How to start reading the Bible

The Bible is very large and occasionally hard to understand. There’s a lot of different books that make up the whole, different writers with different people they are writing to, and spans some four thousand years of works originally written in multiple languages. 

If you have never read the Bible, this can be overwhelming enough to never want to start. The media alone makes this Book seem like something incapable of understanding, that it contradicts itself and you shouldn’t even try to pick it up.

At this point in my life, I’ve read every one of the sixty-six books in the Bible several times. I can safely say I will never completely understand everything that it says on this side of heaven, but that doesn’t mean one shouldn’t try; there are ways to understand better.

I am a huge advocate for putting the Bible in context. Understand places, times, people, remembering the culture each book was written to. All these can be found in a study Bible and are available almost anywhere books are sold or online.

If you have already read the Bible, or parts of it, or you have no idea where to begin, there is one commentary that I recently stumbled across and recommend trying.

I first heard of Tara-Leigh Cobble when she was interviewed on a podcast that I follow. I was instantly hooked on her story, which is, quite frankly, one many Christians can sympathize with.

Cobble grew up in a Christian home and accepted Jesus as her Savior at a young age. Like many people, she found reading the Bible frustrating and confusing. She found her “safe spots”, in books like Psalms and Proverbs and the Gospels, but everything else was scary and confusing.

Cobble didn’t read the entire Bible until she was an adult, and even then the only reason was because her pastor met with her every week to answer her questions, which helped her gain some clarity into what she wasn’t understanding. 

As a young adult, Cobble learned from her pastor to look for God in every context in the Bible, challenging her to know Him personally, and not secondhand by hearing what other people say or taking their word for what the Bible says.

For as much as she had her questions answered, Cobble found herself less than thrilled by the time she reached the end.

Her pastor laid out a new challenge for her. After guiding her through the reading for a year and hearing the kinds of questions she asked, he told her to “read (the Bible) again and stop looking for yourself and start looking for God.”

“It’s for you,” Cobble relays her pastor’s message. “But it’s not about you; it’s about God.”

Halfway through her second reading journey through the Old Testament, Cobble found herself loving the character of God.

Instead of looking for what the Bible said about her and her life, she tried again to understand who God was. 

That was what changed reading the Bible for her, and she wanted others to discover the character of God the way she had.

Looking for God in the Bible is important because He is the reason the Bible exists. Its purpose is to tell us about God, how  and what He feels and why. It explains why He does things. At least it gives us a glimpse into this. We, humans by nature, cannot possibly understand the complete picture of who God is. He exists outside of space and time. He is not limited by anything or anyone. All we see is a small part of this, and once we start looking for Him in the Bible, we start to see His character clearer. 

Reading the Bible is about forming a relationship with God. We cannot know Him if we don’t spend time with Him. 

Cobble took her motivation and newfound love to action and wrote The Bible Recap, a commentary that follows the Bible in chronological order, and maps out a plan to finish the entire Bible in one year. 

The actual Bible passages aren’t a part of The Bible Recap, but it lists the chapters to read each day. I highly recommend reading the passages before reading the commentary. If you don’t own a Bible, I suggest the ESV or NIV versions to start. The Gideon Bible app is available to download for free, with KJV and ESV options to choose from.

The commentary in the book gives a summary of each passage and why it was important. There are references back to previous readings and some foreshadowing for important pieces that will come up again.

At the end of each reading, there’s a “God-Shot”, explaining a small piece of God’s character that was visible in each passage. Believe it or not, God is everywhere in the Bible (it’s about Him, after all). Some places it’s harder to see than others, so having a little reminder to look for Him everywhere is helpful.

If purchasing the book isn’t an option for you, there is also a partner podcast by the same name. It’s free and exactly follows the book. 

I’ve read the Bible a lot, and sometimes, it can be a bit monotonous. I convince myself I’ve already read this story, I know what happens, I know why this is important. The Bible Recap has helped me immensely in these areas by giving me a different perspective to bounce my thoughts off of..

If you’re looking to get back into the Bible, or if you don’t know how to start, I “The Bible Recap” is a great help, but you don’t absolutely need it. You can just pick up the Bible and read whenever you want. I recommend starting in the book of John; it details who Jesus is and why He came to earth for us.

Read with an open mind; you might be surprised.