How I read and study the Bible

How I read and study the Bible

Reading the Bible, let alone studying this massive text, is extremely intimidating. It took me about a year just to read it once. I was able to remember some of it but I quickly found out my understanding was extremely lacking. If it took me a year to read it…how much longer to STUDY it?!

How I read the Bible

The first challenge is reading the Bible. The Bible is a massive compilation of various texts comprising about 1200 pages. It is already daunting enough to try to read an ancient text of this size, it becomes even more challenging with the fact that most of the books within the Bible are not in any chronological order. There are many ways to read it.

The first Bible I read was a 1949 King James Version I inherited. It had ye olde English which was challenging to read through. The way I look at it, the old English helped me understand that I did not understand anything. Had it been in the vernacular, I would have probably had a variety of misconceptions due to thinking I understood it. At the very least, I was able to read through the Bible to familiarize myself with the content, although this Bible did not include the complete Canon with the Deuterocanonical books.

As for how I read through the Bible the first time, I read it from Genesis 1:1 linearly all the way through to the end of Revelation. It was quite a wild ride. I found that all my presuppositions about the Bible were wrong. Rather than being filled with precepts, I learned that the Bible is mostly the history of the Jewish people, which is the spiritual story of us all. There were many surprises and even very funny moments that made me laugh, making my wife wonder what was in the Bible. I was confused during much of it when the connections weren’t clear, but then I was enlightened when I read profound prophecies such as Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22. The minor prophets were a whirlwind of Messianic prophecies right before beginning the New Testament with the Gospel of Matthew. Reading Matthew’s Gospel floored me; Jesus sounded exactly like God in the Old Testament. This shattered my misconception that the OT and NT Gods were different. I later learned that Matthew wrote his Gospel for the Hebrews, which made a lot of sense for me.

The funny thing is, I went into my first read thinking I was going to come up with my own independent interpretations and conclusions. I guess I did come up with one conclusion, Christ is King.

I am currently reading a Catholic Bible with the full canon of Scriptures. I started from Genesis 1:1 again but I plan to refer to Jeff Cavins’ Bible timeline once I get through the Torah/Pentateuch, Joshua, and Judges. My reasoning for utilizing Jeff Cavins’ timeline is to read certain books in tandem so I understand them a little better, such as Kings and Chronicles.

How I study the Bible

Personally, I find a uniqueness in my Bible studies because of my background. I was previously an atheist until I learned that I was entirely wrong. While coming to Christ, I was a completely clean slate without any Christian background. I had my fair share of heavy misconceptions, but it has been rather nice to not have to “unlearn” much, if anything. This all comes into play with my studies because I have a different perspective when reading the Bible. Having come from a heavy secular and materialistic mindset, I do not ignore the red flags that pop up during my reading. Instead, I work to learn the answer of what seems to be a red flag, always leaning on what Saint Augustine said, that if it seems there is a contradiction in Scripture, it is because I need to study more, because God is perfect. 

Through this lens, I try to answer the questions that pose as hurdles for non-Christians as well as my former self. This helps with the new wave of apologetics that is needed to teach secular materialists about the Truth of the Christian Faith.

I am currently on a five-year plan for this first study. I am reading one, sometimes two, chapters a day. I am currently in Exodus. Thankfully, having read the entire Bible once, I am able to understand the big picture and pick up smaller details that I missed. Additionally, my Deacon for OCIA did a fantastic job with his course material which helped me to benefit from a broad scope study while in OCIA.

For my current studies, I utilize a few copies of the Bible with varying commentary to help me understand the Word of God. I first read through the New Catholic Bible from the Catholic Book Publishing Corp. I purchased this Bible because it has the complete canon of Scriptures, but I have found it to be a useful Bible for studying. This is the first one I read through because it has footnotes, but the commentary is rather minimal. I like this light commentary because I can read through with some guidance but I am not getting lost in an overwhelming amount of commentary. This allows me to personally absorb the Word of God, as much as I am capable of.

