# Bible reading plan needed



## Somerset (Dec 14, 2011)

Now I've got my Kindle Matthew Henry I am going to use it to accompany reading the whole Bible. I've read some parts several times, others not at all. I could start at the beginning and go to the end - but think I would get more from it be a more systematic approach.

I have found this list for the New Testament - which seems logical:
Mark, James, Peter 1 and 2, Jude, Luke, Acts, Timothy, Titus, Matthew, Hebrews, Thessalonians, Galatians, Corinthians 1 and 2, Romans, Colossians, Philippians, Ephesians, Philemon, John, John's letters, Revelation. 

Then the Old Testament - I'm much more vague here. Genesis to Judges, Samuel to Nehemiah - to cover the history in order. Then the prophets, in date order, followed by the wisdom literature. 

Any advice would be much appreciated - especially the link someone recently provided to a list of when the books were written. I meant to make a note of this post - but forget till it was too late to find it.


----------



## Ask Mr. Religion (Dec 14, 2011)

A couple of lists with historical orderings that I have compiled, one from MacArthur, the other from PB's own Contra Mundum 

View attachment 2513

AMR


----------



## JP Wallace (Dec 14, 2011)

Ken

Here's how I do it. Psalm, OT and NT....three chapters at least.

Always a Psalm - good to start the day with a Psalm!

Always an OT book on the go, I try and intersperse genres i.e Law book, then History, then Wisdom, then Prophet or some such mix. I find this works better than going from Leviticus to Numbers....or Isaiah to Jeremiah etc.

Always NT book on the go; Gospel, then Epistle (or 2) then Gospel again.

Makes for a varied programme.


----------



## Pilgrim (Dec 14, 2011)

There are a multitude of options. The one's I've used most often in recent years are M'Cheyne's plan and Grant Horner's plan. Horner's has you reading 10 chapters per day from different genres and reading some parts of Scripture several times in a year. But Horner's is not a rigid plan and you can change it up to suit your needs. However, with reading that large number of chapters it's definitely not conducive to read alongside Henry unless you're going to spend half of your waking hours on it. 

If I'm not mistaken there is a reading plan in the back of the little BoT booklet "Reading the Bible" by Pastor Geoffrey Thomas that is intended to be used in conjunction with Henry's commentary.


----------



## au5t1n (Dec 14, 2011)

I read cover to cover at about 4 chapters a day. I've tried a number of other things and keep coming back to this.


----------



## baron (Dec 14, 2011)

austinww said:


> I read cover to cover



I would second this start at Gen. and read straight through.


----------



## Semper Fidelis (Dec 14, 2011)

I've been reading cover to cover in a year for about 8 years now in addition to personal study for other purpoase. It works out to about 4 chapters a day (Psalm 119 notwithstanding). There are many places on the Internet that will generate a reading list for you. Here's a good link: Reading Plans - YouVersion.com


----------



## Weston Stoler (Dec 14, 2011)

I posted my bible reading plan but it was much too long to fit. It covers the bible in a year.


----------



## Ask Mr. Religion (Dec 14, 2011)

I also read the Bible once a year. Basically there are 1,189 chapters to cover in that year, so you can devise a myriad of methods around the 365 days in a year to cover them all.

I follow a book approach, a little more than a book a week, which generally allows me to read the same book multiple times each week. I just start each January 1 with Genesis and stick to my schedule accordingly. I don't alternate between OT and NT, preferring to just read the books in order as they appear in my Bible.

A nice tool if you have MS Excel:
http://www.biyn.org/misc/Resources/rpgen.xls

AMR


----------



## Zach (Dec 14, 2011)

I've been doing Grant Horner for two weeks and really like it. However, it is suited to my reading style and I would say it's definitely not for everyone.

http://www.thevinefellowship.com/10Lists.pdf


----------



## FenderPriest (Dec 15, 2011)

If you're going to do a straight read through of the OT, I'd recommend ordering your books according to the Tanakh/Hebrew Bible. It's how the OT was intended to be read, and there is a logical flow to that reading that is absolutely lost in the ordering all English Bibles follow. Your OT should end with 2 Chronicles, picked right up with the intro of Matthew in the NT. The unresolved work of God with the hope of restoration is all culminated in the person of Jesus Christ as God's saving work. The Bible does have a shape to the books, and it's very helpful to do a read through of it along these lines.

Personally, I do a psalm a day, a section of Psalm 119, the matching Proverbs chapter of the day, and a chapter of a Gospel. If I do extra, I pick up where I left off in the OT, usually trying to summarize a chapter to memorize (I have the goal of memorizing a summary of every chapter of the Bible). I used to do Horner's reading plan, but found it unbeneficial to me in the long run... for me at least.


