Familiarize yourself with the whole Bible by daily reading

[tonychanyt]

Reading the word of God is one way to know God better. I follow this schedule every day. It is, more or less, in chronological order. I have been working on this daily schedule since 1994. I do the reading routinely nonstop to develop some familiarization with the Bible. There is a Chinese proverb: 讀書百遍而義自見: Read a book a hundred times and its meaning will naturally become clear. Some days, I read only names in genealogies, or only eschatological prophecies, or only geographic names. At the end of the daily reading, I think of one question and raise it here in this subreddit.

Which version to read?

Pick a version that you like from Biblehub. The ESV is a good one to start with. After you have finished that version from Genesis to Revelation, pick another version.

What time of the day should I read?

Whenever it is convenient for you.

What happens if I miss a day?

If you miss a day's reading, you can either make it up the next day or skip it. The goal is to familiarize yourself with the entire Bible over the years. No need to sweat over some particular missing days. This is not a daily Bible study routine but a daily Bible reading routine.

In addition to my daily routine reading, I study different passages of the Bible daily and post my comments in my subreddit. Daily routine reading and Bible study are different daily tasks with different objectives. The latter uses the prefrontal cortex for analytical processing, while the former uses the lower and inner parts of the brain for subconscious digesting.

See also Which Bible version is the best translation?

===============================

Appendix

When I was a primary school student in Hong Kong, every one of us was supposed to memorize Li Bai's famous poem "Quiet Night Thought":

床前明月光，Moonlight shines before my bed
疑是地上霜。I thought it was frost on the ground
舉頭望明月，Raising my head, I look at the bright moon
低頭思故鄉。Lowering my head, I think of my hometown

We were taught to recite it with a particular rhythm. Over the decades, I have worked in 5 different countries. Whenever I was impressed by the local moonlight, I recited this poem to myself and thought about the Hong Kong village where I grew up. Over the years, I have developed a deeper and deeper understanding of this seemingly simple poem.

Recite a poem a hundred times and its meaning will naturally become clear

 

[KevinT]

I have an app on my phone, the Bible app, which will read the Bible aloud. I like the Message Bible because it uses common language, although I know it is a paraphrase and not to be used for doctrine study.

I find that if I’m working in the shop or doing chores, I can put this on, and over the course of an hour, cover a long ways in the Bible. Whereas if I were to sit down and try to read the words, I have a harder time.

I agree with you about repeated reading leading to insight. Over and over, I will hear something that seems new to me and brings new thoughts to my mind.

I like your idea of trying to come up with one new question for each reading session.

KT

 

[tonychanyt]

I like the Message Bible because it uses common language, although I know it is a paraphrase and not to be used for doctrine study.

At least you know the pros and cons, and you know what you are doing

 

[okay]

I love the OP in this thread. I fully agree that familiarity with the scriptures is very beneficial. Your distinction between bible reading and bible study is excellent - I don't think I have heard that before. And I also appreciate your approach that gives yourself grace when you miss a day of bible reading.

There was a stretch of quite a few years when I could hardly open scripture (a subject for a different thread...) but thankfully that has dramatically changed the past few years. I am now in in the middle of my second consecutive bible-in-a-year plan, which is probably somewhere between what you are calling bible study and bible reading. Most days I take my time and read a number of the notes (and sometimes full essays) in a study bible, but it is still more rapid than how I have done slower, deeper dives into individual books.

After this time through I will probably more slowly study a handful of books (probably at least a Gospel, an epistle, a prophet and a book from Torah) before doing another bible-in-a-year plan. As you said so well, getting (and keeping) a big-picture view of scripture is quite helpful for this journey of faith.