At the beginning of the year, many Christians plan to read the Bible from beginning to the end. They begin reading it enthusiastically with a determination to read the Bible once a year, but many of them give up in the middle. One of the main reasons for that is because there some parts of the Old Testament that are hard to understand and tend to bore many readers. We wish for you to grasp the main flow of the Old Testament and try reading the Bible through this year.


The recording of the Bible occurs over a period of about 1,600 years from the time of Moses until the first century. Approximately 40 people recorded it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Protestant churches recognize only 66 books as canonical books of the Bible. The 39 books of the Old Testament were predominantly written in Hebrew, but a few were written in Aramaic, while the 27 books of the New Testament were recorded in Greek. Until the printing press was invented in 1456, every record of the Bible was a handwritten copy that was then conveyed to many others.
After the Protestant Reformation occurred, the Bible began to be translated into many languages and read by many people. The New Testament consists of four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, twenty-one Epistles, and the Revelation of John. The Old Testament is composed in three categories: 17 historical books, 5 poetic books and 17 prophetic books. With the understanding of the historical flow, we can read the records of the Old Testament more easily. We have first to read through 11 of the historical books and understand the structure of the history of Israel according to the flow of these eleven books, and then we can understand the 6 other historical books. Then, it may be better to read the poetic books before the prophetic books according to the characteristics of the history of Israel.




* TIP 1 - How to Understand the Old Testament

First, understand the structure of the Old Testament
Second, understand the history of Israel
Third, understand the history of a few countries next to Israel
Fourth, look at the map of Israel


* TIP 2 - Categorize the Historical Books According to the Flow of Time

Era of God's Creation: Genesis 1 through 11
Era of Patriarch: Genesis 12 through 50
Era of Moses: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
Era of Judges: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel 1 through 15
Era of Kings: 1 Samuel 16 through 31, 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles
Era of Captivity: Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther


* TIP 3 - Make a Detailed Plan to Read the Bible through

There are 929 chapters in the Old Testament and 260 chapters in the New Testament. This gives a total of 1,189 chapters. There are 23,145 verses in the Old Testament and 7,957 verses in the New Testament. This gives a total of 31,102 verses. If we read one chapter a day, it takes more than 3 years for us to read through the Bible, while if we read 3 chapters every day, it takes one year. In order to read through the Bible for one year, it is recommended that you read 3 chapters on the weekdays/Saturday and 5 chapters on Sunday.