Reading the Bible

A couple years back I started reading the Bible. If I remember correctly, I alternated back and forth between the old and new testaments. This was probably a good idea, since much of the old testament is dull and repetitive. I had actually started reading it once before, but got stuck part-way though Joseph's story.

The story of Joseph is actually the last third of the book of Genesis and is quite lengthy, compared to say the story of Eden at the beginning which is very short. People seem to have the most to say about the small bits of the Bible it seems. I'm making a companion video to this blog on that topic actually.

The interesting thing about the Bible is that it often isn't what I expected from what I've seen from church services and from people talking about Christianity and Judaism. Almost every Bible verse you hear people quote or discuss seems to be taken out of context; and large chunks of the Bible tend to not be discussed at all.

Now, I've been reading the Bible to get a better feel for just what Christianity is, or what the their holy book says it is anyways. If you just stick to the gospels or Paul's letters, it tends to be what people say it is (not that Paul and the gospels agree with each other of course). However we must be careful as it's easy to take verses and even entire chapters out of context.

I finished reading the new testament and all of the old testament excepting the prophets some time ago and just recently picked up reading the Bible again. I read Isaiah this week and will probably finish the book in a few weeks if I keep to it.

Next on my "spiritual" reading list is the Qu'ran. The version I have has lots of commentary. This will be helpful, since I don't have the background in Islam that I do in Christianity.

I would also like to read the Book of Mormon or whatever the LDS call their holy books. Unfortunately you can't buy it in stores and the only way to get a copy is to have a Mormon to come to your house and talk at you. Frankly, I'd rather they didn't know where I live.

Well, I'm posting some of my impressions of the old testament as a follow up to this blog (read it or not). See you later!