Veeky Forums, what's your opinion of the Bible...

Veeky Forums, what's your opinion of the Bible? I've read the Book of Revelation when I was a kid (with a christian perspective) and I found it pretty scary. Recently I've read Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus and I honestly found the detailed list somewhat boring. I constantly see the Bible listed on Veeky Forums's favourites, so i was wondering: Is it some kind of meme? Don't get me wrong, I know that the Bible has different tones and themes across it's books, so which of its books are your favourite and why?

*detailed lists

Genesis is terrible. Also, it amazing how anyone could have taken this book seriously. Noah lived for over 1000 years. LOL

>Is it some kind of meme?

Show some respect, it is The Holy Meme.

The gospel is the good stuff. The words from Christ's mouth.
It can give you a lot to think about.
He presents a brilliant system of divine justice/mercy and an idealistic moral code.
People probably craved justice from God, but little did they know that justice meant they would be burned alive for their transgressions. So in actuality, a merciful God is much more favorable.
(People have to be burned alive because justice repays like with like. Good is rewarded and wickedness punished. This judgement should be idealistic. To sin is to destroy God's will, so you must like-wise be destroyed. How is a soul idealistically destroyed? With pain, the dissonance of the soul. More so than that, it should be the fullest amount of pain, excited pain from a heat source. Only then is a soul truly destroyed by having their whole body consumed in abstract flame.)

People say that Jesus' teachings are quite common, but they were never as comprehensive as what he espoused. "Love everyone" was probably pretty popular, but loving your enemies, passive altruism, and devoted servitude are the pinnacle of moral achievement to this day.

In ancient Mesopotamia it was a common practice to ascribe greatness to someone by inflating his life span. This is evident in an ancient list of kings of Sumer that describes rulers who allegedly lived for tens of thousands of years. The earliest kind on this list to be confirmed as having actual historical existence is Enmebaragesi, who was recorded to have lived for 900 years. Another historically verifiable king, Aga of Kish, was recorded to have lived for 625 years.

You have to really study Genesis in order to appreciate it. It's not something that you can just pick up and read on your own, you need at a minimum an annotated version. For some reason people have this idea that they can just up the bible, read it, and understand it. It's like any other ancient literature in the sense you get out of it what you put into it. You wouldn't expect to pick up the Iliad or the Epic of Gilgamesh and not have to put in the work so you shouldn't treat the bible any differently. Genesis in particular has some very beautiful moments and you're not going to pick up on them with a dumb reading.

If you're reading to 'get' Christianity, read the Gospels and maybe the rest of the New Testament.

If you're reading for literary value, read Job, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.

Otherwise:
These are both onto it. There are only a few ways to enjoy 'The Bible,' especially the Old Testament. In short, you have to have a framework in which you're reading it. For instance,
- comparative lit of ancient Near East -- as user says, there are tons of interesting parallels between other Mesopotamian writings and that of the Jews
- religious understanding -- when reading through the Jewish or Christian tradition, the Bible is two different books entirely. I can't say much re: Jewish tradition, but Christians relate absolutely everything back to Christ, including the boring name lists.

Of course there are many others. Just don't expect to pick it up and get into it without any motive other than 'heard it's good lol'. Even if you're just searching for truth it will be more meaningful (considering the many minimally educated people who read the Bible in jail to great effect).

>what's your opinion of the Bible?

I prefer the Brothers Grimm.

>inb4 somebody wearig a hat

Parts of it (most of Genesis, The Book of Samuel, Job, most of the Twelve, John, Luke/Acts, most of the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, for example) are great literature. If you're just reading for literary value, avoid the lists.

fairy tales and jingoistic tribal propaganda from a barely literate wandering middle eastern tribe.

reminds me a lot of president kim's jabbering.

>not just skimming over the genealogies
gospels are by far the most interesting of the books

All of Wisdom and Poetry
Gospels
Acts
Revelations

read it from a marxist literary theory perspective and you can get a lot out of it.

most religious people I know don't think people like Eve or w/e existed right.

Jeremia-chan will save you user!

Bible believer here.

It's fascinating to me that a community as jaded as Veeky Forums bothers with the Bible. It's not a book you approach with your mind, it's supposed to be read with the spirit. If I didn't believe in God I probably wouldn't bother, aside from the fact that cursory knowledge of the gospels and the more major stories are useful to have in your pocket when reading literature that references the Bible.

It's the only book that affords you the opportunity to read it alongside the author every time. If you really want to get something out of the Bible try praying before you crack it open.

"The cross of Christ is foolishness to the philosopher" - The Apostle Paul

It's very simple: God created everything, made humans, gives them some rules to obey, and then it's just 1000 pages of humans being incredible dicks to everything and everyone. They're dicks to God, they're dicks to animals, they're dicks to their fellow humans and they're dicks to themselves.

The Bible is essentially four parts: God giving Moses his Laws, humans not following any of it, God coming down to earth and showing people how you should behave, then humans again murdering God for being kind to random strangers.

No wonder God drowns the entire world, I would've blown up the world once a week if I were in charge

>read it from a marxist literary theory perspective
my god

the bible is the single most important book in western literature. it'll take you a while to read it entirely but it's definetely worth the effort, the first few books are kind of dry but, at least for me, it got more interesting as I went along.

if you REALLY RELLY can't get through, read Genesis, Exodus, Job, Proverbes, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon and maybe Isaiah or Jeremiah or something. as for the new testament, just read it all, it's not that long.

*tips fedora*

Yeah but some people "see the light" while reading the Bible. I would never tell someone the might as well not read it.

>It's not a book you approach with your mind, it's supposed to be read with the spirit
>If you really want to get something out of the Bible try praying before you crack it open.
It's not a magical totem you stupid faggot it's a collection of ancient religious texts, of course it's interesting on an intellectual level. Go back to Sunday school.

>Genesis in particular has some very beautiful moments

bullshit, if it's not there it's not there. The writing is terrible.

>Even if you're just searching for truth
I wouldn't read the bible looking for truth. lol

I don't see how anyone could think Genesis is great literature. It's EL James tier.

This. It's a historical document, and literature in the same way a pamphlet handed out by a crazy person the street is literature.

>oh hey user-kun I heard you were a big fan of the bible
>i'm a big fan of the bible too...
>can you describe the genealogy of adam in detail so I know you also like it

Sure. There was nobody and then there was Adam since he was the first man. There's his entire genealogy.

While the New Testament is much more enjoyable to read, there's shit that would be completely lost on you if you hadn't read the whole Old Testament.
The truly impressive thing about the New Testament is how it managed to take all of the Hebrews' culture and religion and folklore, turn it upside down and inside out, and have it all make sense.