I am a blog newbie and have a question. I have never read the Bible. I grew up in church, but never felt inspired or convinced. In fact, it has been a long standing source of anxiety and stress.
is there an ideal way to read it? I heard Erhman discuss three ways in one of his lectures, but it was specific to the New Testament gospels.
I suppose I could just read it like a book, but I imagine it’s pretty boring to try that.
Is there an ideal way to read the Bible? That may depend, in part, on what you are hoping to get out of it. If you have attended church and “never felt inspired or convinced,” I very much doubt that you will find a solution to that in reading the Bible. Read with any degree of critical attention, the Bible tends to raise as many questions as it answers.
I went to a religious high school, with a religion class that met every single day. Over the course of 6 years, I think I read the full Bible, cover to cover, at least 3 times. (Parts of it can be very inspiring, but parts are really dull. I would not advise spending too much time reading the genealogies in Matthew and Luke, for example.) I will admit that now, looking back, some parts that I found really dull when I was in school are actually interesting in other ways, but not necessarily in a way that would be inspiring or convincing.
If you are seeking to read the Bible and find inspiration, you might do best to read it more or less at random, or following a book that excerpts the more inspirational parts. (I think that most people find the Bible inspiring chiefly in an excerpted form.) If you are seeking to read the Bible with the idea of at least understanding it as a book, you might do well to follow a good Bible commentary, like the Harper’s volume. (A lot of the Bibles with built in commentaries can offer a lot of insights, but tend to get caught up in mostly technical matters that are not in themselves likely to be very inspiring.) You might also need to accept that such a task is never ending. Many questions raised by the Bible simply cannot really be answered by scholarship, especially most of the theological aspects.
The Bible was not written as a single book, nor with the idea of being presented in the order that we have today. (Indeed, different faiths that at least share much of the text, alter the order and sometimes even the inclusion or exclusion of some books.)
One thing that Dr. Ehrman has often noted is that it can be illuminating to read the three synoptic gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark and Luke) in parallel passages rather than isolation. (And there are books that present it that way, and websites if you don’t want to spend the money.)
If you proceed in your quest, I wish you the best of luck.
Can’t really add much to what has been said.
Alter’s translations of the OT (except for the Prophets which only appear in the full three volume set) can be easily had in cheap used paperbacks. See ** you do not have permission to see this link **.
What Prof Ehrman recommends is ** you do not have permission to see this link ** which can also be found in a cheap used paperback.
To add to the excellent recommendations of Stephen and Robert, you may wish to consider Dr. Ehrman’s textbook “The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction.” I found it useful when I started the path you are considering.
There are also 2 Open Yale Courses available online, one each on the OT and NT. Dale Martin’s NT course is very good. I haven’t watched the OT course yet, so I can’t comment on it.
TJohnston said
I am a blog newbie and have a question. I have never read the Bible. I grew up in church, but never felt inspired or convinced. In fact, it has been a long standing source of anxiety and stress.is there an ideal way to read it? I heard Erhman discuss three ways in one of his lectures, but it was specific to the New Testament gospels.
I suppose I could just read it like a book, but I imagine it’s pretty boring to try that.
It made me into an atheist as a teenager.
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
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