Bible-Reading Plans

[bookslover]

Well, it's that time of year again - the time when Christians start thinking about Bible-reading plans for the new year.

So, I'm wondering: are you going to stick with what you've got for another year, or try something new?

 

[JP Wallace]

Richard

I'm going to stick (again - same for years now) A psalm, 2 chapters of OT and 1 in NT, usually also try and read in the original languages as well as English, definitely in NT, as often as possible in OT.

 

[Josh Williamson]

The ESV website has some good plans. This year, I did an OT and NT reading each day, but I didn't overly like it. I'm thinking next year I'll either go straight through the Bible, or the M'Chenye reading plan.

Reading Plans « ESV Bible

 

[toddpedlar]

I am doing M'Cheyne this year, but next I believe I will simply read straight on through. I waffle about which I prefer - though I know that both M'Cheyne and straight-through reading have benefitted me greatly in complementary ways. The bouncing around in M'Cheyne sometimes gets annoying, in that you are constantly breaking context to skip the next reading from another part of Scripture, but the parallels one can see easily when doing that are at times stunning and moving. The straight-through method sometimes leaves me desiring a little additional variety - but the broad swath of Scripture taken in daily by that method, added to the contextualization that is made easier by reading long stretches in a single book, gives great benefit too.

My usual practice has been to alternate straight reading through with M'Cheyne, so next year is a straight-through year - and I'm greatly looking forward to it.

 

[jgilberAZ]

I'll stick with what I've done the last few years.

I took the chronological reading schedule and modified it.

The standard schedule has OT reading for nine months, followed by NT reading for three months.

I didn't like that, so I did the following:

I 'stretched' the OT to cover the entire year.
I 'stretched' the NT to cover four months, and repeat it three times.
I then set them side-by-side in a spreadsheet.

So, I read the OT once (chronologically) and the NT thrice (chronologically) each year.

I can pass on the schedule if anyone would like to see it.

- Jeff

Edited to add ... I really enjoy reading chronologically as it puts "context" around the various books of the Bible.

 

[Somerset]

I did the chronology plan this year. Found it very useful but will certainly do something different this year.

 

[JSauer]

It's not as tough as it sounds, but I take the p90x route and read the bible in 90 days starting every January 1. The continuity of the old and new testament comes into clear focus. In a thin-line bible it's 9 pages a day plus 4 psalms and then 1 proverb for last 31 days. Highly recommend it and I wouldn't have seen the validity of covenant theology without it. Also a disciplined way to start the year.

 

[irresistible_grace]

We will stick with the same reading plan this year since we are doing the 2 yr plan by M'Cheyne in family worship!
But, in private worship I was thinking about doing something different like Reading the Bible in Chunks

 

[GloriousBoaz]

I have to stick with mine it takes 3 years to get through it lol! MacArthur recommended this so I'm doing it with some additions and it is amazing! I divided the new testament up into 8 chapter sections and you read that section everyday for a month. You get through the entire new testament in 3 yrs. And you then have read it 30 times. I have also added the basic read a proverb everyday plan to that, so you read through proverbs once a month. And also I am writing my thoughts on the entire bible starting in Genesis, which I am almost done with Judges; stoked to read Ruth next (one of my favorites). I am teaching myself Koine right now so my goal is to be able to start this whole NT process over in 2.5 years (I am 6 months into it now) in Greek.

 

[Wynteriii]

I love "Prof. Horner's Bible Reading Plan".

 

[CJW]

I read straight through this year following Nicholas Byfield's Directions for the Private Reading of the Scriptures. I enjoyed it as it was paced slowly enough to allow meditation on the passage. I also add a psalm and proverb most days.

I think next year I'll do a modified Horner system which I think someone here posted a few years ago. Rather than various chapters from different sections, you read different sections of the bible every day, I.e. Pentateuch on Mondays, History on Tuesdays, etc. etc. As with Horner's when you finish that section you start it over so you're reading different sections together. I used it two years ago for a portion of the year, and found it excellent for seeing things in a different light, and for allowing scripture to interpret scripture.

