Holy Bible

[Anonymous No.11382823]

I'm interested in how many of you have actually read the entirety of the Bible. Currently I've been trying to, I'm only on Genesis 6 at the moment.
Especially interested in non-Christians but anyone is welcome.

Also, what are your thoughts on it as a book?
One final question, and this isn't to start a translation fight, but why is KJV so widely held to be the best translation?

[Anonymous No.11382877]

The KJV is simply a classic of English prose and set the standard for all English translations that followed. That's not to say you should only read it and ignore other reputable translations, though. I usually look at the ESV too whenever I come across a verse that strikes me as odd or cryptic, since the KJV isn't completely perfect.

[Anonymous No.11382908]

>>11382877
I've noticed the KJV is really cryptic compared to the copy of the NIV my girlfriend has. Occasionally I get stumped just by one line and google sometimes doesn't have the answer which is pretty surprising considering it's the Bible.

[Anonymous No.11383074]

Traditionally christain here, but lacking faith. I think as i study the bible i might start to develope a relationship with God. Im on Genesis 40ish, so not very far either. I’m also reading Moby-Dick, and Ishmael’s accounts on divine events and God adds some kind of spiritual layer to the phenomena in life. Like it is some grandeur abstract force at play in nature, and we’re usually helplessly left in awe to just observe. I want to have this kind of appreciate for the world and its happenings around myself. So i’ll keep reading the bibble little-by-little, day-by-day, decompressing the dense texts, so i can appreciate it to my fullest.

[Anonymous No.11383095]

>>11382823
I've also been trying to make my was through the bible. I'm an atheist but I find the beginnings of (all the major) religions very interesting.

I'm at Genesis ~35 and there have been a lot of odd parts already. Noah and Ham, Lot and his daughters, Abraham and Issac (that it possibly originally ended with child sacrifice is definitely the kind of behind the scenes thing I find interesting.)

But those are known oddities. No one ever pointed out, to me, Abraham and his son just keep traveling around pulling this wife/sister con. This is the foundational guy of Judaism. It's like a story /pol/ would create to make Jews look bad.

I doubt I'll make it all the way through. It's just an important part of lit history, so I'm trying to get more familiar.

[Anonymous No.11383511]

>>11383095
A big theme of the old testament is the Hebrews being flawed and God trying to draw good out of them despite their deviation from his law. If you're looking at it from the Christian perspective this obviously culminates in their acceptance or denial of Christ at the end.

I always found the theory that the Jews were chosen specifically because of their deviant ways an interesting one, and its also a rather consistent theory if you look through all examples like what you were writing about.

>>11382823
I was reading the Douay-Rheims for a bit but switched to the RSV for trying to read more poetic parts like Job, you might want to try other translations.
Also you might want to try jumping around after Genesis, I found it easier to start with the gospels than with Genesis.

[Anonymous No.11383519]

>>11383511
I'll look into some other translations for sure but I'm gonna stick to reading it straight through just cause I'm trying to read it like a regular book, as silly as that can sound.

[Anonymous No.11383730]

I spent a good year reading it cover to cover alongside all sorts of secondary literature. If I go through my Goodreads profile I probably have a good 50 books related to scripture. What originally sparked my interest in reading the entire bible was the commentary on Genesis by Scott Hahn. It was the realization of how deep and beautiful that particular book is and how it doesn't really come through in translation. A lot of people are missing out because they can't read between the lines or they're taking some really stupid and simplistic interpretative method.

KJV is a protestant meme. I don't think it's useful to study because the English is archaic and it's usually missing some books and parts of Daniel and Esther. Atheists critics also seem to love this because there is some stupid shit like cockatrices which are easy to make fun of even though they're a product of bad translation.

[Anonymous No.11383739]

>>11383730
Mind giving me your goodreads profile? I'm interested in browsing through it.

[Anonymous No.11383826]

>>11382823
I'm about halfway through Jeremiah and have been consulting a lot of study material along the way. What's really interesting is seeing how things develop. Different authors come up with different ideas while trying to position themselves as part of the same tradition. Sometimes even later authors try to reconcile the contradictions through even more far out ideas. All the while, the further you go in time, what we see creeps closer to what we know as Christianity. I think you can observe something similar in pop culture franchises with really long-running continuity.

King James supremacy is a bit of a meme. Most of it is very similar to the older Tyndale Bible, although you can easily argue it's superior. It does sound very good though. I recommend reading it out loud if you don't have anyone at home who'd be bothered by it.

>>11382908
This is a good website for comparing lots of different translations.
https://www.biblegateway.com/

[Anonymous No.11383847]

got this a few days ago

finshed genesis, starting exodus tonight

[Anonymous No.11383890]

>>11382908
>google sometimes doesn't have the answer which is pretty surprising considering it's the Bible
Your google skills might be horrible, friend. Any search should rapidly turn up Biblehub.

[Anonymous No.11383903]

>>11382823
Atheist here. I marathoned the KJV and had a whale of a time.

[Anonymous No.11383937]

>>11383095
I've heard someone tell me that Isaac was 40ish and bragging his father won't abandon him. It's a different way of looking at it. I didn't like the guy though.

