Reading The Bible

Nobody can read the Bible! I mean . . . it’s huge, ain’t it??? Just look at it! It’s a big THICK book! Nobody could be expected to read that? Right?

WRONG!

I’ve read it, and . . . IT AIN’T THAT HARD. F’rinstance: Y’know how long it would take to read the Bible straight through?

3.6 days.

Y’know how I know that? It’s how long it would take me to listen to the complete, unabridged Bible that I just finished downloading from www.audible.com for listening on my iPod.

3.6 days. That’s all.

Okay, okay. There are a couple of caveats:

  1. It’s a Protestant Bible, so it only includes the 66 books of the Protestant Bible and not the seven extra books (plus parts of two others) that give us the Catholic Bible. Add those, and the whole might come to 4 days of unconstrained listening.
  2. It also presupposes that one doesn’t need to sleep or take a break from listening. It’s four days of unadulterated listening.

Nobody can really do that (except as part of a publicity stunt for a radio station or something), so listening to the Bible takes longer than 4 days.

But still, 4 days of listening taken in little pieces–say, an hour a day for 3 months–that’s quite doable. Many folks have commutes (one way or two ways) that are longer than an hour a day.

Or read only 4 chapters a day, and you’ll have read the whole thing in a year.

Wouldn’t you like to read the whole Bible? To have the Big Picture so you have a feel for the history of God’s program of the ages? Wouldn’t you like to know the context in which the readings at Mass occur?

You really can!

Start!

Now!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

17 thoughts on “Reading The Bible”

  1. I like big long books like the Bible, because I’ll tend to take your average 300 pagers and read them through in one sitting (a rather long sitting) so it’s nice to have something that takes a bit longer to read, and that I have to split the reading over several days.

  2. I converted to Christianity from atheism, and when I began the process I picked up the Bible and said “God supposedly wrote this, so I am going to see what it says. If you’re real, God, show me.” And I read it all the way through without any background. My Evangelical friends were surprised because I had been such a strident atheist before, and were also alarmed that I was starting with the OT and reading it through. “Maybe you should start with one of the Gospels?” they hinted at gently, but I would not be deterred.
    It was very different that I imagined it would be, especially when I hit the book of Ecclesiastes. I think most atheists would be very surprised to read something like Ecclesiastes in the Bible, since it has an existential feel to it and was written so long ago (before all the smart post modernists were even around!).
    The Bible didn’t make much sense to me the first time I read it, but a few things jumped out at me and spoke to where I was at the time–definitely grace from God. And so as I kept praying for faith, I re-read it, and much more started to make sense. I became an Evangelical for a few years before converting to Catholicism by the grace of God. Having the experience of reading and knowing the Bible pretty well both led me to Catholicism and has served me in apologetics with my Evangelical friends, as well as with appreciating Catholicism more (ex. much of the Mass is from the Bible).
    God bless you!

  3. Jimmy,
    I’d prefer to have an audio version of the RSV, but the only one I can find is the RSV New Testament published on tape or CD by Ignatius Press, both at a somewhat stiff price for a college student.
    If I had an audio Bible, I would listen to it a lot, since I do have something of a commute. Whatever translation I had in audio would probably be the one I’d end up quoting when I’m talking Scripture with others. So I’d prefer something suitable for study, like the RSV.
    Two questions: 1) Is there another version that you’d consider ‘good enough,’ that is more widely available (e.g., my library has the KJV and a couple others available on tape)?
    2) Is the RSV(CE) public domain, so I could record my own and let people download it free of charge, until a professional recording comes out?

  4. I really like this website:
    http://www.audio-bible.com/bible/
    It’s the King James Version done by some guy named Alexander Scourby. He does a really fantastic job and performs it so beautifully. And best of all it’s free.
    And let’s be honest, nothing quite matches the KJV for beauty and elegance of speech. I think that’s more important in an audio bible. Yea, verily.

  5. the kids love listening to the Bible in the car.
    “Woe to you, blind guys!”
    Oh, wait: that’s “Woe to you, blind guides!”
    heehee
    Kelly

  7. There is nothing better than being able to ask someone who complains that they “Don’t believe in the Bible”, “Ahem, have you read it?”

  8. I think that listening to ANYTHING for 4 days would get boring and put you to sleep if they had the same narrorator. Even the bible.
    ~Kosh
    P.S. That wouldn’t give you much time for reflection, either, which is one of the main points of reading the bible, reflecting on the messages god sends to you through sacred scripture.

  9. Kosh: The point was not to encourage people to read the Bible in four days. It was to give people a sense that reading the whole Bible is *possible* for them because *if* they read it straight through, it would only take four days. In reality, sleep, work, families, and attention spans will mean that they take much longer than four days to read it.

  10. Well, I get what you are saying, but come Leviticus each time my eyes glaze over and I say to God “What were you THINKING?” and then I skip to Tobit or Job.
    Seriously though I have read bunches of the bible and I understand the importance but I just can’t seem to slog through some of it. What’s a tired mom of 6 to do?

  11. Listen to it on audio. That way even when you can’t muster the energy to keep reading, someone else will be reading for you.
    Paying attention is still a problem, but then that’s a problem even when you are reading for yourself.

  12. I once forced myself through “Mein Kampf” in three days at three hundred pages a day. So the bible, at the same rate, should be possible in four or five days.
    BTW: Mein Kampf was the most boring book I have ever read – not just dull, but excruciating. The first half is spent explaining away his poor academic record and the second is an insane rant about how he wants to “string the Jews up by their long ears.”

  13. Did some computations:
    3.6 days = 87 hours
    If you decide to read for just 1 hour per day, you’d need 87 days.
    If you decide to read for just 15 minutes per day, you’d need just 346 days.
    In the remaining 10 days, you can read the Deuteros.

  14. Regarding Protestant versions of the Bible, the Index of Forbidden Books prohibited the use of Bible translations (Protestant or Catholic) that were not published with ecclesiastical authorization. While the Index was abolished in 1966, Card. Ratzinger stated in 1985 that it “retains its moral force” despite its abolition. Might I suggest, then, that Catholics ought not to be reading (or listening to) Bible translations that don’t have the Imprimatur?

  15. I don’t think reading the whole bible all the way through at once is necessarily the best idea. In ‘Catholic for a Reason’ there’s a 16(?) book progression that takes you through salvation history so that you can place the other books in the proper timeframe.

  16. OK, I’m off to the library to see what they have on audio. We’ll see how much I can get through between questions from the sprouts!

  17. Way to go, Jimmy! I bought an audio Bible on CD about 5 years ago. Interestingly it works out to be 66 CDs! Anyway, starting Jan 1st, I listen to it on the way to work and on the way home. I can usually go through the ENTIRE Prot. Bible in only 3-4 months. Each Bible chapter is a track on the CD. To remember which track I’m on, I would rotate something in my Truck to point to the hour of an imaginary clock.
    I have been transformed by the process. Listening to the Bible being recited (actually more like performed with the Max McLean product I use) is the way Christians and Jews have received the scriptures for the vast majority of History.
    And then there’s those extra groovy days when one of the daily Mass readings coincides with where I’m at in the Bible.
    I turned virtually useless commute time into a most excellent spiritual experience. To go through the (almost) entire Bible in 3-4 months w/o taking any extra time is splindiferous!
    So when are you coming out with your audio version in the original languages?

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