# Is the bible worth reading? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 22, 2006, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809 "2006-08-22T21:18:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/21 "2006-08-23T02:24:46Z")
Sdited version - not sure how that first one went through; not like I hit sumit Found it boring as all hell in all those years of Catholic schooling/participation. But hey! if you’re at a Motel-Six and forgot your current reading material and really, really don’t want any porn charges on your room bill…then knock yourself out. Ten minutes of the stuff, roughly equals three Tylenol PMs. Sweet dreams. ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/22 "2006-08-23T02:25:55Z")
Fuck! “edited” even. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/23 "2006-08-23T02:35:37Z")
Another atheist chiming in to say “read it”. How can one criticize anything without reading it, was my logic. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/24 "2006-08-23T03:53:49Z")
I’m all for cultural literacy, but it is REALLY BORING. I’d say read something like “Don’t Know Much About the Bible”. It goes into a lot of detail on who wrote it, which books were accepted and which rejected, etc. There must be a “greatest hits” version with Adam and Eve, Noah, Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors, Abraham, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Taber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac91a4/32.png) [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/25 "2006-08-23T04:27:53Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Seriously though, parts of it really are entertaining just for their own sake. I always skip the “begats”, however. I’m sure the lineage is interesting to somebody, but I don’t even know my \*own \*family tree further than 5 generations. [/QUOTE] When I was reading the Bible in high school (as an atheist, of my own volition), I noticed something of interest in the begats. I noticed that the chain formed by the begats showed that most of the OT figures came from the same bloodline. Adam, Abraham, Noah, etc were great\* grandparents/children of each other. Also, they sometimes give out random tidbits about unimportant bloodline members. It’s how I know that Nimrod was a mighty hunter. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/26 "2006-08-23T04:42:34Z")
Hard to tell just what you’d get out of it. Obviously, some people get different things out of it than others. It very much is a collection of different things. As stated, some of it is as exciting as a telephone directory. In a foreign language, nearly. Other parts are interesting enough, some, well, even inspirational. I’d suggest trying to keep some feel for what the history of it must have been, trying to understand just what the people who wrote it were trying to say, and why. As with Shakespeare, one problem with the Bible is that the well-known parts have become cliches. “Yay, though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil…” Try to read it as though you’ve never heard those words before, and try to feel the new-found courage of the person who first wrote those words. “In the end, three things abide: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.” Sure, it’s a cliche now. But it’s a pretty profound cliche. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/27 "2006-08-23T04:51:32Z")
[QUOTE=DanBlather] I’m all for cultural literacy, but it is REALLY BORING. I’d say read something like “Don’t Know Much About the Bible”. It goes into a lot of detail on who wrote it, which books were accepted and which rejected, etc. [/quote] For me reading the Bible was interesting because I also used _Asimov’s Guide to the Bible_. I recommend it. > [@](#): > > There must be a “greatest hits” version with Adam and Eve, Noah, Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors, Abraham, etc. 🙂 You reminded me of this short version: \*\*\*Word, light, man, woman, begat, begat, begat, flood, 10 rules, big wall, trumpet, more rules, rainbow robe, shepherd, star, carpenter, do unto others, fish in a basket, gone-but not for long, convert, convert, convert, 4 horsemen.. - Amen.\*\*\* From The Guardian news blog, The Bible abridged too far: [Blogposts | The Guardian](http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2005/09/21/abridged_too_far.html) ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/28 "2006-08-23T05:10:00Z")
I forgot! For a “greatest hits” version, check the fun worth reading and seeing (but sometimes NSFW\*) Brick Testament, The Bible with Legos: [http://www.thebricktestament.com/](http://www.thebricktestament.com/) \*I Wonder if like Cecil B. DeMille you can get away with it by saying to your boss that it is OK to show it on the screen because \*\*it is \*\* the Bible. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/29 "2006-08-23T05:19:05Z")
[QUOTE=yelimS] My main reason for this thread is I’m not sure if this is a good argument. If you’re just as likely picking up good advice as bad, how’s that helping you? It comes down to if it’s “just as likely”, “more than likely” or “less than likely”, but which is it? [/QUOTE] I don’t know either that you should be reading the Bible for moral or practical advice, but one can certainly read a book for purely literary reasons. The _Iliad_ is probably worth reading too, but I hope no one would go out and model their life on it. On a less exalted level, I enjoyed the hell out of _Pulp Fiction_, but I certainly wouldn’t try to live my life according to its moral precepts. And there are some pretty badass stories in the Bible. Take [Judges 3:12-30](http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges%203:12-30;&version=31;): > [@](#): > > Once again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and because they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms. The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years. > > Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way the men who had carried it. At the idols near Gilgal he himself turned back and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” > The king said, “Quiet!” And all his attendants left him. > > Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his summer palace and said, “I have a message from God for you.” As the king rose from his seat, Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s belly. Even the handle sank in after the blade, which came out his back. