The Bible in a Year
A Syllabus
PROLOGUE It has been almost a year and a half since my last essay, but I have not been hibernating! In recent conversations with many friends, I’ve been struck by the fact that many who have been followers of Christ Jesus for years have never read the entire Bible, cover to cover. Thinking about this, I started praying for a plan of action and, wouldn’t you know it, a plan began to emerge! Last year during 40 days of Lenten prayer, which I had never experienced, a Bible study seemed a good way to approach the need. Duh! So, it is fitting that this essay would come before Easter 2024. Here at Journey Church in Cottonwood AZ, we already have small groups, but if we were going to have a “Bible class” we’d need a plan, so I was led to just write the syllabus. That way it would be ready should the interest ever arise. During this latest season of prayer, ongoing right now, I made a promise to God I would put the course “out there” in case anybody else might be interested. And so, you find it posted here! Think of it more as an organizational paradigm rather than a course; it is a method I’ve used myself even going back into my “bad old days” 🙄 Whereas I had surely wandered far from the narrow way (see my previous essays), I was astonished that even so, God had written his word upon my heart. I consider that a miraculous example of his grace. However, I have to say, when my wife read this essay, she dinged me for sounding too academic, but, then, I am what I am 😇 If you find this approach useful, feel free to share it; He owns it after all. If you have any questions, please contact me.
Introduction
Have you ever wanted to read the Bible? In its entirety? Perhaps you wanted to, but just never got around to it. Perhaps it seems like it would take too much time. Maybe you just didn’t know how to tackle the daunting task. But then again, you’re curious; you’re convinced you should read it; you’re wondering why it is important. If these questions or ideas resonate with you, then here is a plan to help you accomplish reading the entire Bible in a year!
First, let’s consider why it is important for every believer in Jesus to read the Bible. It is God’s word. It is a miracle; really. God wants to write his word on our hearts. It is a story written long ago, even before the world was made, the greatest and most important story ever told!
Second, did you know that the entire Bible is about Jesus? Well, how could you if you’ve never read it? 😉 There is a saying, “Jesus is in the old concealed and in the new revealed.” Old what? New what? That which we call the Old and New Testaments. We are going to discover how Jesus is revealed in the Old Testament even before he was born! Think of it as the back-story. You may remember Matrix 1&2. They were the back-story to Matrix 3. Matrix 3 would never have made any sense without the first two episodes! That’s why the Old Testament is important.
The New Testament starts with the birth of Jesus, continues with the story of his life, his death, and most importantly his resurrection. It goes on to tell us about what happened after Jesus returned to God the Father, the Ascension. What happened to the Disciples? What about the early church? And how about some of the early teaching? Finally, the New Testament gives us a glimpse of the future in the Revelation to the Apostle John. All of this so we could know where Jesus came from, what he taught, how his teaching plays out in the lives of those who believe in him, and what our ultimate destiny is to be.
There are different ways to think about the Bible. Yes, it is a great story with many themes running throughout. There are great heroes and dark villains, the innocent and the guilty, all examples to inspire us to keep on or warn us about where not to go wrong. There are poems, yes, even love poems! 😳🤫😲😇 There are glimpses of weak men and strong women. Good men and evil women. Did you know that all the male characters failed badly in various ways, except for Jesus? Some of the dearest female characters stood up to do what was right no matter the cost. And, of course, there are many examples of men and women who were lost until found by Jesus. Think of the Bible as our handbook, breathed out by our loving Creator through writers inspired by his holy spirit, for all that is important for us to know and count on as we battle towards our destiny as sons and daughters of the living God! Jesus has already won that battle. But our battle is to receive, submit, and attain all that he intends to pour into us. Good news indeed!
I hope I have stimulated your imaginations, your curiosity, and your desire to hear what God has to say to us in his word, the Bible. Did you know that Jesus is the Word of God? Let me say that again: Jesus is the Word of God! And what did Jesus say when he was tempted by Satan in the desert as told to us by Matthew, chapter 4, verses1-4? “Man does not live by bread alone, but every WORD that comes from the Father’s mouth.” Jesus was testifying about himself! I hope this stirs your hearts. But next, let’s go on to some useful statistics, information about the Bible, and how we are going to organize the journey. These might seem somewhat dry, but try to stick with me, and trust me that these are important; if not now, then definitely somewhere along the path of your Christian walk and certainly during our time together.
