People of the Book

Im a librarian and just doing a little research on literacy, so bear with me.
Muslims actually call Jews and Christians 'People of the Book', isnt that interesting. But how many of us actually read this book?

I mean really read, not just skim or listen to soundbites.
And by reading I dont mean reading the commentaries and what other people think about it.
How much time do you spend reading the Bible. Or do you just pick and choose what you like.
What are your reading habits, how do you go about reading the Bible?

Do you read alone or with others? Do you have a large print Bible, many copies or just one? Do you write in your Bible?
Do you have a favourite book in the Bible?
Do you highlight passages?

Sometimes I get a bit concerned that people dont seem to understand what they are reading, or a strange interpetation off scripture and it turns out they dont read the Bible at all, but they are going to another source or just relying on what they hear in church each week. I dont think any church reading can subsitute for sitting down and reading the Bible on your own because most sermons are just half an hour at most and only quote a few verses, its not like you are going through the Bible every day until you read it from cover to cover.

There are all sorts of aids to help you. Devotionals do help. But I think if you havent actually read the Bible, know the stories then its not going to help you understand what they mean when someone quotes a bit of scripture and then goes off on a riff about it.

Its like people that just go to movies and dont actually read the book it based on. How do they know if the adaptation/movie treatment was true to the book? If they havent read the book? In most cases, the book is always going to better than the movie treatment! They are missing out on so much if they are not going to the original source.

Just a note, in the Koran a people known as Sabians, Karaites and Samaritans, as well as Zoroastrians, are also labeled as , people of the book.

People of the book is a plural noun that encompasses all who are those faithful within pre-Islamic Abrahamic Monotheistic religions.

If the Word of God is not written upon our hearts,
It is of no value to us. We need to accept and absorb
scripture and then live it. If we don't do that, we have
missed the purpose of the Bible.

You are obvious a deep thinker. That's a good quality to have.

I appreciate that, thank you

It is my experience that only a minority of people claim to have read the Bible..

And even within this group many of the people have not read the Bible as one would read a book.. From start to finish..

Many of them have taken part in ""Bible studies"" where they jump from one verse here and another verse there usually based on a doctrine their church promotes.. They have a doctrine that the Bible study is held to support and their leader directs them to different verses that are claimed to support that doctrine.. They go through a number of sessions, each one devoted to an individual doctrine and when they are finished then they declare themselves to have read the Bible.. when in fact that have not read the Bible as one would read a book at all..

yea I find that weird. A lot of Bible studies are like that.
My recommendation is to just go through one book a chapter at a time until youve finished it if you going to do like a weekly Bible study. Then choose another book from the Bible.

I dont like Bible studies that are topic based and jump around all over the Bible, picking random verses here and there.

you use a dictionary like that but you dont read the whole dictionary. The Bible is not like dictionary. It has stories for the most part. In the new testment theres a lot of letters and they would have read the entire letter to each church not just pick a few sentences out.

Good advice

I usualy recommend that Seekers and New Christians read the New Testament first.. Getting the Gospel on board is the most important thing i believe.

I read the Book of John first, then Genesis, then read the Gospels (like a book), then I went back to the Old Testament (beginning in Genesis again)..

As I was doing that I was also reading sermons from old pastors from the 17th and 18th centuries - and I understood them well because they spoke to me about the God I had come to know, in such a way I knew they knew HIM too.

Then I read books, Pilgram's Progress was first, by John Bunyan but as a general rule I wasn't reading books at that time much, even though my husband purchased for me books by Spurgeon and others.

Then I got into reading a Systematic theology by Grudem, which was recommended to me by those in the same faith group I belong, which led me also to reading a book on Covanent Theology..

I've not finished the systematic theology but it's a good reference, but I have finished the Bible.

I've only been saved since November of 2014 and I figure that's a lot of reading in 6 years, although I don't think I'm rushing learning.

I dont consider reading theology books to be reading the Bible, but it is interesting how people start to stray from the Bible by reading other books that interpret the Bible.

I think Pilgrims Progress is a book you may not grasp totally if you had not read the Bible first. You will stil, enjoy the story but you will probably miss all the spiritual references.

