This has probably been asked a lot but how do you tackle the Bible? I've just finished Genesis and am moving on to Exodus, but what's next for me if my primary purpose for reading it is to inform myself of the Western canon?
Go to church for a year. Attend a Sunday school class and listen to the sermon every Sunday for a year. You will cover all the basic and familiar stories in the bible writers allude to. If a year is too long and you think you can read the Bible faster than one year, then just read the whole Bible.
I can’t link it directly for some reason but google pic related.There are a few challenges with a cover to cover reading. The first one you will be hitting very soon, and that is that once the Israelites get out of Egypt it gets REAL boring until Joshua comes around. The next issue is that several books aren’t really meant to be read cover to cover, but are made to be read at a pace of a verse or chapter per day. The Psalms and the book of Proverbs are like that.The plan I linked has you reading some Old Testament, some New Testament, and a Psalm or Proverb per day.It’s all pretty important, you’ll encounter common phrases and allusions you hear in everyday speech on nearly every page. The Canon is The Canon for a reason, you can’t really skip around without robbing yourself of something, even if you aren’t religious and purely reading it for anthropological purposes.>>25389181Very good advice. The Bible can be very dense reading, I would go even further and say there’s no shame in reading through kid’s versions of some of the stories to simplify it for you before you commit fully to reading the real deal.
>>25389493there is a comicbook version of the old testament that i thought was a very palatable read. excellent for a very young eager reader or a beginner who might need a little help keeping his eyes to the page
>>25389118It's typically a good idea to read the Historical books first, starting with Genesis and Exodus and leaving the rest of the Pentateuch for later.>>25389181This is a good idea. The Catholic Church has standardized readings for every day of the year, and they cover a lot of the most important parts, so you could read them during the rest of the week.Supplemental material such as sermons, classes, the catechism, the writings of saints, church fathers, etc. are essential, I'd say. Even getting past the linguistic and cultural hurdles, the Bible is one of the most challenging and layered texts in literature. Fortunately it is also one of the most widely read and studied texts, so there's a good chance there's a pastor or priest in your local area who would be willing/able to talk to you if you're struggling to understand something.
