How to begin to read the Bible?

  • Thread starter Thread starter tmrbwilson1998
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
tmrbwilson1998 said:
Hello! I have been trying to really reconnect with my Catholic faith, especially now that I have children who I want to teach our faith. However, I have been realizing that I really do not have the knowledge of Scripture that I wish I did. Here in our very Southern Baptist area where one of the 2 main chain Christian stores claim that the RCC is not a Christian church, there are not many Catholic Bibles! At the other store, they had a couple of options, so I found and purchased the New RSV. I hope that this is a good translation? Also, is there a suggested way to begin reading the Bible? Is it best to begin with Genesis and make my way through, begin with the NT, or just following the Church’s reading lists. Also, is there a good website with daily readings?

Have to share this one - I had called the second chain Christian store in town to inquire as to whether they carried Catholic Bibles. The lady kindly told me they did, so when I made my way over to the store and went to the Bible section, I found SOOO many versions that I had never even heard of, but alas, nothing Catholic. I asked the salesperson and she led me to the opposite side of the store to a small alcove - one side of this small 5x5 area was Catholic (3 shelves, around 2 1/2 ft long), and the other side was all Jewish books and such. I felt like the banished customer, lol!
Click to expand...
First of all, there is a printable list around here somewhere that people found to be a pretty good format to follow.

As for the bible translation you mentioned that you picked up, many individuals here do not like the NRSV, because of the inclusive language, even though it is considered to otherwise be fairly accurate. However, if it works for you personally to get to read it, then it doesn’t really matter, as I think people here would say. Since you have already bought it, the following may not be helpful to you.

With that said, I find the following bible, both translation and configuration, to be quite perfect for your purposes: amazon.com/My-Daily-Catholic-Bible-20-Minute/dp/1592760678
 
mmortal03, thank you very much for the suggestion - it looks like a perfect Bible for me, with 2 young ones at home and a deployed husband, time is often very short for me 🙂

Thanks!
Tina
 
I recently joined a bible study class at my local church and they are using the “Great adventure” series by Jeff Cavins and it is a 25 week course with video. The talks are an hour long and we have a group discussion and question and answer period that last 1 hour. All the material is from this program and all we do is provide our own bibles.
I have invested in the Navarre bible since it has the English passages from the Revised Standard Version on top, followed by the New Latin Vulgate in the middle and then the commentary on each verse. The new version of the New Testaments is a very nice book to have for reference. The book is the size of a standard bible, and a new version of the Old Testaments is planned as well, for now they come in 7 smaller books, and well worth having…🙂
 
It takes 15 minutes a day to read the Bible from cover to cover in one year. This can be done by reading 3 chapters a day plus 5 on Sunday. I read several different translations following this method.
Once I reached the story of God telling Moses to take off his sandals “because this is holy ground,” my first time through, I began to remove my own shoes before reading scripture.
One of the things that I received after my youngest brother died is his Christian Almanac. The top of each day’s page has a schedule of readings that allow an individual to read the Bible in one year. It generally has 1 chapter from the New Testament plus 2 chapters from the Old Testament.
The three year cycle of readings from Mass covers the Bible.
When I had a spiritual director, he had me start with Roman using Lectio Divina for journalling.
 
Tina,

You might consider starting with Scott Hahn’s book A Father Who Keeps His Promises which is a great overview of the Judeo-Christian faith and which gives an entertaining overview of the books of the bible.

Hahn explains so much about the bible in such an entertaining way that you can’t help but get excited reading through the bible as you read through this book. It will also help you explain the big picture of the faith to your kids in way which will keep their attention.

Read the reviews at Amazon and you’ll get a better understanding than I am giving.

Hahn also has free online courses (using his books) at St Paul Center for Biblical Theology (salvationhistory.com) which explain and help so much.

Here’s the first course outline which uses the bible and A Father Who Keeps His Promises:
"Covenant” is the master concept that unlocks the meaning of the Bible. The Bible tells the story of God the Father’s love for His children and His plan to fashion all people into one holy family. God unfolds this plan of salvation through a series of covenants, culminating in the New Covenant He makes in Jesus.
Click to expand...
In this course, we look at God’s covenant plan. We study the five key covenants God makes in the Old Testament in order to see how they are fulfilled in Jesus and the Church. The goal is to enable students to understand the crucial significance of the covenant concept for interpreting the Bible and for understanding God’s fatherly plan.
Click to expand...
Course Objectives
Click to expand...
  1. To learn the importance of God’s covenants for understanding and interpreting the Bible.
Click to expand...
  1. To understand the difference between the biblical idea of “covenant” and modern notions of “contract.”
Click to expand...
  1. To learn the five key covenants of the Old Testament, be able to locate them in the Bible, and understand how they are fulfilled in Jesus and the Catholic Church.
Click to expand...
Boy oh boy I love that book! I am going to find it and read it again just because of talking about it.
 
