How should I read the Bible?

[Philflipsnor]

I’m preparing for a read through of the Bible. How do you recommend I go about reading it? NT then OT, OT then NT, or something completely different?

 

[Highwayhound]

I’m preparing for a read through of the Bible. How do you recommend I go about reading it? NT then OT, OT then NT, or something completely different?

I am currently in Ephesians. I started at the very beginning with Genesis. Some of the old testament books are full of long dry stretches of historical data such as this man begat this man who begat this man… and on and on.

So I would suggest beginning with the Old Testament as it gives you some background. As well there are some interesting parts. The history of Joseph being sold into slavery is captivating.

God bless

 

[ziapueblo]

I’m preparing for a read through of the Bible. How do you recommend I go about reading it? NT then OT, OT then NT, or something completely different?

This would be a great Bible study, Genesis to Jesus: A Journey Through Scripture, from the St. Paul Center For Biblical Theology, and its free !

If you want to start with the New Testament, begin with the Gospel of Mark. Mark’s Gospel is short so it’s a great way to get started.

God bless,
ZP

 

[Philflipsnor]

Thanks to both of you!

 

[ChadS]

I’d really suggest using the daily and Sunday mass readings to get through the Bible, Each day gives you an OT, Psalm and a gospel reading while Sunday you get those along with an epistle reading. Frequently the readings are paired up so that one reading illuminates the other and depending on the season the cycle of readings will work it’s way through a book hitting the most important highlights and giving you a good feel for that particular book. There are number of excellent sources our there to help with the readings. I particularly like the Word Among Us.

ChadS

 

[Stephentlig]

I suggest you go buy yourself one of Mother angelicas books, they are really good.

God bless
Stephen <3

 

[ziapueblo]

I’d really suggest using the daily and Sunday mass readings to get through the Bible, Each day gives you an OT, Psalm and a gospel reading while Sunday you get those along with an epistle reading. Frequently the readings are paired up so that one reading illuminates the other and depending on the season the cycle of readings will work it’s way through a book hitting the most important highlights and giving you a good feel for that particular book. There are number of excellent sources our there to help with the readings. I particularly like the Word Among Us.

ChadS

Great advice. The Word Among Us is fantastic. I have a subscription and it is a wonderful meditation on the readings. I would also suggest getting the Magnificat. Not only does it have the daily Mass readings, but also the morning and evening prayers based on The Liturgy of the Hours. The Liturgy of the Hours has a Psalm and other Biblical texts

 

[adowcday]

I think there’s nothing like spending a year reading the entire bible. You won’t get the depth that would come by doing it more slowly with the help of a commentary or meditation guide, but you’ll immerse youself and build a foundation to build on in years to come.

To read the bible in a year, you read a little more than three chapters daily. I don’t recommend that you read straight through from Genesis through Revelation. I’ve done that several times, but I’m a freak of nature, and most people grind to a halt in Leviticus, three books in.

There are several reading plans online. The easiest is to read two chapters from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament every day. If you do that, in about a year-and-a-half, you’ll read the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice. That will give you a deeper coverage of the New Testament and give you something different to read while you are “traversing that arid desert” of Leviticus, parts of Numbers, etc. I suggest that you split up the gospels, beginning with Mark, and space them out, reading one every few months so you don’t read four gospels in a row. You can move things around, too. For example, reading the Gospel of John together with the letters of John and the Revelation in order is a good idea. Or, reading Hebrews and James right after reading the Torah (first five books of the Old Testament, Genesis - Deuteronomy).

If you can’t dedicate the time to that much reading, a chapter a day, alternating the Old and New Testament books, will take a few years but it’s a sustainable habit.

I like to read the bible while following along with a commentary, and I do about four books of the bible a year that way. Most recently I’ve been reading commentaries by Walter Brueggemann on Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and Jeremiah; Joseph Blenkinsopp on Ezekial, and Wilfrid Harrington on Revelation. Good stuff.

