Having said that “Making Time for God is crucial” we do find lots of people who are convinced they have no time left over for reading such old writings.
It is true that having about 775,000 words in the Bible, it would take some time to read them all. Though when you would divide the amount of words of the Bible by 365, that would give only 2,123 words to read a day. When you know that the average person reads 200 to 250 words per minute this amount of words would not take sóoo long. So 2,123 words/day divided by 225 words/minute equals 9.4 minutes a day.
Reading it out load or listening to some one reading the Bible would take a few hours more than reading the Bible in silence. though it would also not take so many hours. If you want to listen to a narrator reading the Bible (which you can do so for free at ESVBible.org), it would in most cases take about 75 hours long in total, which means at 12 minutes a day you can listen to the whole Bible in a year.
For the ease of the public, you may find Bible versions which are divided up for you into 365 daily readings. The One-Year Bible in the ESV, for example is such a Bible translation in the english language, where they offer readings from the Old Testament, New Testament, a Psalm, and a Proverb each day.
Though I would like to warn you to be cautious with such versions. You have to remember such bibles often present only fragments or parts of the Whole Scriptures and such bible versions are not the sort of Bibles that could bring you to a good Bible study.
Remember also that you should feel comfortable and not pressed. It would always be better to read the whole Bible through carefully one time in two years than hastily in one year.
The Christadelphian Robert Roberts is one of many who developed a reading plan to facilitate a daily systematic reading of the whole bible: Tanakh and Messianic Scriptures. A form of this plan was later published as The Bible Companion and is still used by Christadelphians today. Although long ago figured out, it is still a valid system which up to today is still used daily by many serious Bible students. It is available in paper-print but also in computer-software, for pc-calendars and pc/tablet and smartphone applications. > Bible Companion now also available on Blackberry phones.
It has you reading whole chapters from the Old and New Testament and gets you once through the Hebrew Scriptures and twice to the Messianic Scriptures in one year.
Some might prefer to have variation in the genre they are reading. For them it can be a help to have an other genre for each day. This can be provided by following Andy Perry’s Bible Reading Plan for Shirkers and Slackers. It takes away the pressure (and guilt) of “keeping up” with the entire Bible in one year. You get variety within the week by alternating genres by day, but also continuity by sticking with one genre each day. Here’s the basic idea:
Sundays: Poetry
Mondays: Penteteuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy)
Tuesdays: Old Testament history
Wednesdays: Old Testament history
Thursdays: Old Testament prophets
Fridays: New Testament history
Saturdays: New Testament epistles (letters)
An other way could be following the seasons or time of year, and reading texts which are talking about events in or for that season. By reading one chapter a day, not in the Biblical or canonical order, the Legacy Reading Plan has a reading calendar which is segmented into seasons and the seasons into 3 months, with November being the time to read the letters of the personal representatives or shlihim (apostles) of the rabbeinu Jeshua.
You also should know the order of books may be different from one to an other denomination and from one to an other Bible version or Bible translation. Normally in the Tanakh you get the Teaching or Torah first, followed by the Hebbrew prophets or Nevi’im and then the different Hebrew writings or Kethuvim. In the Kethuvim Beth or Messianic writings you may find the Netzarim Writings of the haBrit haDashha or New Testament, with the gospels, the letters or epistles and the Book of revelation.
You may find: Jewish canons, Samaritan canon, Early Church Canon, Eastern Church Canon, Western Church Canon, but also many other Canons of various Christian traditions.
In a way it does not matter which order of books you are following as long as you come to read the main or most important bible books. I would not consider the anagignoskomena or deuterocanonical books as part of God His Words for us. Though those Apocrypha may be very interesting and inspiring additions to read in between. For Catholics they are part of their Bible, but in a way they are not essential to get the whole picture God wants us to have.
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Preceding
How to Read the Bible (sequel 1)
How to Read the Bible (sequel 2)
How to Read the Bible (sequel 3)
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Additional reading
- Creator and Blogger God 1 Emptiness and mouvement
- Bible Word from God
- Bible, God’s Word to edify (ERV)
- The Bible a book of books
- God’s Blog recorded in a Book
- Creator and Blogger God 10 A Blog of a Book 4 Listening to the Blogger
- Creator and Blogger God 11 Old and New Blog 1 Aimed at one man
- Written and translated by different men over thousands of years
- Looking for wisdom not departing from God’s Word
- Bible Translating and Concordance Making
- Finding and Understanding Words and Meanings
- Approachers of ideas around gods, philosophers and theologians
- Looking at notes of Samuel Ward and previous Bible translation efforts in English
- Statutes given unto us
- Bible in the first place #1/3
- Bible in the first place #2/3
- Bible in the first place #3/3
- Absolute Basics to Reading the Bible
- When reading your Bible be aware of changing language
- Missional hermeneutics 1/5
- Missional hermeneutics 2/5
- Missional hermeneutics 3/5
- Missional hermeneutics 4/5
- Human & Biblical teachings
- Backbone-book
- The Miracle of the Bible
- Recommended articles about the Book of books the Bible
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Find also
- Christadelphian Reading Planner
- the CALS Bible Reading Planner
- CALS – Bible Reading Handbook
- Free correspondence and online course
- Free Dutch study material + When you are looking for the One behind everything, the Almighty Divine Creator God
- The Whole Story of the Bible in 16 Verses by Chris Bruno
- George Guthrie, Read the Bible for Life: Your Guide to Understanding and Living God’s Word
- Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible Book by Book: A Guide
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Further reading
- The Virtues Of Seeking Knowledge…!
- 11 Merits of Seeking Knowledge
- God’s Word: A Sword for the Battle
- God’s Word: The place to go to learn how to live
- Simple Instructions
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