I'm reading The Old Testament for class, it's crazy interesting. And unexpected. I didn't realize how.. unsaintly some of the main characters in the Bible are (aka, Joshua, he's very whiny and annoying). Also, what they chose to put in there is hilarious! Like, The Song of Soloman, about having sex because sex feels awesome, not just for baby making. I was like "whuuttt" when I read it because it was not something you'd expect to find, especially since it was written like way over 400BC, so why is it even in there?

Anyways, I liked the book of Genesis and the Prophets lot, it was pretty ridiculous and I like how you can clearly tell how much it borrowed from other Near Eastern countries and cultures. But it's cool how they portray YAHWEH as a loving god, which is so unique compared to other places in the world. Like, consider Greek or Akkadian gods, who are jerks and claim that humans are designed to serve them, and if not they face the wrath of whoever happens to be looking at em at the time.

The bible can teach lots of things! Some of it is old and doesnt really apply anymore, but its a good book to read and get understanding and wisdom from. ^^

Wow! This is a fascinating thread. I've read the bible. I went to 12 years of catholic school. However, I never knew or understood HOW to read the bible until I took a class called "Power for Abundant Living". It taught the fundamentals on how to read and understand the bible and also how to tell if something has been changed in various sections. That one class taught me what 12 years of catholic education never did. It sent me to various older translations trying to find the deeper meaning that sometimes gets lost because there's problems trying to translate some things into other languages. Sometimes you can have a word and translate it and its difficult because the word you're trying to translate it from may not have an exact translation in another language. So to get a better understanding of certain sections you can to into the greek literal translations and compare them to see what was changed. Also the oldest written forms of the bible were called "uncils". Uncils had no punctuation, no paragraph beginnings etc. So what I found interesting is how a comma depending on where it's placed can change the whole meaning of a sentence. It's a book that becomes even more fascinating the more you study it. The more you study it the more that opens up to you and it never is the same each time you read it. Something else always opens up your understanding each time you read it so it speaks to you in so many different ways - always relevant to whatever is going on in your life at the time. I'm also open to anyone that wants to pm me to ask me anything about this or if you've read something in the bible that you don't understand - I'd be very happy to discuss it with you.

I love the story, but Jesus is just the BIGGEST Mary Sue ever, and it's such a turn off.

I see. Interesting.

I have read parts of the Bible for Bible Study. I have not been to church in a few years, but I still believe. I also believe that the Bible probably contains many mistranslations. Because let's face it, it was written by men, and men are far from perfect. Only one perfect person was needed and He made his sacrifice long before the Bible was written. I am glad this thread is here, I have many questions about the bible and religion not to many people want to ask, or don't want to delve into.

I haven't read the bible since it was required in high school. But I pay attention to most of the readings in church.

It used to be required in highschool?? lol


I only read books like Psalm when I'm looking for words to help me at that time. But what I love to read are the stories in the Old Testament because its just like reading a fiction book -Interesting!- Only little things I will learn while I read. It's like a school book in disguise ^_^ :P

I see myself in the Bible stories a lot, too. Currently, I don't read it as much as I should. I know it's awesome, but I just need to kick myself and allot the time to read. Once I do, I tend to get really into it and I'm enjoying it and wondering why I procrastinated so much. LOL

^_^ Yeah.. Ditto. >.o -bows head- I'm bad about procrastinating
Hey I think I saw you in another thread.

I read the gospels. I really think Jesus' is more important than Paul and I hate how people act like Paul is the actual God.

Wow. I see quite a few have read.. the whole thing?
I've read perhaps 50% of it. Over the course of around 14-15 years.
Some of it I've gone over again. I'd like to read more when I'm in a more tolerant mood. Being an atheist in a family of Catholics, I get enough of the bible without asking for it.

Runes: Hmmm I've never come across that too much. I guess it varies by Denomination or the numerous cults that are out there misinterpreting or misrepresenting the Bible and it's contents. Jehovah's witnesses, LDS's(mormons>very nice people though, sadly can't find anyone nicer than them sometimes.), and other groups.

Kollusim: Heh, sounds like me before I got saved. My brother went to a mega "spiritual" church 20 miles away and always came home spouting what we should and what we shouldn't be doing,"Jesus said this, Did this, and if you don't... you're gonna go to Hell that." It turned me off especially since I knew his past and it wasn't that great and I thought the whole thing was just to make him seem like a less rotten jerk. I didn't see it because what he lived around me wasn't appealing nor make me want to run to Jesus.

yay Bible= awesome

=) Indeed!

That's my verse this week =3

Sweet!!! Very encouraging.

I read the Bible through several times. I'm a Christian, so I believe it's real and true, so don't take this next part that I'm going to say the wrong way . . . .

But I just love the Old Testament. I love reading violent and sexual stories in my day to day reading and the Old Testament is full of that honestly. XD It's so interesting. Even the New Testament is the same way, except, the new testament doesn't have so many stories about those things, it's more commentary on them. LOL.

But seriously, I couldn't have possible read all this stuff as a kid.

Just think about a few of the stories for a moment . . .

Lot having incestual sex with his children and giving birth to babies after Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.

All the talk about people sacrificing their new born babies on alters and how during wars they ripped open the stomach of the pregnant women and left them that way to die.

Or how, when Israel was going through a horrible seige during and they were all out of food and starving to death, they were eating bird poop and stuff. XD

Or how, in the book of judges, this woman was in the town square in one of the towns of the tribe of Dan and everyone raped her in town until she died and then her horrified husband cut up her body into 11 pieces and sent them all to the other tribes to see?

Or about how David killed 300 Philistines, chopped off their foreskins, and gave them to King Saul?

This is just A FEW of the stories like this. It's kind of funny to me when people call the Bible boring because it's filled with really shocking and disturbing and sometimes gross stories, but I like it.

And it's why I'm not that worried that I want to be an author and write about sex and violence and stuff like that because I'm definitely not writing anything worse than what can be found in the Bible.

Yes, it's filled with lots of lessons and that's what I love about the Bible. It has interesting stories and interesting lessons. So yea, I love reading it. I just don't spend as much time reading all the flowery passages about Jesus loving me as everyone else does, even though I like those parts, too.

LOL. I feel you. It's a great book though with a better ending than most think.

Bible
 

Although I'm an atheist, I have read the bible. It's not particularly bad, but either I have a short attention span, or I can't seem to read past the first page. For some reason, I just can't get myself past the first page, and it's not because I hate God or something like that. I think it's just the formal, old fashioned language that they use.

Yeah King James puts me to sleep. If you're really interested in reading this story the greatest ever written, I suggest you get an NLT Bible. The language is less formalized no "thee and thous" in there.

ESV is pretty accurate modern day english.
BibleGateway.com: A searchable online Bible in over 100 versions and 50 languages.
You have to read the whole Bible at least once in your life ;p
btw A World Famous Athiest..