My second read is through the Ignatius Press Study Bible. It is a massive Bible filled with amazing commentary, enough to get lost in constantly. It took over twenty-five years to put together from fantastic contributors such as Scott Hahn. There are references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Rabbinic tradition, Hebrew tradition, and other apocryphal texts to help better understand the context of what was written by the inspired authors. Maps are also included to understand the movement of people in Scripture. I utilize the Ignatius Bible while studying to answer my own questions and/or prepare for videos or other conversations.

I am very thankful for the variety of resources offered in our modern world. Catholic Answers is extremely helpful to get the gears turning in understanding the Word of God. There are also many priests with online videos such as Father Chris Alar. Another one of my favorite resources for studying is my wife. She is a passionate Catholic who has harnessed her deep love of the faith to bury herself in great Catholic content that she shares with me regularly.

We have also been blessed with a small library of Catholic books from Church Fathers, Saints, and Doctors of the Church. I routinely read casually each day to continue cultivating my knowledge. These books also act as reference material for studying Scripture. I am currently reading Glories of Mary by Saint Alphonsus Ligouri and Confessions of Saint Augustine. TAN Books is a great resource for quality, affordable Catholic books, and I am not sponsored by them, I pay the price.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is also a book I find myself in regularly to connect Scripture and Tradition. I have a copy of the Catechism as compiled under the pontificate of Pope John Paul II. It is filled with references to Church Fathers and Doctors as well as the Scriptural references for our Tradition.

Thanks to a variety of resources, I am able to be guided by the Tradition of the Catholic Church to understand the beautiful truths contained in Scripture.

The methodology of my study

The Bible is a very comprehensive text and studying it is no light feat. I find that I may grasp onto a particular aspect of my reading and find various connections, however each endeavor is far from exhaustive. I may find theological, spiritual, or historical connections, and dive into the particular one at a given time to begin to understand it. With that, I know that I leave a lot on the table by not examining every aspect in heavy detail throughout the Scriptures. This is not due to intentional ignorance, but instead is rooted in understanding that I will be studying the Bible for the rest of my mortal life; I will have plenty of time to go back through and see more that I did not see.

My process isn’t a rigid step-by-step process but involves many areas. Context is a big aspect. It is important to understand who is involved, what relationships are present, what is being said, and what the circumstances are. A proper understanding of the context can give deeper insight into the passage.

The language and phrases can pose challenges. These are ancient stories about ancient people, stories that have been translated into languages that may not carry the same essence as the original Hebrew or Greek. I have had many moments of red flags due to certain wording or phrases, such as Noah’s nakedness and Pharaoh’s hardened heart. I work through this by learning to understand the original wording as well as what the phrases meant to the ancient people.

I also try to place myself in the shoes of these ancient people. This requires me to break the scientific and literal lens that we so often use. Many things were said with ambiguity, something understood by the ancient people but not by us moderns. There are many Catholic and even Rabbinic resources that help to understand what the ancient authors were articulating.

It is also common for questions and red flags to pop up. There can be a verse, passage, or conversation that doesn’t quite make sense or makes me think something that I am sure is not correct. I don’t use the question as a reason to abandon the Faith, instead, I try to find an answer to the question. Sometimes these answers come with later reading, sometimes they come from more studying. There are answers to all our Scriptural questions, we just have to find them.

I also find that I have to be open to the direction my studying will take me. Sometimes, my assumptions are correct, sometimes they need some work. The important thing is that I do not dogmatize or assert my assumptions so the conclusion I seek is not married to my assumptions. It is important to be open to the deep truths within the Scriptures, especially those that challenge my own convictions.

This process is not at all rigid. Each passage invokes a different response during each reading.  Various pieces of this process are applied in a unique way throughout the unique passages of the Bible.

As I progress through the Bible, I write up notes for each chapter. Sometimes I am enlightened of a profound truth, other times I am unaware of any depth that may or may not be there. It is not uncommon to find a connection later on to something that originally seemed frivolous. Ultimately, deepening my familiarity with the Scriptures will be fruitful through subsequent readings and studies.

Conclusion

I am planning to release some videos on how to understand various stories of the Bible, starting with Creation and working through some of Genesis into Exodus. I may go beyond Exodus, however that will probably be at a later date once I work through the Bible. I hope you find some of these videos to be useful to help spread the Faith to others.