Now that you’ve reviewed Bible 101: What is the Bible?, perhaps you’re wondering: how do I actually read the Bible?

Bible Translations and Resources

Let’s start from the beginning. First of all, in America, there is no shortage of Bibles. You can get one free from most churches, or you can buy them for cheap online or at bookstores (there are plenty of good study Bibles that include notes, maps, and other forms of guidance to help you understand what you’re reading). Alternatively, you can use an app (I personally use YouVersion, which is both free and powerful), which can give you instant access to hundreds of translations, as well as supplemental resources like reading plans. There are also plenty of free websites that do the same (my personal favorite is biblegateway.com).

Next is the issue of which translation to use. The most popular is the New International Version (NIV), which is fine for a starter Bible but not great for more advanced study. For a good intro Bible that is somewhat more faithful to the original languages, I recommend the English Standard Version (ESV). Once you know the Bible narrative, you can explore more faithful translations like the New American Standard Bible (NASB) or the New King James Version (NKJV), my personal favorite.

More interpretive translations like the New Living Translation (NLT) or The Message (MSG) can make reading the Bible easier, but at some point you should read the Bible closer to how it was actually written, so I don’t recommend staying solely in these forever. On the other hand, if you want a real challenge and seek to dive deep into the original meaning, read through the Amplified Bible (AMP).

Be careful to avoid heretical translations like the New World Translation (NWT), which is used by Jehovah’s Witnesses and deliberately mistranslates references to trinitarianism. Do some basic research into a new version before using it to avoid problematic translations.

If you want to explore the underlying languages a bit while reading, I recommend blueletterbible.org.

How to Read Through the Bible

If you’re new to the faith, I highly recommend reading through the Bible at least once as fast as you can while maintaining reasonable comprehension (going through the individual books in whatever order your Bible puts them in is fine). So much of the Bible points forward or backward to other parts of the Bible that it is hard to understand it until you’ve read the whole thing. Therefore, it is helpful to get the entire context.

I did my first read-through by listening to an audio Bible (the YouVersion app has free audio versions for most of the major translations), which is a great option, especially because you can incorporate it into your daily commute. Using an audio Bible also helps you know how to pronounce the names of people and places, which is extremely helpful.

Once you have comprehension of the entire Bible narrative (for assistance, review Understanding the Bible Narrative), you can do Bible plans or studies regularly to deepen your understanding. These offer novel ways to approach different sections or cross-sections of the Bible, and there’s no limit to how many options you can find in an app, online, or in a bookstore.

Daily Reading

The Bible is your daily bread – as Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Therefore, you should “eat” a regular portion daily. When you do this, you will forever be noticing new things, for it is impossible to fully master Scripture. This continual searching of the Word for new insights will enrich your spiritual life.

Some people do a chapter of Proverbs a day and thereby go through the entire book once a month (since there are 31 chapters). This can saturate you in God’s wisdom, which is a major boon to your spiritual development, but make sure you also go through the rest of the Bible regularly, since all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). You don’t want to miss out on any part of the Bible, even the obscure and seemingly pointless parts like the censuses in Numbers.

One common practice I would caution against is the one-year read-through plans. Unless you’re using such a plan for a rapid context-establishing whole Bible read-through, I find these plans go too fast and cover too much ground each day for meaningful reflection. Also, if you fall behind, it is very difficult to catch up.

I’ve developed my own Daily Bread plan that I’ve been using for several years and sharing with my wife. The logic of it is that there are exactly 260 chapters in the New Testament, which when divided by 52, yields exactly 5. This is therefore the foundation of a 5-year plan.

If you take out the Psalms, the Old Testament has 779 chapters, which is one shy of 780, which when divided by 5 yields 156, which equals 52 x 3. Hence we can have the Old Testament (without Psalms) be three days of the week, and the New Testament can be one day of the week.

To form a complete five-day-a-week plan, we can have the psalms be one day. There are 150 psalms, so if you read one a week, but you double up the shorter psalms toward the end of the book, you can reduce the count to 130 by doubling psalms after Psalm 110. That would give 2.5 years, so just do this twice during the 5-year period.

As it turns out, the remainder of the Old Testament can be divided into thirds pretty easily. By also pulling out Proverbs, the Pentateuch and remaining wisdom books have 249 chapters, the historical books have 249 chapters, and the prophets have 250 chapters. In the last 11 weeks of the 5-year plan, spread the 31 chapters of Proverbs across those three days, and you only have one day’s worth of reading missing in the final week of the 5 years.

Within the New Testament, it would be uneven to go straight through, since you would be without epistles for about 2.5 years, then without gospels and church history for the next 2.5 years. Gospels and Acts together have 117 chapters, while the epistles (without Revelation) have 121. Therefore, you can simply alternate, then put Revelation at the very end of the plan.

In summary, it would look like this:

• Monday: Psalms. One psalm per day through Psalm 110, then do two psalms per day through the end of the book. Do the entire book this way twice.
• Tuesday: Go sequentially through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Song of Songs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. Once these are finished, go through Proverbs (across Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday).
• Wednesday: Go sequentially through Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. Once these are finished, go through Proverbs (across Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday).
• Thursday: Go sequentially through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Once these are finished, go through Proverbs (across Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday). In the final week, this will be a skip day (or you can move up that week’s Friday reading).
• Friday: Alternate one week in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts, then the next week in Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude. Once Gospels/Acts are done, finish out the epistles. After the epistles are done, finish out with Revelation.

Note that because this is a five-day-a-week plan, you can either take a break on the weekend or work in a plan or study of some kind on Saturday and/or Sunday. At some point, I’d like to break down and count out the proverbs and work in a handful of proverbs each weekend as an additional component of this plan.