 

[JM]

I like to keep it simple. A minimum of five chapters a day until finished. If I miss a day it's no biggie I'm done before the end of the year anyway. This simple approach allows for concentrated studies throughout the year as need because it's only 5 a day.

 

[Theogenes]

I use what I call the Four Cycle Method. The first cycle is Genesis though Esther and the second is Job through Malachi. The third cycle is Matthew though Acts and the fourth cycle is Romans though Revelation. I put a book mark at the beginning of each cycle and then in the morning read in the first and third cycles. Then in the evening I read in the second and fourth cycles. How fast you read through the cycles is up to you. You can read several chapters or just one at a time. But you should read at least the four chapters for all the cycles daily. You'll end up reading through the NT two times to you finishing the OT.
With this method you're always reading in historical narrative books in both testaments and Wisdom books and Epistles each day as well. Give it a try. I've used it for the last 40 years!

 

[sevenzedek]

I divided the new testament up into 8 chapter sections and you read that section everyday for a month. You get through the entire new testament in 3 yrs.

That would take ten years for the OT!

 

[irresistible_grace]

I divided the new testament up into 8 chapter sections and you read that section everyday for a month. You get through the entire new testament in 3 yrs.

That would take ten years for the OT!

That wouldn't take 10 years to read through the OT... it would take no years! Because, he is following John MacArthur's plan so the you don't EVER have to read through the entire Old Testament! MacArthur hasn't preached through much of the Old Testament in the 40 years he's been preaching (unless it has to do with Premillennial Dispensationalism) so why would he expect you to read something that's not worth preaching!?!

I wish I were kidding.

I prefer M'Cheyne! In 1 or 2 years (which every works best for you) you will have read ALL of God's Word. And, it is so easy you can do it over & over again!

 

[GloriousBoaz]

Well get read for the best 10 yrs of your life! lol, Yeah I'm just reading straight through the OT with Henry, Poole,Gill, MacArthur study bible and sometimes Clarke, Jamison/Fausett/brown/, and Calvin. Still probably gonna take ten years lol

 

[irresistible_grace]

Well get read for the best 10 yrs of your life! lol, Yeah I'm just reading straight through the OT with Henry, Poole,Gill, MacArthur study bible and sometimes Clarke, Jamison/Fausett/brown/, and Calvin. Still probably gonna take ten years lol

I'm encouraged to see Henry, Poole & Calvin ... Ten years is better than none!

 

[bookslover]

I use what I call the Four Cycle Method. The first cycle is Genesis though Esther and the second is Job through Malachi. The third cycle is Matthew though Acts and the fourth cycle is Romans though Revelation. I put a book mark at the beginning of each cycle and then in the morning read in the first and third cycles. Then in the evening I read in the second and fourth cycles. How fast you read through the cycles is up to you. You can read several chapters or just one at a time. But you should read at least the four chapters for all the cycles daily. You'll end up reading through the NT two times to you finishing the OT.
With this method you're always reading in historical narrative books in both testaments and Wisdom books and Epistles each day as well. Give it a try. I've used it for the last 40 years!

Jim, I just might try your plan. It sounds interesting, and I'm just now finishing up reading through the Bible now at the end of the year. Have you really been following this plan since 1973? Did you make it up or did you find it somewhere?

 

[sevenzedek]

Well get read for the best 10 yrs of your life! lol,

I love it!

 

[sevenzedek]

Well get read for the best 10 yrs of your life! lol, Yeah I'm just reading straight through the OT with Henry, Poole,Gill, MacArthur study bible and sometimes Clarke, Jamison/Fausett/brown/, and Calvin. Still probably gonna take ten years lol

I'm encouraged to see Henry, Poole & Calvin ... Ten years is better than none!

In other words, "I'm not happy about MacArthur, mister." Can you tell?

