Beginner – Bible Timeline Reading Plan
Find this plan here from Ascension Press.
This plan is the best for beginners because it goes through all of the narrative books of the Holy Bible and does not include the more difficult texts like prophecy. This reading plan is a great way to become familiar with the general narrative, but the downside is that it does not cover the entirety of the Holy Scriptures.
Intermediate – Read the Bible in a Year for Catholics
Find this plan here from New Saint Thomas Institute.
This plan is great because it covers all of the Scriptures in one year, Old and New Testaments. One of its advantages is that it is numbered based on the calendar date so it is easy to catch up if you ever fall behind. It also includes the Psalms.
Advanced – Liturgical Reading Plan
Find this plan here from Our Lady of Victory Press.
This plan is called advanced because it is based on the Liturgical Year, making it more difficult to catch up if you ever get behind. It is also more difficult because some of the readings are longer. However it does have the advantage of being based on the traditional office of Matins so many of these books are traditionally read according to the season. It does not include the Psalms.
The Coming Home Network has a one-year plan that I think NSTI’s is based on. Instead of calendar year, it goes through 365 days in sequence, so you don’t have worry about linking it to particular dates. It also includes the new catechism in the reading plan, but of course you can ignore that part.
https://chnetwork.org/free-resource-updated-version-of-our-read-the-bible-and-the-catechism-in-a-year-guide/#download
If you don’t want to sign up to download it, shoot me an email and I can send you the document.
Thank you for sharing!
I am currently following a chronological Bible plan, and I love it. This is my 3rd time through the Bible, but this is certainly the easiest way for me to make sense of when the events all happened. For example, you take a break in Genesis, before you get to Abraham, to read Job. I’m currently in the life of David, and bouncing back and forth between Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and Psalms, but it’s fantastic because I can finally see how events all lined up, and I get to read the Psalms David wrote concurrent with the events that inspired them.
You can download the one I’m using here:
https://iamlori2.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/chronological-plan1.pdf
It is especially fun as I’m reading a Douay-Rheims Bible, so I have to mentally switch the book names to 1-4 Kings, Paralipomenon, etc, and I’m having to get familiar with the different numbering of the Psalms, usually meaning I subtract 1 from whatever number the guide gives.
I am a big fan of your work, and plan on reading your guide to the Bible soon. I recently converted from the Baptist Church, and you have become one of my favorite podcasts. I especially love the history lessons.
May God bless you.
Great brother! Let me know if there’s any questions
I actually do have a Bible question that I have not found a satisfactory answer to. Pertaining to the Mosaic laws of miscarriage caused by violence, Exodus 21:22-23, most translations of the Bible (RSVCE, KJ, etc) suggest the “life for life, eye for eye, etc” formula could be applied to the child; I noticed that the Douay-Rheims version alone, however, seems to specify that only the mother is given this regard (verse 23: But if her death ensue thereupon, he shall render life for life…).
I do not know enough latin to unpack the conjugations and declensions of the Vulgate, and I have no Greek. I desire to know if the earliest explicit condemnation of abortion is in the Didache, or if we can find direct evidence in the Old Testament that unborn children were also protected by Mosaic human rights.
There is a good Catholic answers article on this subject, but they do not address the translational variance:
https://www.catholic.com/tract/abortion
I know you are busy, so forgive me if you have no time for this. I know you are not my personal spiritual advisor, but I thought it would be an interesting subject to delve into. Please feel free to not approve this question to your website if it goes beyond your intent for this comment section.
****alternative question, if you are too busy to do my research for me, which is much simpler: Can you recommend the Confraternity Bible, even if just for just a single read-through?****
There appears to be a difference in the Greek and Hebrew texts, according to the note in Challoner’s on v. 23: ‘She herself lives’, ‘if her death follows’; in the Hebrew text, ‘no harm is done’, ‘if harm follows’.
Yes, the Didache is the first explicit condemnation of direct child murder, to my knowledge. This passage in Exodus is referring to the direct violence against the woman, not the child, with an unintended death for the child. If the direct violence against the woman results in her death, it is counted as a murder. The indirect death of the child is not counted as murder because it was not directly intended against the child but is a “manslaughter” which was unintentional. Direct violence against the child would have been considered murder, presumably because the Israelites did not practice abortion or infanticide as the Romans did.
Greetings in Christ! I can’t seem to find a Catholic bible reading plan for Monday through Friday of each week, thus allowing time for reflection and repetition (in the Ignatian sense) on Saturdays and Sundays. if anyone knows of such a plan, I would love to hear from them.
Blessings!
In Domino,
Paul
Hi Paul – two of these plans will do the full week.