The Bible Project came out of three things:
1. A New Year's resolution to read the Bible cover to cover
2. The fact that the Bible was on my Classics Club list.
3. An interest in exploring the Bible as a work of religious literature (i.e. literary analysis and not theological analysis).
And so, I began. Originally, the goal was to post every week and so finish the Bible in a year. It went pretty well until college interrupted, and the whole endeavor ground to a halt in mid August.
I'm only about two thirds of the way through, so finishing the final third of the Bible in two weeks is definitely not going to happen. I've reconstructed my schedule a bit, to finish only the Old Testament this year, and complete the entire project in March 2015. If you click the button above, you can see my schedule.
Today is the day on my schedule where I'm supposed to talk about the books Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, and Daniel, so I'll write a bit.
These books are some of the Prophetic books, which make up the end of the Old Testament. I AM SO BORED OF THE PROPHETIC BOOKS. I talked about this way back in August in my last post on Isaiah - there's no story. It's just prophesies. I can't wait for the New Testament where we actually get some story and plot.
An interesting thing, though, is that particularly in Jeremiah, God is starting to talk about a New Israel, or a New Covenant, and there is a foreshadowing of change. So far, God has been giving people rules, speaking directly through the prophets, and directly punishing those who disobey. But after this "reformation," it won't be that way anymore. Children won't be punished for their father's faults, and the law of the Lord will be intrinsic more than extrinsic. Its not just a bunch of rules. It's more spiritual now too.
"[The New Covenant] will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers... I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (Jeremiah 31:32-33)
This, of course, as we know, is building the foundation towards the New Testament, Jesus, and Christianity.
Hey! Are you interested in joining me, and exploring the Bible from a literary perspective? Hop in and read the New Testament with me in 2015!
~Sophia
This project sounds like fun! I missed your Bible posts, so I'm glad to be able to look forward to them again. This project is something I want to do myself at some point, but I'll have to wait to see when I can fit it in. Perhaps mid-year .....??
ReplyDeleteIf you do it, I'd love to read your take on things!
DeleteI've been doing a bible as literature series of posts as well. here is what I've covered so far.)
ReplyDeleteI remember the first time reading through all the Prophets back to back. It can definitely be overwhelming and feel redundant. Are you a reader of poetry? The prophets are closer to poetry than stories I think.
OH AWESOME! I am so glad to have someone else doing it! That's so cool.
DeleteYou seem to be doing it slower than I - which might be a better idea. Trying to squish the entire Bible might have rushed it a bit and not have been the biggest plan.
Poetry is an effort for me. I appreciate it and like it, but don't read it often. Perhaps that's why this part is so hard for me.
When I first read the Bible all the way through I wrote posts for larger books (on my old book blog). It was one of the reasons I decided to go back, slow things down, and look at the individual parts in more detail.
DeleteAre you using any guidebooks or scholarship to help you through tricky parts?
No, my posts are super casual, and not very fancy and analytical. But my Bible does have a lot of footnotes, so I'm taking advantage of those. I just can't pass up footnotes. :-)
DeleteAfter I finish this project, I'm definitely going to go back and read it slower. I'm going too fast.