Bible 1st Time Read

[Guacamole]

Hi,

I was raised and identify as a Christian, however I regretfully have not been the most committed to my faith. I am at a stage in my life where I feel ready to fully embrace Jesus Christ and His teaching.

Unfortunately, I have never read the Bible: I have read the four gospels but feel daunted by the scope of the book and do not know how or where to begin. Is it really as simple as starting with Genesis from the Old Testament and just reading straight through, or are there different approaches/orders that are recommended for novices like myself? Also, is there supplementary material I should study concurrently with my Bible reading, or is the Bible sufficient?

Thank you for your help. My questions may sound silly, but I am new to this and want to really maximize my learning and experience from Bible study.

 

[d taylor]

-​

...Well first identifying as a christian does not give a person God's free gift of Eternal Life salvation. That only happens when a person understands the one condition God has given people to receive His free gift (eternal life).

...That one condition is to believe Jesus (of The Bible) is the resurrection and the life, The promised Messiah, The only begotten Son of God. When you believe this you have believed in Jesus for Eternal Life salvation.

...Then you are in a position to be a christian that is a follower/disciple of Jesus. You are in a position to grow as a believer in your faith by correct Bible study. It is more to than just reading The Bible.

Good site that has very good Biblical teaching here is one article.
What It Means to Believe in Jesus – Grace Evangelical Society

 

[SabbathBlessings]

Hi,

I was raised and identify as a Christian, however I regretfully have not been the most committed to my faith. I am at a stage in my life where I feel ready to fully embrace Jesus Christ and His teaching.

Unfortunately, I have never read the Bible: I have read the four gospels but feel daunted by the scope of the book and do not know how or where to begin. Is it really as simple as starting with Genesis from the Old Testament and just reading straight through, or are there different approaches/orders that are recommended for novices like myself? Also, is there supplementary material I should study concurrently with my Bible reading, or is the Bible sufficient?

Thank you for your help. My questions may sound silly, but I am new to this and want to really maximize my learning and experience from Bible study.

Hi there,

It's great you are taking the first step of reading and understanding the bible for yourself. If you read the bible with an open heart, meaning allowing the bible to teach and guide- there is a promise that the Holy Spirit will lead you in all Truth John 16:13.

If scriptures don't match what a pastor is saying, find yourself a different pastor. The Word of God is meant to be our path Psalms 119:105 and its a narrow path.

For me, I like to read the bible starting with Genesis reading cover to cover. I learned so much this way, but also missed so much. Reading the second time I learned even more. I find the bible very fascinating, especially once you start studying Daniel and Revelation and see how everything is connected. I have a great in-depth bible study video on these books if interested - PM me.

There are many ways to read the bible and the most important part is finding a way that works for you that you will stick with. It's important to pray before reading and ask the Holy Spirit for guidance and understanding.

2 Tim 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness

Here's a few resources as well you might find helpful....

Bible reading plan- this is a one-year plan that might be too much- you can modify it to suit your needs.

https://manna.amazingfacts.org/amazingfacts/website/multiple/documents/AF-Bible-Reading-Plan-2018.pdf

Bible studies

Bible Study Guides in English | Amazing Facts

Browse our Bible Study Guides in the English language!

www.amazingfacts.org

Sometimes I like to listen to sermons on scripture I am reading and here is a list of sermons by scripture...

Search by Scripture | Amazing Facts

Search our media by Scripture and books of the Bible

www.amazingfacts.org

God bless!

 

[trophy33]

Hi,

I was raised and identify as a Christian, however I regretfully have not been the most committed to my faith. I am at a stage in my life where I feel ready to fully embrace Jesus Christ and His teaching.

Unfortunately, I have never read the Bible: I have read the four gospels but feel daunted by the scope of the book and do not know how or where to begin. Is it really as simple as starting with Genesis from the Old Testament and just reading straight through, or are there different approaches/orders that are recommended for novices like myself? Also, is there supplementary material I should study concurrently with my Bible reading, or is the Bible sufficient?