 

[ChadS]

Besides most people grinding to a halt during Leviticus or Numbers, another reason to not read the Bible, especially the OT, in order is that the books are not in a historical timeline fashion. What I mean is that many of the prophets wrote during the times of the Judges and Kings yet their books come after those books in the Bible. I’d suggest finding a timeline that gives an idea of when the books were written and as you are reading Judges or Kings you could intersperse the prophets in so that you get an idea of how those fit together and not seeing them as separate or possibly not related, or more importantly you’re reading all of this while it’s still fresh in your memory.

ChadS

 

[Fidelis]

You may find this resource from Fr. Felix Just helpful. Here is the introduction. A link to his website follows:

Ways of Reading the Bible
by Felix Just, S.J., Ph.D.​

So you want to read the Bible? That’s great!
But where do you begin? And how do you proceed?

Since the Bible is not like most other books, simply starting at the beginning and trying to read all the way to the end (that is, from Genesis to Revelation) is probably not the best way to proceed for most people. If you attempt this, you might find the books of Genesis and Exodus rather familiar and/or interesting, but you’ll probably get confused by Leviticus, bored trying to plow through Numbers, and quit even before finishing Deuteronomy.

If you are a Christian, you might be tempted to skip the Old Testament and jump right into the Gospels. But this too is not the best approach, since you might be disturbed by the many discrepancies between the four Gospels, bewildered by the complex theology of Paul’s letters, or confused by the image of Hebrews, and again quit before you get to the end of Revelation.

So how should you go about reading the Bible? No one plan is best for everyone, but different people might find various methods helpful, especially since each reader may have a vastly different goal (spiritual, academic, social, etc.) in reading the Bible. Thus, some people might wish to follow a one-year plan (or a multi-year plan) for reading every book of the Old and New Testaments, but not necessarily in biblical order. Others may choose to read short selections from the scriptures regularly, following the Lectionary or liturgical cycle of their Church. Still others will want to read one biblical book at a time in depth, either on their own, or with the help of commentaries, or in a Bible Study group, or in an academic course.

By now there are many resources, both online and in print, which can help you read, pray, and/or study the Bible. This webpage is not intended to be comprehensive, but merely to provide some suggestions and resources, especially for your own spiritual nourishment or small prayer groups. Below is also an introduction to Lectio Divina, an ancient method of reading and praying with the scriptures that is being rediscovered today.

catholic-resources.org/Bible/Reading-Bible.htm

 

[tonyk84]

Here is some help which I reicived of a member of this forum mccorm45, you can also visit his bible blog catholicbibles.blogspot.com

I do not know the date as to when the full one volume Ignatius Study Bible will come out. They still need to publish the one on Revelation and have yet to start the Old Testament. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a one volume NT edition published in the next year or two.

As for a study plan, there are of course many ways in which you can do this. For me, I would definitely start with the Gospels, perhaps even Mark since his is the shortest of all the Gospels. After that you might want to go with Luke and then Acts of the Apostles to give you more of a historical backgroud to the New Testament. At that point you could then look at some of Paul’s letters.

One recommendation I would make is that as you are reading through the Acts of the Apostles, include some of Paul’s letters to particular churches when he actually visits them in Acts. For example, in Acts 17 Paul goes to Thessalonica. Perhaps you could read Acts 17 followed by Paul’s two letters to the Thessalonians. There is a Bible study that I have used which integrates the Acts of the Apostles with the writings of Paul: amazon.com/Come-See-Lette…8509305&sr=8-1

While this Bible study is primarily for groups, you could certainly do it as an individual by yourself.

After this, you can then start to read other parts of the NT. You could then group up the material from St. John, like his Gospel, the three letters, and the book of Revelation.

Once you are solid with the NT, then you can go back to the OT. Although, as you are reading the NT, you will notice that the NT writers refer alot to the OT. You should make it a habit that when this occurs, to find that cross-reference in the OT and read it in its context. So, for example when Jesus says “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me” on the cross, it would be a good thing to go back to Psalm 22 and read it in its totality to get at what Jesus is saying.

Hope this helps!