Discoveries

During Lent a friend of mine decided to read right through the Bible and though she didn’t manage to do that by Easter she is well through to the New Testament at the moment.

I find Lent too busy to take on extra things, but often it feels a bit quieter after Easter and a chance to catch up with things. Inspired by my friend I have decided to read through the Bible from the beginning, I might manage it by next Easter, but I am not setting any deadlines or a set number of chapters each day. Just what I can manage in my own time and own pace so that I get a chance to read it more closely. To help me understand what I am reading I am using the Oxford Study Bible which explains some of the more complex and strange things that I read.

So far I have reached Exodus and tomorrow will be reading about the Passover when God strikes dead all the first-born in Egypt. On my journey through Genesis I discovered all kinds of things I hadn’t really noticed before, such as God only forbad Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit of the tree of Good and Evil – but not the tree of life. It was only after they had eaten the fruit of the first tree that God had to prevent them from eating of the other. Some of the cultural things seem very strange and even wrong when we consider the culture and norms of our own time.

If you fancy a challenge why not give it a go? You don’t have to read lots each day, just what feels comfortable. I have found it both interesting and sometimes slightly disturbing, but then later in the Bible it all starts to make sense and we understand the connections more easily. It is worth having a study bible to do this with so that it makes more sense and helps better understanding.