I created a tool (biblereadingplangenerator.com) that let's you customize a Bible Reading Plan by choosing a length of time, a set of books, and a visualization method (calendar, list, and in this case, a circle). It uses standard Bible data, and this view uses Javascript to generate an SVG with rotated text where the genres of the text each have a color.
Here's the original link: 2023 Bible circle

3-4 chapters a day will do it in a year. I prefer reading it chronologically. A worldview and life changer, especially in an age that has no standards for right/wrong, good/evil, etc.

Starting at the OT or NT?

3.3 chapters per day will get you through the whole Bible in a year, Old Testament plus New Testament.

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Definitely. I’ll quote the great Issac Asimov:

“Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.”

Everyone should read it and understand it.

If they’re reading chronologically based on when books were written, they’ll start with Job.

Job is a great book!

Old Testament is full of good stuff. Lots of good cherry picking to be had, Leviticus is awesome if you want to hate people for no good reason other than your own prejudices.

Learn all about Genocide in Deuteronomy!

Posting something religious on Reddit? Pardon the pun, but prepared to be crucified.

Indeed, the month of March is pretty rough, but it ends with a hint of hope.

The visualization is reading through in the traditional (Protestant) order, but the site lets you reorder in several different ways, including chronologically, using Hebrew order, OT/NT overlap, etc.

There’s like two weeks of ‘so and so begat so and so’ in Feb to March.

Would recommend reading the first book of the expanse in that section, maybe create a branch plan from there.

The protagonist dies twice.

Yeah what we need is a book that endorses slavery, burning people alive, and stoning people to death. And killing family members if they don't follow the same religion.

You may want to read it before summarizing it.

A time someone complains about their life I give them a little Job. It's my Christian non Christian way of saying stfu.

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It’s definitely doable but I’ve never met anyone who has read the Bible from cover to cover

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So, who are you to tell people what to read? It’s just a reading plan of a simple book

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The bible has brought tremendous use to society

Imagine wasting time every single day of an entire year just to read an old folk tale

It is a very boring book. The koran as well. There are definitely better books to read.

I've read it cover to cover twice: once by reading the actual book and once by audiobook by listening to a half hour every night while going to sleep. The OT is really helpful to cure insomnia in a lot of parts. So much repetition.

It's about 72 hours of reading (based on average reading pace in America)

Definitely some dry and boring parts but I must say that after reading it in its entirety it helps to paint a bigger picture at least

Who wants a bigger picture of complete fantasy?

Have you met Marvel fans? Jk jk

I hear you, however I did want to read through to have understood everything for myself and not only others commentary. (Though now I can see what matches between the two and what doesn't)

Thanks OP, I'll give this a try. Been slacking this past year since moving away from my community, so this definitely gives me a game plan to get back into reading.

A nice feature of this app is that you can turn off specific days, so if you prefer to have Tuesday and Thursday off, you can do that, or if you want weekends off, you can do that :)

Well, if the overall message and trajectory of the Bible is true, then God cares about and values you whether you slack or not. Hope this tool lets you find something realistic and enjoyable instead of something feels like a duty.

Most chronological reading plans put Job after the proto-history of Genesis 1-11. Here's what this plan does.

Statistically speaking, this is most likely to happen from mid-October to mid-November...

Wait - so someone tells you they are going through a difficult time, and you respond by telling them to go read a tale about a dude who has his family killed by a cosmic authority who is trying to test his loyalty? That’s messed up. Responding to anyone’s concerns with “well at least it’s not…” is cold and dismissive.

Instead try treating people the way you’d like to be treated.

Gross. Religion. I’m so thankful that religion is slowly dying. Such a medieval mindset, me lord.

God bless your soul. I might try to read it at night

It depends. 99% of the complaining I hear are from people at work or small talk situations and bs complaints. Complaining about first world problems are a slap in the face to those living in poverty. They get the Book of Job talk. For your view of the bible, you sound like someone who enjoys the tale about causality - causality, the invisible force for those who think they are scientific - worship. Are you telling me that you have seen cause? (Though I doubt you've thoroughly read David Hume'sTreatise and the Enquiry). Further, you think the bible can only be read as either absolute truth or as a lie. The Bible is very useful as a set of allegories. The hyperbole of Job is perfect for people who just like to complain... like bitches like you. No. My response follows a line of, (age dependant)"Do you need immediate medical attention? What's your plan to fix the situation? What part of this situation are you responsible for? What's going on that you have to be grateful for? How you been in a similar situation and survived? Do you just need yo talk? Etc.

I have yet to figure out the main plot of the story

> like bitches like you

Classy. Again I’d suggest you take a look at how you engage with fellow humans.

You should read Job. He had it much worse than you and your hurt feelings. 😅

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It’s so fucking annoying the way Reddit treats religion.

Stop your complaining and read the Book of Job. He had ot worse than you. 😅

I know the story of job. And I’m not saying I have anything bad. I’m saying Reddit is such a stupid hive mind when it comes to this.

The earliest parts of the Hebrew Bible were written around 1500 BCE and the last parts by around 100 CE, but the "medieval" era is much later, usually considered around 500-1400 CE. So a more accurate critique would be something like "such a bronze/iron age mindset."

Also, as a sociologist myself, I'm interested in the secularization thesis (i.e. "religion is dying") that was once the dominate framework for understanding religious expression. However, scholars have shifted in their understanding of the role of religion in modern societies around the world. I might recommend a review like this https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199756384/obo-9780199756384-0073.xml

I read it cover to cover. Made me an atheist.

