Climbing onto a favored spot on the couch, stretching the legs on the patio under the glow of the afternoon sun, opening a magisterial text on the dining room table alongside toast and coffee, or raising the screen of a phone while yet reclined in bed — there are many ways to delve into the scriptures, and relying on the same cues day after day helps to reinforce the habit. It can be difficult habit to inculcate, particularly since the method and goal of the habit are so ill-defined. Does a daily practice of ‘reading the Bible’ mean seeking some nugget of truth or wisdom for the day? Just the act of reading? And is reading a single verse sufficient? A chapter? A book? Where should I start? Well, Genesis seems like a pragmatic choice (it does lead off the hallowed text), until one is deep into Exodus and the fast-paced narrative slows to a peculiar crawl. The context is so foreign that it often reads like one has stumbled across a recipe book for brewing potions — garlic, three beetle wings, wine, bile from a cow’s stomach, and the petals of a red rose. The reader feels light-years from the warm familiarity of the New Testament preached effortlessly on a given Sunday.

For this reason, approaches like ‘Read the Bible in a Year’ have become popular. Weighing into the depths of the prophets or the genealogies of 1 Chronicles is mitigated with a chapter from the Jewish scriptures, balanced by a Psalm, and a less obscure chapter from the New Testament. This variegated, piecemeal approach has the benefit of providing the enterprising reader with a vague familiarity with the entire scriptures (‘I’ve read them all’); a few memories, confusions, or oddities to ponder; the positive sense of accomplishment of having tackled so daunting a task; and the clearly-defined daily steps to get there. Following these steps is no mean feat — especially when trying to set aside a half hour in an already busy life. And, if your goal is to read through the entire Christian Bible — well, then, mission accomplished.

If, on the other hand, your intention is to develop a deeper understanding of the scriptures, and to thereby develop as a Christian, the successful reader may be disappointed. The daily passages were short, drawn from three (or more) separate parts of the scriptures. They were isolated from their surrounding context — and usually even more so when read ‘chronologically’.[1] What was a particular book about? A vague awareness (more than before!), but the realization that we wish we had paid more attention in Micah, Deuteronomy, or 2 Peter. The natural next step is to turn back to the beginning of the reading plan (or select a new one from the menu), and commit another year, hoping that this particular approach will provide the desired depth.

1 Gerrit Dou, Old Woman Reading the Bible, c1645, Louvre. Public domain.

Why not take a step back and re-think what we are trying to accomplish? We wish to develop a thorough understanding of an anthology of over sixty books, ranging over as many as 1500 years of cultural, linguistic, and historical change — and each deeply intertwined with, for us, a brand-new world. It is as though one were to select sixty texts ranging from Homer to Dickens and to read a few paragraphs in each every day. Let’s read the first short chapter from David Copperfield alongside the second half of book 21 of the Iliad. Sure, we’ll read them all, but that’s not how the book was intended to be consumed, nor will we remember them particularly well. They were meant to be read from cover-to-cover, or, in the modern era of chapters, chapter-by-chapter — bearing in mind that the authors of the scriptures did not add the chapter or verse demarcations. The chapters are artificial divisions, and somewhat arbitrarily selected. Paul intended Galatians to be read in one sitting, like a letter. Reading only the first chapter might be equivalent to getting an email from a friend or colleague and choosing to read one paragraph of it every day, or perhaps breaking O. Henry’s short stories into a multi-week affair.

So, we should, like a letter or novel of any era, consume each text as a whole. Even texts which are too long to consume ‘in one sitting’ ought to be considered and understood as a whole.

But, unlike a modern novel, the foreign cultural context — not to mention the depth of religious instruction and spiritual guidance offered — demand closer attention. While there are many ways to approach this, I will provide one, below, which places the understanding of the text as central, but at the same time is not overly burdensome. The focus is on a process rather than achieving a particular goal, thereby generating a genuine interest and curiosity in the biblical text which will only increase at each turn of the page. It is probably not for everyone, but give it a try!

2 Jan Steen, A Couple Warming Themselves and Reading the Bible, c1658, Museum De Lakenhal. Public domain.

Step 1. Read the text in one sitting.

To get started, pick a short New Testament letter — Philemon, James, Galatians, or 1 John are good options. You can expand the practice to larger texts, but these smaller ones are good starting points.[2] In reading, try to pay less attention to individual verses: focus on the meaning as a whole. Even if you get tripped up by a verse or two, keep going. When you’ve finished reading, reflect on what you’ve read and call it a day.

Step 2. Read it again, but pick a different translation.

