New suggestion for reading the Bible

I have alluded to it and now I'd like to package for you a suggestion regarding an approach to reading the entire Bible for the first time, or re-reading it in a way that will be in depth yet interesting and fresh.

Since this is the year of St. Paul I suggest that instead of starting in the beginning of the Bible that you start with the Epistles of St. Paul. If you feel it would give you more continuity and context, you could start one book earlier which is The Acts of the Apostles, written by St. Luke with much information about St. Paul.

Now, the reason I am suggesting this is not because we are trying to focus on "honoring Paul" but rather, I'm going to let Paul be your "teacher" before you read the books of the Bible in sequence from Old Testament to the New. (Also in this year of St. Paul you may all want to be on the same page for Bible study and other activities, so this is another reason it would be good to couple a desire to read the entire Bible with starting with the books that are by St. Paul). How can you do that? By looking up and reading each footnoted Biblical reference as you read Acts and the letters of St. Paul. Yesterday I blogged an example of how to do that, where I cited a passage in 1 Corinthians and then, following the footnote, looked up and cited the passage in Psalms to which St. Paul can be inferred to be referencing.

By doing this exercise you will be following the footsteps of both St. Paul, where the footnotes indicate he is quoting, but also the centuries of Catholic biblical scholars, who use footnoting to indicate where ideas were previously raised, and also where prophecy is fulfilled. Thus you will be reading in sequence through the Bible but on each page of Bible text you will do on an average of something like ten or more look ups throughout the Bible.

For example, I have open over to my side on my table the New American Bible "The Catholic Bible: Personal Study Edition." So if you have that edition you can follow along with me. On page 185 of the new Testament is the first page of The Acts of the Apostles. On that page after the informative scholar introduction there is only 6 lines of scripture (Acts 1:1-6) yet there are five footnotes (a-e) citing fourteen (!) relevant references of Biblical passages. In this example they are all New Testament references. Sometimes they are informational, or parallel doctrine or events, so they are there for a variety of reasons. But like a net it weaves a three dimensional understanding of the Bible, and specifically the passages that you are reading, if you follow each and every one of those footnotes. You cannot look up and read each passage cited via footnote without understanding and perceiving the Bible as you never have before, and thus have a more accurate view, of placing you more fully within the reality of the human and divine life that real people doing real things in communion with a real faith community and their real One God experience.

So if you turn the page, to page 186, where there is a full page of Acts 1:7-26 through Acts 2:1, there are thirteen footnotes for that page, and since some footnotes have multiple citations, I see at a glance at least twenty two passages cited, from both Old Testament (Isaiah, Psalms, Kings, Proverbs, Deuteronomy, Leviticus) and New Testament (the Gospels, Ephesians, Revelation). By looking up each and every one of those passages you will gain an enormous sense of being "within" the events and the perspective of the Biblical authors and indeed, within God's greater plan, as you see how every verse is dense with both contemporary corroborative reference and drawing upon the roots of the faith in the Old Testament.

When you work your way through several books of the Bible in this fashion, even if you do not do the footnote reading for the entire Bible, when you read each chapter, especially now going back to the beginning to read from Genesis onward, you will recognize passages that you referenced but more important, you will feel in a way you never did the three dimensional continuity and deep significance of everything in the Bible within the fullness of its entire context. That is how the Bible is meant to be read and understood, and it is how it traditionally has been read and understood. It is only secular "self help," "self enabling," "question and 'right' answer look up" mentality of modern times that have ruined this experience.

Trust me, if you read the Bible the way I suggest here, you will marvel at the results. Try it! I hope you find this helpful and God bless.