How many have read the entire Bible?

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Has anyone here read the entire Bible?
I know there are various methods advertised that have you read a portion here, a portion there. One from the Old Testament, another from the New Testament. Eventually you will have read it all.

Personally, I have always just thumbed through mine, and read passages here and there. However, I have recently endeavored to read it all chronologically from beginning to end.

I am currently up to Kings 2. When my daughter is at soccer practice, I sit in the car and read for about an hour and a half.
While there are parts that are a bit slow, repetitive, or seemingly pointless, I can say that it has made all the difference in the world to see how things progressed in the Old Testament in the correct order of time.

It is wonderful to see for myself the progression of our ancestors from Abraham, Issac & Jacob through Samuel, David, & Solomon.
It gives me a real sense of time & progression, and when I hear the readings at Mass now, I can recall whether I have gotten to that point, and understand where it is in the correct context.

I have not even gotten halfway through the Old Testament, and I can already see the virtues.

I can say honestly, though, I am quite surprised at how much violence there is that is not only condoned, but commanded by God. I can only assume that this is to show us how much evil and disobediance there was early on by people who had experienced God first-hand, and STILL chose to reject him, and to illustrate the results of such evil.

It also seems that much of the Bible is pointless or rambling, but I believe that this is because the Bible speaks to many different people and enlightens them in many ways. Just because a verse means nothing to me does not indicate the same for someone else.

I know that in Revelations, John is commanded to neither add nor remove a single word, and I bet this applies to the entire Bible as well.

Anyone have any thoughts about this?
 
I prefer to read the scriptures according to the liturgical calendar. I may look at the passages before or following. If I am doing a specific meditation I will look up that passage. I probably have read most of the Bible…except Numbers & Leviticus…boring. We even skipped that in OT classes in grad school.
 
I did it in 9 months.

Here’s how:

I started with 2 Chapters from the Old Testament, 1 Psalm, 1 Chapter from the Gospels, and 1 from the Epistles. I read these every day.

Then, as needed I would add another chapter to the Old Testament reading or to the Wisdom books. But always keeping with the 5 Chapters per day rule. I would also double my readings if I missed a day. One has to take out about a half an hour per day to keep up with this.

I would not recommed reading straight through, because a person might quit during with Leviticus!
 
Volodymyr_988 said:
I did it in 9 months.

Here’s how:

I started with 2 Chapters from the Old Testament, 1 Psalm, 1 Chapter from the Gospels, and 1 from the Epistles. I read these every day.

Then, as needed I would add another chapter to the Old Testament reading or to the Wisdom books. But always keeping with the 5 Chapters per day rule. I would also double my readings if I missed a day. One has to take out about a half an hour per day to keep up with this.

I would not recommed reading straight through, because a person might quit during with Leviticus!
Click to expand...
No reason to embarrass me by pointing this out! 😊
 
I did - kind of, at least. I am a convert and read the bible through in a year - it was a protestant bible, so I would like to do the same w/ my catholic bible.

I even made it through Leviticus!!! 🙂 If you are a fan of Handel’s Messiah, that will get you through much of Isaiah.
 
While I was away from Catholicism and attending a Bible church I read the whole Bible twice and listened to the whole thing twice (I have a long commute).

That was an NIV bible so the Deutercanicol books were missing. I’ll read those now that I’ve picked an NAB Bible. 🙂
 
I would not recommed reading straight through said:
Well, I have made it through Numbers & Leviticus already!
I may just skim past Psalms…I am really more interested in tying the whole thing together chronologically.
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joecap said:
Well, I have made it through Numbers & Leviticus already!
I may just skim past Psalms…I am really more interested in tying the whole thing together chronologically.
Click to expand...
I wouldn’t skip through the psalms if I were you. They offer an important insight into Israel in the time of King David, and David himself, and have a deeply prophetic messianic method. Many sound like they were written by St. John of the Cross or St. Theresa of Avila. There are even a few “pennitential” psalms that sound just like the Catholic concept of contrition. Read them with a good commentary, and you’ll get a good historical perspective out of it, and so much more.

This leads me to the point I really want to make here: I think it’s important to read scripture with good Catholic commentary to accompany it. This will save you a lot of headaches. Things like those monotonous parts of the OT have light shed on them when a commentary is glanced at every now and then, and you’ll appreciate the depth of scripture more. I don’t know how many scripture passages I’ve heard a dozen times without really understanding them until Father Corapi or Bishop Sheen mentioned them in one of their talks. For example, there is puzzling miracle in the OT regarding Elisha and a woman who owes a debt, and winds up filling a whole town’s worth of pots from a small jar of oil. This combined with many quizzical references to pots in Jeremiah were just riddles to me until I saw a Bishop Sheen talk entitled “Old Pots”. There are so many cultural, religious, and political implications in each verse of the OT that the average person seems to read a completely different book from the trained Catholic exegist sometimes.

Happy Reading,

Mat.
 
Read through it a couple years ago, in an NIV.

Been wanting to get an NAB to include the deuteros. Still nice to be able to know where to find verses occasionally for my friends.
 
