How do I start reading the Bible?
Start with one of the gospels rather than at Genesis — Mark is the shortest and moves quickly, John is the most reflective. Read a chapter at a time rather than by page count, at a fixed point in the day, and expect to not understand parts of it. Many people who set out to read the Bible cover to cover stall in Leviticus, which is a common result of starting on page one and treating it as a single book read front to back.
Why not to start at Genesis
The Bible is a library rather than a single book — 66 books written across centuries in several genres, arranged by type rather than in the order you would want to read them. Reading it cover to cover means hitting Leviticus, a manual of priestly regulation, within the first few weeks. Starting with a gospel puts you at the centre of the story instead of at the edge of it. Mark takes about an hour and a half to read aloud in full. After a gospel, Acts continues the narrative directly, and Genesis reads very differently once you know where it is going.
A pace you can actually keep
One chapter a day finishes a gospel in a few weeks and the New Testament in under a year. That is slower than many reading plans propose, and a pace that is easier to keep. Joshua 1:8 talks about meditating on it day and night, which implies returning to the same passage rather than covering ground. If a chapter lands, staying on it another day is not falling behind.
What to do with the parts you don't understand
Some of it will be genuinely difficult — cultural context you do not have, arguments built on passages you have not read yet, poetry doing something other than what it appears to. The useful habit is to note the question and keep going rather than stopping to resolve everything. Reading a passage alongside someone who can answer questions about it, whether a person or a study tool, closes that gap much faster than rereading the same verse.
Passages referenced
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (KJV) →105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Psalm 119:105 (KJV) →8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Joshua 1:8 (KJV) →
Related
Written by the Esther team. Scripture quoted from the King James Version, which is in the public domain.