Thank you for your help. My questions may sound silly, but I am new to this and want to really maximize my learning and experience from Bible study.

Do not read Bible from the beginning to end. It is not meant to be read in this way and you would get stuck somewhere in Leviticus, Numbers or in some long Jewish prophets. It would also take you months or even years before you will get to the main stuff (New Testament).

Read the New Testament and from the Old Testament only the pieces you will find useful for your better understanding of the New Testament.

Regarding the New Testament, read just one gospel for the start, you do not have to read all 4. But if you will want to check something important from a gospel, compare it to other gospels too, they frequently have (sometimes theologically significant) differences.

 

[PsaltiChrysostom]

To add to Myst's excellent comment, another option is to read what is called in liturgical churches (Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Episcopalian etc.) the lectionary. These are daily readings of the important parts of Scripture and some have commentaries on the reading of the day. The most common are 1 year or a 3 year lectionary. Most of them have been put into an app or daily email. While you aren't going to learn the genealogy of the kings of Israel, you'd get the essentials of the teachings of the Christian church.

This is an example from the Orthodox church

Daily Scripture Readings and Lives of the Saints for Friday, June 02, 2023​

Fast Day (Wine and Oil Allowed)

Feasts and Saints celebrated today:​

• The Apodosis of the Feast of the Holy Ascension
• Nicephorus the Confessor, Patriarch of Constantinople
• Erasmos of Ochrid & his Companion Martyrs
• Demetrios the New Martyr of Philadelphia
• Constantine the New Martyr of the Hagarenes

Readings for today:​

• Acts of the Apostles 27:1-44; 28:1
• John 17:18-26

 

[Maria Billingsley]

Hi,

I was raised and identify as a Christian, however I regretfully have not been the most committed to my faith. I am at a stage in my life where I feel ready to fully embrace Jesus Christ and His teaching.

Unfortunately, I have never read the Bible: I have read the four gospels but feel daunted by the scope of the book and do not know how or where to begin. Is it really as simple as starting with Genesis from the Old Testament and just reading straight through, or are there different approaches/orders that are recommended for novices like myself? Also, is there supplementary material I should study concurrently with my Bible reading, or is the Bible sufficient?

Thank you for your help. My questions may sound silly, but I am new to this and want to really maximize my learning and experience from Bible study.

I approach the Bible as a book about life. If you read it as a resource to gain knowledge and wisdom then it is not daunting. Also, I would encourage you to first pray for the Holy Spirit to fill you with understanding. Then I would brush up on hermeneutics, the methodology of interpretation. There are many different approaches to hermeneutics, but they all share the common goal of understanding the meaning of a text, in other words ,as you read make sure you are clear on the basics, the who,what,where,when and why. I use this constantly to avoid confusion and misunderstandings. Be blessed!

 

[PloverWing]

The Bible is an anthology of separate works. Thus, don't feel like you have to start at the beginning and read straight to the end, the way you would read a novel. It's a little more like a short story collection, where you can read the stories in a variety of orders.

It is vaguely chronological, in that Genesis happens before Samuel/Kings, which happens before the time of Christ, etc., but it's not strictly chronological. The writings of the prophets (Isaiah through Malachi) overlap in time with the events of I/II Kings, for example. So, again, a variety of reading orders could make sense.

Other people have suggested several good approaches to reading. I'll add two thoughts:

1) I recommend finding a good study Bible -- that is, one that gives some introductory paragraphs at the beginning of each book, describing what the book is about, where it sits in history, what kind of literature it is, etc., and that also gives study notes on each page explaining some of the historical background and literary quirks of various verses. Study notes usually also contain cross-references (for example, that in Luke 4, Jesus is quoting Isaiah 61, and that this story also appears in Matthew 13 and Mark 6), which I find quite helpful. The study Bible I use the most is the Oxford Study Bible, but many good study Bibles are available.

