Did you ever hear that joke? You may have if you grew up in church with a kind but cheesy Sunday School teacher...
"Where is baseball first mentioned in the Bible?"
"Genesis 1 - in the big inning!"
[dead silence]
Moving on...
Most people find it difficult to start the new year and keep a resolution perfectly from beginning to end, all 365 days. Most people also find it difficult to start with Genesis 1 and read straight through all 1000+ pages to the final chapter of Revelation 22. Take it from me - I've tried it before myself many times. It's common to get bogged down in the middle of Leviticus, if you make it that far. If you're reading a Bible with little or no notes or commentary, it can be confusing to figure out what's really going on or what is the significance of the passage you're reading. On the flip side, some study Bibles give so much information that you spend half your time reading the notes at the bottom of the page, which can also sidetrack you from keeping focused on the story at hand.
This time around I'm reading a Bible with a twist - it's called Reading God's Story. (Just for the record, my recommendation for this Bible is entirely my own idea and was not solicited by anyone.) RGS starts with Genesis 1, but the text of the Bible has been rearranged to make clear the "grand story of the Bible." This raises the question - how is the Holy Bible you might have on your shelf structured?
In its standard order the Bible is *roughly* chronological, in that it starts at creation, moves through the history of the people of Israel and on to Jesus and the church. However, there are several books that are very much not in order. Ezra/Nehemiah are the stories of God's people returning to their land after exile - but those books come long before the prophets, who write about the exile itself. Job is a very ancient book that belongs somewhere around the time of Abraham, but it's sandwiched between Esther and the Psalms. This can make it confusing for readers trying to work their way from cover to cover, because the timeline jumps around.
What Christians call the Old Testament is known in the Jewish tradition as the Tanakh, which is actually an acronym (TaNaKh) for the major categories of writings that it contains:
1. Torah - teaching
Torah includes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
2. Nevi'im - prophets
Nevi'im includes both the classic prophets, both major (like Isaiah and Jeremiah) and minor (like Zechariah and Hosea) and historical books like Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings.
3. Ketuvim - writings
Ketuvim is everything else - poetry, like Psalms and Job, and wisdom literature, like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. It also (for some reason - anyone know why?) includes Ezra/Nehemiah and Chronicles.
The ordering of the Old Testament therefore follows more closely these 3 categories (with the Ketuvim placed between sections of the Nevi'im) than a strict timeline. Reading God's Story reorders the Bible so that it flows a little better and helps the reader stay on track with one timeline, rather than having to decipher how what they're reading fits in with the big picture.
For example, when I began yesterday, I found that the Week 1 Day 1 reading is - you guessed it - Genesis 1 and 2, the account of creation. On Week 1 Day 2, however, I read the first few verses of John 1, which like Genesis 1 also starts with "In the beginning" and describes Christ's presence at creation as the second member of the Trinity. I also read two beautiful creation psalms, Psalm 8 and 104, that describe God's work in making the world and all its creatures. It was refreshing to find passages from other parts of the Bible set alongside Genesis 1 to give a fuller picture of what was going on at creation. I think reading RGS will be intriguing, because each day I will be interested in finding out which readings have been chosen to complement each other.
This time around I'm reading a Bible with a twist - it's called Reading God's Story. (Just for the record, my recommendation for this Bible is entirely my own idea and was not solicited by anyone.) RGS starts with Genesis 1, but the text of the Bible has been rearranged to make clear the "grand story of the Bible." This raises the question - how is the Holy Bible you might have on your shelf structured?
In its standard order the Bible is *roughly* chronological, in that it starts at creation, moves through the history of the people of Israel and on to Jesus and the church. However, there are several books that are very much not in order. Ezra/Nehemiah are the stories of God's people returning to their land after exile - but those books come long before the prophets, who write about the exile itself. Job is a very ancient book that belongs somewhere around the time of Abraham, but it's sandwiched between Esther and the Psalms. This can make it confusing for readers trying to work their way from cover to cover, because the timeline jumps around.
What Christians call the Old Testament is known in the Jewish tradition as the Tanakh, which is actually an acronym (TaNaKh) for the major categories of writings that it contains:
1. Torah - teaching
Torah includes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
2. Nevi'im - prophets
Nevi'im includes both the classic prophets, both major (like Isaiah and Jeremiah) and minor (like Zechariah and Hosea) and historical books like Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings.
3. Ketuvim - writings
Ketuvim is everything else - poetry, like Psalms and Job, and wisdom literature, like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. It also (for some reason - anyone know why?) includes Ezra/Nehemiah and Chronicles.
The ordering of the Old Testament therefore follows more closely these 3 categories (with the Ketuvim placed between sections of the Nevi'im) than a strict timeline. Reading God's Story reorders the Bible so that it flows a little better and helps the reader stay on track with one timeline, rather than having to decipher how what they're reading fits in with the big picture.
For example, when I began yesterday, I found that the Week 1 Day 1 reading is - you guessed it - Genesis 1 and 2, the account of creation. On Week 1 Day 2, however, I read the first few verses of John 1, which like Genesis 1 also starts with "In the beginning" and describes Christ's presence at creation as the second member of the Trinity. I also read two beautiful creation psalms, Psalm 8 and 104, that describe God's work in making the world and all its creatures. It was refreshing to find passages from other parts of the Bible set alongside Genesis 1 to give a fuller picture of what was going on at creation. I think reading RGS will be intriguing, because each day I will be interested in finding out which readings have been chosen to complement each other.
If you're following along in Reading God's Story, today is Week 1, Day 2. Remember that the RGS reading plan only gives 6 readings per week, so you get one day off this week! If you're thinking about following along, you can buy Reading God's Story at a Christian bookstore or on Amazon from the link above. There is also an e-book version available.
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