I need help reading the Bible

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How am I suppose to read the Bible? Should I just start with Genesis and go through to Revelations? Should I read summarizes of the Old Testement and then Read the New Testement? I don’t know where to go with it.
 
Start with a gospel. Matthew/Mark/Luke/John.

You will find it more edifying.
 
microvelo said:
How am I suppose to read the Bible? Should I just start with Genesis and go through to Revelations? Should I read summarizes of the Old Testement and then Read the New Testement? I don’t know where to go with it.
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Get “You Can Understand the Bible” by Peter Kreeft. I found that it really helped my understanding of the lierary styles, the backgrounds in which various books were written. It’s easy to read and a great resource.
 
I would start with the gospels. But, you need to understand the OT too.

The Jeff Cavins Great Adventure Bible Study goes through the Bible historically so you get the overarching story of salvation history. It does not cover all of the books, but you get the basic events and then can go back later and read the supplemental books. I have included a link below. Unfortunately, the DVDs are quite expensive for someone to buy on their own. But, you might see if there is a church in your area offering the study or consider using the study materials.

biblestudyforcatholics.com/information/home

He also has a book called walking with God that covers the same sections of the Bible. It is excellent, but I needed the Bible Study to keep me on track to get through it all.

amazon.com/Walking-With-God-Journey-through/dp/1934217891/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368545708&sr=8-1&keywords=jeff+cavins
 
microvelo said:
How am I suppose to read the Bible? Should I just start with Genesis and go through to Revelations? Should I read summarizes of the Old Testement and then Read the New Testement? I don’t know where to go with it.
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This is exactly what I did when I decided to read the Bible and I liked it, but I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone.

If you have very little experience with Christianity I might start by attending the Catholic mass at least weekly and listening to the readings, continuing this for a long time before beginning to read on my own. Of course for all I know you may have been doing this all your life.

When you do get to reading on your own, here’s a recommendation I just came up with off the top of my head, for your consideration. I suppose I might start by perusing the Old Testament, particularly Genesis and Exodus, just to get a little familiarity with the Jewish roots of Christianity. Also I would take at least a peek at the Wisdom Literature, such as the Book of Wisdom.

Then I would move to the New Testament and read Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians as a good representation of the early Christian writings. Next read through the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Next read Acts, which is the sequel to Luke. Finally read the Gospel of John, followed by 1 John. After this you could skip around as you choose and fill in the gaps of your knowledge.

As a guide to the New Testament I would highly recommend the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible.
 
Getting a good solid study Bible such a the Navarre or the Ignatius, and reading the text and commentary along with the daily readings of the Mass is a great way to go. Or, you can simply read straight through. I did that starting with the New Testament Ignatius Study Bible, and am now in the middle of the Navarre Old Testament Study Bible.

A good solid commentary will alleviate much of your concern. You cannot go wrong with the two I mentioned above. The Ignatius Old Testament Study Bible is virtually complete and should be out in one volume rather soon, based upon the statements from the publisher. In addition, the Navarre New Testament is fantastic, and you will not go wrong with it. One of the things I really enjoy about it is that it is recent enough that it includes study notes from Pope Benedict, who by any account is one of the best Scripture scholars in recent memory, but also includes copious study notes from earlier sources, going all the way back to the Church Fathers. It’s brilliant.

The other commentary series that looks to be excellent but is nowhere near complete is the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture series. If that ever gets completed, it ought to be fantastic given the names associated with it.

Peace of Christ,
 
I’d start with a gospel too.

Mark is the shortest.

John is the most mystical.

Matthew or Luke perhaps have more of the events in them.

God bless you.