Bible statistics
The Bible is comprised of books: 39 in the Old Testament; 27 in the New Testament. A lot of this was worked out by the early church in the first three or four centuries although the “official” form we have before us today did not appear until the turn of the 16th century as a consequence of the Protestant Reformation. You must also realize the original writings were not in English, but Ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. We can go into that later if anyone has interest. These 66 books, OT and NT together, comprise what is known as the canonical books. Canon comes from ancient Greek and means rule or measuring stick; it is a relatively recent invention. And it is important to understand that it derives from the desire to know what the authentic works of the Bible are; scholars argue about such things. But it is also important to address the question, “How do I know I am reading the real deal?” I will only say here for now, the best and most agreed upon versions of the Bible, we posses today. You could get a PhD in such questions, but I will give you references to scholastic sources if you have interest, somewhere following. See Table 1 for a breakdown of all the books and chapters in the Bible, OT and NT combined.
Just to note in passing, Jews and different denominations of Protestant Christianity accept different versions of the canon; Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox branches include additional texts that we consider Apocrypha. Of these, there are approximately 18 and there are differences in how they are handled, which we will not address. I only mention them for the sake of completeness and to point out that these also are ancient texts and along with other sources may provide useful insight into the history and culture of the “Bible times” about which we will be reading. “Our” canon is considered to be close to original sources, some likely to be Apostolic in nature, and verified as far as possible by other sources including ancient manuscripts and archaeological studies. So again, we are going to focus on the 66 books of our Bible. Even though other confessions may include additional works, all orthodox denominations include these 66 books.
Our intention is to read the Bible in a year. As with any book, where do you start? Page 1? In the beginning God… That’s certainly a good place to start, but we’re going to try something different. Because we are looking for Jesus in the entire Bible, we will start with the Gospels. More on this later. To get through 66 books containing 1,188 chapters, I would like to introduce you to the method I use: Five chapters a day; and I’m a slow reader! Easy. Why? Let’s do the math: 1188 divided by 5 equals 237.6 days. That leaves more than 127 days, 4+ months (!) to accommodate days off, vacations, breaks, holidays, and the extra 89 chapters we get from reading the Gospels twice. Does this require discipline? Yes, but aren’t we disciples of Jesus? Just checking 😂 Some days it may be a real slog. Other days you might get so caught up in the story that you read an entire book, 20 chapters say. My point is that we are going to average 5 chapters per day in order to achieve our goal. Placing one foot in front of the other, we will follow Jesus through his Word.
We will be accommodating the schedule for Journey Groups within the outline by Pastor Jamin. But note that the same schedule can by used by you personally. Five chapters a day. Using this format, our calendar will start out divided into four terms of 8 weeks apiece with breaks in between. That’s 32+ weeks, not enough to get through the entire sequence so we’ll have to add a fifth term. Therefore, you’ll either have to carry on yourself or if there is enough interest, we could meet somewhere else depending on the number of people. It may seem like a long time, that’s true, but since you are already engaged in your own quiet time 😇😇😇 you can just consider our course your quiet time. Not a bad habit to get into: Reading. Praying. Win win! Check the Schedule I’ve provided below to get a picture of the organization. We will be meeting at least weekly to encourage, discuss, and refine our study. Our main objective is that the Lord who wrote the book would reveal it to us. When we meet, feel free to share your insights and suggestions, or not, this is up to you. I want you to be as comfortable as possible; remember, we are all pilgrims, learning together as we follow Jesus.
I have provided a list (bibliography) of study aids below. The list is long, but that is perhaps because I am a nerd. You don’t need all of these except #1. They are helpful in different circumstances. If you get some of these and it is not clear how to use them, we can discuss it in group or you can email me and I will try to help. Of course, we can always test our Pastors to see if they know the answers to our questions 🤣 Commentaries can give background (eg, historical setting, authorship, interpretation). Dictionaries provide translations from ancient Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic to English. Concordances tabulate cross references between different words and verses; some Bibles have their own concordances included. I also find Bible paraphrases useful at times. In the past I’ve used Phillips New Testament and The Living Bible, which includes both the OT and NT. For technical reasons, I consider these paraphrases, but I may be out of date. We can go into this later if there is interest. I read the English Standard Version (ESV) and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), which are based on the original languages; the ESV is a tad more readable in my humble opinion. Regardless, if you have other translations, that’s fine. For example, the New American Standard Version (NASV) or the New International Version (NIV) and others are great, too. If we get into the nitty gritty, questions of what the words mean, the text from the different translations can provide helpful insights for discussion. Whatever you have, bring it!
