Where should I start reading (the Bible)?

Psalms?

The Song of Solomon is nice. Completely devoid of doctrine, and full of porn. It’s great.

I learned more from a comic book Bible than a regular traditional Bible. So I’d say, start with a graphic version, then re-read your favorite stuff from the King James or some other traditional version.

It may be daunting but try to start at the beginning. There are guides available that will get you through the entire Bible in one year. Good luck and enjoy.

According to my dad, who is a minister, and has a Doctorate of Theology. A first time serious reader of the Bible should start with the Gospels. John, Luke, Mark and Matthew in that order.

The old testament is by far the most interesting. The beginning isn’t a bad start. Genesis has a lot of story. Job is pretty good, although most research says it was definitely from sources other than Judeo-Christian. Deuteronomy is a drag. Ecclesiastes probably won’t float your boat. Things like Ruth and Esther are interesting. Besdt5 book in new testament is Revelation.

many think “revelations” is where you should start, but there are many many books in the Bible that shed light on all of today’s thoughts, worries and ideaologies.

go for “proverbs” as a start.

the Bible answers all questions under the sun. where to start is hard to say. certain passages lead you to others in the future or in the past, but everything is connected and there are no flaws or mistakes.

try reading isiah for who you are and how much power you have. or try parables in the new testatment that have all life’s lessons if you just take the time to read. they are not fantasy.

place your name in scriptures where people of that time overcame unbelievable odds. the same they overcame also can apply to you.

@charliecompany34 i was talking about the fun reads, the seductions, the murders, the plagues [forgot Exodus] and the pschedelia . . .
And the pointless agony of job

@anartist i gotcha. point well taken. i had written my response before reading yours. when i saw you say “revelations” i was like oops.

1 corinthians

like say you want to understand the oil spill in the gulf coast. the human mind cannot fathom how to get out of this. it’s a modern-day catastrophe or plague, if you will. nobody seems to have an answer. i’m just using the oil spill as an example of discomfort and doubt so to speak.

the answer to it is already in the Bible. things die. people die. people suffer, but the sun rises and sets every day. and that means God is in control. when we realize that we cannot control things, we realize and respect that things will get better as long as we believe it will.

I am currently reading the Old Testament for the first time. There are very grueling parts that are so boring I nearly sleep, but many stories that I had never heard before (and I grew up in the church). I am reading 3 chapters a day, and at that rate, you would be able to finish it within 11 months. I began January 1st. 3 chapters isn’t very much, and some are very short. Leviticus and Numbers can be wearing, though.
I suggest you read it from the beginning. Keep in mind the Old Testament is the Bible of the Jews, and the New Testament is the Bible of Christianity. They are not mutually exclusive, but Christ did change some things.
Good luck!

@filmfann There are a couple Psalms that may challenge that 3 chapters a night.

Your reservations aside, I would start at the very beginning. If nothing else, you get to see how God changes His personality in the New Testament. Makes you wonder if there is such a thing as seretonin reuptake inhibitors in His Kingdom.

To clarify something I said earlier which was removed, I think it would be a grave mistake to skip the Old Testament, and I think the best way to approach it as a piece of literature is to read it from the beginning. In my opinion, if you skip the Old Testament you may as well skip the whole project.

@WestRiverrat Yes, I am in Psalms now, and some of them are remarkably short. I am not saying you must read 3, but you will find that is a good, reasonable pace. There are times you will fall behind, and times you will race ahead. I am currently about a week ahead of my scheduled pace.

I’d read the Old Testament a long time ago. I read it through from start to finish just like a novel. It was interesting to read how God makes mistakes and then corrects them; makes decisions and then changes His mind, especially when some human points out to Him that something he planned to do might not be a good idea after all; and even commits grave injustices at times and then makes up for them (sort of). It shows that He’s “human” after all…

@Seek_Kolinahr You f**king took my joke. Darn it :P

I was gonna use the phrase “Song of Songs”, though. Is there a difference?

@filmfann I was referring to 119 you may have to break that one down.

@WestRiverrat Yep. Longest in the Bible. Shortist is 117, as I understand it. It is actually shorter than this response! So, it balances out nicely.

I don’t think it makes sense to start at the New Testament. The NT is a tiny fraction of the whole Bible, and is highly dependent on the theology developed in the Old Testament. You should definitely start at the beginning from a narrative standpoint.

However, I do appreciate that the Bible is a boring, inconsistent* text that’s difficult to read. First of all, you should use a good translation. DO NOT use the King James translation—the original Hebrew does not read like 17th century English, so why should that color your understanding? I’d recommend the New Revised Standard Version, but any new translation you think is easy to read should be fine; I wouldn’t worry too much about “accuracy.”

