Bible familiarity and first impression questions.

[TheFriendlyAtheist]

I know a lot of people never read the Bible and only have a passing familiarity with. I'm curious on how many Christians have read the entire Bible themselves rather than just getting snippets from their pastors. It's a long book, filled with a lot of dry spots, like the genealogies and building instructions and the like.

So in your experience how many of your fellow Christians have read the Bible in its entirety?


And a side question what was your first impression after finishing it? I'm really interested in what your first thoughts were after finishing the Old Testament, and then after finishing the New Testament. I would like to know how my initial impressions as an atheist differed from yours.

 

[vinsight4u]

/nvm

 

[TheFriendlyAtheist]

Have read the Bible clear through numerous times.

I read through it once so far, but I'm still studying it. Probably not with the same motivation and purpose as you guys though. I find the whole thing fascinating, both the theology and the history.

 

[vinsight4u]

/nvm

 

[Halbhh]

I know a lot of people never read the Bible and only have a passing familiarity with. I'm curious on how many Christians have read the entire Bible themselves rather than just getting snippets from their pastors. It's a long book, filled with a lot of dry spots, like the genealogies and building instructions and the like.

So in your experience how many of your fellow Christians have read the Bible in its entirety?


And a side question what was your first impression after finishing it? I'm really interested in what your first thoughts were after finishing the Old Testament, and then after finishing the New Testament. I would like to know how my initial impressions as an atheist differed from yours.

When I finished the Old Testament last reading through fully was a long time back (but I finally began another full reading of the OT recently and progressed into the psalms, and am so delighted with the idea of the psalms and the proverbs and the prophets coming up, and the surprising and amazing Eccelseastes which I've come back to more than just a couple of times, because it's so much fun in certain ways).

Have you read Eccelseastes?

But way back last I finished that full through the OT as a teen, I was sorta full, overwhelmed, ready to get into the much more eagerly awaited gospels at that time.

How many do I know as a certainty have read fully through in our current church? Don't know really since I can sense several have read extensively. But I know one other and myself both chatted once about how we read through. I suppose something above 3% and under 10%, for that full entire, but I could be low on that. There are many though that simply rely on the readings every Sunday, in which their are 3 or 4 readings of entire passages, sometimes long ones. It's signficant in itself, but not as good as the full taking your time reading.

I never worried about skimming over a building dimension detail, but that's <1% of all the text, that kind of thing.

The thing you should want to do is slow down when something in the new testament tugs at you, cause you can feel a deeper meaning, and it's a good moment to pause, maybe think on it a day or two, not rush on. This should happen many times in the gospels.

 

[royal priest]

I didn't read it from beginning to end until after a few years as a student of the Bible.
Since then, I have read through it twice and each time I am enriched in my understanding of it as a cohesive Book with a simple message, "Jesus Christ is the eternal Word of God."

 

[royal priest]

I read through it once so far, but I'm still studying it. Probably not with the same motivation and purpose as you guys though. I find the whole thing fascinating, both the theology and the history.

You would get much more out of your reading if you accompanied it with a good Bible commentary. I HIGHLY recommend you try it with Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible. It's richly devotional and readily available online.

 

[com7fy8]

It's a long book, filled with a lot of dry spots, like the genealogies and building instructions and the like.

Now I find any part of scripture to be interesting. Every part has some kind of love meaning to help me get more real with God and love any and all people while learning how to relate in close sharing with whoever is able to spend time with me.

So in your experience how many of your fellow Christians have read the Bible in its entirety?

I don't know. I have read it one time, from end to end.

And a side question what was your first impression after finishing it?

I was at that time reading it in order to be religiously accomplished, and I got hardly anything out of it.

I'm really interested in what your first thoughts were after finishing the Old Testament, and then after finishing the New Testament.

same answer, basically

What has done me the most good is to now read anything for the love meaning. And I have people who I find are excellent examples of how to be holy and pleasing to God and how to relate in love and caring for any and all people. They are the love meaning of the Bible, in human form, maybe I could say . . . what words even of God's word can not tell in all there is to this.

