As a teenager, I started at Genesis.  I probably got as far as Ezra or thereabouts before something interrupted and I didn't get back to it.

Several times after that I began, usually following a schedule, but didn't complete it.

Over the years I became quite familiar with the lectionary passages, reading all four selections before or with my study group, and for awhile I thought I had covered most of it.  But then a few years ago I decided to find out what the lectionary didn't cover.  Finally I can say:

Yes, I have read the Bible - all the way through!

No I have not.

Yes I have. One summer a number of years ago I read it all the way through, from Genesis to Revelation.

I have.  I must admit there are parts that make an exceptionally good aid to sleep (the begats leap to mind)

No. Not all of the OT, I don't think so- just parts of it. There is a lot of thou shalt and shalt nots and ritual sin offerings and smoting that I don't understand the context of and have only skimmed through and gotten the gist of it. As with the tribal geneology. I have heard and read references to many of the stories and characters (which I then might look up), especially those refered to in the NT, or in an article or sermon, but I cannot take credit for having sat down and read all of it myself cover to cover. I should but am not interested in just slogging through it. I would not remember much of it and haven't tried very hard to. I have read all of the NT.

I have been more interested in what Jesus had to say, or WWJD- and also, coming across this a couple of years ago had an impact on me- because I really have difficulty with a lot of the OT. But, no, I have not learned all the commentary.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Quote/hillel.html

So...no. :(

Time to brag, I guess. I have attended 8 institutes of higher learning*, read the bible

completely twice and abandoned the OT  (which makes more sense now that I understand more completely the  OT was written by and for a specific audience where the NT was for everybody.

* completed in none, taught in two. (Moved around a LOT when working.)

"Good News For Modern Man" is a favourite NT (Beautifully illustrated )

Am I a Christian? Probably not. Maybe 'yes' for Bishop Spong...

No, I haven't read the entire Bible. 

No, never read the Bible in its entirety, just parts of it, my favourite books repeatedly.

The Bible consists of many books. Some of them I like more, others less. And some are more boring to read than others.

I've probably read most of the New Testament, but there are large chunks of the Old Testament that I still have not read. Started working on a reading of the "historical books" (Judges, Kings, etc.) at one point but, like most of my attempts at major reading projects these days, it floundered as life caught up.

Mendalla

yes

Hi seeler,

Which canon?

There are two Jewish canons.  Rabbinic Judaism and Beta Israel.  I believe that the Protestant version of the Old Testament is approximately identical to the Rabbinic Judaism canon.  I have not had an opportunity yet to look at a copy of the Beta Israel canon.

There is a Samaritan canon which is similar to the Rabbinic Judaism canon.  I do not think I have read that although my understanding is that it is primarily different in some of the details.

I have read the Protestant Canon and the Roman Catholic Canon.  I have not read any of the complete canons from the Orthodox or Assyrian traditions.  The Orthodox Tawahedo traditions probably have the largest of all Christian canons including unique material in both the Old and New Testaments.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Oh wow, I'm really behind, Revjohn. So much to read, so little time.

Hi  seeler---No I have not I read that which God tells me to . Or If I'm studying some thing. Really John Wilson took the words out of my mouth.

 I understand more completely the  OT was written by and for a specific audience

Airclean--This also is as I see some of Gods word.So realy seeler why would someone I mean other than a Minister want to read all of GODS words?  I will also admit there are some in there that are hard to understand. One I aked GOD about . He took 20 years to answer me.God Bless--airclean33

*chuckle* If we're counting, I've been to six postsecondary schools, and also taken courses from four others. I've kept the OT in my studies, because it is important to understand as much as one can of God's entire redemptive story.

Nope.  All of the NT and some (not even close to most) of the OT.

No, I haven't read the whole Bible in any version.  I tried to begin at the beginning once and found it tedious.  However, I think I have as much Biblical awareness as most of the people I attended church with for a while, and more than some.  Thinking and speaking in theological ways just didn't seem to be on the radar there for many congregants.  If there were some that were thinking that way they didn't converse with me (which doesn't mean much really). 

Yes.  But quite a few years ago - and only once.  I followed a reading guide.  I haven't attempted it again since then.  I would think I've rest most of it again all the way through since then, but am sure I would have miss some of it.

Did you follow a reading guide, seeler?

I have not.  I don't feel inspired to at this stage, but I expect that I will find a reading guide and get through it one of these years...

Well, I think reading the bible from front to back is not a great exercise so that is why I don't participate in the churches that spend a weekend reading the bible from beginning to end - like blah,blah,blah.

If. like Beloved and Seeler said, that one read with a guide, there would be connection of the readings.

I find the lectionary helpful.

But , no, reading from beginning to end, I have not done.

While I have read the Bible several times from front to back I have to confess I find that more of a chore than a pleasure.