These study aids, available from Amazon and other distributors, are enumerated as follows:
You need to keep a notebook handy, simple spiral will do, and in it you will record thoughts and insights along the way as you read. This is for you and you don’t have to share unless you want to. There’s no grade at the end, but remember the Righteous Judge will be watching 😉😇
The Moody Bible Commentary, Rydelnik and Vanlaningham. Probably my favorite; excellent commentary on the whole Bible in one (thick) volume.
Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible, Matthew Henry. A classic, but perhaps a bit dated though still useful.
Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of OT and NT Words, WE Vine. Another classic, but sometimes essential; addresses every significant word in the entire Bible! Keyed to Strong’s (see below).
The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, J Strong. Yet another classic reference. Pretty soon you won’t need this because the Word will be written on your heart! See #4 above.
An Introduction to the Old Testament, 2nd edition, Longman and Dillard. Lots of rich background on context: history and authorship and academic controversies. Nerdy but useful for those so inclined, especially the doubting Thomas’s among us! There are many similar works by other authors.
An Introduction to the New Testament, 2nd edition, Carson and Moo. Same as #6, but for the New Testament obviously. See notes to #6.
You may have your own favorites or find others along the way. Bring and share them with us! Like the ancient Bereans (Acts 17:11), let us be students of the Word. I have found Bible commentaries online, yes even Wikipedia, which are very helpful at times. Our prayer should be, “Lord, whatever it takes to understand your Word…”
Strategy: Why start with the Gospels?
Remember, Jesus is in the old concealed, the new revealed. By old, I mean Old Testament and, of course new means New Testament. We will start by reading the Gospels wherein his birth, youth, words, teachings, ministry, death, and resurrection are recorded by those close to those events in time and place. There is endless discussion about who wrote what when, but there is also considerable agreement that the Gospels can be considered as close as possible to eye-witness accounts, especially with respect to Matthew and John. Credible sources contend that Mark may have been an assistant to Peter; whether Mark’s Gospel records Peter’s dictation of remembered events or Mark’s recollection of Peter’s teaching seems lost in the past, but I think it doesn’t change anything: It is likely one of the first records of events surrounding Jesus of Nazareth.
When I read through Mark, it seems to me almost a summary. Not only because it is the shortest of the four accounts, but also because of its terseness of style, almost like a list of things that happened without much elaboration. I like the idea of Peter’s influence, a man of action given to impetuosity, perhaps not overly interested in details, but wanting to make sure a record was made. I also like this theory because Matthew comes along somewhat later, and while Matthew’s Gospel overlaps or even incorporates some of Mark’s, it seems to me to fill in some of the blanks, as if the author was right there! It has more of a feeling of direct observation, more details, more context even.
Luke on the other hand was the intimate friend of the Apostle Paul who came along a few years after Jesus’ crucifixion. Luke’s is the only Gospel to lead off with an explanation of his intention in the writing of it. Pay close attention to this. You can easily imagine in the wake of such an earth shaking set of events surrounding the coming of Jesus the Messiah, quite a few wild stories were likely spreading. Certainly some would have been quite accurate, depending on the source, others distorted to varying degrees by repetition. Luke clearly set out to put things right, because he understood that it was important to get it right. These were momentous events and not to be obscured or distorted by careless gossip. When Yahweh speaks, shut up and listen to make sure that which is recorded is absolutely accurate. Sort of like a physician might approach a diagnosis; accurate diagnoses enable accurate therapy. Oh, that’s right, Luke was the dear and glorious physician!
The Gospel of John is very different from the other three. He is the disciple whom Jesus loved. He is one of the three, Peter, James, and John; the inner circle so to speak. He was with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and Gethsemane. It is also thought he was youngest of the twelve, outliving all the others. Perhaps written later than the others, certainly Mark and Matthew, it is almost as if John had time to contemplate not only the critical events of Jesus’ life, but also their significance. We see this in John’s first paragraph: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. This is astounding and upon it much Christian doctrine has been founded. In my humble opinion we learn extensively from John the divine nature of Jesus, wholly man and wholly God, the essence of the incarnation; God in the flesh!
Assignment: Remember these things! Ask the Lord to write them on your heart as you study, but remember, they are always there to go back and refer to them 🧐🙄😇😂 Jesus quoted the OT scriptures often; as you go on, see if you can make that connection between what he said and where it is written in the OT. I hate to say it, but online search applications can be a tremendous help in this effort. Remember we will be praying for God’s Holy Spirit to illumine our minds: Father God, what we know not, teach us; what we have not, give us; what we are not, make us. We ask this in the name of Jesus, Lord of lords, King of kings, the First and the Last, the Lamb of God.
