Studying the Bible as an Atheist

I've been wanting to study the Bible for several years for its historical and literary significance. In recent months, I've also come around to the fact that I don't have to believe in God to learn how to be a better person from it, so that will be a point of focus in my reading as well. I also intend to put much more emphasis on a metaphorical reading rather than literal.

My mother is an ordained minister who's been preaching regularly for about 10 years now, so I'm definitely going to be getting help from her, but I'd also like to know if there's anything you guys recommend for a secular reading of The Bible, and what translations you think are best coming at it from this direction. I'm also a native English speaker and the antiquated English of the KJV isn't that difficult for me, but I'm not stoked on it either.

Thanks, laddies.

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don't

the bible never should have been allowed within reach of the layman

>My mother is an ordained minister

Very long project if you want to make an actual attempt at it. I'd say start with the new testament because it's more relevant and huge portions of the old testament were effectively negated by Jesus. I'd also take a break after each significant story arc and watch a sermon about it.

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More recommend authors (Secular and non secular).

- Mircea Eliade
- Rudolf Otto
- Joseph Campbell

Epic!

keked. what kind of trash church 1.isn't catholic 2. lets women head the congregation? 9/10 chance it's run out of an RV in Oklahoma or some shit. prolly full of meth heads

Buy this one.

I'm also an atheist/agnostic that is getting into the Bible for the historical and literacy significance of it and this edition is really good. Great study bible which keeps getting recommended by all the "trad" Christians on the internet.

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"We live after death" = "People remember us after we die"
"We are judged after death" = "The people who remember us judge us after we die, and we can't do anything to influence their opinions after that"
"We have to follow God's laws" = "Laws are mostly arbitrary and change century to century, but each country has to all agree on a set of laws to follow"
"God created the universe" = "The universe is incredibly complex and we still don't understand it all and certainly can't control it all"
Best books: Genesis, Exodus, Judges, Samuel, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Matthew, Romans
Worst books: Psalms, Proverbs, all the prophets, the minor epistles
Special academy award to: Joshua and Revelations for sheer atavistic bad craziness

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The Anchor Bible.
Robert Alter's OT translations.
Lattimore's NT (though it's notes are meager).
Hart's NT.

Don't. I did it and I became a Christian. Now I don't find any fulfillment in doing drugs and banging stranger girls for fun.

>I've also come around to the fact that I don't have to believe in God to learn how to be a better person from it
Not really sure how viable this is. Contrary to the way some people talk about it, the Bible is never that philosophically profound and what ideas it does have aren't going to be very useful if you reject the existence of God, since most of its advice is about obeying God.

If you aren't interested exclusively in ridicule and dissection of faith you should adopt a more positive and compatible view. From our perspective there's a great tragedy at the core of every religious faith - obviously God does not exist, so what then are believers praying to, believing in? What is it that helps them and makes them feel spirituality?
Obvious again: themselves. Understand God not only as a scourge but also as humanity (humans) worshipping itself (themselves). God as a kind of peak human will which a lot of people aren't willing or able to accept at face value.
Also remember the natural tendency and need for explanations and meaning. God is the ultimate answer (and perversion) of that.

This desu, listen to this guy right here. Not only does this version have annotations for certain misunderstandings, but also a plethora of other important things such as a guide on how to read the bible, prayers to read, a small history of the church, description of each book within and the inclusion of all the OT and NT books, and even more.

>My mother is an ordained minister
Heresy.

is there a book out there that has even the non canonical stories and dead sea scrolls additions in it? I'd like to read the whole literature thats available.

Not in one edition, that would be massive and pointless. Get an RSV or NRSV with apocrypha, those have the most books in them, more even than the OSB. For non-Biblical Dead Sea Scrolls, get Geza Vermes' or Florentino Martinez's translation. For non-canonical Old Testament, the two-volume James Charlesworth Pseudepigrapha is the academic standard, or Sparks' Apocryphal Old Testament for a cheaper single-volume alternative.

There's a lot of non-canon New Testament stuff as well. The earliest non-canon orthodox writers were the Apostolic Fathers, get the Holmes or Ehrman translation. JK Elliott's Apocryphal New Testament is definitive for everything except gnostic writings. For the gnostics get either the Robinson or Meyer editions. Robinson has more literal translations but Meyer has a few more texts and extensive introductions. If you just want a selection of the above NT stuff get Ehrman's Lost Scriptures.