Reading through the Bible?

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Butaperson

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Ok, so long story short.
New Catholic.
I’ve only read a very small portion of the Bible, although I guess I know the general story?
I looked up an online version and found this page:
usccb.org/bible/books-of-the-bible/index.cfm

So…that’s very intimidating xD

What do all of those long names mean? I know there are seperate books from different people, but…??? Where do I start? What do I do? I would really prefer to just have a paper copy, but for now online is the best I’m gonna get. And I just…kind of…need help xD
 
How about you just read through the New Testament first. Start in Matthew and work your way to Revelation. After you do that maybe you can undertake a reading plan for the whole Bible.
 
There’s a great link for reading the Gospels in the Catholic Bible in a year online. I can’t copy and paste for some reason my computer is acting up but maybe someone can .post the link for me. They also have one for the Catechism.

Mary.
 
Ragamuffingirl said:
How about you just read through the New Testament first. Start in Matthew and work your way to Revelation. After you do that maybe you can undertake a reading plan for the whole Bible.
Click to expand...
Agree with this - - except - - I’d hold off on revelation for awhile. Concentrate mainly on the Gospels - add in the Epistles and Acts and then maybe think about some of the OT books.

Peace
James
 
The worst thing you could do is try to read the Bible from beginning to end, Genesis to Revelation. There are tons of Bible reading plans online, but the one that I’ve designed for myself starts off with reading the Gospels (John, then Luke, then Mark, then Matthew), and the wisdom books. After that, I plan to read whichever books to which I feel pulled.

I would really suggest getting an actual print Bible for personal use. It’s much more enjoyable for devotional reading and/or lectio divina.

Lastly, I’d suggest that you save Revelation for one of the last books you read. It’s chock full of symbolism, prophecy, references to history, the OT and NT, and so much other stuff that’s very difficult to understand.
 
I know the online ‘course’ MaryT777 is talking about - I subscribe to the Catechism in a year one. You can get ‘Gospels in a Year’ here: flocknote.com/list/154076
I also found one that sends you the mass readings for each day of the year, so over the course of 3 years, you would have read practically the entire bible. The link to it is here:
flocknote.com/list/431
 
If you read the New American Bible…some of the footnotes should be taken with a grain of salt (they sometimes state liberal critical theories as if they were THE truth without acknowledging more traditional views).

I’ve used the YouVersion Bible App, and it has lots of reading plans (though they won’t include the books Protestants removed from the Bible in the plans). Maybe you should start off with the NT as some other posters suggested, although in order to fully understand everything (to the extent possible, I don’t know if anyone fully understands everything in the Bible, much less in their first reading!) you need to know the OT.

If you’re an intellectual, and have a lot of time on your hands, try the Bible in 90 Days plan. It’s crazy intense, and you’ll have to add the DC books, but it’s great if you want to just read the whole Bible and have finally just read it all.
 
Here’s my take on this:
  1. Get a translation you are comfortable reading apbrown2.net/web/TranslationComparisonChart.htm
  2. Genesis.
  3. Exodus.
  4. Mark.
  5. John.
At this point you should have the basic idea what it is all about and you can explore in any direction you want. Although you should probably focus more on New Testament and treat Old Testament as reference material.
 
BiffRuffle said:
I know the online ‘course’ MaryT777 is talking about - I subscribe to the Catechism in a year one. You can get ‘Gospels in a Year’ here: flocknote.com/list/154076
I also found one that sends you the mass readings for each day of the year, so over the course of 3 years, you would have read practically the entire bible. The link to it is here:
flocknote.com/list/431
Click to expand...
Actually, not as much of the Bible is included in the lectionary as you’d think:
catholic-resources.org/Lectionary/Statistics.htm
 
Hi Butaperson,

I found a large, paperback Bible at my local Catholic book store that is set up to where you can read the whole Bible in a year. It is called “The Catholic One Year Bible.”

Here is a link for it on Amazon, where you can just see what it looks like, in case you are interested in it:

amazon.com/Catholic-One-Year-Bible/dp/0879732156/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_2

It starts out with the date of January 1st, but there is no year in it, meaning that you can just start it anywhere that you want, basically, if you want to do it that way.

It starts with Genesis as the main book and takes a few chapter segments from there, and then it also includes segments from other books of the Bible for that same date. It doesn’t overwhelm you.

Then when Genesis is finished, it moves on in sequence.

It is a very nice Bible. 🙂
 
What has helped me was to be instructed that the Bible is a library, not a book. That is, you can pick up a book and maybe finish it in a day or two and grasp the entire plot; the Bible requires greater awareness and understanding of each book, the chronology, author(s), history, language, genre, etc. This thought both humbles me AND makes my reading more capable, less daunting and overwhelming. It has made me regard the Bible with much deeper awe and reverence.
 
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