Chapter and verse

Readers share their methods for perusing Bible in a year

It’s on many a Christian’s bucket list: Read the Bible in a year. It’s a common resolution, and one that some find perennially difficult to keep.

Author Jana Riess’ newest book came out of such a failure. “I had tried several times to read the Bible from cover to cover, but always wound up giving up somewhere around Leviticus,” she said.

She decided to read - and humorously tweet - a chapter a day. Summarizing it in 140 characters would require her to study the text deeply; committing to Twitter would give her accountability. The three-year project resulted in The Twible: All the Chapters of the Bible, in 140 Characters or Less, published in October.

“When I started the project, my own biblical literacy was a goal of mine, but I honestly didn’t think about ways that the project might help other people until I started getting feedback about how people found it not only funny but helpful for understanding the Bible,” said Riess, who lives in Cincinnati and writes a blog for Religion News Service. “I love the idea of people using The Twible to get to know the actual Bible better, whether they do it in a year or a single afternoon.”

Biblical literacy was also the goal for poet and editor Jennifer Strange of Shreveport the one year she accomplished that task. She thinks it made her a better reader in general. Normally she likes to pause, to savor details. “I did it the one time simply to have it read, because I lacked so much biblical literacy,” she said. “In doing it, I realized that there was something to be gained, for me,at least, in resisting the pause.”

She compared it to reading a novel. “I can get bogged down in small stuff within novels - turns of phrases, minor characters, landscapes. Not insignificant stuff, but stuff that will make me miss the big picture if I let it,” said the mother of three. “I didn’t realize until college that that’s why I was such a bad reader most of my life. But if you just push through, you can more easily get a sense of the big picture.” According to widely published statistics, 45 percent of Americans make New Year’s resolutions; half of them are still successful after six months; and 8 percent are successful at year’s end. There aren’t statistics on success rates of achieving this particular goal. (Some ministers, who declined to be named, admitted they’ve never read the entire book straight through.) But there is lots of help for those who want to make it through the Bible’s 66 books and 1,189 chapters in a year.

That’s an average of 3.25 chapters daily (or four chapters a day, six days a week, with one day to rest, or to catch up), a commitment of just half an hour or less per day.

There are five common approaches:

Beginning to end, cover to cover.

Chronological, reading in the order in which the events of the Bible occurred.

Historical, reading the books in the order they are estimated to have been written.

Old and New Testaments together, with readings from both each day.

New Testament first, then Old.

Many Bibles offer reading plans in the back, some

times with boxes to satisfyingly check off as readers tally their progress. Many websites offer printouts with daily reading plans. The site ewordtoday.com/year/ offers a choice of reading plans in a wide choice of translations.

One-year Bibles are also available, with each day’s reading labeled by date.

TRY, TRY AGAIN Writer and editor Ann Kroeker of Carmel, Ind., has made a habit of reading through the Bible in a year. It took her several tries, but she knew it could be done, because of her mentor’s example.

“As a young adult, right out of college, someone offered to mentor me,” she said. “We met weekly. I don’t remember much about what we discussed except what a huge impression it made on me that she read through the Bible every year. … It seemed so insurmountable to me at the time: Read through the entire Bible? Every year? So that’s when I started trying it with a print-out. And that’s when I failed. Except, did I? I may not have read through the entire Bible in the first year, or the second year that I tried, but by the third year, I’d read every word. Prior to that, I’d only read bits and pieces. I’d say I did succeed, even though it took three years.”

Kroeker, a sprinter in high school, compared it to running. “When I first started jogging for fitness, a mile seemed impossible,” she said. “Then I ran that mile without stopping and realized I could keep going a little farther. Over time, I built up to about two or three miles as my regular routine.”

She decided to train for a five-mile race; a half-marathon seemed like climbing Everest. She has now completed three half marathons.

“Same thing with reading through the Bible. It felt impossible when I started, and it took forever to finally get through. But now, it feels sort of normal. Familiar. It’s a commitment, yes, but I know what to do and what it feels like.”

Some individuals, and even entire congregations,sprint through the Bible, with a 90-day plan.

Johnny Simmons read the Bible in 90 days two years ago along with other parishioners of Church of the Holy Trinity in Houston; this year, he did it again on his own. That pace means reading just over 13 chapters a day.

He likes reading straight through. “The Bible’s story and its revelation of God are cumulative, and you lose the force of that reading from each Testament,” said the professional drummer. “I like to read through in a shorter time so that I will recall earlier passages better as I approach the latter books.”

Communal discussion helped keep him on track the first time. On his own, it was a simple matter of commitment. “If I missed a day I caught up. But I’m a guy who likes to read whole books at once.”HEARING THE WORD

As with nearly everything these days, there’s an app for that - daily readings or daily audio, sent to your smartphone, in iPhone, Android or BlackBerry versions.

It’s possible to cover the tome in a year without reading a single word.

Kroeker started listening to the Daily Audio Bible (dailyaudiobible.com) this year, and plans to do the same in 2014. It’s read aloud each year by Brian Hardin. He “offers a few thoughts to provide context sometimes for some of those sections like Leviticus, that you mentioned as being a book that might cause a person to lose momentum,” she said.

“Sometimes I listen as I walk, jog or use the elliptical; sometimes I listen in bed; sometimes I listen quietly just sitting. I have really, really liked listening to someone read it to me. I only listen to him give the intro, read, pray.” She skips the community chat section, where people share prayer requests. “He switches translations each week, so you get some variety.”

There’s nothing new under the sun, it says in the book of Ecclesiastes. That goes for modern methods of listening to the Bible, whether on a daily podcast or CDs or an audio book, notes Kroeker, the author of Not So Fast: Slow-Down Solutions for Frenzied Families.

“Remember that the Bible would have been received through hearing for most of its existence; actually reading to oneself is a relatively recent, modern possibility. Listening gives me the sense that I’m in this with others across the world. The Daily Audio Bible community is literally worldwide. That adds energy to the experience.

“Even though I listen to it alone, I have this sense of connectedness to the church. Reading printed Scripture alone provides more of a sense of just God and me; the word of God transmitted to me and brought alive by the Spirit, very personally and quietly. I think both are good, one enriching the other.Similarly, memorizing Bible passages is another way for God’s word to take root in a more settled way.”

Allowing God’s word to take root is the point, readers agreed, whether it’s in 90 days, a year or a lifetime.

Religion, Pages 14 on 12/28/2013

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