 

[irresistible_grace]

Well get read for the best 10 yrs of your life! lol, Yeah I'm just reading straight through the OT with Henry, Poole,Gill, MacArthur study bible and sometimes Clarke, Jamison/Fausett/brown/, and Calvin. Still probably gonna take ten years lol

I'm encouraged to see Henry, Poole & Calvin ... Ten years is better than none!

In other words, "I'm not happy about MacArthur, mister." Can you tell?

Actually, I meant what I said!
I am encouraged to see Henry, Poole & Calvin are being uses as he reads through the OLD Testament and if it takes him 10 [of the best] years of his life to get through the entire Old Testament, so be it!

Does it break my heart that MacArthur has willful neglected the bulk of the Old Testament in his 40+ years of preaching? Of courses it does. Does it break my heart that MacArthur's dispensationalism goes way beyond his eschatology? Of course it does. Does this mean, "I'm not happy with MacArthur, mister?" No. Discouraged? Perhaps. For me it send up red flags & I'm not alone. There are threads (LONG threads) on this topic elsewhere on the PB - so there is no need for me to derail this one!!! Does it discourage me that there is a Bible reading plan by a highly respected Baptist minister that is designed to read through [just over] a third of Holy Scripture 30 times in 3 years to the neglect of the other two-thirds? You bet cha, mister! I'm encourage that at least GloriousBoaz sees the benefit of BOTH Testaments & is not limiting himself to MacArthur.

I use Henry, Poole & Calvin's commentaries regularly myself & am encourage to see they made his list as well!

==============================
I am thankful this thread was started because I've heard of new Bible reading plans that I've never heard of before & intend to check out! So, thank you bookslover for starting it!

 

[irresistible_grace]

I use what I call the Four Cycle Method. The first cycle is Genesis though Esther and the second is Job through Malachi. The third cycle is Matthew though Acts and the fourth cycle is Romans though Revelation. I put a book mark at the beginning of each cycle and then in the morning read in the first and third cycles. Then in the evening I read in the second and fourth cycles. How fast you read through the cycles is up to you. You can read several chapters or just one at a time. But you should read at least the four chapters for all the cycles daily. You'll end up reading through the NT two times to you finishing the OT.
With this method you're always reading in historical narrative books in both testaments and Wisdom books and Epistles each day as well. Give it a try. I've used it for the last 40 years!

I will give it a try & judging by the looks of it... I may use it for the next 40 years!

 

[sevenzedek]

Well get read for the best 10 yrs of your life! lol, Yeah I'm just reading straight through the OT with Henry, Poole,Gill, MacArthur study bible and sometimes Clarke, Jamison/Fausett/brown/, and Calvin. Still probably gonna take ten years lol

I'm encouraged to see Henry, Poole & Calvin ... Ten years is better than none!

In other words, "I'm not happy about MacArthur, mister." Can you tell?

Actually, I meant what I said!
I am encouraged to see Henry, Poole & Calvin are being uses as he reads through the OLD Testament and if it takes him 10 [of the best] years of his life to get through the entire Old Testament, so be it!

Does it break my heart that MacArthur has willful neglected the bulk of the Old Testament in his 40+ years of preaching? Of courses it does. Does it break my heart that MacArthur's dispensationalism goes way beyond his eschatology? Of course it does. Does this mean, "I'm not happy with MacArthur, mister?" No. Discouraged? Perhaps. For me it send up red flags & I'm not alone. There are threads (LONG threads) on this topic elsewhere on the PB - so there is no need to derail this one!!! Does it discourage me that there is a Bible reading plan by a highly respected Baptist minister that is designed to read through [just over] a third of Holy Scripture 30 times in 3 years to the neglect of the other two-thirds? You bet cha, mister! I'm encourage that at least GloriousBoaz sees the benefit of BOTH Testaments & is not limiting himself to the MacArthur.

I use Henry, Poole & Calvin's commentaries regularly myself & am encourage to see they made his list as well!

