Where would you start reading in the Bible?

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Would you start at the beginning and read right through or start with a certain book?

I haven't read all the Bible (embarrassed) but I want to start and I want to get the most out of it.

I started on Isaiah, but found I had to go back to kings to get the context.. now reading 1 kings and 2 chronicles simultaneously, being two versions of the same history.

I am excited to get started - once I make up my mind that is!

I have read some of the bible but not in a proper studying way.

Try this www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Application-Study-Bible-Niv/dp/0854769463 and I recommend starting with the gospels.

If you really want to go for it then there are read the Bible in a year study programmes you can download. Most churches also give a daily or weekly reading list if you ask. All the best with your endeavour.

I think that bible is similar to mine - www.amazon.co.uk/NLT-Life-Application-Study-Bible/dp/1414302584/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334007067&sr=1-2

Wow! Read the whole bible in a year - it is huge!

Yes, and to be honest I don't think you get the best of it reading it in a year but I guess it makes it a daily habit. I'll aim for it when I'm retired I think

I struggled when I got to x begat y who begat z. I switched off, I know despite reading it I didn't take it in. I found the story based stuff easier than the facts type stuff to read and retain.

Has anyone got a tip on how they read those difficult bits of the Bible?

actually the whole bible is much much less than all the harry potter books in series, just the new testament is shorter than all but 1 of them loads of people read a new potter novel in 3-4 days

to read whole bible in a year basically need to read 3 chapters a day 2 from OT 1 from NT

if you read new testament at the same speed as a novel ( to get feel for story and narrative) will take 12-17 hours depending on your reading speed

I think reading it quickly as a story helps get the general gist but also sometimes just reading a few verses and really thinking about it is very good

start with one of the gospels read it, all will take a couple of hours at most then re-read slower Luke and Acts very methodical and not really written for jewish audience but for new greek/ roman believers, matthew writes for jewish believers it assumes you know what OT prophets said

the difficult bits are better read with commentary as unfortunately many churches rarely read OT at all but there are lots of hidden gems in the prophets and history

psalms are great as they describe real feelings not just the "joy all day long"

When I was about 7 I decided to read the New testament. Starting at the beginning Matt 1:1 .... oh dear. I think I did actually manage to make it through the genealogy!

I read it starting from the beginning, then dipped in and out.

Then the Apocrypha and the Dead Sea Scrolls. And then a variety of histories of Roman Judea.

I suppose it depends what you want to get out of your reading. I got atheism.

Another way to do it is to find a list of themes in the Bible, such as compassion, love, impatience, greed and so on, and look up the associated references, and then spread your reading out from there. If you can lay your hands on a Gideon Bible they usually have lists like that in there.

I'm doing a "bible in one year" scheme at the moment. It's roughly two chapters of OT one of NT and a bit of psalm/proverb every day. I'm really enjoying it as I'm getting a better sense of how individual stories which I know well fit into the whole. But I can't hope to do each passage I read justice that way, so next year I'll try something different, maybe study a small amount in great depth.

For me I like it because as a regular churchgoer and longstanding christian, I do know a lot of the famous passages and stories fairly well. If you don't then I probably wouldn't recommend this way.

Mark wrote his account of Jesus first. It is plain but the more illuminating for it.

Genesis and Exodus, and Kings, are fascinating ancient history - Bronze Age to Iron Age Middle East - but you have to bear in mind I guess when they were actually written down (later), and the number of different available translations to believers in the Jewish and Christian faiths. (Let alone the different interpretations.) I like the Revised Edition Bible.

Thank you for all the advice!

I think I will start with Mark and will probably jump about a bit after that!

Do you just read the bible or do you make notes on it or do a sort of book study on each section?

I don't really know the bible stories other than the very basics of Moses and Jesus.

I personally just read it, didn't make notes, and didn't do any studying. Sometimes passages struck me and sometimes things came back to me later.

I think I have copious files of 'What does that mean?' I studied it at O level, A level, and at university level, and have never managed to get even close to knowing the complexity of the compliled texts and narratives that are The Bible.

I feel very lucky that I never had to study any of it. I have always just dipped in as the fancy struck me.

I enjoyed studying the gospels, finding out for example that Matthew and Luke shared a common source.

I think I need to make notes - like a book study - I worry that I just won't understand what I am reading or will misunderstand something!

It's a bit like a detective story.

This is just my opinion, but I don't think I could possibly have understood what I was reading without some background information on the context and the detail. I had a great (batty but brilliant) RE teacher at school who wasn't teaching to any particular agenda - she taught the texts, the known history, the known archaeology, the known critiques and criticisms, and explored contradictions as well as belief. I would never have 'got' any of that if I had just picked up a Bible and started reading.

The different translations are interesting, too. Some of the differences are fairly substantial.

There must be some great guides to reading the Bible out there - but I would say, try to get a neutral one if you can. People pressing an agenda can be wittingly or unwittingly misleading, in my experience. Have you had a wander round Waterstones or independent book shops?

I personally would dip in and out where I felt need to.

for example, if you want to learn about Jesus' teachings, then look in the index for those.
and if you want stuff about 2love" look in the index for that, or stuff about "romans" or "sin" etc.

or look in the church's lectionary for the readings of the day/week.
here

I love leviticus because I think the laws laid down for the Jews is fascinating, all the things you can and can't eat etc.

I have heard that the translations can be very interesting. I used to know someone who was fluent in Ancient Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic and he said the original version and the KJV were very different.

I always tell people to start with Mark's gospel. Thats where I started, before reading the other gospels, then Acts, then the letters (epistles).

ooh, Mary, you may be sarcastic again!

:o