I forgot to add that I would also cross reference each passage or verse as I came across it ie. Psalm 21 (22) vs St. Matthew 27:46.
 
joecap said:
Has anyone here read the entire Bible?
I know there are various methods advertised that have you read a portion here, a portion there. One from the Old Testament, another from the New Testament. Eventually you will have read it all.

Personally, I have always just thumbed through mine, and read passages here and there. However, I have recently endeavored to read it all chronologically from beginning to end.

I am currently up to Kings 2. When my daughter is at soccer practice, I sit in the car and read for about an hour and a half.
While there are parts that are a bit slow, repetitive, or seemingly pointless, I can say that it has made all the difference in the world to see how things progressed in the Old Testament in the correct order of time.

It is wonderful to see for myself the progression of our ancestors from Abraham, Issac & Jacob through Samuel, David, & Solomon.
It gives me a real sense of time & progression, and when I hear the readings at Mass now, I can recall whether I have gotten to that point, and understand where it is in the correct context.

I have not even gotten halfway through the Old Testament, and I can already see the virtues.
Click to expand...
In addition to my devotional reading, I have read several versions of the Bible cover to cover. Whenever I finish reading, I begin again at the beginning. Every single time I learn more and more. Eventually I came to see that every word is there for a reason and has a deep meaning. It is infinitely rewarding.
 
I have read the Bible all the way through several times. I have read the D-R, RSV-CE, KJV w/Apocrypha, RSV w/Apocrypha, and NASB (no Deuterocanonicals in that translation). I am currently reading the NJB but have not finished the entire Bible in that translation yet. I have other translations that I have not read all the way through. I like to read a different translation every year, but sometimes I will switch translations after a couple months and start in one translation and finish in another.

I have actually finished Leviticus and Numbers in the 5 translations I mentioned above. I save those books for last and skim over the long lists of members of the tribes in Numbers.
 
There are some wonderful books out there, for example The One-Year Catholic Bible, that will guide you through Scripture in a year. Doesn’t take long to do the readings either. You can find one here:

amazon.com/One-Year-Bible-World-Publishing/dp/0879732318/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202878886&sr=1-5

If looking around, avoid the New Living Translation. It is awful.

I have read the Bible front to back and, while there are wonderful parts, there are a lot of incredibly mundane parts that could cause you to give up.

Enjoy!

Adam
 
I read several years ago and It cost me 2 years more or less. It was a great experience, mainly the old testament.
 
Many years ago, my wife & I started reading one chapter a day. We started with the New Testament. After a while we increased it to two, then three chapters. Then we each got our own bibles and continued reading. Since then, we have each read it at least ten or more times. It is educational, informative, and most of all spiritually uplifting. We have many different translations, including a parallel bible. If you are starting now, I would suggest the New Testament, then the Old Testament. You will be far richer for it. We still read portions daily.
Deacon Ed B
 
I’ve read the NT countless times and the OT quite a few years ago (about 25 in the NIV). I did skim alot in Numbers (I thought Leviticus was much better, in comparison). When I read the OT it was chronologically. Now I have a NT parallel edition and LOVE it!
 
I learned to read and write and do arithmetic from the Bible.

I was two and one half years old at the time and read it through completely. Twice in a row.

I had to read it a second time to be sure that I hadn’t missed any thing.

To this day I do not know why I wanted to read at such an early
age.

I did want to learn how to read, knew about the Bible and what it is, and concluded that I wanted the Bible to be the FIRST thing that I ever read.

This forum is a religious and Catholic Forum and as the sayings go I swear this is so by God! As God is my witness! Right here before God himself. By the Good Lord Himself!

This comment may interest someone on what looks like it is going to be a popular topic for a thread.

What I say is, how many times must you read the Bible before
you know what it says?

The answer should be something like; Not very many times!

That’s for people who have read the Bible and still don’t know what it says, and there are too many people like that. Bless you any way for at least trying.

For people who haven’t read the Bible yet, you are missing out on a Super EPIC Story!

No, really there is a chonological story and it’s a good one!

Creation
Adam and Eve, and the Original Sin
The Mark of Cain
Noah and the Deluge
Abraham’s Calling
The Tower of Babel
Moses, The First Jew
David and his son Solomon, and the Final Conquest of Jerusalem
The Prophets and prophecies of the Jews
The Messiah
The Revelations of the Future

And a lot of other good stuff in between.

The Bible
Read it in Peace, but do read it!

:blessyou:
 
Ignatius said:
In addition to my devotional reading, I have read several versions of the Bible cover to cover. Whenever I finish reading, I begin again at the beginning. Every single time I learn more and more. Eventually I came to see that every word is there for a reason and has a deep meaning. It is infinitely rewarding.
Click to expand...
I am excited to find others that have also read the Bible through! It seems that I was laboring under the mistaken idea that most Catholics didn’t read their Bibles! Boy, was I ever wrong!!

I read it through in the NKJV, though, so now I am reading the RSV. I read it straight through as it is easier for me that way. You have given me the incentive to read with more regularity as I have sort of slacked off recently!

Thanks!
DesertSister62
 
I’ve read through it a number of times. However, I do admit that I have skipped over Numbers.

They way I read it is in chronological order. Which includes splitting some of the books up. I read the Old and New Testament concurrently meaning an OT book, then a NT book.
 
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