I begin the Bible
Ian | 30 July, 2007 | 23:36I picked up a Gideons Holy Bible – the full Old and New Testament version (because why go with just half of the book?) and will hopefully be able to read it before summer is done. The Gideons challenge that if you read 3 chapters a day (~12 minutes, they’re short) and 5 on Sunday you’ll finish in a year… so it’s a bit longer than most books.
This is the New American Standard Version, so all the “thou, thee, and thy”s are gone, but the message and stories are the same.
I’m currently almost halfway through Genesis (one of the longer books), and will try to write up a summary/commentary on most of the books as I get through them.
So far I enjoyed Gen 2:5-6
Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.
But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.
Man, its pretty awesome that God installed a sprinkler system when he created the Earth. I bet that came in helpful “in the beginning”.
All jokes aside, I read this as I would any other story book, I do not believe it is the Word of God, but merely stories written by men. It is one of the great works of mankind however, and as has been reported, the bestseller of all time (especially when its free!) I highly doubt this will convert me to Judaism, or Christianity, but will give me a better insight into both. After this I might try to get the Koran too, but that might be a ways off.
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I think that if your plan is to read through the bible as a book choosing the NASV is probably not your best choice. I would recommend reading the NRSV (New Revised Standard Version) or the TNIV (Today’s New International Version) they’re going to be easier to get through as they follow the greek/hebrew/latin texts as a phrase for phrase or thought for thought translation rather than NASV which can get a bit hung up with words and will certainly make for a slower read.
I would also suggest if I could that once you make it through the Torah (jewish holy books: Genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers deuteronomy) that perhaps you might be better off to skip through lots of the history books and read the new testament and then go back and fill in the middle. The new testament will help keep the middle in context.
[...] Terahertz – From Physics to Life Rantings and ravings from physics and life in general. « Stacey’s Law has got it going on… The iBible August 13th, 2007 I should have gone for one of these instead of the Gideon’s Bible. [...]
Be careful not to approach this like you seem to be; with various notions already floating around in your head and the seeming objective of making jokes about it. Read it – as with everything else – with an open mind and with respect; only then will reading it be worth it and only then will it give you the insight you seek. Otherwise you’ll just end up wasting a really big chunk of your time.
[...] two from the Old Testament a few days ago, and am going to continue writing my perspectives on the Bible (see Genesis [...]
I don’t know if you’re done yet or not, but I totally agree with Josh. The New Testament is really important to keep the rest in context.