Old Testament
I would summarize the OT as follows: Beginnings, Judgment of the Law, Life with God, and Hope for the Messiah. Thirty-nine books, 929 chapters, it starts with Genesis, which means origin, the Prelude to the story. In my view, parts of Genesis are literal, parts are metaphor. The American Heritage Dictionary defines metaphor as: 1 A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison. 2 One thing conceived as representing another. 3 The transference of the relation between one set of objects to another set for the purpose of brief explanation; a compressed simile; e. g., the ship plows the sea. If this sounds like parables to you, you’re right! Pay attention to where God, the author of the Bible speaks literally, metaphorically, poetically. Whatever voice God uses, you will have to use your mind to understand the impact of language translation, the interpretation of analogies, and the sense of verse. Always remember his Holy Spirit is present to assist you.
In Exodus is described the sojourn in and the miraculous deliverance from Egypt. We have God with a mighty hand and outstretched arm, leading the Israelites out into the desert, with a cloud by day and a cloud of fire by night, feeding them with manna, watering them from the rock, blessing them when they done good, and disciplining when they disobeyed. In Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy we have the giving of the Law to Moses. Written in stone. Twice! Here we find the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, the ten WORDS!
In Joshua, Judges, Ruth we have descriptions of leadership and the introduction of the “kinsman redeemer” (hint: Jesus) leading up to 1&2 Kings and 1&2 Chronicles, which incidentally are not divided into 1&2 in the original manuscripts. We see good kings and (mostly) bad kings, for example David and Jeroboam, respectively. We see the desert cycle of rebellion, judgment, repentance, and forgiveness. Idolatry punished by death: “You shall serve no other God but me… I am a jealous God.” The ultimate consequence for rebellion and idolatry is the exile to Babylon.
With Ezra through Job we see themes of restoration. The children of Israel return and they begin to understand that Almighty God is their salvation, their deliverer, their hope. The so called Wisdom Literature, Psalms through Song of Solomon, begins to articulate the inner life of intimacy with God the Father, hopes, fears, victories, failures, all are lifted to Him and in his covenant love he guides and teaches and succors the human soul. Even in the Song of Solomon, which is sometimes hard to read given its explicitness, we see the covenant of marriage illustrated. Father God is intensely interested in an intimate love relationship with His children.
Finally, we come to the prophets, Isaiah through Malachi, where we try to understand the hope for the coming Messiah, in Greek the Christ. This hope builds on all that has come before. Prophecy is not only about predicting the future. It is to be a ringing declaration of that which God has said, what He is doing, and what He intends. There are definite statements about that which is to come, illuminated by hindsight, and Israel understood explicitly that the Messiah was to come and would judge the world. Less clear was the suffering Jesus would endure, although again in retrospect, there are definite statements that speak of the suffering servant, especially in Isaiah. There are examples in the prophets themselves, which were expounded by Jesus or implied. The obvious one that comes to mind is the NT parable of the prodigal son: If Jonah was not a prodigal I don’t know what is! Look for these sorts of allusions (references). As a footnote, as you read and depending on your memory, you will find that the names of these prophets appear throughout the previous OT narratives for they were contemporaries of the people and their kings; look for them and what they had to say!
New Testament
As we’ve covered to great extent, 27 books and 259 chapters in all, the NT starts with the Gospels: Accounts of the life, times, and destiny of Jesus of Nazareth, our Messiah, Savior, Lord, and King. Next comes Acts, sometimes The Acts of the Apostles, which describes the first few decades following Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension into Heaven. This is the nascent, beginning, history of the Church. Us! It is chock full of tidbits, each of which is interesting and important in its own right. Otherwise the Holy Spirit wouldn’t have included it, right? 😉🧐😇 Here we are introduced to the next-generation Apostle, Saul who became Paul on the road to Damascus, yes Damascus Syria. The chief enemy of the church transformed by God; miraculously.
The next series or section is comprised of the letters of Paul. These are messages to churches and individuals and teach the sequence and implications of God’s Word as expressed in Jesus, his life, death on the cross, and the significance of our Lord’s resurrection as we see in 1 Corinthians 15:17, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” Paul’s explications are not always easy to understand, as Peter points out and endorses in one of his letters. In these letters, Paul lays the foundation for Christian doctrine that has lasted for two millenia, the elements of our faith; for it Paul was martyred.