I tend to deal with a book here and a book there.

Some of the minor prophets can be read in less than 15 minutes.  Other books take about an hour or so.  Larger books require several hours.

Like most I can glaze over when I hit the begats or the lists in Chronicles so I will not force myself to swallow those portions of text whole.  A couple of verses here and several others later mixed in with some Psalms.

There are other sections which are also dry reads (the design for the tabernacle and the instructions for the construction of all artifacts attached to as well as the various types of offerings.

Other stuff reads very quickly.

What helps most is reading it with others and taking breaks to discuss those elements which leap out at you.

Grace and peace to you.

John

My intention in reading the entire Bible was mainly to discover what the lectionary left out. 

I began in Genesis, reading it all but, more or less skimming the lectionary passages, and concentrating on those I was not familiar with. 

As I read through, I made my own guide - mainly trying to read chronologically - interspersing the psalms with the kings and with the prophets. 

In doing so, I used a time line from my Bible.

No. I've started any number of times and abandoned the project after falling asleep over it several nights in a row.

Realistically, I'm reasonably familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures, and quite familiar with the New Testament, except, inexplicably, for Acts. And, although my preferred bible happens to be a Catholic one, the Inclusive Bible, I'm not at all familiar with their canon, except for the fancy fluff they put around Esther to make it more religious. And I love the story of Judith.

Crazyheart - regarding those times when a church, or a group of churches, have a marathon Bible reading and read the entire Bible non-stop for 24/7 - I've been involved twice.  Because people have asked for my support.  It never made much sense to me.  The times I was present only a handful of other volunteers were listening while they waited their turn to read, or waited for their ride home after reading.  I wasn't explained.  It wasn't put in context. 

And I don't think it would fit the criteria for having read the Bible all the way through.  For one thing, each person only read a small portion - not even a whole book (unless it was very short).  Listening is not the same as reading. 

And I have never known anyone who stayed in the room, awake and alert, for the entire reading. 

So I don't think that having a group of people work their way through the Bible could be counted as an individual reading it all.

seeler

Now that you mention it I haven't been reading the bible except as it relates to some scripture on the WC being discussed. I did read books of the Old T. King James version, a book here or there over the years . I'm sure I've read lots of the New T. but I favour the first 5 books.

Airclean thinks that God is slow. He said it took God 20 years to answer a bible question. We do slow down with age........I'm just joking airclean.....:)

The "begats" can be boring but when you look at the chronological timeline they create it becomes interesting when you compare it to archeology and understanding a timeline that intersects with historical facts. For example just recently a new pharaoh was discovered in Egypt in 2014, King Seneb Kay, who was previously unknown. I'm curious how he fits in with the timeline for the Exodus. We've never been told within the Bible who the pharoah was during the exodus. We've always assumed it was Ramses because of the movie, The Ten Commandments, which in actuality is an impossiblity. Other pharaohs are more of a possiblility. In a way we can get more of a glimpse into the culture at the time of major events described within the Bible because we can associate them with the geneology.

Calendars and before scientific findings, the worlds creation was explained by this geneology.

Exodus never happened. It's a widely accepted myth. What's the point of wondering which pharoah was around for an event that didn't happen? So you know who to blame for not doing something?

That's one theory, Chansen. Widely accepted isn't very scientific, is it?

600,000 people marched, right? Where's the archeological evidence?

How is it that I'm breaking this to you? The Exodus never happened. It's a myth. This isn't a controversial thing to say, unless you're in the company of people who need to believe it to complete their tenuous belief system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exodus

chansen - Exodus never happened you say. How extraordinary - you're making a belief claim without solid scientific evidence to back you up. In a way I'm quite proud of you.

Is it a similar claim to say that Jack and the Beanstalk never happened? I don't have evidence that didn't happen, either. I make that statement because it's implausible and there is no evidence it ever took place. Same with the exodus. If you don't like Wikipedia, follow the links. This should not come as a shock to you, but I guess it does.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_eruption

You find it impossible that 600,000 could be displaced?

Seeler, I've never heard of a marathon reading session.  Was it a UCCan or another church?

Okay, so, say a factor of 2.5 to be conservative? Sound fair? 1.5 million people, minimum. How much room do people need to walk? Being stingy, maybe 10 sq.ft.? 15 million square feet is 344 acres. Put another way, if they marched in a column 30 ft wide, about the width of a wide road, the line would be 150 km long. All these are minimums. None of this makes sense, or is remotely plausible.
.
But even if you accepted the above scam attempt, you then have to account for the complete lack of archeological evidence. There is none. The mass movement of 1.5 million people, and there aren't grave sites littering the path, no way the land would support that many, no path of broken cookware or equipment, no nothing. Archeologists literally gave up looking. Archeologists can find evidence of migrations far older and far smaller, but nothing from this group of 1.5 million.
.
You need to believe this, or your world falls apart. If you look without that requirement, you'd dismiss it, too.

http://unhcr.org/globaltrendsjune2013/UNHCR%20GLOBAL%20TRENDS%202012_V05...

