Tag: Bible

Continuing to read the Bible

On Sunday, September 3, 2023

My Bible reading velocity has increased since I started keeping track of my reading on February 9, 2006. I initially kept track on this blog, but switched to a private Google Docs spreadsheet after July 2, 2019. I did a search on this and it looks like the only time I wrote another post like this was in 2019. I have read through the King James Version (KJV), New King James Version (NKJV), English Standard Version (ESV), New American Standard Bible (NASB), and New International Version (NIV) Bibles. Lorena and I are currently reading aloud through the Reina-Valera, 1909 (RV) Spanish Version of the New Testament over the Internet with Grandma Conchita in Mexico. I am currently, in a read through the New Living Translation (NLT) version of the New Testament and hope to do a full read through that version when I finish.

When I first started, it was a pretty big effort just to get through a chapter per day. It took me 1,363 days to read through the Bible in my first pass. The last time, I read all the way through the Bible starting in late December of 2022, it took me 120 days. I really feel like I have missed something if I miss a day of reading. I am pretty sure I could count the days I missed on one hand since when I started reading 17 years ago. I am pretty sure I would benefit greatly by slowing down and reading more carefully, but I want to do that as an additional reading as opposed to replacing what I am doing now.

So far, I have been through the whole Bible ten times. I am on my 38th pass through the New Testament if you include the times I read through the whole Bible. This whole effort, if you want to call it that, has been an incredible gift to me.

My Bible reading plan–getting close to complete

By Dad

On Friday, July 21, 2017

In Christianity

Reading through the Bible I was pretty bad at consistently reading my Bible up until shortly before we moved from Oregon to North Carolina in 2006 when I started keeping track of my reading (here) on one of my blog pages. I started out with a plan to read a chapter a day until I had read through the entire Bible three times, with a couple of extra readings of the New Testament after each complete pass through the whole Bible for a total of nine individual reads. Here are some notes on how it has gone:

The first time I read through the whole Bible, it took me 1363 days or 3 years, 8 months, and 25 days.
My last pass through the whole Bible took me 584 days or 1 year, 7 months, and 6 days.
My first pass through just the New Testament took me 11 months and 9 days.
My most recent pass through the New Testament which I completed today took 127 days or 4 months and 5 days.

I really have only missed a handful of days in this entire time where I did not read and have made up for all the days I have missed to the best of my recollection. The thing that is most interesting to me is that I am not really reading any faster now than I did previously, I am just taking more time. In addition, I am enjoying it more and more every time and find myself “reading ahead” on a fairly regular basis, especially on Sundays.

I have one more read through the new Testament to finish the original plan, then I need to make a new plan. I want to do some topical studies, but I also want to read some other version. My current thinking is that I will do a read through the NASB and the RSV using the same plan as before (one read of the Old Testament and three reads of the New Testament), then switch over to some topical studies. In the meantime, Lorena and I want to read through the Reina Valera (1960) translation together using that same trajectory.

Read through the Bible

By Dad

On Tuesday, August 11, 2015

In Christianity

My goal when I started tracking my Bible reading in 2006 was to systematically read through the Old Testament three times and the New Testament nine times before deciding what to do next. As of now, I am two-thirds of the way complete. I keep track of my reading here and do the vast bulk of my reading in the KJV using the Xiphos Bible software.

Betty Blonde #392 – 01/15/2010

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Another archaeological find featuring a Biblical name from the era of King David

By Dad

On Wednesday, June 17, 2015

In Christianity

Here, here and here are a couple of articles on the find of a piece of pottery with the name of Saul’s son, Eshba’al, on it. We really do not have much from that era, but confirmation of the veracity of the Bible and even some of the personalities described in the Bible are slowly starting to accumulate, including a direct non-Biblical reference to the House of David itself. Here is an interesting article from Biblical Archaeology review that lists 50 People in the Bible Confirmed Archaeologically.

Betty Blonde #348 – 11/16/2009

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Even older extant manuscripts of the New Testament

By Dad

On Friday, February 13, 2015

In Christianity

I have been following this story about a new find of what might be the oldest extant manuscripts of the Biblical New Testament. That something had been found was known to the general public several years ago, but it was not known that the partial manuscripts were from papyrus used to make mummy masks in Egypt until very recently. One of the manuscript fragments is from the Gospel of Mark and dates back to 90 A.D. Here is an excerpt from the article:

[Craig] Evans says that the text was dated through a combination of carbon-14 dating, studying the handwriting on the fragment and studying the other documents found along with the gospel. These considerations led the researchers to conclude that the fragment was written before the year 90. With the nondisclosure agreement in place, Evans said that he can’t say much more about the text’s date until the papyrus is published.

Betty Blonde #259 – 07/16/2009

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Just finished reading the Old Testament

By Dad

On Monday, September 23, 2013

In Christianity

Day 763 of 1000

I am about half way through a plan to read through the Old Testament three times and the New Testament nine times. After that, I plan to follow one my buddy, Jon’s plans. I like my current plan, but there are a bunch of other plans I would like to follow including:

A read through the whole Bible in one year (sometime before I die)
A read through the Bible chronologically
A fairly large list of topical studies (I do that a little anyway)
A read through the Bible while keeping a map book of where stuff occurred

The Old Testament is great, but for some reason it seemed pretty dark this time. Starting into the New Testament from that viewpoint has helped me realize a little better, the greatness of the Gospel, the good news. The times and attitudes of our day here in America and around the world do not seem so different in many ways than the Roman world of Jesus day. I am looking forward to moving into three reads in a row through the New Testament and the hope that is uniquely found therein.