==============================
I am thankful this thread was started because I've heard of new Bible reading plans that I've never heard of before & intend to check out! So, thank you bookslover for starting it!

I'm sorry that I appeared to put words in your mouth. I was merely making a passing tongue-in-cheek comment indicating that you you have a soap box (i.e. much to say) concerning MacArthur. Apparently you do; and rightly so.

Everyone seems to be careful enough about staying on topic on this board. However, threads do derail at times as we are afforded the freedom to make passing comments and respond to them in kind. If we were eccentric purists about it, maybe we would strictly make our comments only about the topic of the original post and not make any passing comments whatsoever; but such fears stifle conversation.

 

[irresistible_grace]

I'm sorry that I appeared to put words in your mouth. I was merely making a passing tongue-in-cheek comment indicating that you you have a soap box (i.e. much to say) concerning MacArthur. Apparently you do; and rightly so.

Everyone seems to be careful enough about staying on topic on this board. However, threads do derail at times as we are afforded the freedom to make passing comments and respond to them in kind. If we were eccentric purists about it, maybe we would strictly make our comments only about the topic of the original post and not make any passing comments whatsoever; but such fears stifle conversation.

No hard feelings.
One thing is for sure, you never stifle conversation!!!
If everyone stayed on topic on this board then we wouldn't need the "Off Topic" emoticon!

heHeHE

 

[sevenzedek]

I'm sorry that I appeared to put words in your mouth. I was merely making a passing tongue-in-cheek comment indicating that you you have a soap box (i.e. much to say) concerning MacArthur. Apparently you do; and rightly so.

Everyone seems to be careful enough about staying on topic on this board. However, threads do derail at times as we are afforded the freedom to make passing comments and respond to them in kind. If we were eccentric purists about it, maybe we would strictly make our comments only about the topic of the original post and not make any passing comments whatsoever; but such fears stifle conversation.

No hard feelings.
One thing is for sure, you never stifle conversation!!!
If everyone stayed on topic on this board then we wouldn't need the "Off Topic" emoticon!

heHeHE

You're a nut.

Hehe

 

[Christusregnat]

I made this one up for 2014:

Family Worship, Bible Reading and Catechism Plans - Download - 4shared

2013 I did M'Cheyne (3 chapters private and 1 chapter family worship).

I'm doing Calvin's commentaries based on William Perkins' suggestion of especially focusing on Romans, Psalms, John, and Genesis.

Cheers,

 

[nicnap]

Here is a good perspective on reading the Bible. This is from Dr. Benjamin Shaw, Hebrew & OT professor at GPTS. I will paste the blog post in its entirety, below.

Reading the Bible in Chunks by Dr. Benjamin Shaw

So the new year is here again. You're going to read through the Bible again this year. But maybe this time you're looking for something a little different. There are a number of good Bible reading guides available online. See, for example, those discussed here: Bible Reading Plans for 2013 by Nathan W. Bingham | Ligonier Ministries Blog.

However, I'm going to suggest something different. This year, try reading the Bible in chunks. By this, I mean that you should try reading whole books at one sitting, rather than the 3-4 chapters per day that most Bible-in-a-Year plans suggest. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, many of the books of the Bible are stories. They are meant to be read as stories, and you understand them better if you read them that way. Others, such as Paul's letters, are not stories, but if you read one of them in one sitting, you get a good sense of the overall flow of Paul's argument, and the main points of his argument.

Admittedly, some books of the Bible are not meant to be read at one sitting. Books such as Psalms and Proverbs are meditative literature, meant to be read slowly, and pondered while being read. Others, such as Jeremiah and Genesis, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, are too long to be read in one sitting, unless you have a big chunk of time. Still, even those may be read in larger portions, rather than piecemeal as they are often read.

The following chart gives you an idea of how long it will take to read the books of the Bible. It is based on the number of words in the KJV (the Bible version for which the most statistics are easily available), and on the number of words the average person reads per minute (250). Thus, the time-to-read number is approximate, affected by the Bible version you use, and the speed at which you read. Just for information, reading the whole Bible at an average rate would take about 52.5 hours.