[Anonymous No.11384727]

>>11383511
If the Jews are just deviants, why is their book any good for moral guidance. Why keep the OT at all? Or why not cut it down to the few parts where God is giving the law (and only the parts Jesus didn't abrogate)? It'd be so much clearer to understand and you wouldn't have everyone laughing at the young earth creationists.

[Anonymous No.11385029]

I have read the whole NRSV Bible and Apocrypha. I started when I was 14. It took me a few years, reading parts at a time.

[Anonymous No.11385040]

>>11382908
The NIV is published by a company that has books available online such as "the love of gay sex" and "the satanic bible" so the translators of the NIV are essentially in it for the money, not for Christian reasons.

Besides the KJV, I highly recommend the ESV or for even easier reading, ASV. Also to >>11382823 I was like "I'll read the bible" and only got to genesis 20 so good luck if you're only on 6....

[Anonymous No.11385055]

>>11382823
I read the New Testament in its entirety two times and the Old Testament only in fragments, picking out the best or most relevant bits while skipping the fluff. I was brought up Catholic so the New Testament has more relevance to me. OT is more like a collection of fairy tales someone spent a bit too much time on and I just don't find it very interesting.

>>11385040
>"the satanic bible"
Also a great read, the title was only chosen for shock value as the book hardly has anything to do with Satan, blasphemy, desecration or anything of the sort. Highly recommended. I also recommend "The Gentleman Downstairs" by R. Smith as a supplement.

[Anonymous No.11385070]

>>11385055
Isn't the "Satanic Bible" just glorified Epicureanism with an edgy veneer?

[Anonymous No.11385285]

>>11382823
http://www.pidginbible.org/Concindex.html
Here OP, a translation we can all agree is superior

[Anonymous No.11385291]

>>11385285
>Den God say, “I like da watta unda da sky come togedda one place, so dat get dry land!” An dass wat God wen do. (Genesis 1:9)

[Anonymous No.11385296]

>>11385285
based

[Anonymous No.11385364]

>>11382823
i'm in the book of numbers

i am really finding it frustrating how much of it so far is just a narration of events that defy interpretation. i wish more things were spelled out. it feels obfuscationary, like i am missing things i am supposed to understand.

> What was God's relationship to the common man up to the time of Moses? Why live? I see no answer to any existential questions, no hope of afterlife. Only that you have to pay expensive lifelong penance to an almighty God to whom you are retroactively cosmically indebted for the price of existing. God's character at this point seems cryptic, detached, sporadic, disengaged, disgusted.
> Is there any well-understood interpretation of all the design decisions in the holy sacraments of the tabernacle? What about all the offering procedures? The Passover? Like the lamp with almond blossoms, cherubs, the wave offering, rubbing blood on the great toe of the priests, Scapegoats, etc.
> People seem to have grown some understanding of marriage, currency and civilization some time during Genesis. Where did it come from? What is the sanctity of these ideas? Are they just human ideas? God seems to acknowledge these principles as preeminent by the time God gives Moses the law.

I hope this isn't too blasphemous.

[Anonymous No.11385503]

>>11385364
>numbers
Oh man. You're going to """love""" Chronicles I and II then, son.
Keep reading though anon.
David's entire story is awesome and after Kings and Chronicles you'll start getting shorter books and the like of Job and Psalms that are pure /kinolit/

[Anonymous No.11385628]

>>11383847
That's a really nice bible anon, good choice

[Anonymous No.11385639]

>>11384727
Because it explains why Christ was needed, and gives the prophecies that let you understand how they knew Jesus was the messiah. Plus the wisdom books are really, really good. But yeah the Old Testament is just the Jews fucking up over and over again and God continually forgiving them and guiding them to eventually becoming the catalyst for the reconciliation of all mankind. God subverts evil to create good, ultimately shown in it's most purest form by Jesus accepting the evil of his death to create the greatest good.

[Anonymous No.11385734]

>>11385364
>I see no answer to any existential questions
Gotta get to the widsom literature for that.
>no hope of afterlife.
The afterlife isn't really something to hope for in the Old Testament. They only believed in sheol, which is similar to hades, a boring, dreary place where you continue to live a sort of half life. Their religion is very focused on this world.

>Only that you have to pay expensive lifelong penance to an almighty God to whom you are retroactively cosmically indebted for the price of existing.
Not true. Yahweh is content to let most nations just do their own thing unless it gets truly horrendous like sacrificing children. Israel only has to follow a ton of rules because they have a special covenant with Yahweh that they unanimously agree to at Mount Sinai and several subsequent occasions. Now, you can say that it's an imposition on you if you just happen to be born an Israelite and didn't personally have a say in this covenant, but that's not how they would have seen it.

[Anonymous No.11385748]

Which edition of KJV to get? I saw a copy of the Oxford World Classics and it was cheap.

[Anonymous No.11385755]

I read the King James version in a year, finished about a year ago exactly.

As a book, parts of it are frustrating, for example, the books of chronicles, which is basically a recap of the books of kings, and placed directly after.

