Wow, I was being facetious there, but that's a very sobering thought you wrote. How did you figure that out? Some type of application? I hardly think you went through and counted them by hand!
I already have read the first two chapters in Matthew this morning. Read scripture more is a great New Years Resolution that everyone should do. I have a reading plan from Bible Gateway, New Testament in a year. They send me a chapter a day to read and it's working out very well so far. Here's the Link if anyone wants to sign up for it.
http://www.biblegateway.com/reading...ading Plan (4) 01/01/13 03:00 AM&utm_content=
Blessings to all in the new year.
No, no application for it that I know of. There's roughly 31,000 verses in the Bible, give or take a few depending on translation version (one of the tidbits I remember from a Biblical Foundations class in Bible college. I don't know who counted them, but it had to have been someone with too much time on his hands!) Since there are 52 Sundays per year, I just made a few general assumptions and did the math.
Good choice on starting in Mathew. That's where I started too and it was a blessing for me.
That's assuming they don't reread the same verses, e.g. at Christmas time. Otherwise, it would take even longer.
While everyone is wishing everyone else a "Happy New Year", I think this is as good of time as any to start reading thru the bible in a year. There's no shortage of reading plans out there on the Internet if one has a hard time figuring it out. In this day and age of Internet, there's no excuse for being an ignorant Christian. As a matter of fact, there's even entire bibles (including the apocrypha) out there free of charge on .pdf format that one can download. And there's sites such as biblegate.com that has not only the whole bible online, but different translations as well.
So there's no excuse.
Yeah, I had to make the assumption that no verses would ever be repeated because it's impossible (for me at least) to estimate on average how many verses would be repeated how often by how many pastors. It would probably be a lot considering, like you said, repeating the Christmas story, etc as well as most pastors have favorite sections that they use over and over in many of their sermons. The reality of these things would make my numbers much higher if it were possible to estimate them. Someone who just reads even one book straight through, such as Edward reading Matthew right now, will be far, far above anyone who only hears the scripture given in sermons while at church.
There is a wealth of information in the Bible that people don't realize is there. Also a tremendously large number of areas of confusion and mis-interpretation that get cleared up when you sit down and read entire books of the Bible straight through as if you were reading a novel (or in a few sessions for the longer ones), keeping all the context intact, with an open mind to what they really say (and don't say). I guess there are reading "plans" out there that can be helpful in some ways, but the important thing is to just get a translation that is easily understandable and take the time to read. I don't think most people would look for a commercially produced reading plan to read a paperback novel or an instruction book. They just read it. Those plans can be helpful with the Bible, but if you don't have one or the one you are using isn't working well for you, at least select one of the books and start reading as you would with any other book. Anyone can do that today. If your short on time or energy, read a book like Philemon. It's actually not a "book" but just a letter written by Paul and is only one chapter long, but at the very least it gives a Biblical example of an excellent format for making a formal request of a favor from someone.
Remember too that the Bible is a collection of books and letters... You don't have to start on the first page of Genesis and read through to the last page of Revelation. In fact, many people who try to start in Genesis soon get to the long boring genealogies, and that's where it all ends for them. (Ask me how I know. ;) )
It's hard for me to think of a better New Year's resolution for a Christian than to sit down and read ONE book of the Bible, straight through, like a novel. Then if you want to move on to a second one, great. But starting with just one is a resolution that you wont fail at if you have normal reading skills and are even just a little serious about doing it! After that if you want to get into a more in depth study of the concepts in the book, that's a great second step too. But at least read it through once first without getting hung up on deep meanings of individual words or verses, so you can get the general context and ideas of the book. You may be very surprised at how many things are not quite the same as you thought or have always heard that they were!
Of course, as you find those things that are different from what you've always heard, be careful about sharing them. I've found that many Christians can get quite militant when you challenge them on their long held assumptions on what scripture says, especially when you challenge them to produce the scripture in proper context to back their assumptions and they start to realize that they can't!
you know, this thread has been inspirational. I'm off to do some reading now!
