The Bible: How Do You Read It?

[Coír Draoi Ceítien]

It may seem like a stupid question, but the Bible is such a strange text (intentionally so), and I believe that no one reads it the same way, and with so many different versions, I'm curious as to how you read it.

I've never been a steady Bible reader, even though I would generally profess to many of its beliefs, but I won't necessarily chalk that up to Satan working behind the scenes. It just more of my reading habits. I've never felt compelled to read it on my own outside of church as I would any other book; it's been more of a reference text than anything. All those verses and sidebars, plus the layout of the text and frequently the supplementary material in whatever version I have, can be so distracting. It can be a lot to take in, and I can easily lose my train of thought. THEN there's the sticky matter of translation: which one is the closest to the original Hebrew/Greek surviving manuscripts, which one causes the least confusion, and which resonates the most with the reader? There's a lot to go into Bible selection.

That's not to say that I haven't been able to change. After some thought, I felt I wanted to trade up my Apologetics Study Bible - a Holman Christian Standard Version - for a new one, given that I had some of the issues that I've just mentioned. After a bit of searching online, I found a special Reader's Bible - a New King James Version - that stood out to me, because I had read that the NKJV was actually rather recent and managed to be truthful to the original texts, plus I'm rather fond of the classic wording, but most importantly, this was arranged specially: single column, eliminating verses and sidebars except for a brief indicator in the margins, leathersoft cover, only the text itself. I couldn't pass it up.

Well, as well as being the first Bible that I ever purchased with my own money, I believe it's been one of the best purchases I ever made. I've gotten to reading it almost every day, and I just love getting lost in it; there are still some things I don't understand, but I'm willing to learn more about them. Since it's arranged as if it were just a regular book, I feel more of a connection with it, more of an urge to pick it up compared to just about every other edition I've ever had. I'm not sure I would bring it to church, though, as it's not really that kind of book.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. Take Psalm 23. Here are two different version of it, one from the HCSV (my Study Bible) and another from the NKJV (my Reader's Bible).

HCSV: https://www.bible.com/bible/72/PSA.23.hcsb
NKJV: https://www.bible.com/bible/114/PSA.23.nkjv

They both get the point across, but I prefer the NKJV because it's what I'm most familiar with and it feels more poetic. Stuff like that is a deal breaker for me.

Still, I have a New American Standard Version on my wish list as well, as I've heard some very good things about that one, plus it's a Study Bible, which is more suited to deeper contemplation, research, and reference.

So that's my take on it. Some of you probably prefer verses and footnotes on the page, and that's alright. So for those who do, how do YOU read the Bible? What's the best way that you find yourself able to take it in?

[Raven]

This is a good question. Considering we have had the scriptures for thousands of years, there are different traditions in existence for reading. For example, Lectio Divina is one traditional meditative way of reading.

Right now, I'm in a three man group where we read the same passage of scripture every day in between meetings. If, when next we meet, we have all done this every day, we move onto a new passage. If any of us haven't, we all do the same passage again. This is designed to have us sit with the scripture and gain a deeper knowledge of it.

One church elder I was speaking to recently said he reads one chapter of the psalms and one chapter of Proverbs every day, corresponding to the day of the month. So, if it is February 1st, he reads the first chapter of Proverbs, first Psalm. Of course, there are more chapters than days of the month (in Psalms at least) so he cycles through over a period of months, it seems like.

I tend to return to Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes pretty often compared to a lot of other passages, and I do re-throughs of the New Testament every so often. Lately, I've been listening to the scripture as an audio book on part of my commute to work. What parts I listen to depends.

I like the idea of the kind of Bible you're referencing -- one that formats it like a "normal" book. I definitely could see it's usefulness. Could you tell me, how does it handle formatting the Psalms and Proverbs and other poetic passages? Does it format it like poetry?

[Coír Draoi Ceítien]

Actually, yeah, it does. Narratives are formatted like a regular novel with minimal breaks except where needed, and poetry, songs, prophecies, and wisdom literature are formatted just like you would find in typical poetry collections. Now I haven't read much of the former yet because I actually began reading where I had left off, which was in Proverbs, and I just recently got done with Isaiah. Right now I'm just reading it to read it - sure, I want to get stuff out of it, but since I've never read the Bible from cover to cover before, I've made it a goal to just do that right now, and I'll do deeper contemplation later.

In fact, though I've posted it before in the "What Are You Reading Now?" topic, here's a link to the exact Bible I'm talking about. You can see a bit of how it is in the pictures off to the side, although I'm afraid there are no preview pages. Still, I hope you can get a good idea of its setup.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0785216103/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm going to have to consider how to do my own meditative readings. Using that particular Bible, treating it like poetry might be a good idea. Man, I REALLY enjoyed Isaiah. I don't have any particular quota to set, I just read it until I feel like putting it down.