Have you read the Bible?

[anawim]

Between 95-100 verses a day will get you through the Bible in a year.

 

[Mystophilus]

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.

Easy? No.
Worthwhile? Definitely.

I’d like to know how many of you have read the Bible and how long it took you to do it.

About eight months, working at it in blocks of six chapters at a time. Certain parts (e.g., 1 Chronicles) took longer than average.

Also, is it better to read the Bible fast or to get a good study Bible and read it slowly?

I would suggest that you should read it straight through the first time, but with a version that clearly references the fact that the part you are reading is a quotation from elsewhere. This will give you an idea of the overarching structures and the interrelations of the various texts. Then read it again, slowly, book by book, with several different commentaries. Remember that, as in other subjects, scholars are not perfect.

 

[Mystophilus]

Br. Patricius:

it is beyond doubt that the KJV has a greater influence on modern thought and language than the DR – being held as one of the two great influences on the development of modern English (the other being Shakespeare).

Reason for Reading the Bible #487: Intertextual Reference.
While I have yet to perform the necessary statistical analysis, I feel confident in asserting that the Bible is the single most significant intertextual source in Western literature; it leaves Homer and Vergil for dead.

I am driven to distraction by students and scholars of literature who never bother to read this fundamental text, especially those who nevertheless claim to know what it says!

 

[Mystophilus]

dnewbern:

Protestant Bibles, though legitimate, only contain 66 chapters, since Martin Luther deleted 6 of the original Greek-text Old Test. chapters.

To say that Luther “deleted” six of the books is not particularly accurate. For their OT canon, the early Protestants went back to the Hebrew Tanakh collection (c.200BC - AD100), which they took up in toto. The other OT texts were relegated to the status of ‘apocrypha’ - not Holy Writ, but still useful to read - and were still included in most Protestant versions of the Bible until about the beginning of last century.

 

[TOME]

Hermione, may I suggest that instead of trying to read the bible cover to cover, concentrate on reading those scriptural passages (from OT and NT) that are related to the particular topic of study in your RCIA class.

I think you may find it more benefical to read the Bible, not as a novel (a really big novel) but keep to topical areas of interest and
question. You’ll be surprize how quickly you will have covered large areas of the Bible.