----------



## au5t1n (Dec 15, 2011)

My last cover-to-cover read was in the original order as Jacob suggests. I'm back to canonical order this time (I actually like one whole genre at a time), but it was worth doing at least once and I'll probably do it again sometime.

---------- Post added at 07:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:50 AM ----------

One caveat is that it takes away one of the key advantages of reading cover to cover, which is having only one bookmark and just turning pages until you reach the end.


----------



## Dane (Dec 15, 2011)

I'm partial to The Bible in 90 Days reading plan. (It's really 90 days + 2 grace days). You read the same amount each day, straight through from Genesis to Revelation in three months.

You'd either really love your Kindle or hate it and have moved back to a printed Bible by the end. With this much daily reading, you might not have time for Matthew Henry everyday.

Reading plan: http://www.whoisbarabbas.com/images/bible_reading/schedule.pdf


----------



## LeeD (Dec 15, 2011)

I read 4 chapters in the OT (straight through), 3 chapters from Psalm / Proverbs (straight through those books coupled together), and 4 chapters in the NT (straight through). I have tried Grant Horner's plan and others, but keep coming back to this!


----------



## jgilberAZ (Dec 15, 2011)

I prefer reading chronologically.


----------



## Pilgrim (Dec 16, 2011)

LeeD said:


> I read 4 chapters in the OT (straight through), 3 chapters from Psalm / Proverbs (straight through those books coupled together), and 4 chapters in the NT (straight through). I have tried Grant Horner's plan and others, but keep coming back to this!



I am thinking of changing it up for 2012. In recent years, I've benefited from M'Cheyne and Horner. M'Cheyne is good to use for family worship if you're wanting to cover the whole Bible in a couple of years. But with the exception of some of the Wisdom books, I've generally found it to be more helpful to read a few chapters at a time rather than reading one chapter a day from different books or genres. I get a better feel for the flow of a book that way.

I do think Horner's idea of reading the Psalms and Proverbs every month (or at least more frequently than once a year) is a good one. I might start with the OT and NT "cover to cover" with reading the Psalms and Proverbs more frequently, along with studying other books more closely from time to time.


----------



## bookslover (Dec 16, 2011)

FenderPriest said:


> I used to do Horner's reading plan, but found it unbeneficial to me in the long run... for me at least.



That was my experience with Horner's plan. It was just too much reading, even after I re-arranged the readings into canonical order (which eliminated the constant flipping through the Bible). Now, I'm back to reading 1 OT chapter, 1 Psalm, then 1 NT chapter. That really works well for me.


----------



## Somerset (Dec 16, 2011)

jgilberAZ said:


> I prefer reading chronologically.



This looks really interesting - think I will use this - though doing it over two years if I'm also using Henry.


----------



## InSlaveryToChrist (Dec 16, 2011)

Somerset said:


> jgilberAZ said:
> 
> 
> > I prefer reading chronologically.
> ...



Reading the Bible chronologically would look something like this, I presume:

*OLD TESTAMENT*
Genesis 1 - 22
Job
Genesis 23 - 50
Exodus
Psalm 90
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Psalm 91
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
I Samuel 1 - 16:13
Psalm 23
I Samuel 16:14 - 19:11
Psalm 59
I Samuel 19:12 - 21:15
Psalms 34, 56
I Samuel 22:1, 2
Psalms 57, 142
I Samuel 22:3-23
Psalm 52
I Samuel 23
Psalms 54, 63
I Samuel 24 - 31
II Samuel 1 - 7
Psalm 30
II Samuel 8:1-14
Psalm 60
II Samuel 8:15 - 12:14
Psalms 51, 32
II Samuel 12:15 - 15:37
Psalms 3, 69
II Samuel 16 - 20
Psalms 64, 70
II Samuel 21, 22
Psalm 18
II Samuel 23, 24
Psalms 4 - 9, 11 - 17, 19 - 22, 24 - 29, 31, 35 - 41, 53, 55, 58, 61, 62,
Psalms 65, 68, 72, 86, 101, 103, 108 - 110, 138 - 141, 143 - 145
I Kings 1 - 4
Proverbs
Song of Solomon
I Kings 5 - 11
Ecclesiastes
I Kings 12 - 22
II Kings 1 - 14:25
Jonah
II Kings 14:26-29
Amos
II Kings 15 - 25
Psalms 1, 2, 10, 33, 43, 66, 67, 71, 89, 92 - 100, 
Psalms 102, 104 - 106, 111 - 125, 127 - 136, 146 - 150
I Chronicles 1 - 16
Psalms 42, 44 - 50, 73 - 85, 87, 88
I Chronicles 17 - 29
II Chronicles 1 - 21
Obadiah
II Chronicles 22
Joel
II Chronicles 23 - 26:8
Isaiah 1 - 5
II Chronicles 26:9 - 23
Isaiah 6
II Chronicles 27 - 32
Isaiah 7 - 66
Hosea
Micah
Nahum
II Chronicles 33, 34
Zephaniah
II Chronicles 35
Habakkuk
Jeremiah 1 - 6, 11, 12, 26, 7 - 10, 14 - 20, 35, 36, 45, 25, 46 - 49,
Jeremiah 13, 22 - 24, 27 - 29, 50, 51, 30 - 33, 21, 34, 37 - 39, 52, 40 - 44
Lamentations
II Chronicles 36:1 - 8
Daniel
II Chronicles 36:9 - 21
Psalm 137
Ezekiel
II Chronicles 36:22, 23
Ezra 1 - 5:1
Haggai
Zechariah
Psalms 107, 126
Ezra 5:2 - 6:22
Esther
Ezra 7 - 10
Nehemiah
Malachi

