How should I go about reading the Bible as a work of literature? I know you shouldn't rush through it like it's a novel, but how should I read it. When I Googled this I saw someone suggest alternating between 2 Old Testament chapters, then a Psalm, then a New Testament chapter, then 2 Old, et cetera. Is this a good idea?
How should I go about reading the Bible as a work of literature? I know you shouldn't rush through it like it's a novel...
Brody Davis
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Nathan Diaz
>Buhuu Bible is too long, I don"t wanna read it.
That is you.
Nathaniel Long
You don’t, because it’s not literature. If you approach it as literature you’re going to think it’s shit
Liam Morales
To be fair. It is too long for the amount that it actually says. You could tear out about half of it and retain all of the original message. Much of it shouldn't even be read (e.g. you can safely skip Leviticus altogether).
Henry Reed
>you have to believe this inane crap to get anything out of it
Color me surprised
Colton Lopez
Owen Watson
>How should I go about reading the Bible as a work of literature?
Learn Hebrew
Learn Greek
Then Start With The Greeks
After you have read all philosophy from the dawn of human civilisation up until 1CE read the torah, talmud, the original manuscripts of the new testament, and then the latin version of the bible
after that so that you understand the bible you'll need to read all commentaries on it both jewish, muslim, and christian sources
then read the quran and all commentaries on it
Camden King
Hahaha, I get it. He's wearing a hat and he looks silly in it. Why didn't I think of this before I posted my honest beliefs? I should have guessed that I would be accused of wearing an ostentatious head-item from a bygone era. Dammit, my whole ontology is imploding as we speak! AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!
Jaxson Martin
treat the old testament sort of like the background lore required to fully understand the new testament. its essentially a loose collection of lore, history, myth and law of the culture the 'hero' comes from. skip parts youre not interested in or return to them later, etc. read the new testament from front to back as you would a story.
Oliver Roberts
>read all commentaries on it
lmao this retard doesn't realize that there are so many commentaries that there are entire books dedicated to listing all the commentaries.
Christian Thompson
You fucking retarded piece of shit. The torah is infinitely more interesting and better written than the new testament if you're reading them in their original forms. The torah is compiled from millennia of oral tradition, and the rich history of a people who stole ideas from everyone who had good ideas. The New Testament is just fanfiction.
Joseph Gonzalez
I don't care if it takes you 800 years to read them all, if you want to UNDERSTAND the bible you MUST read them ALL.
Gabriel Ward
it is basically just the entire jewish culture bundled together somewhat haphazardly, that's what oral traditions do. doesnt mean its bad, but someone interested in reading it as a piece of literature might want to approach it a bit differently than someone treating it as a holy scripture
Luis Green
You can read selected parts as a continuous narrative. It's how I started and it helped give me a framework to place all the other material. Of course I also went back and re-read the narrative more closely after understanding more of the context. Here's a narrative reading list I came up with that avoids repetition:
Genesis (can skip: 5, 10, 36)
Exodus 1-24, 32-35, 40
Numbers 10-36
Deuteronomy 34
Joshua 1-13, 22-24
Judges
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings (can skip: 7)
2 Kings
Daniel 1-6
Ezra
Nehemiah
1 Maccabees (not in Protestant bibles)
Luke
Acts
Owen Martin
Reading it in the supposed historically chronological order of their composition might be the best. Otherwise you could read them in some prescribed liturgical order of the different religious communities, or read texts with supposed joint authorship together, like the Psalms of David with other writings attributed to him.
Kayden Richardson
What, why would you read Luke instead of Mark?
Adrian Thomas
You can't skip Lamentations, It's very important to the narrative.
John Rogers
Acts is a sequel to Luke. They make the most sense as a narrative unit.
Jason Robinson
Luke is still a secondary derivative from Mark and/or Q and Acts has a lot fanciful sounding stories but at least Mark has the advantage of earlier attestation.
Eli Harris
Goddamn its yuge
Cameron Clark
1 Maccabees is found in multiple not explicitly Catholic bibles along with other apocrypha actually. It's 2 Esdras which has been less frequent.
Grayson Long
>How should I go about reading the Bible as a work of literature?
>as a work of literature
cringe
Jordan Jackson
I ain't op but I'll argue from a different point of view: Mark is really really fucking boring and dry, Luke is way way more interesting aesthetically, tons of cool symbolism and requires actual thought to digest.
Parker Bailey
Mark and the "undisputed" epistles are more essential to the study of the NT the way the Torah would be for the OT even if they aren't the most eloquent works in the canon.
Logan Barnes
Your speaking from a secular historian point of view, if you were Catholic Matthew would be more essential.
Bentley Gomez
>the catholic larpers on Yea Forums skip several parts of the Bible entirely
this meme gets worse everyday
John Butler
Yeah that too as far as the synoptics are concerned. John would be quite significative too.
Aiden Watson
most overrated book in the anglosphere. save your time and read something actually good
Jack Perez
>How should I go about reading the Bible as a work of literature?
Well it is a work of literature. Of course it is. What else would it be? A sculpture? A movie? Interpretive dance? No, it's literature in addition to being divinely inspired.
>When I Googled this I saw someone suggest alternating between 2 Old Testament chapters, then a Psalm, then a New Testament chapter, then 2 Old, et cetera. Is this a good idea?
No.
Jose Morales
Seethe.
Cooper Carter
Not true. This book won a Pulitzer examining the OT from such a perspective. Haven't read it but I read a bit of his sequel on the NT and it's an interesting way of engaging with the text.
Asher Evans
Nah. Leviticus is dry as shit but it helps to understand the temple culture. Now 1 Chronicles, THAT you can skip.