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What a great thing to do. I have read the majority and hear it at daily Mass. The greatest book ever written.
 
I have read most of it. Having already read the NT again and again, I vowed to prepare myself for my trip to Israel in 2000 by reading the OT…got through most of it. I love the Old and the New. How blessed we are…

Blessing,s
Shoshana
 
I have read the Douay, and New American Bible cover-to-cover two times.

As part of my HISTORY COURSE: The Medieval Mind, I read the King James Bible cover-to-cover.

I have also read the KORAN (The Reading) cover-to-cover.

But what is more time consuming is reading all the theological and philosophical interpretations of the Bible to glean deeper insights into the word of God.
 
As part of my HISTORY COURSE: The Medieval Mind
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, I read the King James Bible cover-to-cover.Why the King James and not the Douay-Rheims Bible, which predated the King James by a few years?
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Hermione:
I’m in RCIA now and would like to read the whole Bible before my Confirmation. But since I also want to read the Catechism the task seems very daunting.
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That’s great that you want to read the whole bible before your confirmation. However, if you are pressed for time, I suggest taking 30 to 45 minutes every night to read the New Testament, and spend about 30 minutes every night reading the parts of the CCC that correspond to what you are learning about in your RCIA instructions. This way what you read from the CCC is relevant to what you are learning in your instructions. Make sure you look up any biblical references in the CCC, and read a few verses before and after what is referenced. You will find that between now and Easter, by reading only for an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes a day, you will have read a huge chunk of the bible, and all of it relevant to your RCIA instructions. After you’re Confirmed you should read the bible all over again, anyway, because then you will have the graces of Confirmation that will open the Scriptures up for you even more.
 
Théodred:
Why the King James and not the Douay-Rheims Bible, which predated the King James by a few years?

Hi David,

My professor said that the Bible was the single most important book which influenced the ‘Medieval Mind’, and he assigned the King James version. (He was a Protestant).

Since I hadn’t read the King James at the time, I gave it a go.
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I try to do a daily reading. And until the last month I had been doing great. Morning sickness got in the way as reading made me feel worse.

I would do it slowly and not set a time limit on it. When I was little I used to try to read it and would always get stuck so now I read it and if I feel something is beyond me I may spend an extra day or week thinking on what I read. I also like to keep a journal with my bible that I can write any great things that come into my head while reading.

Good Luck!

Kat
 
It doesn’t matter how many times you read the Bible if you keep getting it wrong. Take your time and read it at a pace that is right for you. Use the Churches teachings to guide you to understand it just like the Holy Spirit would want you to and Scripture tells you to. Christ founded a Church to be the pillar so use His Catholic Church to help you follow Him and understand His word.

If you read too fast and on your own, you could very well miss-self-interpret Sacred Scripture like so many do today. Miss-self-interpretation has led to the anarchy we see today ouitside His Church.
 
It’s been about 7 years of reading and i’ve read the entire New Testament and I’m up to 2 Maccabees in the Old Testament.

I’m not in a hurry.

… actually, first i read the first 5 books of the OT … got bored … then went to the NT … read through, then went back to the OT and picked up where I left off.

I don’t read every day. I try to, but don’t always make it.
When a semester is in, I don’t get to read as much.

I have the NAB and read a lot of the footnotes.

I don’t beat myself up for going so slow, either. It’s more important to me that I don’t give up than for me to finish within a certain amount of time.

I’ve read other books in the mean time, too.
These other books have actually helped me to pay more attention to what I’m reading.

I am, though, very anxious to finish the OT so I can spend a good bit of time with the Gospel. I want to get to know them well.

😃

michel
 
Being a “fallen away” Catholic and returning to the Catholic Church 30 yrs. ago I have been reading the scriptures for quite a while now, immersing myself into The New American Bible. I recently experienced a ‘Renewal’ into my Catholic faith and what an exciting renewal it is! I ‘discovered’ The Early Church Fathers and a whole new light has come on concerning my Catholic faith. I now read the scriptures through Catholic Glasses and see things that I never saw before in the Scriptures!

I had to replace my New American Bible (that I used for 30 years),and since then also purchased The Navarre Gospels and Acts, The Navarre Bible Pentateuch ,The New Jerusalem Bible , and The Ignatius RSV-CE. Then I discovered The Douay Rheims Bible and everything changed!

The Douay-Rheims Bible is an English translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible, a version universally used in the Church for over 1500 years, itself meticulously translated from the original Hebrew and Greek by St. Jerome (A.D. 340-420).

The argument that it is a “translation of a translation” is bogus! Since we don’t have the “original” Greek and Hebrew Manuscripts and we do have the Vulgate in the Vatican Archives, this is the only true Bible in my opinion that we Catholics should read.

This is what the Catholic Church used for 1500 years; everything we believe is contained in these Scriptures, without corruption. I am amazed as I read the Douay Rheims just how much is conveniently changed in other versions of scripture to ‘fit’ protestant arguments. The root word of Protestant of course is to “Protest”… Protest what? Protest the Catholic Church!

I now fully understand why non Catholics base their whole faith on Sola Scripture (Bible only theology) this has put a new twist to the quote from Bishop Newman “To immerse oneself in history is to cease to be Protestant”

I say:

“To read and Study the Douay Rheims Bible is to cease to be Protestant!”

Please excuse my rant, but after discovering this, I’m really fired up over it!

John
 
Hi John,

I could not agree more with what you wrote in this post!

I was born and raised a Roman Catholic and now as an adult with college and a few interesting wordly experiences under my belt, I am getting a whole new appreciation and respect for the Roman Catholic church and its teachings.