NPS said:
Tina,

You might consider starting with Scott Hahn’s book A Father Who Keeps His Promises which is a great overview of the Judeo-Christian faith and which gives an entertaining overview of the books of the bible.

Hahn explains so much about the bible in such an entertaining way that you can’t help but get excited reading through the bible as you read through this book. It will also help you explain the big picture of the faith to your kids in way which will keep their attention.

Read the reviews at Amazon and you’ll get a better understanding than I am giving.

Hahn also has free online courses (using his books) at St Paul Center for Biblical Theology (salvationhistory.com) which explain and help so much.

Here’s the first course outline which uses the bible and A Father Who Keeps His Promises:

Boy oh boy I love that book! I am going to find it and read it again just because of talking about it.
Click to expand...
AMEN!!!

There’s also a free download of Scott Hahn and Jeff Cavins that is very, VERY GOOD!!!
 
:o

I didn’t realize this thread was reawakened from back in April.

Oh well…still love that program and that book.
In fact—I found it late last night and am starting it again today.

That’s the benefit of having a poor memory. You read a book again and think, “This is great!”

:whacky:
 
I guess I am to blame for bring this forum back to life. The benefit of listening to the 1 hour talks of that “great adventure” series is that it opens your eyes to how Abram became Abraham, Issac and his name. In reading Genesis and especially the life of Abraham you realize that he lived 2,000 years before Christ, that he took his son on a 3 day journey carrying wood to a place called Moriah (umm wood, cross) where he was to sacrifice his son and how he was stopped by an angel before he killed him and ended up sacrificing a ram that was caught in a thorn bush (thorns, crown) and later this place would be Calvary. A very interesting point was the blessing he received from Melchizedek king of Salem (later Jerusalem) that would be where one would receive the blessings from God. He pointed out if you do the math that this person in fact could have been Shem, son of Noah who was suppose to have live 600+ years.
On another note “A father who keeps His Promises” is a very good book of reference, and if you have a high speed internet connection you can go to ewtn.com where you can find the readings for the day. At this site you can also listen to the program live, with video. Journey home with Marcus Grodi is good on Monday night (8 ET) and at 9 following is a program with Scott Hahn and Mike Aquilina that spend a 1/2 hour going over one of Scotts books. On that web site you can also find a copy of Dei Verbum which is the church take on how you should read the bible, also father Corapi has an excellent explanation of that document as well (6 part)…
 
I am glad that the you did bring this thread back! Thanks for the great tips! I have not been as good about my goal…perhaps once DH is back and I have a little extra time the both of us will be able to read the Bible together. In the meanwhile, I will check out the Scott Hahn book, so thank you!

Tina
 
For more tips on how to get started reading the Bible, please visit my humble webpage linked below:
 
Thank you, Fidelis! I just took a quick peek at your site - and have bookmarked it. It looks like a great wealth of information and knowledge, so thanks you sharing!

Tina
 
tmrbwilson1998 said:
Hello! I have been trying to really reconnect with my Catholic faith, especially now that I have children who I want to teach our faith. However, I have been realizing that I really do not have the knowledge of Scripture that I wish I did.

God Bless,
Tina
Click to expand...
Tina,

my advice Tina is to get yourself a simple Q&A catechism rather than trying to renew your Catholic faith by reading the Bible. In actual fact, the dogmas and doctrines of any such catechism could be said to be a summary of the Catholic Bible. Such a Q&A catechism is also the best way to teach children the Catholic faith.Simply teach the children to learn the Q&A off by heart (memorise it), Do not worry if they are too young to understand all the answers. When they mature in time and faith they will be ready to accept the theology.

God bless.
 
St. Jerome said that ignorance of scripture is ignorance of God.
The pope made a recent announcement of the importance of reading the Bible. Do make it a simple daily habit. It does not take much time. The NAB is used for the liturgy of the Mass. Before the invention of the printing press, it was the only way that people became acquainted with the scriptures. As St. John of the Cross writes, the priest reads the scriptures and the congregation reads the priest. The illiteracy of the past led to the stained glass windows that tell the story of salvation in Catholic churches.
If you are going to also get a catechism, get the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI was named by Blessed John Paul II to head the committee that compiled it. The Bishops of the United States have now written a Catholic Catechism for Adults. It includes questions, meditations, personal profiles, and references to the CCC. It is easier to read than the CCC. The Compendium to the CCC has a question answer format.
The *Baltimore Catechism *, mentioned in the introduction to the United States Catechism for Adults originated in 1884 to bring “unity and understanding” to Catholic immigrants.
 
