un-formatting the Bible {The Books of the Bible: New Testament}

The Books of the Bible is a fresh yet ancient presentation of Scripture. It strips away centuries of added formatting so you can read and enjoy the Bible. No more chapter and verse numbers. No more study notes. No more cross references or footnotes. No more red letters.

Form matters. When you experience God’s Word in a presentation that honors the original literary form, it can transform the way you read.

This is a Bible for those who want to get lost in the story.
(from Biblica.com)




I love my study Bible -- I like to read the notes at the bottom of the page when I have questions, without having to go searching through a separate reference book. I appreciate being able to find and reference specific passages according to their chapter and verse numbers. But, as the description above says, The Books of the Bible: New Testament is "for those who want to get lost in the story." And that is a beautiful thing.

The lack of chapter and verse numbers, absence of section headings, and single-column format made the text smoother to read -- like a novel --  and therefore easier to understand. Acts, for example, a book I hadn't before paid much attention to, suddenly became a fascinating story that held my interest as well as any fantasy novel. And the brief introduction at the beginning of each book provided context and helped make sense of the more confusing books, such as Revelations.

Even the order of the books is different, to aid in understanding and flow. Paul's letters, instead of longest to shortest, are presented in chronological order. Acts follows Luke, since they were originally two volumes of a single work, without John sitting in the middle. I love this. It is so much easier (and more enjoyable!) to read through the New Testament when it flows well.

While this book can be read in any time frame at any pace, my copy included a bookmark with a suggested eight-week reading plan that breaks the New Testament into manageable 15- to 20-minute chunks (about 12 pages). Naturally, I fell behind and took way longer than two months to work my way through it, but, for the most part, I kept to the suggested daily readings (there were just a few days in-between sometimes).

I'm still struggling my way through The One Year Bible, but I might try the full version of The Books of the Bible next. I have a hunch that the Old Testament might make a little more sense with a few numbers removed...

5/5 leaves!

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Do you have a favorite version of the Bible? Have you ever read straight through the whole thing, or one of the two Testaments? How did you do it, and would you recommend that method? I've tried a few different ways, and I'm curious what you think!