PAX+
 
I have read the Bible completely through maybe 35 times and listened to bible study tapes and CDs for years while commuting. When I started maybe 40 years ago, I was only aware of little books or lists which gave the scriptures which for Catholics were probably the daily Mass readings. I was too impatient and in a hurry to do the lookups and read them out of the Bible. What I found was a non-Catholic Bible (NIV) which was organized to read part of each part of the Bible, beginning to end each day.Part Old Testament, Part New Testament, Part Psalms, and part proverbs. I would scan Old Testament readings which were long lists of names or descriptions of how the temple was supposed to be built, etc. I did this because I wanted to learn what was in the Bible as the “main authoritative Source” of who God is. It is what He says about Himself. You go deeper and deeper into it without ever running dry. Every time I read it I get new insights and parts of it hit me like I had never seen them before. I am really falling more and more in love with the Bible and so with God. There are parts of it that are so loving and hopeful and intimate. I just ignore parts that I don’t understand instead of getting upset because so much of it that seemed like nonsense the first reading, now I understand. Much of Paul’s writings were just so many words to me. Through a prophetic Bible teacher by the name of Graham Cooke I now see so much of the richness and vitality there. This link will give you the actual Mass readings. I think, but am not sure what percentage of the bible you will cover that way but I don’t think you can go wrong by starting off this way. This is the link.usccb.org/bible/readings/051413.cfm. There are many good Catholic Bible studies. Some may be listed in some of the replies you have already received. I personally love Graham Cooke. I have had some of his material checked out by my Dominican Pastor and he didn’t see any error or have any problem with him.
 
hey what I do is this…

1 bookmark / tab for OT
1 bookmark for Mathew Mark Luke John
1 Bookmark for Acts/ Letters
1 Bookmark for Proverbs/Pslams

each day,read each section however anyway you want, just read a few chapters and read prayerfully and with reverence… consume less at first, perhaps more…

i also reccommend the st ignatius study bible with commentary… very useful!

god bless
 
Start with the New Testament. If you do not understand what you read, then refer to a traditional Bible Commentary. An excellent commentary is the Catena Aurea Bible Commentary of St. Thomas Aquinas. You can read it online. God bless you.
 
I recommend Jeff Cavins Bible Timeline after you have read through the New Testament. And if you can participate in a local Bible Timeline class you will be glad you did. It’s one school year of study, but what you will learn will be invaluable (even repeat the class if you wish).
 
I suggest you start reading the New Testament first. Start from the very beginning of the NT with Matthew and go all the way through to the end with Revelation (or Apocalypse). Basically, always start with the Gospels, then Acts, then Paul’s epistles, general epistles, and finally Revelation. Some NT’s may have a reading plan you can follow where you read only a certain amount each day, or read through several books at once that follow the same sequence of events (for EX. Reading about the birth of Jesus means you read both Matt. 1,2 and Luke 1, 2; a “Harmony of the Gospels” if you will).

Once you are completely done with reading the NT, start reading the Old Testament from beginning (Genesis) to end (Malachi). I suggest reading an Old Testament translation that is “Catholic” (includes the deuterocanonical books such as Sirach, 1 Maccabees, etc.) and not an OT that uses Protestant chapter/verse numbering (as well as the fact Protestants tend to place a strong emphasis on the Masoretic text whereas we use the Greek Septuagint). When you go and start reading the OT, you could also begin to read the NT at the same time (which is what I’m doing now). I’m currently reading the OT for the first time and doing a Catholic Bible study my second time around with the NT.

Also, make sure you use a translation which you can understand. If you are not comfortable using a translation that uses archaic language or intensely literal language then it’s best to find one with “simpler” language that you can relate to.
 
Several years ago I purchased"The One Year Bible - Catholic Edition" and read it by the day of the year. Usually there is a reading from the Old Testament – then a reading from the Psalms – then finishing for the day with a reading from the New Testament. I find that some of the readings from the Old Testament “raise” the hair on my head – they are unbelievable!!! I usually do my reading before I turn out the light at night.
 
May I recommend an appetizer? Read Jesus’s famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, which is Matt 5-7.

Then follow any of the other great suggestions we’ve already heard. 🙂

Personally I’m biased toward New Testament, starting with at least one Gospel (my fav is John) then branching out any which way. 😉

Wisdom and Sirach are my two favorite Old Testament books; I’ve only read a small portion of them but I liked what I read. 👍

Alan
 
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