Ignatius press has quite a few books on bible study, and bible books with commentary, along with the previous mentioned Navarre bible as I said are very good. If you go to the following web site they have a bible study online class:salvationhistory.com/
It is presented by Dr. Scott Hahn, who teaches at Franciscan University. I also mentioned that you can also go to ewtn.com and you can see what the readings are for any day. I know that you can do that with a dial up net. If you should happen to have a high speed connection you can check out the daily homily. In it you can view the reading of the day, along with the psalm and the gospel reading for the day. The priest who gives the homily comes from a very good selection of priest who are visiting at ewtn on that day. If you do have a high speed connection you can view several programs that air during the week. It is a good way to catch up on any programming that you may like to watch and may have missed. I do like that talks from “Sunday night live”, along with “The Journey home”. I am sure that all the sites listed so far are good, so you have a very good selection to choose from, St Jerome is right…
 
I forgot to mention that one of the things you can do at the ewtn site is view the ipod telecast lists, and and place them in your itunes for down load when they air. It is a good way to have something to listen to if you are a person that runs or walks a lot, even for just listening at home…
 
tossem, thanks for the podcast idea - totally forgot about that, and being in the car up to 2.5 hrs a day (though with 2 talkative children, lol), it might be perfect!

Tina
 
One other idea also from ewtn is the recorded series from Scott Hahn and Jeff Cavins which is 13 lectures on our Fathers plan which you can download and listen too. I am not sure of how long each one is but you might also be able to burn it to CD to listen to on your drives. It tells you what to read from the bible and goes through the books in as I said 13 lectures and you can view these at the following url:origin.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/file_index.asp?SeriesId=-306548622&pgnu=1

The listing has a brief explanation that tells you what each lecture is about…🙂
 
tossem said:
One other idea also from ewtn is the recorded series from Scott Hahn and Jeff Cavins which is 13 lectures on our Fathers plan which you can download and listen too. I am not sure of how long each one is but you might also be able to burn it to CD to listen to on your drives. It tells you what to read from the bible and goes through the books in as I said 13 lectures and you can view these at the following url:origin.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/file_index.asp?SeriesId=-306548622&pgnu=1

The listing has a brief explanation that tells you what each lecture is about…🙂
Click to expand...
Absolutely marvelous series!!! But don’t let the first episode fool you, for it drags on a little too long. Once they hit the ground, they hit it running!
 
just noticed that this has not been posted on this site, so I thought I would add it in at this time. If you have cable or one of the satelite systems you should be able to get EWTN, even if all you have is a high speed internet connection you should be able to get EWTN (just go to ewtn.com) and on Saturdays at 2 PM eastern or 11 AM pacific you can view Jeff Cavins great adventure. I realize it is already near the end, but none the less you can get a good idea on how his lectures are, and when the series begins again you can listen in. He has a wealth of nerratives that you can read along in your own bible and realize exactly how you can draw the information out. The series is 25 weeks long, but after a while you end up looking forward to the next week. It really is a great series, as I have said earlier in post I am currently taking the great adventure bible class at the church that I belong to, and certainly anyone can now do so at home…
 
tossem said:
just noticed that this has not been posted on this site, so I thought I would add it in at this time. If you have cable or one of the satelite systems you should be able to get EWTN, even if all you have is a high speed internet connection you should be able to get EWTN (just go to ewtn.com) and on Saturdays at 2 PM eastern or 11 AM pacific you can view Jeff Cavins great adventure. I realize it is already near the end, but none the less you can get a good idea on how his lectures are, and when the series begins again you can listen in. He has a wealth of nerratives that you can read along in your own bible and realize exactly how you can draw the information out. The series is 25 weeks long, but after a while you end up looking forward to the next week. It really is a great series, as I have said earlier in post I am currently taking the great adventure bible class at the church that I belong to, and certainly anyone can now do so at home…
Click to expand...
If we play our cards right, EWTN will re-run the series. I hope so, as I’ve loved the stuff that Jeff Cavins has already done and I hear nothing but good from his Great Adventure Series!!! I know Tim Gray does GA with Jeff and Tim is absolutely incredible. You’ll find three of his Bible Studies series (John, Mark, Exodus) at EWTN’s audio library.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top