Genesis (38,262 words): 2 hrs, 33 min Exodus (32,685): 2 hrs, 11 min
Leviticus (25,541): 1 hr, 42 min Numbers (32,896): 2 hrs, 12 min
Deuteronomy (28,352): 1 hr, 44 min Joshua (18,854): 1 hr, 15 min
Judges (18,966): 1 hr, 16 min Ruth (2,574): 10 min
1 Samuel (25,048): 1 hr, 40 min 2 Samuel (20,600): 1 hr, 22 min
1 Kings (24,513): 1 hr, 38 min 2 Kings (23,517): 1 hr, 34 min
1 Chronicles (20,365): 1 hr, 22 min 2 Chronicles (26,069): 1 hr, 44 min
Ezra (7,440): 30 min Nehemiah (10,480): 42 min
Esther (5,633): 23 min Job (18,098): 1 hr, 12 min
Psalms (42,704): 2 hrs, 51 min Proverbs (15,038): 1 hour
Ecclesiastes (5,579): 22 min Song of Songs (2,658): 11 min
Isaiah (37,036): 2 hrs, 28 min Jeremiah (42,654): 2 hrs, 51 min
Lamentations (3,411): 14 min Ezekiel (39,401): 2 hrs, 38 min
Daniel (11,602): 46 min Hosea (5,174): 21 min
Joel (2,033): 8 min Amos (4,216): 17 min
Obadiah (669): 3 min Jonah (1,320): 5 min
Micah (3,152): 13 min Nahum (1,284): 5 min
Habakkuk (1,475): 6 min Zephaniah (1,616): 6 min
Haggai (1,130): 5 min Zechariah (6,443): 26 min
Malachi (1,781): 7 min Matthew (23,343): 1 hr, 34 min
Mark (14,949): 1 hr Luke (25,640): 1 hr, 43 min
John (18,658): 1 hr, 15 min Acts (24,229): 1 hr, 37 min
Romans (9,422): 38 min 1 Corinthians (9,462): 38 min
2 Corinthians (6,046): 24 min Galatians (3,084): 12 min
Ephesians (3,022): 12 min Philippians (2,183): 9 min
Colossians (1,979): 8 min 1 Thessalonians (1,837): 7 min
2 Thessalonians (1,022): 4 min 1 Timothy (2,244): 9 min
2 Timothy (1,666): 7 min Titus (896): 4 min
Philemon (430): 2 min Hebrews (6,897): 28 min
James (2,304): 9 min 1 Peter (2,476): 10 min
2 Peter (1,553): 6 min 1 John (2,517): 10 min
2 John (298): 1 min 3 John (294): 1 min
Jude (608): 2 min Revelation (11,952): 48 min

 

[Theogenes]

Richard,
To be more precise, it's been about 38 years. From about 1975. I was just ball parking it. It is a method I just came up with since I was trying to read through ALL the bible and be in different parts of the bible at the same time. I hope you find it beneficial!
Jim

 

[nicnap]

I am not sure what happened to the formatting in my post; but there is supposed to be a gap between the books. I hope you can read it as it is.

 

[bookslover]

Richard,
To be more precise, it's been about 38 years. From about 1975. I was just ball parking it. It is a method I just came up with since I was trying to read through ALL the bible and be in different parts of the bible at the same time. I hope you find it beneficial!
Jim

Jim: Your 4 divisions make sense, which is what appealed to me about your system. (1) Genesis - Esther (basically, all the historical books); (2) Job - Malachi (wisdom literature and prophetic literature; (3) Matthew - Acts (the first 30 years or so of the church, from Jesus' incarnation through Paul's second imprisonment); and (4) Romans - Revelation (the epistles and Revelation, all of which reflect the church's teachings). As I said, it makes sense. Definitely going to do it.