The Bible in 365 Days

There are many benefits to reading the entire Bible each year

Last week I started reading Genesis in the Bible. This is nothing new – I’ve read through the entire Bible each year for the past 11 years (as well as several times in the more distant past). It’s something I think everyone should do at least once, and that Christians should do each year.

I think this is important for a number of reasons. One is that it’s the oldest book we have, with parts of it written as early as 1,400 B.C. It is the basis for much of our literature – Shakespeare made frequent reference to it and its stories and themes still pop up in books and movies. Even the sports world has its biblical moments: When a smaller or less experienced team upsets a heavy favorite, it’s called a David vs. Goliath win.

Reading the Bible completely through in a year, especially when reading it year after year, brings a much more complete understanding of how everything ties together, from Genesis to Revelation. There’s a lot in the New Testament that can only be properly understood with a good working knowledge of the Old Testament.

It’s amazing that even reading it each year for more a decade, I’m still learning new things and gaining more insights into what the Bible says. It is such a deep and complex work that it takes years to just scratch the surface.

Easier Than it Sounds

Of course, reading the entire Bible seems like an onerous task. Any Bible printed in a readable font runs to more than 1,000 pages and, depending on footnotes and layout, could be 2,000 pages.

Taken in daily chunks, though, reading through it becomes a fairly simple task. Even 1,500 pages is reduced to just four pages a day, taking maybe 10 minutes.

I say 10 minutes because the object is to read it, not to take time to study it. I do plenty of in-depth studying as well, but that’s a separate task. The daily reading is simply to see what’s in the Bible and how it all connects.

Not every day offers an aha! moment. Sometimes I can get a bit distracted, read over it quickly and come away with barely any knowledge. But other times something will jump out at me that I hadn’t considered before. Those days often spur further thought, research and discussion. But again, the goal is to gain a gradual overall knowledge of what the Bible says and how it all flows together into a uniform piece.

Oh, Those Books Too

Of course, reading through the entire Bible means that eventually you get to Leviticus and Numbers, and that’s often where people feel they’re walking through a field of mud. Leviticus has page after page of information about various offerings, and three whole chapters dealing with skin diseases and bodily discharges. Numbers contains lists, or numbers, of how many people in each tribe of Israel.

But Leviticus is also where we find the second part of Jesus’ Greatest Commandment, the part that tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Numbers contains some fascinating stories that include a talking donkey and the earth opening up to swallow 250 people rebelling against Moses’ leadership.

So it’s worth the effort to make it through the duller parts to find the interesting stories.

Find a Good Bible

One key to staying with the task is to read in one of the more modern translations. Unless you’re a big fan of Shakespeare, the King James Version probably won’t be a good choice for you (although the New King James Version is more readable). My preferred versions for reading the Bible are the Holman Christian Standard Bible (now simply the Christian Standard Bible) and the New Living Translation. But many people prefer the New International Version or the English Standard Version.

For the past five years, I’ve done my reading in chronological order. The people who put the Bible together did so more like a librarian would, grouping similar books without regard for when they were written. The Old Testament is grouped as the five books of Moses, followed by the historical writings, the wisdom writings and the prophets, while the New Testament is the four gospels and Acts, the letters of Paul, the letters of other apostles and Revelation. But that’s not necessarily the order they were written in.

Reading the Bible chronologically was a game-changer for me in understanding the writings of the prophets. Chronological Bibles generally follow the same order as any other Bible until you reach Kings and Chronicles. Then they begin inserting the various prophets into the timeline where they were assumed to have been written.

So, for example, you might read about an event in the reign of King Hezekiah in 2 Kings, then again in 2 Chronicles and then in Isaiah, helping you see how it all fits together. A prophecy about a certain event or nation will be right next to the actual event or nation in Kings and Chronicles.

It even helps make sense of some of the prophetic books. Jeremiah, for example, reads like someone dropped the pages, the wind scattered them, then when they were picked up no one bothered to put them back in order. So in the chronological order of Jeremiah’s writing, part of chapter 26 comes before chapter 7 and the rest of it after chapter 8. Chapter 47 comes before chapter 46, and both fit in between chapters 12 and 13.

That sounds a bit crazy, but read in that order it makes a lot more sense.

There are a number of online chronological reading plans, with some variations, and there are several versions of the Bible printed in chronological order (I them in both the NIV and the NLT).

So I encourage everyone, but especially Christians who seek a deeper knowledge, to read through the Bible in a year. I do it in the morning while I eat my breakfast and it literally takes me 10 minutes. It’s now a habit and if I happen to miss a morning for some reason, it feels a little like I forgot to put on shoes or left my wallet at home.