Back in mid-January I wrote about my intentions for Bible reading in 2024.
The basic plan was to read three chapters of the Old Testament a day and one chapter from the New Testament. At that pace I would finish the OT in mid-October and the New Testament in latish September. Furthermore, the plan was to read the Bible in a different order to how it appears in modern western Bibles. Lastly, I was going to read from the Revised Standard Version.
Well, I’m happy to report that I completed both Testaments today. Whilst reading Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes and Nehemiah I accelerated my reading to gradually bring the completion dates to coincide. I fine tuned that process whilst reading 2 Chronicles (my last book of the OT) so that I had one chapter of both the OT and NT to read each day in this final week.
I really quite enjoyed the RSV. Some of the language is a little archaic, but it reads fairly smoothly and well to my ear. The actual physical Bible I read from is a relatively small book (no book introductions or study notes, no centre-column references and minimal footnotes) so it was pleasant to hold and read from.
To the best of my recollection I’ve read through the Bible three times previously (2001-2002, 2007-2008 and 2022-2023) each time across two calendar years. This time I opted to complete the reading inside one calendar year. The average daily reading from the OT was 3.5 chapters a day, and an average of one single chapter from the NT each day.
Now that I’ve completed this activity I’ll turn my attention to some other forms of Bible reading. I don’t know what that will be at this stage.