*NEW TESTAMENT*
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts 1 - 14
James
Acts 15
Galatians
Acts 16
Philippians
Acts 17:1 - 10
I Thessalonians
II Thessalonians
Acts 17:11 - 18:11
I Corinthians
II Corinthians
Acts 18:12 - 20:1
Ephesians
Romans
Acts 10:2 - 28:30
Colossians
Hebrews
Titus
Philemon
I Timothy
II Timothy
I Peter
II Peter
I John
II John
III John
Jude
The Revelation

I'd like to know everyone's opinion on reading the Bible chronologically. Also, is this above list historically accurate?


----------



## jgilberAZ (Dec 16, 2011)

That chronological schedule is one I made using Back to the Bible as a resource. You can get it at ESV online, too.

I've read the bible through about five times using various plans.

This year, I intend to read the new testament four times (chronologically).


----------



## Ask Mr. Religion (Dec 16, 2011)

InSlaveryToChrist said:


> ...Also, is this above list historically accurate?


Some previous posts contain lists that you can compare your own to. My previous post has two lists that have reasonable historical accuracy.

AMR


----------



## FenderPriest (Dec 16, 2011)

InSlaveryToChrist said:


> I'd like to know everyone's opinion on reading the Bible chronologically. Also, is this above list historically accurate?


It seems to me that the chronological reading of the Bible presumes that the writers of the OT (and the final editor of the OT) didn't understand what they were doing or how they were crafting their books. The chronological ordering of the OT assumes that the historical development of the OT is more important than the words of Scripture themselves and the way they are crafted and pieced together. It is a subtle move, and unintended I think, but I don't think the "chronological ordering of the OT" for a Bible reading plan is not being faithful to Scripture because it says that the OT writers (and implicitly God?) didn't know how to craft the story and words of God for our best benefit and the display of the glory of God and need a little help making their point. No, the OT is crafted in such a way that the narrative of God's redeeming purposes is best put on display in the manner we have it (and I'd argue, as put together in the Hebrew Bible).

Those are my thoughts, for what it's worth.


----------



## jandrusk (Dec 16, 2011)

I have been following Dr. McMahon's reading plan where you go through the OT once a year and the NT 5 times a year. I really enjoy it and it is so much a part of my daily routine that I don't think I would change. Here it is => A Puritan's Mind » Bible Readings for the Year


----------



## jgilberAZ (Dec 16, 2011)

I find it much more valuable to read the psalms and prophets during the historical period in which they were written.

ie, reading psalms interspersed through David's life.
And, reading the prophets interspersed during the reigns of the kings to which they spoke.

Edited to add ... although the books themselves are inspired, I don't think we can say that about the order in which they've been bound together. Otherwise, we should probably read the OT in the order in which it was "bound" during Jesus' days, ie, per the Jewish ordering.


----------



## bookslover (Dec 19, 2011)

jgilberAZ said:


> I find it much more valuable to read the psalms and prophets during the historical period in which they were written.
> 
> ie, reading psalms interspersed through David's life.
> And, reading the prophets interspersed during the reigns of the kings to which they spoke.
> ...



Of course, that only works with the psalms actually written by David, which is 75 (exactly half). 73 are ascribed to him in the Book of Psalms. Two more, Psalms 2 and 95, are ascribed to David by Acts 4 and Hebrews 4, respectively.


----------



## baron (Dec 19, 2011)

Tim Challies is starting a 3,650 chapter challenge using Dr. Horner's plan. You could join in and have company for the year.

Challies Dot Com | Informing the Reforming


----------



## Brother John (Dec 21, 2011)

baron said:


> Tim Challies is starting a 3,650 chapter challenge using Dr. Horner's plan. You could join in and have company for the year.
> 
> Challies Dot Com | Informing the Reforming



Thanks for sharing. On the facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/210696269012642/ ) I found a post about this APP ( App Store - Bible Bookmarks ) that looks interesting and possibly helpful.


----------

