Have you read the entire Bible?

[Stazy]

I read a picture bible when I was younger but that's it. I keep thinking I should read the real version one day...

 

[JustinW]

No, but I've probably had most of it read to me.

 

[Casey]

I'm Buddhist so I never felt the need to read it. But I tried to once. I read the first few pages, then got bored and skipped to the last page to see if there was some sort of conclusion.

Yeah, didn't work out as I planned.

 

[appolyon]

just watch the movie

 

[X-It]

Not the entire Bible, but I do read part of it in which chapter I should read from my daily devotional -- every day.

 

[rach2jlc]

No.
If I want to read long winded, pointless books that ramble on and on and on about nothing, then I read Proust.




(j/k, of course. And, YES, I've read the whole Bible when younger, though I admittedly paid less attention through the minor prophets).

 

[SoCal2NYC]

Yep

 

[LabelKing]

I prefer the coloring books.

 

[rach2jlc]

Originally Posted by SoCal2NYC

Yep
Makes sense. So THAT'S why you keep quoting "Esther" to me in all your emails. I was always more of a Job man, m'self.

j/k Perhaps the next poll question should be, "Have you read the entire Mahabarata?" BUT, one of the poll options should be, "Still reading it... started fifteen years ago but not finished!"

 

[Zubberah]

Yes, and found it easier than I thought - and less boring than I thought! There's some great stuff in there. Also read the Koran, Upanishads, full Kama Sutra, Satanic Bible, The Tanakh, largely out of my interest in religious studies and university studies in philosophy.

I've also read Proust's A la rechereche du temps perdu (and everything else he has written that has been translated into English including short stories and Jean Santeuil), perhaps the single greatest literary experience of my life (Proust that is, not the Bible). Sublime and astonishing (although I'll admit I'll struggled through Swann's Way but from then on each volume just got better and better until I was not sleeping at all endeavouring to finish this 3,000 page masterpiece).

 

[Neo_Version 7]

I've heard:

Bible < Koran

I prefer the books of the Bible like Proverbs and Psalms as opposed to the stories.

 

[kwilkinson]

Read the Bible 4 or 5 times all the way through, but read the "important" stuff like the Pentateuch and the Gospels and the Pauline Epistles probably more than 20 each.

I'm now working through all the non-canonical works (as many as I can find), the Koran, and some of the Biblical time mythologies for some context of what the Bible meant to the people living in it.

 

[Jekyll]

Yes, with the exception of a few of the minor prophets and the genealogies which I skipped over. An evangelical upbringing has its advantages.

 

[rach2jlc]

Ecclesiastes is still my favorite; it's like Zen rolled into Sartre or Merleau-Ponty... only prettier.

 

[kwilkinson]

Originally Posted by rach2jlc

Ecclesiastes is still my favorite; it's like Zen rolled into Sartre or Merleau-Ponty... only prettier.

I thought you'd be a bigger fan of Song of Solomon.

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.
Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.
Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.

By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?
It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.
I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

It's much prettier in the King James than NIV:

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—
for your love is more delightful than wine.
3 Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes;
your name is like perfume poured out.
No wonder the maidens love you!

4 Take me away with you—let us hurry!
Let the king bring me into his chambers.

All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him.
2 I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked for him but did not find him.
3 The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. "Have you seen the one my heart loves?"