Should you read the Bible with a chronological plan or should you read it from Genesis to Revelation? This is the question that many Christians ask when they are considering reading the whole Bible for the first or twentieth time. If you are asking this question then you are in the right place because we are going to look at a pro/con list of both approaches.
Reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation
The Bible is a collection of books, poems, wisdom literature, prophecies, and letters. These were all written over the course of thousands of years and were recognized as sacred writings. The Bible is composed of two parts: the Old Testament and New Testament. The Old Testament is a collection of writing compiled by Jews dating back to the origin of time. The New Testament is a body of literature that Christians came together to recognize as coming from God. If you choose to read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation you will be reading the Old Testament group of Books first and then New Testament books after. These books are not in order of when they happened in history but are grouped by the type of writing they contain.
Genesis to Revelation – PROs:
- No special reading plan is required.
- Only reading one book of the Bible at a time.
- Easier to capture the overarching message of each book.
- Most audio Bibles are made to be listened to like this.
- Great study Bible apps can help you do this.
Genesis to Revelation – CONs:
- It can feel like you are stuck in a less encouraging section of the Bible.
- Hard to see how the various books in the Bible relate to each other.
- Hard to understand the Biblical timeline of history.
Reading the Bible with a Chronological Plan
If you are new to Bible reading you may not know what a chronological Bible reading plan is. Chronological means “of, relating to, or arranged in or according to the order of time” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chronological). So a chronological Bible reading plan organizes the writings of the Bible in the order in which they occurred in history. Unlike reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, the books are often broken up into historical sections and other books or chapters might be inserted in the middle. Reading the Bible like this really helps to see how it all fits together in history and its connection to itself.
Chronological Bible Reading Plan – PROs:
- Helps to see the big picture of the Bible and how it all fits together.
- Makes sense of the order of Bible history.
- Great Bible reading apps can help you do this.
- Audio Bible for this can be found in the BibleStudyTogether.com app.
- Helps to keep from feeling stuck in more challenging parts of the Bible.
Chronological Bible Reading Plan – CONs:
- It’s harder to see the logical flow of a single book of the Bible.
- Few apps actually let you read the Bible Chronologically.
- Unless the app supports it most Audio Bibles don’t work really well.
How to start reading through the whole Bible…
Are you itching to get started reading through the whole Bible? Whether you want to read the Bible chronologically or from Genesis to Revelation you will likely want a Bible reading plan. This link has a great list of all our favorite plans. If you are wanting to read the Bible chronologically, then we highly recommend you consider using Bible Study Together. It is one of the few plans that has an app that the audio Bible actually allows you to listen through without having to jump all around and click on all sorts of extra stuff. Also, this chronological Bible reading plan has tons of great resources both in the app and in print.
_________________
Featured image provided by: natalylad / stock.adobe.com
