You're going to get various answers here. That's okay, but no matter what you do, I would suggest you do the following.

1) Buy a good study Bible. I use a HarperColllins Study Bible that was recommended in seminary, but there are many good ones. Footnotes and brief historical and literary intros to each book make intentional study and quick reference much easier.

2) Talk to your pastor. Your pastor will be thrilled and will likely have a multitude of resources available from books to commentaries that are otherwise quite expensive. You can come up with a plan together or join a group study.

3) Rather than "studying the whole Bible", choose a book of the Bible or two, commit to learning deeply about it, then afterwards choose another. Keep doing this forever, even if it's little by little. One of Gospels are a good place to start (I'd recommend Mark, Luke, or Matthew due to their similarity with each other). They're central to Christianity, not intimidatingly long, and familiar. Notice the references to other books of the Bible in your study Bible. Read from those sections in the other books and see what you may want to study more in depth later. If the book references Genesis, Isaiah or another book and you find yourself interested, study that book next. Start again with John or a letter from Paul. Repeat the process.

4) Don't get discouraged. The Bible is hard. Biblical study is full of various schools of thought, methods, and controversies. Group study helps. So does leaning on your tradition and your pastor. But ultimately, you're going to have to pray and struggle for yourself. You can do it.

5) Argue on Texags. Or maybe not. We're a mixed bag. I like it here.

Good luck!

I think the gospel of John is a good place to start if starting from scratch.

RG20 said:

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How does one go about studying the bible? Should I start at Genesis and go straight through? I tried reading different passages but don't really understand what's going on...

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A few thoughts..

The Scriptures are very difficult to read sometimes because we don't always acknowledge that they are ancient writings, written by ancient authors. We sort of expect them to meet us instead of us meeting them. At the same time, when read properly what they have to say meets us right where we are because the message is timeless. It is the story of humanity. But they are difficult! Some of the stuff is freaking weird to modern sensibilities. That's ok. Don't let it freak you out.

First thing to remember is the Scriptures - the Law, the Psalms and wisdom writings, and the Prophets - are all about Christ. And more specifically, the story of mankind and the arc of salvation culminating in Christ's death and resurrection (spoiler alert!).

The next thing to remember is that this is a collection of stories that have been carefully curated and assembled over decades and centuries. There is foreshadowing, dramatic irony, humor, and some very beautiful and emotional language all included. It's really hard to "get" it this way because of the huge cultural divide and the way sometimes we approach it (like it should be read solemnly, in thees and thous, with a super serious face - no laughing or smiling allowed).

This means that sometimes a story won't seem to make much sense taken out of context. Some dude slaughters a bunch of people with a jawbone? Uh, weird, I'm going to go read Ephesians 4. Right, so you sort of have to allow yourself to zoom in / zoom out. Each story does have its own purpose, takeaways, moral lesson, whatever...but they are all in the larger context about Christ and the story of humanity (see point one). It's ok to pause and ask - why is the author telling me this? Why did the person who wrote or compile this want me to read this, in this way?

One other thing - when reading the OT - poetry is important. Poetry tends to summarize big themes, act as a kind of exclamation or emphasis or reiteration, or set the stage for the next scene. Poetry is kind of like songs in a Broadway musical. If you just took them, you'd get most of the story in short form.

Where's all the atheists from the other threads to gallantly run up and tell this guy he's being soooo rude and soooo condescending?