Is it More Important to Read the Full Bible or Re-Read What Inspires You?

[Anonymous]

For years I've had a mission of reading the full Bible. I've been on the minor prophets in the Old Testament for quite a while. And normally I'll start reading some but get bored, flip a few pages and turn to a favorite Psalm of mine or say a Chapter in Romans, Ephesians, Galatians, or the like. There are a lot of chapters and verses that are very inspiring and help me get through a lot of the stresses of my life and I have been wondering now why I have this mission to complete the Bible, other than being able to say I did it.

So how important is it to read the full Bible and should I feel bad that I keep wanting to go back to my favorites?

[Anonymous]

Maybe try Bible in a Year? You may find new things to inspire you?

[Anonymous]

I don’t think it’s important to read it all the way through but at some point it should probably all be read. Lately I’ve been using the Bible Project to listen to interesting podcasts that spark my interest in different stories. There’s a recent one on north order I’ve been enjoying.

[Anonymous]

Spent a year reading the entire Bible. It was worth it to find less well known passages that became important to me. Every day, I read various parts for inspiration. Whatever works best for you!

[Anonymous]

You might find it helpful to read an annotated copy? When I start getting lost in the text, I sometimes find the footnotes helpful as a way to help me understand the text in a new way and keep me engaged. Try The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter. I like his style of translation and his footnotes often delve into historical context that can be helpful when trying to understand some of what's going on in the text.

[Anonymous]

I'm glad I read the entire Bible. Thank you, Bible in a Year, which is 20-25 minutes daily podcast, so it wasn't a particularly heavy lift for me. While there will be parts I will probably never return to, the journey helped put some of the NT in context.

So I guess my advice would be, it's not urgent, but it's a nice and helpful thing to do. If you need to wait until your kids are in college or until you retire, that's fine. In fact it's probably more than fine because, if you wait, you'll have more time to think about what you're reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm glad I read the entire Bible. Thank you, Bible in a Year, which is 20-25 minutes daily podcast, so it wasn't a particularly heavy lift for me. While there will be parts I will probably never return to, the journey helped put some of the NT in context.

So I guess my advice would be, it's not urgent, but it's a nice and helpful thing to do. If you need to wait until your kids are in college or until you retire, that's fine. In fact it's probably more than fine because, if you wait, you'll have more time to think about what you're reading.

Honestly, what I normally do is listen or read on my phone while I'm running on the treadmill in the mornings before the kids wake up. But some books like the stuff after Proverbs to Matthew is difficult to make it through. I read SoS, and had to take a break, then went back and did Isaiah and took a break, Jeremiah then break, Lamentations and Ezekiel then break. Daniel and then a break. Its so much going on in these books. I think I have just Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum and Habakkuk left.

Maybe this is just the Devil trying to get me to quit when I'm so close to finishing. I'm really finding that I can read many of these remaining books in about 30 minutes each before I start my day. So honestly I could be done by the end of Feb. But then what? I'm not going to go bragging around my church saying "look what I've done". I'm probably just going to go back and read Ephesians 6, Philippians 4, Romans 8, Hebrews 11, etc. But its like I'm running a "marathon" in my back yard. There's no reward for finishing this. I don't even know that I'm getting the understanding that I should be getting. Its one thing to know things that happened and some of the things that are not talked about in church, but I'm not getting the training of a pastor or theology person. I'm just a layperson who's trying to guide his conscience right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You might find it helpful to read an annotated copy? When I start getting lost in the text, I sometimes find the footnotes helpful as a way to help me understand the text in a new way and keep me engaged. Try The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter. I like his style of translation and his footnotes often delve into historical context that can be helpful when trying to understand some of what's going on in the text.

If you're looking for an annotated bible, this one is my favorite https://skepticsannotatedbible.com/categories.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Spent a year reading the entire Bible. It was worth it to find less well known passages that became important to me. Every day, I read various parts for inspiration. Whatever works best for you!

I find this most settling. There are some parts of the Bible that I didn't even know existed and some stories that I didn't realize were in the Bible (Daniel in the Lion's den and I didn't know that David and Goliath was a Biblical story) and there is so much that I read that I think guides me and helps me through my dark days. I know I'm going to finish, I think I'm just being negative and wondering why.

[Anonymous]

It seems to me that these are different but complimentary activities. One is a systematic survey. The other is more meditative.