A Bible dictionary is useful for looking up words though.The history and archaeology of the Bible is also interesting. But you need to have absolutely read the Bible first before you go diving in other books.

a lot of people say to start with John. Even though Matthew is the first gospel in the new testament. I find that interesting and in almost all Bibles the new testment comes after the old testment.

Some churches only give the new testament out as a separate volume.

Gideons pocket Bibles only contain the new testment, psalms and proverbs.

I wonder if a lot of people dont bother reading the Old Testament simply because they dont have a copy of the complete Bible.

I was quite surprised, as a new Christian, to find that in some churches people dont bother to bring their Bibles to church to check what the preacher is saying, and that every so often there are challenges to read the Bible, cos in many ways its implied that only the staff, like the clergy or preachers or whatever you want to call them are the only ones whove read the entire Bible cos they have studied at a Bible college and they are the ones who can teach it.

I got involved with Bibles in schools and sometimes I found it really annoying that some of the lessons would be about topics instead of stories in the Bible because children want to hear the stories and find out what happens not just on topics with random memory verses.

I wondered why we couldnt just read the Bible like a storybook and go from one chapter to the next, rather than jump around and confuse everyone.

I understood systematic theology and had developed one independently, reading from teachers has only helped me to be able to put some of it into words, and articulate my beliefs better.

It doesn't cause you to go astray when you understand it already.

But if you hadnt read the Bible first you wouldnt understand already is my point.

Thats why reading the Bible first is so important. Im not sure that everyone always does this, or whether people just skip over it.

There are some weird theologys out there. And doctrines that miss out or add to the Bible.

Have read the Bible through more than once. Have different versions that I have read through.

When I was single I also read a devotional book and what ever Bible verse they used for the day I would read the whole chapter in the Bible to get a full meaning. I also would randomly pick a chapter by just opening and reading.

After getting married back in 2014 husband and I are on our third reading of the Bible together and reading different versions. I call the Bible the never ending story as we just keep reading it over and over. This current reading we read two old testament books and one new testament book at random pick.

Tourist had read it twice and I am reading it for us this time along with a devotional book and a lesson study book from our church. We do this daily once in a while we miss if we travel but we haven't missed much in our 5 years of marriage. We call it our daily church chat... and the 2 cats will come and join us most times.

thats interesting I never thought if you were married then you would be reading the Bible together. Or reading as a family.

My family wouldnt read together I didnt even have bedtime stories we just all read individually. But I am the only one who reads the Bible. My family isnt interested :-( and they arent churchgoers.

I think it would be kinda strange to go to church and NOT attempt to read the Bible. But possibly there are families that dont give it priority. I have observed some christian families make a big deal of having a family Bible, and writing their names in it, and reading it together, at meal times etc. Usually pastors families (they kinda have to) but I dont know so much about others.

They probably read the Bible more in the days before tv but that was so way before my time that nobody I knew who comes home ever sits down to read with their family, unlike with tv when many families sit down to watch it together while eating dinner. But then I dont know enough christian families where thats normal. In my imagination they would be like Ned Flanders family in the Simpsons tv show as a stereotypical christian family.

In public schools you might be fortunate to have half an hour each week of Bible, and at the end of year be given a free Bible, but otherwise you would need to go to a special Christian school or be homeschooled to have the Bible read every day.

I have been in a few families that read the Bible together and pray together. We call it family worship or now in our current home church chat... It is nice to do it as a family and also you can read more as an individual.

I like the current Bible I have as it has pictures in it that can be colored and I will at times get the color pencils out and color the pictures or words that are on the edges or at times they make space for a larger picture and it is fun to color too very relaxing.

We are not ministers or pastors just regular people.

Yes there's now colour in Bibles.
I just keep a notebook handy, but its mostly for writing down sermon notes. I just write down scriptures I think are important.
When Im reading the Bible, out loud or silently, I dont like interruptions such as footnotes and commentaries and such. I find them distracting. It makes the Bible more like an academic text and somene elses homework thats been written all over rather than a sacred scripture. But thats just me.