On the other hand, you may want to go with the abridged route. In that case, I’d actually recommend a website called the Brick Testament. It’s a visual telling of the Bible, with legos. It’s not exactly what you’d call “worshipful,” but it is quite accurate to the text. And it’s fun and engaging to read.

* this isn’t intended as a knock against the text so much as stating the fact that the Bible is actually a collection of a bunch of very different texts, each with its own tone and themes. You’re not reading a book so much as several dozen books.

By the way, you may think I am not being serious, but the fact is that R. Crumb has illustrated a translation of Genesis that is getting much critical acclaim.

I should also add… I studied the Bible for college, I was supposed to read the whole thing, but I ended up skipping a bunch of the Psalms. That shit gets really repetitive. I believe I also skipped some of Chronicles too, but then Chronicles is mostly a retelling of earlier books.

Point being, I don’t think you need to read the whole, entire Bible to, you know, “read the Bible.” A lot of it is just the same stuff over and over, which worked for ancient Mesopotamian poetry but not so much for today’s literature.

@nicoleromstadt

Welcome to Fluther. I hope you enjoy your experience here.

Just in case your question is sincere, and you truly are searching for answers for your life, and not just sarcasm and trite rhetoric, you may want to be aware that there might be other, better places to look for the answers you seek. I’d suggest a religious web site, or someone intelligent you know who believes in the book.

There are people here who care about providing you with helpful suggestions, but not so many, unfortunately.

@eden2eve, not everyone who wants to read the Bible wants to be converted to your religion of choice. There are plenty of good reasons to read the Bible, or any ancient influential text, apart from “I want to believe what this book says.” It’s kind of insulting to the whole history of academic Biblical studies to suggest that such study is only after “sarcasm” and “trite rhetoric.”

@Qingu , I certainly didn’t attempt to convert the asker to my “religion of choice” did I? I was offering the suggestion that they might get more cogent and honest answers to their question elsewhere. There are certainly many ways to study religious materials, of any faith or lack of faith, but for me, one of them wouldn’t be to ask a person who is patently antagonistic to that material for suggestions.

I wouldn’t ask a Muslim person to suggest to me how to study about the Jewish faith, nor would I ask a Fundamentalist Christian to guide me to study Athiesm. That should be easy to comprehend, and not insulting, unless someone has another agenda and has reason to be defensive.

I most definitely never stated that any form of study of “sacred” text is after “sarcasm and trite rhetoric”, only that many of the commentary thus far in this post clearly fits that description. Certainly, many of the comments above, yours included, could be experienced as insulting to those who believe differently.

I’m not sure why you would be so concerned about protecting the sensibilities of a sincere, possibly unbiased student when you give no thought to protecting the sensibilities of those who don’t agree with your POV. Is there something sacrosanct about one, and not the other?

I actually think that studying the Bible from a Jewish or Christian point of view tends to be pretty unhelpful towards understanding the text in its cultural and historical context. Sort of like asking a devout Communist for his thoughts on the writings of Marx instead of someone attempting to study Marx objectively.

As a former Fundamental Christian, I have to agree with @Qingu. It wasn’t until I took a course on Western Humanities that I was exposed to “The Bible as Literature” and “The Bible as History”. Both are actually fascinating studies, and truly helped me come to happy terms with my own atheism.

I would like to suggest 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and Hebrews chapter 11 as a good starting point.

Anywhere really. Most people I know just jump from book to book. However, the book of Revelations is extremely interesting. :)

Revelation, not Revelations

@dpworkin how did I miss Mr Natural’s Genesis? When was that done? 70s?

Go look on Amazon.

Would you mind saying what exactly you are hoping to explore? Christianity specifically? Personal spiritual development?

@Qingu Well, people do make mistakes. >.>

Genesis then Revelations the middle part is pretty dull.

@Rarebear sorry your comment went. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Hope you get to keep your lurve.

The cartoonist R. Crumb has just made a book of the Bible’s first book—and it is fabulous. You can hardly put it down. Highly recommended—gets you right though those “begots” with ease. And the characters all become very alive.

I’ll be damned. R. Crumb you say?

hearing an echo?

Thanks for all of your advice :) I think I’ll reconsider and just start at the beginning!

Proverbs. Gospel of Matthew. Story of Joseph staring with Genesis 37. Psalms. Then move on to the tougher stuff.

wot u need is a bible reading plan before starting..got the same for myself when i wanted to start..and its going quite well..

If it helps heres the link..
http://www.crosspointechurch.tv/b90x.html