Cover to Cover Bible Reading plans very important to read cover to cover multiple times

[Cockcrow]

While the OT is filled with riches, reading it may lead people who don't take the time to study the historical context astray. Christ is in its pages, but in an obscured way that can easily be missed within the sin and darkness that so regularly took the Israelites captive. It is only by being firmly established in who Christ is that deep exposure to the OT can be beneficial. Not everyone is equipped to do that kind of studying, and the body is better off for that. While all believers should expose themselves to the Bible and be rooted in it, many should only do so through the guidance of those gifted to be teachers rather than trying to learn independently. Not everyone has the reading comprehension skills for such a task, so making a blanket recommendation like this is irresponsible.

historical context? Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

 

[Fervent]

historical context? Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

Jesus Christ is the same, but literary conventions, social norms, ethical positions, and cultural encoding in human societies have changed. These things matter in understanding the text of the Bible, and those who fail to account for such things end up reading a foreign context into the text. Either way there's a historical context involved, either one that is accurate to the when the texts were written or the one the reader finds themselves surrounded by.

 

[chevyontheriver]

Whenever I attempt to read the Bible cover to cover, I always get stuck in 1 Chronicles. Not the greatest advice IMO.

(and yes, I HAVE read the entire Bible cover to cover when I was a teen- and I'm STILL learning!)

You get all the way to Chronicles? Wow!

Probably smart to use a Bible timeline like the one Jeff Cavins did. That helps with the big picture. The books of the Bible are not chronologically sequenced. That makes for confusion reading ‘cover to cover’. A timeline fixes that.

The Bible in a Year also helps, especially when it is organized chronologically or even thematically. Fr. Mike Schmidtz does well with that.

As to translations, everybody argues about that but unless you can read Chaucer and Shakespeare and Milton easily you will struggle with an old translation.

 

[RileyG]

You get all the way to Chronicles? Wow!

Probably smart to use a Bible timeline like the one Jeff Cavins did. That helps with the big picture. The books of the Bible are not chronologically sequenced. That makes for confusion reading ‘cover to cover’. A timeline fixes that.

The Bible in a Year also helps, especially when it is organized chronologically or even thematically. Fr. Mike Schmidtz does well with that.

As to translations, everybody argues about that but unless you can read Chaucer and Shakespeare and Milton easily you will struggle with an old translation.

You're absolutely right.

I read the NAB cover to cover which wasn't too bad. And yes, it took forever to get through 1 and 2 Chronicles.

It's too bad I didn't retain all of my reading.

 

[FaithT]

That's the worst possible approach. People get bogged down in the OT and never make it past Numbers, and never read any of the New Testament at all. I recommend that everyone one read the NT first, and then start it over again immediately upon finishing it.

I wouldn't start the OT until I'd read the New Testament through at least twice. And then read the NT as well as the OT, chapter for chapter. The OT is history, our faith derives from the NT.

I'm not all that concerned with "cover to cover". The main thing is to get the Gospels as much by heart as possible, followed by the rest of the New Testament (although I seldom read the Revelation. I think Luther's thoughts on it were spot on).

That's where the good stuff is.

I was raised on the KJV, and it's the Anglican translation, after all, but for any who has trouble with the archaic English they need to grab a version that they can read and understand. If you can't read Shakespeare without getting confused, I'd say the KJV isn't for you.

Last year I read the entire Bible for the first time and I satarted with Genesis and read all the way through, in order. I agree with you that this isn’t the best approach.

 

[FaithT]

You're absolutely right.

I read the NAB cover to cover which wasn't too bad. And yes, it took forever to get through 1 and 2 Chronicles.

It's too bad I didn't retain all of my reading.

I didn’t retain much of it, either. A lot of the OT books were boring to me. All the genealogies and history lessons.

 

[Margaret3110]

I love the OT. It can be a challenge, sure, but if you can stick it out through the genealogies and such, it's beautiful. It's what Jesus and the NT authors knew and drew upon. We shouldn't discourage people from exploring the OT - it's inspired scripture - but certainly using other resources to help us understand it in context is very useful.