2) Where possible, I recommend reading an entire book of the Bible at a single sitting. This isn't practical for long books like Isaiah, or for books like Psalms and Proverbs that are collections of short items, but it's practical for most of the shorter books. For longer books like the gospels, perhaps spread it out over a week. For my own reading, I find this a good way to get the sense of the author's overall intent in writing the book. (What is Paul's overall argument in the book of Romans? What does Luke want to tell us about the person and ministry of Jesus? What story is told in the book of Esther?) I find that if I break up my reading of a book too much, I forget what the author said in chapter 1 by the time I get to chapter 10. Your experience may be different, of course, if your memory is better than mine.

 

[RileyG]

Find a good study Bible and start with the Gospel of John. Then slowly read more and more material.

God Bless

 

[RileyG]

To add to Myst's excellent comment, another option is to read what is called in liturgical churches (Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Episcopalian etc.) the lectionary. These are daily readings of the important parts of Scripture and some have commentaries on the reading of the day. The most common are 1 year or a 3 year lectionary. Most of them have been put into an app or daily email. While you aren't going to learn the genealogy of the kings of Israel, you'd get the essentials of the teachings of the Christian church.

This is an example from the Orthodox church

Daily Scripture Readings and Lives of the Saints for Friday, June 02, 2023​

Fast Day (Wine and Oil Allowed)

Feasts and Saints celebrated today:​

• The Apodosis of the Feast of the Holy Ascension
• Nicephorus the Confessor, Patriarch of Constantinople
• Erasmos of Ochrid & his Companion Martyrs
• Demetrios the New Martyr of Philadelphia
• Constantine the New Martyr of the Hagarenes

Readings for today:​

• Acts of the Apostles 27:1-44; 28:1
• John 17:18-26

Amen. The lectionary is a major gift for the liturgical Churches. It's how I am most exposed to the Bible. Thanks be to God.

 

[oikonomia]

The Bible is an anthology of separate works. Thus, don't feel like you have to start at the beginning and read straight to the end, the way you would read a novel. It's a little more like a short story collection, where you can read the stories in a variety of orders.

I must disagree. There is a unity of theme to the 66 books of the Bible.
And Genesis and Revelation, the first and the last book, are like two reflecting mirrors of each other.

Or the Genesis and Revelation, though centuries apart in writing, are like two similar book ends.
The theory that the Bible is a hodgepodge of some miscellaneous fragments of mythical stories I say is incorrect.
The Bible is not a random collection of unrelated fragments.

We do need the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
We do need the insight of those who are obedient to God.
The wisdom of those who are obedient to God is advantageous to the explanations of the unbeliever or rebel to the living God.
Perhaps not altogether of no profit is the explanations of the rebel or unbeliever. But the one led in life by God is more reliable to
help others to understand the Bible than the one not subject to this God.

It is vaguely chronological, in that Genesis happens before Samuel/Kings, which happens before the time of Christ, etc., but it's not strictly chronological. The writings of the prophets (Isaiah through Malachi) overlap in time with the events of I/II Kings, for example. So, again, a variety of reading orders could make sense.

For God to convey certain themes which are His priorities to reveal, chronological sequence is not an absolute necessity.
I believe the sequence of acts in Jesus ministry are layed out in Matthew according to Matthew's intended theme about Jesus. Luke's arrangement is different according mostly to Luke's burden to convey a certain aspect about Jesus. I believe that historically John is sequencially representative. And John too has his emphasis to convey about Christ.

Christ is exapansively and inexhaustivly rich, And it takes four angles of the one Person to together portray Him.
Though there is some overlap, basically I agree with this outline:
Matthew - portrays a KING,
Mark - portrays a SLAVE
Luke - portrrays the most perfect MAN.
John - protray that the man is GOD.

There is some overlap.

Matthew and Luke include a geneology of Christ. For a king derseves a geneology as well as a normal man.
Mark has not geneology for Christ because a slave needs no such thing.
John has no geneology because Christ there is mainly God. A geneology for an eternal God is a joke. He always was.