[Anonymous]

Read the whole thing. Otherwise you're ignoring lots of stuff

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm glad I read the entire Bible. Thank you, Bible in a Year, which is 20-25 minutes daily podcast, so it wasn't a particularly heavy lift for me. While there will be parts I will probably never return to, the journey helped put some of the NT in context.

So I guess my advice would be, it's not urgent, but it's a nice and helpful thing to do. If you need to wait until your kids are in college or until you retire, that's fine. In fact it's probably more than fine because, if you wait, you'll have more time to think about what you're reading.

Honestly, what I normally do is listen or read on my phone while I'm running on the treadmill in the mornings before the kids wake up. But some books like the stuff after Proverbs to Matthew is difficult to make it through. I read SoS, and had to take a break, then went back and did Isaiah and took a break, Jeremiah then break, Lamentations and Ezekiel then break. Daniel and then a break. Its so much going on in these books. I think I have just Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum and Habakkuk left.

Maybe this is just the Devil trying to get me to quit when I'm so close to finishing. I'm really finding that I can read many of these remaining books in about 30 minutes each before I start my day. So honestly I could be done by the end of Feb. But then what? I'm not going to go bragging around my church saying "look what I've done". I'm probably just going to go back and read Ephesians 6, Philippians 4, Romans 8, Hebrews 11, etc. But its like I'm running a "marathon" in my back yard. There's no reward for finishing this. I don't even know that I'm getting the understanding that I should be getting. Its one thing to know things that happened and some of the things that are not talked about in church, but I'm not getting the training of a pastor or theology person. I'm just a layperson who's trying to guide his conscience right.

I get what you’re saying about the difficulty of sticking with it between Proverbs and Matthew. The Bible in a Year podcast helped me with that because the schedule is the schedule. But even Fr Mike (I’m not Catholic but that doesn’t matter for the podcast) said that he thought this was the hardest part of the Bible.

For me, it wasn’t just checking a box. Well, it might have been a little of that. It definitely wasn’t bragging rights—I think only my family and a friend or two know, and that was because they saw me listening to the podcast and reading the day’s passages. What was it then? I guess I just wanted to know what I was missing, and the only way to get a personal handle on that was to actually read them. For me, like you it seems, much of the prophets weren’t extremely relevant because God’s relationship with us changed in the NT. Now I know that, where I didn’t know it before. Also there are places in Isaiah and Daniel that some say foretold Jesus, and it was useful to read those. It might seem like a lot of work to get here, and it is a lot of work, but at least you’re close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For years I've had a mission of reading the full Bible. I've been on the minor prophets in the Old Testament for quite a while. And normally I'll start reading some but get bored, flip a few pages and turn to a favorite Psalm of mine or say a Chapter in Romans, Ephesians, Galatians, or the like. There are a lot of chapters and verses that are very inspiring and help me get through a lot of the stresses of my life and I have been wondering now why I have this mission to complete the Bible, other than being able to say I did it.

So how important is it to read the full Bible and should I feel bad that I keep wanting to go back to my favorites?

Are you willing to consider combining biblical reading with outside reading about the Bible, Christianity, history, etc.

On a personal level, I've find biblical reading more fulfilling in a greater context. If i were to sit and read the bible in the way i read anything else i'd get bored quickly, which seems like what you're going through.

[Anonymous]

Reading the full Bible in a year means spending 75% of your time or so in the OT. The OT doesn't have 75% of the value to a Christian. Most of the OT can be considered filler at best. There is a reason why most of it doesn't speak to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For years I've had a mission of reading the full Bible. I've been on the minor prophets in the Old Testament for quite a while. And normally I'll start reading some but get bored, flip a few pages and turn to a favorite Psalm of mine or say a Chapter in Romans, Ephesians, Galatians, or the like. There are a lot of chapters and verses that are very inspiring and help me get through a lot of the stresses of my life and I have been wondering now why I have this mission to complete the Bible, other than being able to say I did it.

So how important is it to read the full Bible and should I feel bad that I keep wanting to go back to my favorites?

Are you willing to consider combining biblical reading with outside reading about the Bible, Christianity, history, etc.

On a personal level, I've find biblical reading more fulfilling in a greater context. If i were to sit and read the bible in the way i read anything else i'd get bored quickly, which seems like what you're going through.

+1. I did the Bible in a Year in conjunction with two courses from The Great Courses company on the historicity of the OT. This might not appeal to those who take the OT literally or give it a larger place in their belief than many Christians do. But I found the discussions about, say, the historicity of David to be really interesting and to keep me motivated to stick with the readings.