How to Read the Bible – A Three Step Plan (written for Catholics - valid for all)

taylormarshall.com ^ | September 30, 2013 | Dr. Taylor Marshall

[NYer]

How do you read the Bible? Today is the feast day of Saint Jerome, who once quipped, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” – Saint Jerome

It’s a running joke that if you want to find a Bible verse, you ought to ask a Protestant and not a Catholic. Protestants read the Bible. Catholics not so much.

This raises the question:

Why Don’t More Catholics Read the Bible?

I think the answer lies in the fact that we Catholics go to Mass. The Holy Mass has at least two Bible readings every time. If you pray the Breviary or Liturgy of Hours, multiply that several times.

Joe Catholic says to himself, “Why should I study the Bible? I go to Mass. I hear it there. Check and check.”

There is something beautiful in this. For Catholics, Bible reading is liturgical. Hence, Bible reading remains chiefly a community experience.

Three Step Plan to Kick It Up a Notch

It’s good to listen to the readings from the Bible at Holy Mass. However, we also need a personal (even private) encounter with God in the pages of Sacred Scripture. All of the saints breathed Sacred Scripture. Scripture served as the grammar for their souls. They couldn’t communicate without it.

Here are some basic spiritual needs that you have every single day of your life:

1. Praise – Voicing your delight in God and His provision for your life. Gratitude destroys discouragement.
2. Wisdom – You need practical advice to navigate the complexities of life.
3. Challenge – You need to be lifted higher. You need to grow in your faith. You need to be inspired. You must be an intentional Christian.

So when you wake up tomorrow, do the following:

1. Read a Psalm. Start with Psalm 1. Make it your anthem of praise for that day.
2. Read at least one Proverb. Proverbs are the wisdom morsels of your day. There are 31 chapters. Why not read one chapter every day during the month. Oct 1 is Provers 1. October 31 is Proverbs 31. You get the idea.
3. Read a chapter of the one of the Gospels. This is your challenge. Your Savior challenges you in the four Gospels. He calls you to be not merely a nominal Catholic but a disciple. You cannot seriously read the Gospels and stay lukewarm. Christ speaks in a way that cannot be ignored.

“But I’m so busy. I don’t have the time!”

What? You’re too busy. Sorry, you just got served a yellow card:

That’s a yellow card. You’ve been warned…

Doing these three readings will take you only 3-5 minutes. That’s the time of a commercial break. It will change your life for good. I promise. It takes 21 days to make a habit, so give it 21 days and see if you aren’t hooked. Put the Bible on your night stand and read it in the mornings. Start fresh.

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” – Saint Jerome, Doctor of the Church

[Iscool]

Okay so "again" is a tertiary meaning, we won't even consider it then. Lets stick with the actual definition, the primary definition "From above"

I thought that was how I remembered it from the Grad level classes I took in Koine Greek.

54 Scholars who translated the KJV say the word is 'again'...Born again...

The translators of the NIV say it's born again...

The translators of the NEB say it is born again...

The translators of the Catholic Douay Rheims say it is born again...

The translators of the ESV say it is born again...

The translators of the NASV say it's born again...

So all these Scholars are wrong and you are right...All those bibles are wrong...

Obviously there are a lot of schools with a lot of different Greek texts who all agree with each other while all disagreeing with your Greek text and your translation...

So sorry, I'll stick with the real Scholars...I just have a hunch that they were a little more advanced in Greek studies than you are...

[Elsie]

“Get thee to a nunnery” yerself!

[Elsie]

It took Grasshopper a while as well...

[aMorePerfectUnion]

““Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ “

Spoken to Jews as He sent them out.

“... unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.”

Spoken to Jews and not speaking of the unleavened bread he broke with His disciples layer.

[Iscool]

I will offer my rosary that the scales might be lifted from your eyes.

Rosary??? What are you going to do with a Rosary??? Mary's going to lift the scales from our eyes???

Well that's good...Maybe there are some muzlims out there that we can get to pray to their moon god for us as well...We need all the help we can get...

[narses]

“Spoken to Jews as He sent them out.”

His Apostles and Disciples.

“Spoken to Jews and not speaking of the unleavened bread he broke with His disciples layer.

What was He speaking of then? And what special authority or education gets you to the status of being someone I (or anyone) oufght to trust to contradict the ACTUAL words that Our Lord said?

“Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats 19 my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum
Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?”
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you?
What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him.
And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.”
As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him
Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you twelve? Yet is not one of you a devil?”
He was referring to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot; it was he who would betray him, one of the Twelve.” [John 6: 49-71]

[narses]

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“What was He speaking of then? And what special authority or education gets you to the status of being someone I (or anyone) oufght to trust to contradict the ACTUAL words that Our Lord said?”

You have neglected the audience, the Jewish context and used eisogesis to read back a later doctrine into what was said.

I am insignificant . Christ and God’s Holy Word in its entirety is all that is important.

[rbmillerjr]

“All you need is a loaf of bread, some wine and the recital of the priestly blessing of Numbers 6:24-2...”

Will the editor-surveyor Tabernacle Choir be there to accompany the ed-surveyor religion?

[Elsie]

Never say never.

I’ve been at this a LONG time...

[narses]

“You have neglected the audience, the Jewish context and used eisogesis to read back a later doctrine into what was said.”

How do you know that? Mindreading?

“I am insignificant . “

And incoherent.

[Iscool]

I’ve read the Bible from front cover to back and have a Masters Degree in Theology. That’s why I’m Catholic, not protestant.

If you had spent that time studying the bible instead of theology, you likely would have stayed Protestant...

[narses]

[Iscool]

Amen...

[Elsie]

Lets stick with the actual definition, the primary definition "From above"

Ok; you win.

Any happier now?

Didja get a Kewpie doll?

[Elsie]

Words mean things.

Words like 'MUST' and 'REQUIRE'??

[Elsie]

Others just ignore what was typed and move on.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“How do you know that? Mindreading?”

Your interpretation as you stated it is not possible, if you take those things in their place.