In my quest for instruction, I tried to narrow the multitude of Bibles out there to those specifically Roman Catholic, and at the St. Anthony Shrine here in Boston, a Franciscan Friar told me that the Douay and the Ignatius (RSV-CE) were the two accepted versions for a Roman Catholic, with the ASV being O.K… [There have been so many church closings here in Boston due to the sexual abuse scandal that I had to go outside my parish for advice. My parish church has also been designated for closure.]

I’m sure other catholic churches might have other named Bibles as acceptable for Catholic teaching.

But any question I have regarding interpretation I run straight to a priest. Yet I feel you must have a complete Bible reading under your belt as an intelligent and scholarly adult.

I do like and agree with your rant.

Yours in faith,

Kevin Walker
South Boston, Massachusetts
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jpy15026:
Being a “fallen away” Catholic and returning to the Catholic Church 30 yrs. ago I have been reading the scriptures for quite a while now, immersing myself into The New American Bible. I recently experienced a ‘Renewal’ into my Catholic faith and what an exciting renewal it is! I ‘discovered’ The Early Church Fathers and a whole new light has come on concerning my Catholic faith. I now read the scriptures through Catholic Glasses and see things that I never saw before in the Scriptures!

I had to replace my New American Bible (that I used for 30 years),and since then also purchased The Navarre Gospels and Acts, The Navarre Bible Pentateuch ,The New Jerusalem Bible , and The Ignatius RSV-CE. Then I discovered The Douay Rheims Bible and everything changed!

The Douay-Rheims Bible is an English translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible, a version universally used in the Church for over 1500 years, itself meticulously translated from the original Hebrew and Greek by St. Jerome (A.D. 340-420).

The argument that it is a “translation of a translation” is bogus! Since we don’t have the “original” Greek and Hebrew Manuscripts and we do have the Vulgate in the Vatican Archives, this is the only true Bible in my opinion that we Catholics should read.

This is what the Catholic Church used for 1500 years; everything we believe is contained in these Scriptures, without corruption. I am amazed as I read the Douay Rheims just how much is conveniently changed in other versions of scripture to ‘fit’ protestant arguments. The root word of Protestant of course is to “Protest”… Protest what? Protest the Catholic Church!

I now fully understand why non Catholics base their whole faith on Sola Scripture (Bible only theology) this has put a new twist to the quote from Bishop Newman “To immerse oneself in history is to cease to be Protestant”

I say:

“To read and Study the Douay Rheims Bible is to cease to be Protestant!”

Please excuse my rant, but after discovering this, I’m really fired up over it!

John
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I study with the old Revised Standard version…sometimes, I run and find stuff in the New American, but I think that at points it’s a sloppy, possibly too inclusively worded and too effected by the political flows of the era it was translated in (although you might can say this last about most translations - there are fads in how to translate things, and there are translation traditions).

I seem to be in good company with this decision…I see Ignatius Press likes it too…
 
I find it alarming that 40 percent read the whole bible. Disturbing!

Padre Pio “The rosary is the weapon.”
 
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bones_IV:
I find it alarming that 40 percent read the whole bible. Disturbing!

Padre Pio “The rosary is the weapon.”
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do you mean ONLY 40% as in this number should be bigger?
note that only 90 people have voted and about 40 said they read the whole thing this is a small sample! would you concude that only those who have read all or most of the Bible are even bothering to vote?
 
I would like to read the whole Bible. It just seems like such an incredibly daunting task. Once next semester starts and I am finished with my computer science final project, I’m going to try and start into it (yay, perk of being in semester 2 of senior year: time is MUCH more available). I’d also like to read the Catechism, but I’ll need to go out and buy one, as I am borrowing one at present.

Eamon
 
I have read ALL of the New Testament and much of the Old. There isn’t an appropriate button for me to click!
 
YOU CAN READ THE BIBLE A MILLION TIMES. THE KEY IS YOU HAVE TO LIVE AND UNDERSTAND IT. 👍
 
I read the Bible two times cover to cover, and was disappointed. Now I am reading the Bible from the perspective of typological word pictures. Now I see what I missed in the first two go-rounds.

E.g., when God tells the Satan serpent in Genesis 3:15 that the offspring of the woman “will strike at your head while you strike at his heel,” that is a typological word-picture of the cross piercing the dust at “Skull Place” (“strike at your head,” get it?) while the soldiers nail Jesus through the feet (“strike at his heel,” get it?).

Another example: In Luke, Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger in Bethlehem is a typological word picture of the actual body of sacrificed Jesus wrapped in a shroud (“wrapped…in swaddling clothes,” get it?) lying on a kind of “dinner plate” ('laid him in a manger," a feeding trough for yoked animals, get it?) in the “House of Bread,” the Church with the Real Presence in the Eucharistic bread, the Catholic Church (“Bethlehem” means “House of Bread,” get it?).
 
One way for first timers to get a quick overview of the Bible in light of the salvation story is to follow the 14 narrative books first time through as found on jeffcavins.com Great Adventure Bible Timeline. That way you don’t get muddled down in Leviticus. Second time through take your time and read the supplemental books for a fuller understanding. This is a lifelong journey so take your time. Very beneficial though to follow the story the first time through so you don’t get frustrated when the story wanders off.
 
I am in the process of reading through the entire Bible, and it just gets better everyday! I would recommend reading the Bible first, and then moving on to the catechism. That way you will already have a reference in your head about the various quotes from the Bible that are in the catechism.
God bless you!
 
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