Repeat, reading again for a high-level understanding of the book, but this time with a different translation. If you had a more ‘literal’, one which tends to translate a single Greek/Hebrew word or phrase for a single English word or phrase (e.g., KJV, NASB, ESV), pick a more ‘dynamic’ or ‘paraphrasal’ version (e.g., NIV, NLT, Living, or the Message).[3] If your primary translation was ‘dynamic’, which focuses on translating ‘thoughts’ rather than words, consider a ‘literal’ one. Even modern novels are frequently re-read to pick up on details overlooked in a first reading. Other translations provide different ways of looking at the same underlying text, aiding in understanding.

Step 3. Read it again, but slowly.

Now is the time to slow down, and you can expect this process to take days or weeks — it’s up to you. You can return to your first translation, or pick a new one, but it would be best if the Bible has textual notes (i.e., a ‘study Bible’). The notes should appear at the bottom of the page and help explain or provide context for the verses you are reading. Certain study Bibles even focus on a theme: I’m a particular fan of ‘archaeology study Bibles’. As an alternative, pick up (from your local library or bookstore) a commentary on the book you’ve chosen. Peruse the ‘background’ of the book — date of writing, context, author, audience, purpose, and so forth. Then, read your chosen biblical text verse-by-verse, making sure that you understand what is being said. Don’t be shy about re-reading a section — finishing in a set period of time is not the goal. When you have trouble, consult your commentary.

Step 4. Step back and see the bigger picture.

While completing step 3, you will occasionally need to take a step back and read a larger section all at once. Perhaps quickly read through all of Galatians 1 each day while studying it verse-by-verse to help keep the larger context in view.

Iterating between steps 3 and 4 is up to personal preference (and you may even want a couple study Bibles or commentaries to swap between to ‘freshen’ the experience), but these steps will take some time — days, weeks, perhaps even months — so just dedicate a little bit of time to ‘explore’ each day.

Step 5. Re-read the text.

Once more, as in steps 1 and 2, read the book in a single sitting, paying attention to what you’ve been studying in steps 3 and 4. Unlike steps 1 and 2, feel free to not complete the book in a sitting: stop any time and look up things you forgot, or pursue answers to new questions. Repeat until you feel that you want to explore some new text, and return to step 1.

Resources

  • Your favorite translation of the Scriptures as a study Bible — ESV, NIV, and NKJV are usually good options. Feel free to change your ‘favorite’ as often as you like.
  • A secondary translation, different from the first.[3]
  • A commentary, though feel free to keep a couple around.
  • A Bible dictionary, which provides helpful contextual information for people, places, things, and ideas.

Resource Notes

While you can buy commentaries, and Bible dictionaries, all of these can be freely acquired/borrowed.

  • Check a library for commentaries. Sometimes these are kept ‘for reference’, but a visit can help you figure out which one(s) might be a good fit.
  • Most churches will provide you with a physical Bible if you do not have one.
  • Numerous Bible translations (and commentaries) are available online through websites like BibleGateway, BibleHub, and Crosswire. The last also provides e-Sword, a set of powerful Bible study tools for Windows, Mac, and iOS.
  • Similar to e-Sword, Logos provides a free ‘Basic’ package which can be used on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. One can purchase additional resources, but bear in mind that these are only available through the Logos software.
  • In addition to a commentary, a Bible dictionary can be a useful resource for helping to parse names, places, or concepts. There are many available for free online, e.g., see the list here: https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/.

Questions

It can help to come at the Biblical text with questions about god or Christian living. These are valuable and should be asked, but I’d recommend beginning with understanding. For example, assuming we selected a Pauline letter, what is Paul trying to say to his audience? What are their problems? What are they doing well? What does Paul think about god? What sort of person is Paul? We can only then begin to look at our own lives and see how we can incorporate this understanding for ourselves.

3 Gerrit Dou, Portrait of an Old Woman Reading, c1633, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. Public domain.

  1. This is not to say that reading different sections at once can have benefits like noticing certain parallels, or that when reading chronologically certain insights cannot be gained. Rather, I am proposing that alternative approaches will be more fruitful.
  2. When you read larger ones which cannot be completed in one sitting, try doing some form of ‘overlapping’ reading. E.g., Matthew 1-5 on the first day, then Matthew 4-9, etc.
  3. There are some interesting charts on the range of biblical translations, and I will probably write about this in a future week. I am somewhat suspect of the precision of these metrics, but I suspect they’re useful as a general guide. See, e.g., https://notjustanotherbook.com/images/bibletranslationcompv10.1920.jpg or the comparisons here: https://www.apbrown2.net/web/TranslationComparisonChart.htm.