Do what benefits your masters, or suffer dire consequences. That's all I got.

It took me months. Does your math factor for boring? My mind would go blank, I would have to go back a page, to remember wtf I was reading. Definitely no car chases.

I've read it. Multiple times. What's wrong with the summary? A religion cannot be both good, and allow for rape, murder, genocide, and slavery. No amount of time changes that.

The Bible has some lovely parts. Just some nice poetic and philosophical stuff. My favorites are Genesis, Isaiah, some of the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, the Gospels, and some of the non-Pauline epistles (Peter & John). Scattered throughout the rest of the Old Testament are many interesting and fun little stories (The Exodus, David & Goliath, Samson, Joseph, Daniel, Esther, etc.) but it is mixed in with a lot of boring and/or WTF stuff. For beginners I would recommend Genesis and the Gospels as the most accessible books. The Poets and Prophets are hard to grok without a study guide.

My last read-through of the Bible convinced me that there is no God. I know that's not the way it is supposed to go, but what can I do? Jesus does have some great teachings and we would all do well to consider both his personal example of rejecting the prevailing religious dogmas of the day, and his teachings to be merciful and generous even to our political enemies.

It took me about 66 days (I started late in the year and tried to finish before end of that year) but I likely won't be reading it through that quickly again.

My math definitely didn't account for boring parts haha.

No car chases, but had some expendables style moments (maybe a couple passages about David's Mighty Men), a woman driving a tent peg through a dude's skull, and a few other things lol.

I usually have to go back and reread stuff two or three times anyway because I blank out a lot (I reread your comment a couple times to make sure I was answering all your points haha)

I find it entertaining that Revelation is given it’s own category. Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to link it to “Works of Apostle John” that way you could group it with the Gospel of John; 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, and Revelation? At least so it’s a more useful distinction.

Good question and thanks for the feedback.

It's tough to be 100% consistent with a categorization due to the traditional order of books, but this scheme is generally based on genre rather than individual author. So of the works attributed to John, one is gospel/narrative, three are letters/epistles, and one is apocalyptic/prophetic, hence the three different colors. There are other helpful divisions (undisputed Pauline vs. disputed, major vs. minor prophets, etc.), so maybe it'd be good to offer some options in the color/genre breakdowns.

Right and wrong/good and evil are instinctual moral compasses influenced by culture. You do not need religion to know how to act. That’s part of learning and developing as a human in a society.

I can understand you having that feeling or view due to how much information is accessible to us these days.

I only mention this because I don’t want you to have the false premise that morality and good is solely derived from a religion. I’m not religious at all and the most important thing to me is being a good guy and generally being an altruistic member of society. The human race can continue to make some really cool discoveries if we work together. I know religion tells us we have the answers to the world, but I don’t agree and am jealous of the future generations that hopefully get to know more about the universe than we do now.

Edit: spelling

Unfortunately my father in law reads it every year from cover to cover. He’s accomplished it 4 times so far. Not sure how long he’s done it/attempted to do it.

That’s why he explicitly told me the Bible does not support or accept being gay. A church that marries them or accepts them isn’t a real church. I have two gay cousins so I strongly disagree haha. I’m not religious either so I just nodded.

Can’t believe people take the opinions of man from 2,000-3,000 years ago as fact over the scientific research of today.

Here's a 5min video that summarizes the story: https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/the-story-of-the-bible/

I don’t know. Song of Solomon gets pretty spicy.

Thanks for this - Great reading recommendations.

Since you are so familiar with the Biblical texts and have such an interesting screen name (yhwh inspired?), I’m genuinely interested in what books or ideas most convinced you toward atheism. I ask in part because I personally struggle less with issues in the text itself and more in my own experiences. For example, I wonder why if there is a Holy Spirit that’s supposed to make me more like Jesus, why I’m still so often such a jerk.

Yes, my handle is definitely a biblical reference. For me I think reading the Bible cover-to-cover made me realize that it just doesn't add up. If God is unchanging, he wouldn't ever command people to commit genocide. He wouldn't command to kill non-Israelite children and then later condemn the killing of Israelite children.

When I allowed myself to take a step back from the Bible and analyze it the same way I would the discussion of Greek Gods in the Iliad, or Native American traditions, or whatever, it became obvious to me that they are all fables. Why try to bend the reality of world history, archaeology, evolution, etc. to try to match a fable? Noah's Ark? Come on.

FWIW, I don't think you're a jerk OP. ;)

You’ve read what multiple times? Just want to make sure I understand. The whole Bible?

How many cultures would you say exist? What happens when they collide? Whose standards do we use?

Thanks for sharing. Blessings to you.

How can you reply to my message, as though you understood what I wrote, unless you've read every comment I've ever made?

There are probably thousands of cultures across the land sharing a vast majority of their ethics. I guarantee the vast majority of culture includes many altruistic ideas of coming together.

When two cultures with opposing ideas come together or collide, the victor’s culture often takes over. Sometimes integrating aspects of both.

Christianity is a great example of a religion that contains pieces of other religions before they splintered over time. Many religions share aspects because they’ve evolved with different groups into completely different systems of beliefs.

Watch the news or travel. There are wars going on today that challenge your views.

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Yes. The old testament & the king James version. As well as the apicrypha.

Interesting I’m surprised by your summary. Not at all what I got. Here’s another take if interested. https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/the-story-of-the-bible/

Honestly if your sincere so could wish we could talk for a bit in person. Stuff like this tends to go it’s worst online.

Thank you for the offer. I am not interested. Your faith is your business. Mine, or lack thereof, is mine.