I recently read the Bible in it's entirety. This is (sadly) the first time that I remember doing so. I have probably read most of it at various times through personal devotion time and various classes, but don't remember ever intentionally going through it. I also did it in less that a year (in about 11 months), which I was happy about. Plus I read Psalms and Proverbs multiple times alongside of whatever else I was reading, even though I am not a New Testament plus Psalms person (don't get the wrong idea about me). I actually started with Job and then read through to the end and then started again with Genesis until I reached Job again. It was a good way to go through, at least for me. Some parts were really enjoyable to read through, such as long narratives (especially the beginning of Genesis and parts of Kings), letters of Paul, Hebrews, Proverbs and Isaiah. Other parts were more difficult, such as repeated accounts of how to build the tabernacle, repeated Levitical law and repeated lists of names and tribes.
Anyways, I read though in my small sized NIV Bible that Tom gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago. I am now starting to read through an NRSV Bible and enjoying the differences. First of all, the differences in translations brings new viewpoints on familiar passages. Even a couple of words translated differently can shed new light on a passage that I have gotten used to in more familiar translations. Even simple stylistic differences are interesting to me. Another huge difference is that the NIV Bible included headings to sections whereas the NRSV does not include those. It has been a really freeing thing and I realized that even without meaning to, I read the Bible as divided up by those headings. Without them, the various sections and discourses are very different to read and many things make more sense as whole passages rather than as individual sections. For example, parables are usually divided up by headings for each parable. Without those, I can see the parables together as a longer discourse, where Jesus is making a broader point through the group of parables. I have been enjoying this new reading of the Bible. The only problem is that the last Bible was small and compact whereas this one is huge and really heavy.
Anyways, I read though in my small sized NIV Bible that Tom gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago. I am now starting to read through an NRSV Bible and enjoying the differences. First of all, the differences in translations brings new viewpoints on familiar passages. Even a couple of words translated differently can shed new light on a passage that I have gotten used to in more familiar translations. Even simple stylistic differences are interesting to me. Another huge difference is that the NIV Bible included headings to sections whereas the NRSV does not include those. It has been a really freeing thing and I realized that even without meaning to, I read the Bible as divided up by those headings. Without them, the various sections and discourses are very different to read and many things make more sense as whole passages rather than as individual sections. For example, parables are usually divided up by headings for each parable. Without those, I can see the parables together as a longer discourse, where Jesus is making a broader point through the group of parables. I have been enjoying this new reading of the Bible. The only problem is that the last Bible was small and compact whereas this one is huge and really heavy.
No comments:
Post a Comment