I hope these records don't get lost over the next 3000 years.

Or God forbid that Google would be destroyed and go the way of the library at Alexandria. LOL!

Anyway maybe we should stop disrupting Seelers threadl. If you know how to transfer these posts to a new post (I don't) we could discuss if the Exodus is Myth or not.

chemgal, the marathon readings are once a year in many churches. The United church here have both hosted and participated.

Kind of like a fossil record with no intermediary fossils.  There should be millions - billions. But since evolution is the only other idea that has been invented that eliminates God as the designer of life, you need to believe this.

Once I was a tadpole, grubbing in the mire,
Till I became ambitious and started to aspire;
I rubbed my tail so vigorously against a sunken log,
It disappeared completely, and I found myself a frog.

I struggled from my puddle and I jumped upon dry land,
And the feeling that was in me was glorious and grand;
It made me kind of frisky, so I hopped around a tree,
Till I landed in the branches as happy as could be.

And there I spent some aeons evoluting without fail,
Till I became a monkey and grew another tail;
But still I had ambitions as the aeons quickly sped,
So I descended from the tree and walked the earth instead,

Till my tail got tired with trailing on the hard ground every day,
And twice within my process that appendage passed away.
Once again I evoluted, and, believe me if you can,
I awoke one summer morning and found myself a man!

Now you tadpoles in the mire, just think what you may be,
If you'll only in your puddles start to climb the family tree.
I am the genus homo finished for all the world to see;
For when I told my story, I was giv'n a Ph.D.

J.H. Hunter

Chemgal -The marathon Bible reading was organized several years by an interchurch council of many denominations - RC, Baptist, Anglican, UCC, and others.  This was some years ago.  I haven't heard about it lately.  I don't know if the interchurch council still exists.  Most UCC people that I knew of participating did so because they wished to cooperate with something other people considered important and could see no harm in it (other than giving a few hours that might otherwise be spent watching TV.)

Chansen - have you read the Bible?   You seem to have a lot to say about it.

Saul / Paul - have you read it in its entirety?

When I became a Christian, I made a point of reading the bible 3 times through before I read any other religious books. The first few times are more difficult, and if you believe the bible – you have a lot of ideas in your head that you are going to have to rethink. I struggled a lot with Paul. And there’s a lot in the OT that when I read it, I still continuously pray to God to reveal to me why it is there. Maybe it is only to make me pray?

After reading it front to back 3 times, I remained a bit OCD in reading it front to back and probably went through it that way at least another 30 times. I pretty much read whatever I want now. I love reading the bible. It is God’s love letter to us. I generally get in at least 45 min God time every morning before everybody else start moving around.

Thank you Saul / Paul. 

My son also has OCD.  He has read the Bible multiple times.  Once he sets his mind on a task, he follows it through.  I find it easier to understand and find meaning if I read it chronologically, so that I can place ideas and events on a timeline.

Personally, I think it would be difficult to understand the New Testament without being somewhat familiar with 'the scripture that Jesus read'. 

Thanks CH and Seeler.  I knew people who I could see doing something like that, but I had just never heard of it.  Sitting through a few hours of that would probably put me to sleep!

Seeler, in your post to Crazyheart, you were saying 'it wasn't explained' -- and dropped the 't'

'I wasn't explained ' just struck me as a great sentence, The perfect answer to the question "Why did you fail? " Why did you think you lost the argument?"

or

Jesus why did your church contribute to so many wars, and why is there so many different kinds?"

Jesus: "I wasn't explained"

Thanks for a new thought, sorry for the interruption.....

airclean33 wrote:

stardust wrote:

seeler

 

Now that you mention it I haven't been reading the bible except as it relates to some scripture on the WC being discussed. I did read books of the Old T. King James version, a book here or there over the years . I'm sure I've read lots of the New T. but I favour the first 5 books.

 

Airclean thinks that God is slow. He said it took God 20 years to answer a bible question. We do slow down with age........I'm just joking airclean.....:)

-Hi Stardust-- It's ok and your right we do slow down with age.I have been reading your posts . It seems your mind is still very clear. God Bless --airclean33

You must live a long time to realize how nice old age is 

The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures is like taking an hour-long lecture every time you pick it up. I've been dabbeling in it for several years now...still a long way to go. The forward alone is a semester in history/translation.(I consider this the most wasted paragraph in this thread, to firm up this conviction I'll mention You Tube Spong Lectures as being what used to be known as as 'God-send'

i

For those who never read the bible here's a taste of it: