How to Start Reading the Bible: A Personal Journey Into Ancient Wisdom
The Bible sits on countless shelves, gathering dust. Maybe you inherited one from your grandmother, or picked it up at a hotel room once and wondered what all the fuss was about. I remember my first real attempt at reading it—I was twenty-three, sitting in my apartment with a King James Version that felt heavier than my college textbooks combined. The language was archaic, the names unpronounceable, and I had absolutely no idea where to begin.
That confusion you might be feeling? It's completely normal. The Bible isn't just one book—it's a library of 66 different texts written across roughly 1,500 years by dozens of authors in three languages. No wonder people feel overwhelmed.
The Reality Nobody Talks About
Most advice about Bible reading sounds like it was written by seminary professors who've forgotten what it's like to be a beginner. They'll tell you to start with Genesis and read straight through, which is terrible advice—that's like telling someone who's never exercised to start with a marathon.
The truth is, the Bible wasn't written to be read cover to cover like a novel. Ancient readers would have encountered these texts in community settings, with context and commentary. They knew the cultural references, understood the literary forms, and had guides to help them navigate difficult passages.
You don't have any of that, which is why starting can feel impossible.
Where Should You Actually Begin?
After years of false starts and conversations with people who've successfully developed a Bible reading practice, I've noticed something: the people who stick with it rarely start where the experts recommend.
Forget Genesis for now. Start with the Gospel of Mark.
Mark is the shortest Gospel, written in simple Greek that translates into straightforward English. It moves fast—the author uses the word "immediately" constantly, pushing the narrative forward like an action movie. You can read the whole thing in about an hour and a half.
Why Mark instead of Matthew, which comes first in the New Testament? Because Mark was likely written first, and it's the most direct. Matthew assumes you know Jewish customs and constantly references the Old Testament. Luke writes like a historian providing background details. John... well, John is doing his own mystical thing that can confuse newcomers.
Mark just tells you what happened.
The Translation Trap
Here's where people get stuck before they even start: choosing a translation. Walk into any bookstore and you'll find dozens of versions, each claiming to be the best, most accurate, or easiest to understand.
The King James Version sounds beautiful but uses 400-year-old English. The Message reads like your cool uncle explaining things but takes massive liberties with the text. The New International Version tries to balance accuracy with readability but sometimes smooths over difficult passages.
My advice? Start with the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) or the English Standard Version (ESV). They're recent enough to use modern English but scholarly enough that you're getting close to the original meaning. You can always explore other translations later—in fact, comparing translations can reveal layers of meaning you'd miss otherwise.
Whatever you do, avoid paraphrases like The Living Bible for serious reading. They're fine for getting the gist, but they're someone else's interpretation, not a translation.
Reading Like It's 30 AD
Modern readers approach ancient texts with modern assumptions, and that's where things go sideways. We expect chronological order, scientific accuracy, and journalistic objectivity. The biblical authors had different goals entirely.
They were preserving oral traditions, creating liturgical texts for worship, writing letters to specific communities with specific problems, and sometimes crafting elaborate metaphors to communicate spiritual truths. When Genesis says God created the world in six days, it's not trying to give you a scientific timeline—it's establishing a rhythm of work and rest that would shape Jewish identity for millennia.
This shift in perspective changes everything. Instead of asking "Did this literally happen?" try asking "What is this text trying to communicate?" The first question often leads to dead ends and arguments. The second opens up layers of meaning that have sustained communities for thousands of years.
The Practical Stuff Nobody Mentions
Let me save you some frustration with practical details that took me years to figure out:
Those numbers in the text? They're chapter and verse divisions, added in the Middle Ages to help people find passages. They're useful but arbitrary—sometimes they break up thoughts mid-sentence.
When you see text in italics in older translations, those are words added by translators to make the English flow better. They're not in the original languages.
The Old Testament in Christian Bibles is arranged differently than the Hebrew Bible. Same books, different order, which affects how you read them.
Psalms isn't really a book—it's a collection of 150 ancient songs and poems. Reading them like a narrative will confuse you.
Paul's letters in the New Testament are arranged by length, not chronologically. Romans comes first because it's longest, not because it was written first.
Building a Sustainable Practice
Everyone wants to know how much they should read each day. The spiritual overachievers will tell you to read three chapters daily to get through the Bible in a year. That's a recipe for burnout.
Start with ten minutes. That's it.
Read until something strikes you—a phrase, an image, a question. Then stop and think about it. The ancient practice of lectio divina (sacred reading) emphasizes quality over quantity. Better to deeply engage with three verses than to skim three chapters.
I learned this the hard way. For years, I'd start ambitious reading plans every January, fall behind by February, and quit by March. Now I read less but understand more. Some days I spend twenty minutes on a single paragraph, and those are often my richest experiences with the text.
When It Gets Weird (And It Will)
Let's be honest: you're going to encounter passages that make no sense, seem morally repugnant, or contradict what you read yesterday. Welcome to the club that includes pretty much every thoughtful Bible reader in history.
The book of Judges contains stories that would make Game of Thrones look tame. Leviticus has rules about not wearing mixed fabrics. Ecclesiastes sounds like it was written by someone in an existential crisis (because it probably was). The Book of Revelation reads like a fever dream.
This is where community becomes essential. Find people who've wrestled with these texts—whether that's a local study group, an online forum, or scholarly commentaries. The Bible has been confusing readers for millennia, and there's no shame in needing help.
The Unexpected Journey
What surprises most people is how the Bible starts reading you. You'll return to a familiar passage months later and see something completely different. A story that seemed irrelevant suddenly speaks to your exact situation. The text hasn't changed—you have.
This happened to me with the story of Jacob wrestling with an angel. First time through, it seemed like just another weird Old Testament tale. Years later, during a difficult period, I read it again and saw my own struggles reflected in Jacob's nightlong battle, his refusal to let go without a blessing, the way he walked away transformed but limping.
That's when Bible reading shifts from academic exercise to personal encounter.
Resources That Actually Help
Skip the devotional books that digest everything for you. Instead, invest in a good study Bible—the New Oxford Annotated Bible or the HarperCollins Study Bible provide scholarly notes without denominational bias.
Get a basic Bible dictionary for when you encounter unfamiliar terms. The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary is solid and affordable.
For historical context, pick up "How to Read the Bible" by James Kugel or "The Bible Tells Me So" by Peter Enns. Both authors respect the text while acknowledging its complexities.
Online, Bible Gateway lets you compare translations side by side. The Bible Project creates brilliant animated videos explaining biblical books and themes. Both free, both invaluable.
A Final Thought
Starting to read the Bible isn't about becoming a scholar or even becoming religious. It's about engaging with a text that has shaped civilizations, inspired art, provoked wars, comforted the suffering, and challenged the powerful for thousands of years.
You might find faith, or you might just find fascinating ancient literature. You might discover spiritual practices that transform your life, or you might simply understand cultural references better. All of those are valid reasons to read.
The key is to start. Pick up Mark's Gospel, find a quiet spot, and read like you're hearing an urgent message from across the centuries. Because in a way, you are.
Just don't expect to understand everything immediately. I've been reading for over two decades, and I still regularly discover I've been misunderstanding passages I thought I knew. That's not a bug—it's a feature. The Bible's complexity is part of what has allowed it to speak to vastly different cultures across millennia.
So begin. Read with curiosity rather than certainty. Let the strange parts be strange. Ask questions. Take notes. Talk to others who are reading.
And remember—every expert was once exactly where you are now, holding this ancient text and wondering where to begin.
Authoritative Sources:
Alter, Robert. The Art of Biblical Narrative. Basic Books, 2011.
Enns, Peter. The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It. HarperOne, 2014.
Fee, Gordon D., and Douglas Stuart. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. 4th ed., Zondervan, 2014.
Kugel, James L. How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now. Free Press, 2007.
Metzger, Bruce M., and Michael D. Coogan, editors. The Oxford Companion to the Bible. Oxford University Press, 1993.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha. 5th ed., edited by Michael D. Coogan et al., Oxford University Press, 2018.
Powell, Mark Allan. Introducing the New Testament: A Historical, Literary, and Theological Survey. 2nd ed., Baker Academic, 2018.