What I do love about the Bible is that it contains so many different sources of text. History, poetry, personal letters, epistles, and the more intimate and personal stories in the gospels and acts. It gives a real perspective to all the ways that God interacts with his children. You get a sense of breadth in it. Reading it from start to finish was a great experience, would recommend.

t. Mormon

[DoctorGreen !DRgReeNusk No.11385761]

>>11382823
>That part when Goddess Ashteroh was in a war
Kek, Good times

[Anonymous No.11386166]

>>11382823
The KJV is really not widely held to be the best, by anyone except brainlets that like the "traditional" prose. Scholarship and seminaries do not use it ever.

Its translation is based on very few manuscripts, even the NKJV is outdated. If you want a more accurate reading use the ESV or NASB.

[Anonymous No.11386223]

Get off my board jewshikabab shill.

[Anonymous No.11386308]

>>11385639
Ok but why not keep it as apocrypha? Wasn't it mostly converted pagans in the councils that decided these things? They wouldn't have cared about all the jew stuff.

They could've made like a Jefferson bible of the OT. Actually did any of the heretics do that?

[Anonymous No.11386331]

>>11382823
it's pretty bad

[Anonymous No.11386335]

>>11385755
>t. Mormon
Well good for you anon.

[Anonymous No.11386341]

>>11386166
You're missing a six there, Belial.

[Anonymous No.11386520]

Just starting 1 Samuel in the NSRV with Apocrypha. I'd really just like to get to the wisdom literature, gospels, poetry, and unearthly stuff (Hell, Heaven, Angels, Satan, etc.), all the inaccurate historical descriptions have been a bit of a slog.

It does help to understand that the idea of maintaining historical accuracy wasn't even a thought at the time, and that the exaggerated numbers and events are there because the histories are for teaching the later Israelis moral lessons and explaining their extensive cultural rituals.

[Anonymous No.11386552]

>>11382823
Just know the KJV is the least accurate translation of the Bible in English (as far as mainstream translations.) Still good to read, but since its writing, scholars have found about a quadruple amount of other ancient copies of books from the Bible, and are able to understand words and phrases way better.

Youre probably not looking for theology, but there's a ton of misleading phrases in KJV that have been corrected over time with the advent of deeper understanding of anciet languages.

[Anonymous No.11386559]

>>11383095
Genesis is a must read for Western and religious thought. As well as Exodus. Also try reading Ecclesiastes, it might really surprise you.

[Anonymous No.11386576]

>>11386520
1 Samuel is actually pretty great.

[Anonymous No.11387903]

>>11386559
Yeah I think I can push through Exodus at least. I'll try Ecclesiastes too, but if your hoping for some kind of conversion experience, the impossibility of theodicy in these Abrahamic religions has shut that down.

[Anonymous No.11387916]

>>11386552
KJV has the most accuracy regarding the english biblical tradition :)

[Anonymous No.11388096]

>>11385748
dont get the oxford world classics kjv, the commentary in it is disrespectful of the text. get the penguin classics edition by norton

>>11383095
this confuses me too

>>11387903
according to tradition, by the time moses was gone they would have had the entire torah available to them for context

[Anonymous No.11388099]

>>11382823
You aren't suppose to read it like a book

[Anonymous No.11388138]

>>11388099
Oh please wise one, tell me how all should read it then.

[Anonymous No.11388995]

If you are on Genesis let me tell you is a long way left If you are reading it seriously. I mean If you visualize it a lot you will read it in at least a year or so, by reading it most of days. I spent my summer reading it cause got injured riding my bike and i made it to Chronicles.
Im pretty slow at reading cause i get distracted with visualization of what Im reading a lot. So take it with a grain

[Anonymous No.11389007]

I'm 18 and want to strengthen my faith.
I know this isn't the ideal place to ask, but what can I do?
I feel guilty of not experiencing the divine despite being a believer. I want to reinforce whatever bond I may have.

[Anonymous No.11389053]

>>11389007
If you havent, reading the bible will raise your concept of the divine a lot and probably enlighten the other divine concepts or experiences you have not aknowledged as divine
Go for it
You may need a complete worldview just to see your own

[Anonymous No.11389086]

Yeah it might not be best to read it like a unitary composition since it is a compilation of separate texts of different authors throughout various ages. The variation of bible canons with the apocrypha/deuterocanon is another thing to consider. The chronology can also be at variance with the order the books are presented in and certain texts, even if written at a different time, may be related to the story of an earlier work.

The division of chapters and verses might also alter the intended flow of the work. The traditional parashah ("portion") divisions used in Jewish tradition may be a remedy to that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parashah

[Anonymous No.11389157]

>>11382823
>KJV so widely held to be the best translation?
Probably fundamentalists of the era when translations based on the critical Greek texts first began to be published pushing the idea that the changes brought about by such texts were uninspired and unreliable.

The KJV isn't awful, it's just that the belief that existing translations can't be improved is flawed.

[Anonymous No.11389197]

>>11382823
I don't see the value in reading it beyond a skim for an idea of its contents in this day and age.