The words are for referring us to realities which the words are talking about.

It is like how your chances of knowing what an elephant would be if you have never seen or in any way experienced an elephant and I explained in any number of words what an elephant is

For years after I was sure I had become a born-again Christian, I in truth was still quite clueless. I was into showing off how much I could explain. I was not really submitting to God in order to share with Him and please Him, and I was not tenderly caring for and sharing with other Jesus people. Plus, I was quite instant to use my Bible knowledge and experience to help me find ways to look down on people.

Now I find God has corrected me so, instead, concerning people, I start more with compassion and caring in prayer for people . . . any and all. And like I offer, any scripture can help me with this . . . somehow . . . directly or indirectly.

 

[Sam91]

I have read all of the Bible and am currently in a chronological run through. I started mud year last year so have read Kings-Revelation. Genesis-Deuteronomy. I must say I am finding the run through attempt very ineffective compared to reading it the way I did before. I mostly read new testament and then would read a book from OT when inspired. It actually turned out that 1.5 years ago when I decided to finish the 9 books I hadn't marked of as read in my Bible that they were read in an order that could only have been prescribed by God. I look forward to finishing this run through and plan to not do it again for a while. Not that I plan to miss parts of the Bible but to do it in a year cuts down on that special time with the Lord while reading and feels less relevant to what is going on in my life.

I do feel all Christians ought to know the entirety of scripture. It leads to a better understanding of themes referred to throughout the Bible. How can someone test what they are hearing/feeling if they have only a small segment to refer too?

We are blessed these days to have a Bible to read.

As for other Christians. I have not had the audacity to ask, so I do not know. It would feel boastful if I was to state that I have if they haven't. (Not saying that it would be audacious for others to ask this, they may have a better way of communicating than me and correct opportunity.) I was rather disappointed though to find out that two mature Christians that I knew didn't know a lot of the Bible.

One of them evangelises at every possibility hadn't read much at all. It turns out he is very spiritually abusive and has little understanding of the word. It was mostly sermons he had listened to and misunderstood.

(PS Certain books I have read possibly 50+ times and the majority of the Bible at least 6)

 

[vinsight4u]

/nvm

 

[dreadnought]

I know a lot of people never read the Bible and only have a passing familiarity with. I'm curious on how many Christians have read the entire Bible themselves rather than just getting snippets from their pastors. It's a long book, filled with a lot of dry spots, like the genealogies and building instructions and the like.

So in your experience how many of your fellow Christians have read the Bible in its entirety?


And a side question what was your first impression after finishing it? I'm really interested in what your first thoughts were after finishing the Old Testament, and then after finishing the New Testament. I would like to know how my initial impressions as an atheist differed from yours.

The Bible isn't that long of a book. I don't know how many Christians have read it cover to cover, but it would seem to me that they ALL should have read it by the time they've turned 25. I cannot remember exactly what my thoughts were when I finished the Old Testament the first time, but it made a really big impression on me. When I finished the New Testament, I suppose I was pleased I had accomplished the task.

 

[Netgear]

I have read the NT. Was very interesting. I need to read it again, more slowly though.

I did start reading the OT but stopped maybe 3rd way through? Got very complex with all the names etc. Genealogies?

 

[Sam91]

I have read the NT. Was very interesting. I need to read it again, more slowly though.

I did start reading the OT but stopped maybe 3rd way through? Got very complex with all the names etc. Genealogies?

Maybe read a book here and there. There is so much in the OT to know and understand. It really illuminates the New Testament. You ought to go for it

Edit: So much of the NT contains quotes from the OT. It really is great! There was a Jewish rabbi thing too where one half of a verse is quoted and the listeners would know the second half of the verse and a lightbulb would go off. It is fascinating having these links start going off or reading a prophecy and the realising that it was about Jesus. The OT isn't as dry as it feels a third way through.