The first segment of Paul’s letters, epistles in academic terms, are to groups of believers, the churches in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossia, and Thessalonica. In addition to teaching, they give important insights into early Christian experience, including the incorporation of Jewish and Gentile (non-Jewish) believers into the Body of Christ Jesus, the Church. The next segment includes letters to individuals, students of Paul’s, the first Pastors, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. These latter convey the responsibilities of our leaders. Some also illuminate poignant glimpses of Paul’s frailty.
From there we get to additional shorter but no less important letters, Hebrews, James, Peter, John, and Jude. The authorship of Hebrews is not conclusively established by scholars. Although originally it was attributed to Paul, others believe it may have been written by Apollos, an early Gentile convert, evangelist, and Apostle. I don’t think it matters because its significant teaching is included in the canon; more on that a bit later. The rest are thought to be letters from the original disciples or their close associates, James and Jude may have been the brothers of Jesus. Each has valuable pieces for our consideration and have been considered carefully in the development of Christian theology and defense of the Faith.
Revelation, the last book of the New Testament was written by the Apostle John while in exile on the Island of Patmos. Exiled by Rome, not by God! In this scripture, John reveals that which the Lord reveals to him in a magnificent and almost incomprehensible vision of the future “end times.” It should be noted that the end times span the first coming of Jesus as Messiah and Savior and his second coming as King and Righteous Judge. The imagery is taken from OT sources such as Ezekiel, Daniel, and Hosea, among others. Many have written books about Revelation because we are itching to hear about that which is coming in the future, but for which we are rarely ready. Really. I will add that most of the predictions about the future made by such authors have been wrong. One thing is absolutely certain, however: Jesus will return as conquering King of kings and he will judge the living and dead. All of them. 🤬😱🫣 or 😇, take your pick.
A word about canon: Where did these books come from? How were they “approved” for us? With the conversion of Constantine in the late 300s AD and the establishment of the Roman Church, yes, the Roman Catholic Church, a series of Councils or convocations occurred spanning more than a thousand years wherein certain critical points and questions of Christian doctrine were established. For example: What were the true and accurate records of the life and teachings of Christ? The essentials? The nitty-gritty. Other elements at different times considered difficult concepts, the Trinity for example. Others dealt with heresies of various names such as Universalism, Gnosticism, Tritheism, etc, etc, and the list goes on and on and is growing even to this day! Although Jesus said that the world will know that we belong to him because of the love we have for one another, the tragedy and shame of the Church is constant bickering and division stretching from Acts through to the Reformation, and so on through to today. Check it out. I have no doubt the Lord will set it all straight on the day of Jesus Christ when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father!
Let’s get going!
Schedule (example)
As an example, in order to conform with our Journey Groups calendar format, I break our schedule up into four 8-week terms along with a fifth term that will have to be on your own 🥺😒😏😇 Think of it like Summer School! In total, this will give us 40 weeks to get through the entire Bible (see Table 1) plus you have the intervening “breaks” that will give you an extra five weeks. Of course, if you get behind due to sickness, vacation, fatigue, the exigencies of life, you’ll have an additional 7 weeks for make-up.
The following is provided simply as a tool to keep us on track:
Term 1
8 weeks x 6 days per week x 5 chapters per day = 240 chapters
Weeks 1-3: The Gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke, John)
Weeks 4-8: The Pentateuch, part 1 (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers)
Term 2
250 chapters
Weeks 1-2: The Pentateuch, part 2 (Deuteronomy)
Entry into the Promised Land (Joshua)
Weeks 3-8: The first kingdom: (Judges, Ruth, Samuel 1&2, Kings 1&2,
Chronicles 1&2)
Term 3
276 chapters
Week 1: The return from captivity (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther), begin Job
Weeks 2-8: Finish Job, Wisdom (Psalms*, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon)
*There are 150 Psalms! You can read them within this schedule (5/day)
or you can read one or two per day and adjust your schedule accordingly.
Term 4
250 chapters
Weeks 1-8: The Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel,
Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai
Zechariah, Malachi)
Term 5
259 chapters on your own!
Weeks 1-3: The Gospels again (Mark, Matthew, Luke, John)
Week 4: Acts, start Paul’s letters to churches (Romans, 1 Corinthians)
Weeks 5-7 Continue Paul’s letters to churches (2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians, 1&2 Thessalonians)
Paul’s letters to individuals (1&2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon)
Letters from other Apostles (Hebrews, James, 1&2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude)
Week 8: The Revelation to John
Make-up (7 weeks)
Rest. Spend some time catching up if necessary and meditating about what you have taken in during the course of study. Look back over your notes; pray over them. Questions? Concerns?Insights? Suggestions?
And then… start all over again!
