3.25

If you read my previous post, you know that I've started a new Bible reading plan. I talked at great length about it in that post.

 Today, I started thinking about it again. Anyone who has been a Christian long thinks about reading the Bible through in one year. Among the faithful it is almost a rite of passage to do so.

 In fact, our obsession with this rite is so enormous that we've actually created a demand for companies to create Bible Reading Plans of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Just go Google it. Check out BibleGateway.com or other suppliers. Many of these plans are free so it isn't a great expense but now they're making actual Bibles with the scriptures organized into daily readings for you, just in case you can't do that on your own.

Do I sound a bit sarcastic? I guess I am. Because when I realized how silly this whole process is, I got snarky. I apologize. It is, in my humble opinion, very important that Christians and even non-Christians read the Bible through, from cover to cover, at least once in your life. It, like Shakespeare and Dickens, should be part of every education. And they could toss Dickens if it were up to me. For the Christian, if you continue going to church or reading any material where it is a reference before you die you will have heard or read the majority of it many times over.

However, I've come to the conclusion... in the last week, that we're really silly about the whole thing. In fact, my feeling that we're silly about it grew to the point that this morning I actually took my calculator and calculated exactly how many chapters per day we would need to read to finish the Bible in exactly 1 year (not including leap years).

Of course, Bible reading plans do this for you but how many chapters will vary as with as many plans as there are available. Most have you reading four or five a day. Some give you weekends off. Some, like my current plan, have you reading even more. If you check the last post I put up, you can find a link to the one I am trying now.

The truth is, it isn't that difficult to come up with a plan. First, you need to know what you're up against. There are 1189 chapters in the Bible. They vary in length considerably. Psalms 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible and runs for a few pages, depending on the font size on your Bible. Jeremiah is the longest book in the Bible and if you consider he has a second book, Lamentation, there is no competition. Both books are heavy reading.

Anyway, if you divide 1189 chapters by 365 days you will need to read 3.2575342466 chapters a day. You should finish on December 31. Since it isn't a round number you might as well just read four chapters and be done a day or so early to prep for your New Year celebration.

Just stop struggling with the whole thing. Chart out your own plan and read 3.25 chapters a day. You could start by reading all the short books first: the Minor Prophets and the short History books. You'd kill a big chunk of the Bible in a month or so. Follow up with the Letters, except Romans isn't short. Mix it up any way you like because for those driven to participate in the BIAY (Bible in a Year) competition, the truth is, it doesn't matter what order you read it in. As a bonus, you could read 5 chapters a day finish in 237.8 days, just in time for the Thanksgiving & Christmas holidays!

Remember the Minor Prophets, Paul's letters to individuals, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, general letters, and Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Ester are all some of the shortest books in the Bible.  Wisdom books follow.

Here's a graphic that divides the Old and New Testament into their proper divisions. Study it and create your own plan.