Then there is the conclusions of each Gospel in terms of what happened to Jesus.
In Matthew and John we get no impression that Jesus went away. Both portray Jesus as having gone nowhere and with us still.
Mark and Luke on the other hand each record Christ ascending to heaven after His earthly ministry.

I guess what I am saying in all this is the logical scheme of the Gospels.
This I trust rather than any random misenllaneous pieces thrown haphazadly into scrap book.

Having said this I would add that personally I do not believe the Bible can be systematized 100%.
Though I would argue for its structure and design, consistency and harmony, I beleive it alludes TOTAL systemization of 100%.

Other people have suggested several good approaches to reading. I'll add two thoughts:

1) I recommend finding a good study Bible -- that is, one that gives some introductory paragraphs at the beginning of each book, describing what the book is about, where it sits in history, what kind of literature it is, etc., and that also gives study notes on each page explaining some of the historical background and literary quirks of various verses. Study notes usually also contain cross-references (for example, that in Luke 4, Jesus is quoting Isaiah 61, and that this story also appears in Matthew 13 and Mark 6), which I find quite helpful. The study Bible I use the most is the Oxford Study Bible, but many good study Bibles are available.

Along with this kind of study which is profitble EQUAL time, at least, should be spent to read the Bible for pure spiritual nourishment.
I have practiced having Bible study with tools and Bible study for feeding something hungry for spiritual nourishment and sustenance.

Of course historical tools, language tools, lexicons and word studies are helpful.
To restrict to only study the letters this can lead to vain knowledge which only tends to puff up intellectually.

We need to have the fresh speaking of the instant rhema of the word.
We need to read praying over the lines which seem to speak expressly to our hearts.

We need to also go over the Bible as a searcher for uranium would use a Geiger counter.
When the unaranium hunter's Geiger counter begins to click away, she or he lingers at that spot to locate the radiating element.

We need times set aside to read the Bible with our heart like a Geiger counter. When something from the page seems to speak to our heart expressly, we should not move on too fast. It is time to linger there, It is time to muse with a prayerful spirit over the words.

I encourage you all to be balanced in this way.
Read for intellectual analysis with tools available.
But set aside equal time for reading to touch the life and the sustenance which FEEDS the spirit.

As Peter wrote - As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation, If you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Pet. 2:2,3)

Here is it not to study the milk to analyze its chemicals.
Here it is to DRINK as nourishing food that divine life might grow.
This is a matter of TASTING the Lord Himself. He is enjoyable and satisying of our spiritual thirst.
He is also the growing life not just to encreast our knowledge, but to encrease our amoung of God's life in our spirit.

Paul urged his colleague Timothy to be "nourished" in the words of the faith.
If you lay these things before the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, being nourished with the words of the faith and of the good teaching which you have closely followed. (1 Tim. 4:6)

As Paul exhorted Timothy to study to be approved in Scripture, learning to cut straight the word of the truth, he also urged the above. That is to minister words to nourish, feed, and supply faith to the saints.

It reminds us of Jeremiah saying that he found the word of God and ATE those words.
Your words were found and I ate them, And Your word became to me the gladness and joy of my heart, . . . (Jeremiah 15:16a)

 

[Clare73]

Hi,

I was raised and identify as a Christian, however I regretfully have not been the most committed to my faith. I am at a stage in my life where I feel ready to fully embrace Jesus Christ and His teaching.

Unfortunately, I have never read the Bible: I have read the four gospels but feel daunted by the scope of the book and do not know how or where to begin. Is it really as simple as starting with Genesis from the Old Testament and just reading straight through, or are there different approaches/orders that are recommended for novices like myself? Also, is there supplementary material I should study concurrently with my Bible reading, or is the Bible sufficient?

Thank you for your help. My questions may sound silly, but I am new to this and want to really maximize my learning and experience from Bible study.

I suggest starting with a good book that gives you Biblical principles, and strongly recommend "Knowing God," by J. I. Packer, a 50-year-old Chrsitian classic.
Then when you've read that, just start reading the Bible at Gen 1:1 and go all the way through to the end of Rev.
Just set aside a time when you will regularly read it.