Bible Reading

Three Tips (for now) for Reading, Understanding, and Responding to the Bible

  1. Memorize

    I’ve got to be joking, right? You thought your memorization days were over when you finally go through your times tables, didn’t you? Well, not if you want to do something to bring your understanding of the Bible to the next level.

    I’ll put it out there right from the jump—of all the things you could do to help your ability to read, understand, and respond to the Bible, memorizing it will demand the most from you. It takes hard work to memorize a verse, and even more to memorize 20, but that hard work pays off big time not only once you get that section memorized, but as you memorize.

Response as the Goal of All Bible Reading

I love purpose statements. I love them because I really don’t like guessing about someone’s motivation. It’s an uncomfortable place to be in. If I’m reading something someone wrote or listing to someone give a talk, I don’t want to be left wondering why they wrote what they wrote or said the things they said. I think this is partly why I like John’s gospel so much.

As the apostle John was drawing his gospel to a close, he thought it would be a good idea to make clear why he wrote it in the first place—to remove the mystery, if there was any.

The Bible: A Collection of Collections

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more intimidating book for the average person than the Bible. 

I have two sitting next to me right now. The first is an English Standard Version (ESV), single column edition containing 1,488 pages, in something like 7 or 8-point font. The second is a New International (NIV), double column edition containing 1,302 pages, in something like 8 or 9-point font.

Our Way In and Through the Bible

The regular habit of reading the Bible doesn’t sound strange to us, because it’s a part of who we are. But if we zoom out a little, and take stock of the fact that we regularly read a book made up of a coherent collection of writings, of which the newest is nearly 2,000-years old, we can start to see how this would seem strange to a lot of people.

What Do You Want From a Bible Translation?

I think, for most of us, the answer is obvious: we want an understandable translation that is faithful to the original textual witnesses.

A Bible translation is not helpful or useful if it can’t be read and understood. Nor is a Bible translation helpful or useful if it veers away from what the original authors of Scripture actually wrote. We want something that can be understood when we read it, and something that doesn’t make us wonder where it came from.

A Summer in the New Testament

What are your plans for this summer? More specifically, what are you plans for your Bible reading this summer?

May I suggest reading through the entire New Testament?

There are 260 chapters in the New Testament and 92 days in June, July, and August combined. Not including Sundays (there’s 13 of those), and setting aside four “Catch-Up” days, you could read through the whole New Testament in just 75-days by reading a little over 3 chapters a day.