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This is the second in a series of articles on Bible reading.You can read the first one here.
Most Americans, including many non-Christians, see value in reading the Bible and wish that they read it more. But few actually read it very often.
Annual research from the American Bible Society reveals that, among American adults, only about:
Christians read the Bible more than non-Christians. According to a 2019 Lifeway survey, about 30 percent of Protestants read the Bible every day. But most U.S. Christians are not regular Bible readers. They may want to be, but they're not.
Why do people who want to read the Bible more often struggle to follow through and do it? Here are some reasons.
We read in bursts.
Every day, you spend hours reading, mostly on your phone. But you don't read any one thing for more than a few seconds. Instead, you read in short bursts, each enough for a few phrases, a few sentences, or maybe a few paragraphs.
When you encounter an item that will take at least a few minutes to read—such as a lengthy email message or social media post, or maybe this article—you tend to skim it. And then you move on.
The Bible was not written in sound bites that render well on a phone. It was not designed to provide quick answers to specific questions.
Reading the Bible takes time. The top reason people don't read it is that they feel that they don't have enough time.
The Bible is long and complex.
The second most-cited reason why people don't read the Bible is that they don't know where to start.
The Bible is not a single book. It's a collection of 66 books with 1,189 total chapters and around 800,000 words (in English). For reference, the English translation of Leo Tolstoy's famously long novel War and Peace has fewer than 600,000 words.
When Christians venture into the Bible, they spend most of their time in the New Testament, which comprises less than 25 percent of the Bible. The first four New Testament books are the Gospels, which tell the story of Jesus from four different perspectives. The next book, Acts, covers the following 30 years, including the formation of the early Christian church. The rest of the New Testament is epistles, or letters, from some of the early apostles of Jesus.
Those letters can be challenging to read. They use terms and refer to people, places, events, and cultural practices that were familiar to their intended first-century audiences but are unfamiliar to us today. Some of the letters are packed with complex theological ideas.
The Old Testament is even more daunting for most of today's readers. It's not just much longer but also much more diverse, including not just stories and teachings but also poems, genealogies, and detailed laws. It's not organized chronologically.
And parts of it are boring. Really boring.
Parts of the Bible are boring.
Many Christians set a goal of reading the entire Bible in a year, but many never make it through the Old Testament. The main reason is not the length or complexity. It's the dryness of the material.
The first two Old Testament books are action-packed and can be read quickly. Then comes the dynamic duo of Leviticus and Numbers. Scintillating topics in Leviticus include laws, laws, and more laws. Numbers gives you genealogical details on the ancient Israelites and then throws in some more laws.
Other Old Testament books are less dry, but some of them can challenge your attention span with their sheer length. For example, most of the 42 chapters of Job are a seemingly endless conversation between Job and his friends.
The Old Testament is loaded with terrific, enriching material, but the boring parts can seem insurmountable.
Well-read parts can get stale.
Even if you've not read a lot of the Bible, there are some parts of Scripture with which you are very familiar. How many times have you read or heard the story of the first Christmas? The parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son?
When you come to a familiar story or passage, you may find yourself going on auto-pilot. You read it, but you don't really pay attention. It has become stale.
The most popular version presents special challenges.
Written in 1611, the King James Version (KJV) remains the most popular Bible translation in the U.S. Some Christians, and even some churches, consider the KJV the only trustworthy translation available.
Frequent use of archaic terms in the KJV, however, makes the Bible extremely difficult for many people to understand, dissuading them from digging into the text on their own.
What's the solution?
There is tremendous value in reading the Bible regularly. You probably want to read it every day. How can you succeed in that initiative?
In my next article, I'll give you some tips.
One way to get into a rhythm of daily Bible reading is to take my three-month Bible reading challenge. For details, go to 3monthchallenge.com.
 | Chris Bolinger is the author of three men’s devotionals – 52 Weeks of Strength for Men, Daily Strength for Men, and Fuerzas para Cada Día para el Hombre – and the co-host of the Throwing Mountains podcast. He splits his time between northeast Ohio and southwest Florida. Against the advice of medical professionals, he remains a die-hard fan of Cleveland pro sports teams. Find him at mensdevotionals.com. Learn More » |
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