Even if you have "read" the Bible unaided, you will have zoned out during the genealogy, imbibed useless passages and failed to take note of more important ones.
That is because theological texts are not insular. Besides some portions of the King James version, the Bible is not an interesting text in itself unless you are willing to suspend your disbelief in order to read it literally.
Besides joining a parish, what are the best tools for reading the Bible?
Remember that the first five books were written over 1,000 years before the events in them. This is why you have things like tamed camels a millenia before man tamed camels.
Remember that many of the legends in the bible were ripped from older religions, such as the flood or the resurrected deity.
Remember to add the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha and Talmud on top. The EU is pretty fun, even if it got decanonized by a corporate decision from those who held the licensing.
Remember to compare it to scientific fact. Anything you find contradicting science "was just metaphor, really ;_;"
And finally, read the KJV version.
James Cook
>before *after
Colton Parker
From a former believer, now skeptic:
Genesis for some classic stories. Ecclesiastes for the philosophical parts, fallacious as they may be. Song of Solomon for a very idealistic, subjective take of sex. Probably the sexiest book in the bible. Awkward considering Christians' demonization of sex. Acts for the history of the early church. 21 short chapters, very readable. Revelation for some trippy shit about the end times (more in later chapters of Daniel, if you are big on the whole 'four-footed beasts' thing).
Some fiction re-interpreting the Bible I'd like to recommend:
The Storm Lord, by Tanith Lee: creative re-telling of Moses, as Sword & Sorcery.
The Worthing Saga, by Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game Author). Semi-allegory of the Bible and the Mormon bible thing about the collapse of a future civilization built around space travel and cryosleep. Very, very deep stuff
VALIS and most other books by Philip K Dick. Built of Gnostic Christianity, the brainy, darker re-interpretation of Christian themes, I'll leave you to discover on your own.
Happy reading!
Aiden Reyes
Scribbling these down in the back of my Bible. Huge thanks. I'll probably read all of the New Testament anyway since its short. Those re-interpretations sound like great supplementary reading too.
Oliver Reed
>desecrating a Holy Book
Tyler Jackson
A flimsy Bible is a strong Christian.
Samuel Collins
Burning it :)
Evan Foster
The Bible is just a book, we aren't muslim. I believe this man is a jew.
Reading the Talmud is in no way necessary, other than if you hold tremendous hatred of Christ and humanity in your heart, or want to understand those who do.
Samuel White
I think he's trying to drop a low-key redpill.
Jacob Taylor
I can give you a few books to read as you read the New Testament, or read before it to point out certan thematic elements you otherwise wouldn't. Here I primarily refer to Jesus of Nazareth trilogy by pope Benedict XVI, it's really well done.
Julian Brooks
You need to read Exodus, too. It's one of the most important books of the OT, if not the most important.
Justin Perez
tell me why
Kevin Fisher
I would be surprised if Islam wasn't okay with people jotting notes in their Quran.
Robert Hughes
Just read the Brick testament and Ecclesiastes and be done with it
Cooper Brown
It seems you don't actually know very much about islam. I don't know, there were a lot of things about his writing style that suggests a secular jew to me. In many ways it directly mirrors the gospels and revelation, as well as setting the final pieces of the stage for Christ.
Nicholas Wright
anyone got recs on side reading to understand the context around different periods of bible authorship? my understanding is that certain things have become modern spooks out of misunderstanding references to contemporary culture, and generally i've come to the conclusion that it's just as important to know external history when trying to understand the bible
Jose Martin
Read it, then go to a bible study and/or church and read it again.
Noah Clark
Is the king james version good to read? Its pretty hard to read desu.
Juan Wood
So fucking edgy holy shit Seriously, this is the only board of this motherfucking site that is good Fuck off and go back to plebbit/b/r9k you fucking normies
Sebastian Watson
Why do atheist think we care about what happens to a Bible? It's just paper and ink.
Juan Brown
Whole religion was at the beginning means to repay God for freeing from egyptian enslavement
Asher Turner
Calm down my man
Kayden Thomas
If you're a Protestant, start with Mark, then Genesis and Isaiah, then the rest of the Gospels, then Acts, then the Pauline Epistles.
If you're a Gnostic, start with John, and go on to Ecclesiastes and Job, then Genesis.
If you're a Catholic, just skip it and read the Catechism lel
Jordan Mitchell
To be honest that's how I actually feel about he Bible and Christianity. Yes, I've read the whole thing, and regularly cite passages from memory because I grew up taking it seriously. I think Abrahamic religions are anti-human, or at least anti-me.
Just because you don't like it doesn't make it edgy or a troll.
Cameron Miller
An understanding of Mesopotamian ancient history would help because the Babylonians and Assyrians are in there.
Ryder Robinson
I heard Ezekiel is dank as fuck
Landon Sanchez
>you will have zoned out please don't make insulting assumptions about my attention span in anonymous posts on a Lithuanian fruit-swuggling board
Cooper Brooks
I agree you'll want to start skipping verses when you see the word "begot" like twelve times in a row but I'd suggest just starting from the beginning with a good commentary close by because all of it is connected and later books in the bible give better context to events that are the entire focus of earlier ones. I use the Bible+ app.
Jace Wright
My suggestions have to do with the arrangement of the books themselves. It seems like a lot of people who attempt a straight-through cover-to-cover reading get bogged down before long. In addition to the division between Old and New Testament, there are the numerous different kinds of books in the Bible.
At the very least, I would recommend thinking about reading from the Old and New Testaments concurrently. This could be divided up even further, either by alternating kinds of books or by, say, reading concurrently from the Torah, Prophets, and/or other OT writings.
One major benefit of alternating is that it will better show connections between the OT and NT. The biggest aspect of this is the connection between the Gospels and the OT prophets.
