NOW READING: The Bible & More

From the start of Project Bookshelf, I intended to read the Bible toward the beginning of however long it may take to read every book in my house. In a silly bit of symbolism, I had hoped to read the Bible when I was 33 years old- a commonly-believed age for Jesus when he died. My slow progress with the dictionary derailed any hope of even starting the Bible when I was 33. But here I am, at long last, starting one of my big project reads.

It’s time to crank this project back up to Dork Factor 5. After reading one book at a time for the last several years, I’m plunging straight into the mayhem of reading multiple books at once. Fortunately, all of my next concurrent reads are all related. I will read the Bible alongside two Bible commentaries (one focusing on the Old Testament and the other on the New Testament), two other books providing contextual information (again, one for each testament), and a book focused solely on helping a reader better understand the Book of Revelation.

Based on introductions and prefaces, here is the order I will start these books in:
-The New Oxford Annotated Bible- NRSV with Apocrypha (3rd Edition)
-The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
-Reading the Old Testament
-The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
-Reading the New Testament
-Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation

The Bible itself will span the full length of this reading project. During the Old Testament, I’ll be reading three books at once. During the Apocrypha, I will be reading only the Bible. For most of the New Testament, I’ll be tackling three books simultaneously. At the end of it all, the Book of Revelation will see me add a fourth book into the mix.

The challenge in all this is keeping each book separate in my mind. The commentaries shouldn’t be difficult to separate mentally, though there may be some overlap with the footnotes in my Bible. The Reading books will offer more general context to sections of the Bible rather than individual verses. My evaluation of the Bible will be geared towards its accessibility to the reader, the clarity with which it communicates its message, and the quality of its introductory sections, footnotes, and supplemental essays in helping a reader understand the Bible itself and its message on a deeper level.

I will not be evaluating the validity or merits of the Bible’s message. Any Bible is a translation prepared by many people with the express purpose of conveying a religious message. I will judge the conveyance of the message and the editor’s ability to clarify cultural and contextual differences rather than the message itself. To do otherwise seems improper to me.

While these six books provide the meat of my next reading adventure, I will supplement them with portions of two other books: The Atlas of World History and World History Volume I- Before 1600: The Development of Early Civilization. I won’t be reading these two books in full for a final rating at this time. Rather, I will use them to gain a broader understanding of the historical timeline of the ancient world taking place at the same time as events in the Bible. Israel, after all, was but a small kingdom wedged between giant empires. A lot more was going on that may have had a trickle-down effect into the lives of biblical events. My other books may provide some cultural context based on the writings and customs of other civilizations but I am a history nerd, so I want as broad and full a picture as possible.

These six books will more than double my current page count. This leaves me clueless as to how long it will take me to read through them all. There will be a start-and-stop element to this process, as I read a chapter from the Bible, look through footnotes, consult the appropriate commentary, and possibly read the chapter again. I’m hungry to work my way through this challenge, but I’ve bitten off more than I can chew before.