 

[Greg Merrill]

John 7:18 comes to mind in answering a question like this. I breathe every day. Nothing to boast about.
Up until 2009 I had read the Bible through a number of unknown times. Then I started memorizing verses again daily, and reading the Bible through yearly up to the present. You should google "meanings of the names in the Biblical genealogy." They read like a story. Being boring is only to those ignorant of their meanings. Now the "building instructions" for the temple, that is still boring even to me most of the time. I became a Christian at age 6, but didn't read the Bible through until I was about 18. I enjoyed both testaments and felt more informed after reading them. I read recently that only about 19% of Christians read the Bible daily. A poor commentary on modern "Christians". I still enjoy reading and studying it more and more, and wish I had studied it even more before 2009. The more one becomes familiar with it the better it gets.

 

[Netgear]

John 7:18 comes to mind in answering a question like this. I breathe every day. Nothing to boast about.
Up until 2009 I had read the Bible through a number of unknown times. Then I started memorizing verses again daily, and reading the Bible through yearly up to the present. You should google "meanings of the names in the Biblical genealogy." They read like a story. Being boring is only to those ignorant of their meanings. Now the "building instructions" for the temple, that is still boring even to me most of the time. I became a Christian at age 6, but didn't read the Bible through until I was about 18. I enjoyed both testaments and felt more informed after reading them. I read recently that only about 19% of Christians read the Bible daily. A poor commentary on modern "Christians". I still enjoy reading and studying it more and more, and wish I had studied it even more before 2009. The more one becomes familiar with it the better it gets.

Nice post. I have felt bored at some of it i have to admit. Maybe that is why i stopped where i did in the OT.

 

[vinsight4u]

/nvm

 

[Greg Merrill]

Nice post. I have felt bored at some of it i have to admit. Maybe that is why i stopped where i did in the OT.

I usually read from Gen to Rev., but one can get bogged down doing that, reading nothing but O.T., nothing but the prophets (Isa - Mal) for a while, with no NT for a long time, if that is all you are reading.
One can do two readings through the year simultaneously, reading Gen - Rev, as well as reading other Bible Books here and there. If that is too much, try reading something like this: One Chpt of Gen, one chpt of Psalms, one chpt of Matt., and one chpt of Gal.
The next day read the next chpt of each, and keep going day by day. Another way to do it is to read all of Genesis, then all of Psalms, then all of Matt, then all of Gal. After that go to the books following these. Another way is to read the books of the Pentateuch, then the gospels, then the OT history books, then Acts
then the poetical books, then Paul's Epistles, then the Maj Prophets, then the General Epistles, then the Minor (Shorter) Prophets, then Revelation.

 

[vinsight4u]

/nvm

 

[Unofficial Reverand Alex]

I've read the Bible very little; partly as an effort to change that, for Lent this year, I'm reading the Bible for 30 minutes a day. It usually turns out to be closer to an hour, because it's one of the most enriching things I've ever done! Reading it daily, for a solid block of time, has really served my soul well.
I know one guy who reads the Bible a lot (not sure if he's read the whole thing, but if he hasn't yet, I'm sure he will). He's also working on memorizing verses, and now, chapters. Romans 6 or 8 or somewhere around there is what he's working on now.
I'm a so-called "crib Catholic"; born in the Church, been going for all my life. However, I've never really done anything about it until the beginning of last semester, where I joined the Christian Campus House because I thought it would be a good place to meet girls. I gave a very integral part of my life to God, and He took it and ran, and now I'm living in prayer, and planning to be a professor of theology. So while I haven't really been Christian for most of my life, I'm trying to make up for it now. (Although when I was younger, I remember enjoying the apocalyptic parts of Revelation--I can't remember why, I just remember that I did.)
To answer the question a little more directly, of all the Christians I know, very few actually read the Bible regularly. It's sad--people complain about how the Catholic church kept the Bible in Latin, to keep people from reading it. Now, people keep themselves from reading it, with no one else to blame.

 

[vinsight4u]

/nvm