My extremely picky one-year Bible reading plan

The very first One-Year Bible I used was given to me in 1996. In case you’re unfamiliar with the concept, a One-Year Bible is a Bible which breaks the books up into 365 daily readings usually consisting of a reading from the Old Testament, a reading from the New Testament, then a reading from Psalms and/or Proverbs. The goals are:
  1. To insure that you don’t get stuck reading genealogy tables or tabernacle measurements for an entire day’s reading.
  2. To spread out the wisdom found in Psalms and Proverbs, which can be rather monotonous if simply read straight through.
  3. To study the message of Jesus’s coming as found in the New Testament all year round.
There are plenty of people who had little success with reading through the entire Bible until they picked up a One-Year Bible, and I was one of them. However, I wasn’t successful with the first One-Year Bible I received. It was 1996 and I gave it a shot, but there were two things I did not like about the One-Year Bible I was given. I quickly found that I did not care for the New Living Translation, and my One-Year Bible took the reader through Psalms and Proverbs twice. Its readings had you finish both Psalms and Proverbs by early July, then you started those books all over again. I simply didn’t see why Psalms and Proverbs were given more emphasis than the rest of the Bible. (The Bible I had was an older version of this Bible.)
By college I had read through the New Testament on my own, without the aid of a One-Year Bible, but I’d only done about half of the Old Testament. On February 26, 2001, one of my pastors gave me an NIV one-year Bible, and this one did not repeat any biblical books. The only thing I found goofy about it was that it tried to go through the books of the Bible in chronological order, so Job was read after Genesis. Still, I went with it, and that Bible got used. I read through it almost every year I spent at BYU and took it with me everywhere. The cover fell off long ago and it still sits on my bookshelf, unused now, but extremely highlighted, underlined and scribbled in.
The downside of One-Year Bibles is that they’re absolutely useless as reference Bibles. If your pastor tells you to turn to Psalm 90:2, you’ll have to check the index in the beginning to see what day of the year Psalm 90:2 falls on and then turn to it, because digging for it can takeforever. For that reason, I finally decided to stop using One-Year Bibles for personal study last year.
I tried picking up an ESV Daily Reading Bible, a variation on the One-Year Bible which works by listing the dates for each reading in the margins of the text. It comes with three ribbon bookmarks and you simply read through your Old Testament, Psalms and New Testament readings as directed by the margins. However, I wasn’t very happy with this Bible, either. The notes in the margins were designed to take the reader through the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice; I truly don’t get why so many evangelicals do that. More study is nice, but I think the Old Testament is just as important as the New Testament, so if you’re going to read through something twice, read through the whole Bible twice. Proverbs was not divided up at all; the designers of the ESV Daily Reading Bible intended for it to be read straight through in two weeks. Ick.
Yeah, so I’m picky, but I do love working my way through the Bible in a year. This is what I like in my daily Bible one-year reading plan:
  • A reading from the Old Testament
  • A reading from the New Testament
  • A reading from Psalms or Proverbs. I prefer a Bible reading plan that takes me through Psalms first and then Proverbs so that I only have to use 3 bookmarks.
  • A plan that takes me through the entire Bible once. I get plenty of other topical study elsewhere. I can’t stand plans which place greater emphasis on the Psalms or Proverbs or New Testament.
I’ve decided to code my Bible reading plan and post it online. It will take a few days to finish. It’s available here and will eventually be added to the left sidebar.

Comments

My extremely picky one-year Bible reading plan — 14 Comments

  2. I think both Psalms and Proverbs are tedious if read straight through, good if they’re spread out enough.
    This probably makes me a bad evangelical, but I also have to confess, I find some Proverbs less than useful. Like…
    An honest witness tells the truth, but a false witness tells lies. ~ Pr. 12:17
    ORLY? Thanks for clearing that up for me.
  3. Hi Jack,
    I’ve never had any experience with a 1 year plan. It’s always been a cover to cover of a book, superifically, in a year. And I admit, because of that one can get bogged down in repetition, chronologies, and psalms.
    I managed to read through the OT twice on my mission. Once on my own, once with the Institute study books. I read through the NT four times. Once in the MTC, Three times in the Field. Because I read the BoM in German, I only read it like twice. Having finished some introductory to biblical scholars material I’m excited about reading the OT again soon, and having found Kevin Barney’s Bible Commentary, I’m excited about reading the NT again (also with some biblical scholarship introductions in the way).
    Jack,
    Do you plan on blogging about your personal reading or just posting teh schedule so others can follow along?
  5. I think I may try your one-year plan, starting in January. That should give me time to get through all of my *other* readings.
    So, this post makes me wonder: Have there been any enterprising LDS folks who have made a one-year study plan that incorporates all of the standard works? It’d be pretty interesting to see!
  6. hmm… Why didn’t I get the idea of splitting proverbs/psalms up?
    I’m trying to do things faster than a year (I’ve already knocked out the NT, and I’m actually going through a diversion that Gellies wouldn’t have to do — the BoM), but I never considered what’ll happen when all I have left is the OT, which might be quite the chore…
  7. #3 PC ~ I’m posting the plan so that people who Google “one year Bible plan” can use it if they want, and so that I have access to it wherever I have the Internet—like tonight, when I’m visiting my father and didn’t bring my Bible with its bookmarks in it. I’ll only blog about my readings if something really jumps out at me.
    #5 Alex ~ The thought did occur to me to create a one year triple (BoM/D&C/PoGP) plan sometime, but most Mormons I talk to don’t seem that interested in reading straight through the scriptures. Most seem to do topical studies. Of course, if I did, reading all 4 would just mean doing both the reading from the Bible plan and the Triple plan every day.
    If there’s enough interest, maybe I’ll work on one.
    #6 Andrew ~ If you want, use my OT & Psalm/Proverbs readings to help you. If you want to get through the OT faster than in a year, just double or triple up the readings or whatever. I’ll be done coding the plan within a week.
  10. I think dusseldorf got split between hamburg and Frankfurt in 2000 or 2001. We probably know some people in common.
  12. Yes Kullervo, the Dusseldorf mission was split in June of 2001, 2/3 of the mission went to frankfurt, 1/3 went to Hamburg. That probably demands its own post. I can tell you that the Frankfurt mission has a giant BoM suit that the missionaries dressed up in. Ick.
    Jack, TBD.
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