Through the Bible in a year

The week before Christmas I finished reading the Bible. This project started in January when Amanda made this post on her blog.

My general comments are:

• The Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures could have used a good copy editor. Things are out of order, repeated, contradict each other, and make for a very boring read in several places.
• There are some unappreciated things in the New Testament.
• The prophetic books have a lot of oracles against different groups of people. However, it is hard to build a sense of who is who because I have no exposure to these groups of people outside of a Biblical context.
• I want to learn more about Judaism to understand how they view and interpret their scriptures.

My observations about needing a good editor gave me a few ideas on how to arrange a book. Derek is anticipating that just as the Jefferson Bible was produced, soon we will have the Page Bible.

If you want to do something like this, you need to find some kind of accountability. Amanda and I were on the same reading schedule and chatted about the readings over Skype every week. Since we would talk on Monday nights, I did most of my reading on Sunday and Monday right before we chatted. We would often pick out different (or even the same) verses and ideas to comment on. She picked up on a lot of things I completely missed. Without her support, I would have fallen away from the reading soon after starting. While you could probably read 1500 pages of a normal book, there are a few sections that could derail all but the most dedicated reader.

Some of the things I learned have already been useful. Someone had a question at a Bible study and I was ready to give a short lecture on typology as an answer. A few weeks ago my general comments about Zephaniah had someone asking if I took a theology class. My knowledge of ancient history was helpful in understanding a few of the things I read.

Now I am working on some summary sheets with a few comments on the minor prophets. Knowing just a couple of sentences about a few people can go a long way. The next time a Protestant or a self-proclaimed Christian who rejects the Council of Nicaea (which I think is a contradiction) tries to argue with me I want to be ready.

I also read the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the last year. Nothing specific stands out from it.

Now I need a new religious reading project. What do you think we should read next? It could be the writings of the early Church Fathers, Vatican II documents, Papal encyclicals, writings of saints like City of God or Summa Theologiae, a specific study on one gospel/letter, or something completely different.