Finished.

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I started the year with the intention to read through the entire Bible.  I've never done it entirely in one year before, and I thought it was high time I did it.

The reading plan I used was simply '3 + 1'...three chapters in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament every day.

I stayed fairly well on the plan;  I'd get a few days behind but then catch up again during a vacation or holiday when I had a bit of extra time.

I was on vacation in Gatlinburg at the end of October when I finished the book of Nehemiah in another catch up session.  I checked the list and I had only Zachariah and Malachi left.

Wait.  Only 18 chapters?  And I was behind?  I knew there was a little extra time but I'd never added it up.

I went back and looked at the numbers and realized that, reading three and one every day, you finish reading in mid October.   

There are 1,179 chapters in the Bible, dividing that by 4 is 295 days. Which leaves 70 extra days.  So if you stick to it...you'll finish in the late part of October.

Or, you can skip a day a week; 3 + 1 six days a week and you'll finish mid- December.

Or, you do what I did...realize you had two months to read fourteen chapters and spend some time doing other stuff, like writing a little study on a chapter in Exodus, so that you end up finishing with two days left.

I wouldn't recommend that approach; it was too easy to slack back.

Overall, though, I'd recommend this as a way to cover the Bible without getting too rigid about it.  There is a little slack time for vacations or extremely busy work seasons, or ...you know, life stuff that happens.  I did keep a journal, so I knew where I was in the reading and what I had to do when I got behind.  And I kinda sorta read through it in Chronological order, with a bit of exception (for instance, I started the New Testament with John, which was one of the last books written, because it began with ' In the beginning'...just like Genesis, then just read all of John's writings...1,2 3 John and Revelation before going back to Matthew).  I looked at what dates scholars believed the books were written and followed that, reading two from OT narrative, one from the wisdom books and one from the NT.  When I finished the Wisdom books I started reading three a day from the given book, going from 2 Chronicles to the prophetic books dealing with the last days of the kingdom and the exile before going back to Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah, finishing with the post-exilic prophets.

If I had been just a little more pro-active, I'd've finished Malachi during Advent, which would work very well with the season.

I read through my (relatively) new, unmarked NIV '84, marking as I went.  I'm actually thinking of starting again on Jan 2 with the ESV and going through again.

Wonder if I could just keep repeating the cycle with a different translation for the next few years...hmmm....