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. Then Ehud went out to the porch; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them. > > After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, “He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the house.” They waited to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their Lord fallen to the floor, dead. > > While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah. When he arrived there, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down with him from the hills, with him leading them. > > “Follow me,” he ordered, “for the LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands.” So they followed him down and, taking possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab, they allowed no one to cross over. At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped. That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years. I definitely think Ehud should be played by Samuel L. Jackson. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/30 "2006-08-23T06:05:44Z")
[This Bible](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671879596/sr=1-12/qid=1156312632/ref=sr_1_12/104-1283097-8417510?ie=UTF8&s=books) is very useful for the casual reader. It’s the King James version with all the genealogies and arcane Jewish law edited out, and all the chapter and verse headings removed. It’s no more difficult or boring than to read than the Illiad, say, and gives you a good overall idea of what the Bible’s about. Classical scholar and translator Richmond Lattimore’s version of the [New Testament](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0865475245/sr=1-1/qid=1156312936/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-1283097-8417510?ie=UTF8&s=books) is also very good. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/31 "2006-08-23T13:12:52Z")
[QUOTE=DanBlather] I’m all for cultural literacy, but it is REALLY BORING. [/QUOTE] The Bible is an anthology, a collection of a whole bunch of different writings of different genres. If you sit down and try to read it cover to cover, you’re likely to be bored to death before you get through Leviticus (the third book). The OP’s question should really be answered on a book-by-book basis. If I had time, I could go through and draw up a list of the “must read” parts of the Bible: it would include some of the Old Testament stories, and least a bit of poetry and “wisdom literature,” one or two gospels, and a sampling of Paul’s letters. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/32 "2006-08-23T13:28:26Z")
> [@](#): > > For me reading the Bible was interesting because I also used Asimov’s Guide to the Bible. I recommend it. I’m a big Asimov fan, and I’ve read his _Guide to the Bible_, but I found it…inadequate. After you’ve read a full commentary on any of the books of the Bible, where the dissect every portion of every line, you realize how incredibly sparse Asimov’s work is. How did he decide what to comment on, asnd whaty to leave out? Some books of the Bible get only one or two notes! I get the impression of him floundering around, only hitting what he thought particularly interesting or important. A Bible commentary helps, but I suspect you’ve got to be of a certain mindset to go through line by line like that and derive pleasure from it. I’ve worked my way through several books of the Bible, but it’s not for everyone. I have several parts of the Bible on audio – the entire New Testament, as well as Genesis and Exodus. It’s definitely easier to be read to that to struggle through. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/33 "2006-08-23T13:57:35Z")
[QUOTE=GIGObuster] t. 🙂 You reminded me of this short version: \*\*\*Word, light, man, woman, begat, begat, begat, flood, 10 rules, big wall, trumpet, more rules, rainbow robe, shepherd, star, carpenter, do unto others, fish in a basket, gone-but not for long, convert, convert, convert, 4 horsemen.. - Amen.\*\*\* From The Guardian news blog, The Bible abridged too far: [Blogposts | The Guardian](http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2005/09/21/abridged_too_far.html) [/QUOTE] A not quite so short, but still reduced, version comes from [the Reduced Shakespeare Company.](http://www.reducedshakespeare.com/bible.html) Quite a hoot. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/34 "2006-08-23T13:59:37Z")
[QUOTE=DanBlather] I’m all for cultural literacy, but it is REALLY BORING. I’d say read something like “Don’t Know Much About the Bible”. It goes into a lot of detail on who wrote it, which books were accepted and which rejected, etc. There must be a “greatest hits” version with Adam and Eve, Noah, Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors, Abraham, etc. [/QUOTE] Chronicles and Kings are pretty boring - though the parts where the rules beloved of God die young and pointlessly while the ones who God hated lived to ripe old ages were fun. Genesis, though, moves right along. I’d suspect that the summaries leave out the naughty bits and the embarrassing parts. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/35 "2006-08-23T14:00:55Z")
[QUOTE=Jodi] Aside from the indisputable and inescapable relevance to virtually every aspect of Western culture, familiarity with the Bible is the only way you nonbelievers are ever going to understand us Crazy Christians. [/QUOTE] Nah, I read it and still don’t understand how you believe that guff. I didn’t understand it even when I believed in God, though, being Jewish. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/36 "2006-08-23T14:04:16Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] I’m a big Asimov fan, and I’ve read his _Guide to the Bible_, but I found it…inadequate. After you’ve read a full commentary on any of the books of the Bible, where the dissect every portion of every line, you realize how incredibly sparse Asimov’s work is. How did he decide what to comment on, asnd whaty to leave out? Some books of the Bible get only one or two notes! I get the impression of him floundering around, only hitting what he thought particularly interesting or important. [/QUOTE] I’m afraid that I agree that this was far from his best work. He was also very reticent about challenging even the most blatant of absurdities. I wasn’t expecting a Skeptics Annotated Bible, but a bit more reality would have helped. I got the sense that he was very worried that it wouldn’t sell if people realized he was an atheist, and he held back. I also agree that his research seemed very superficial, though. ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/37 "2006-08-23T14:44:42Z")
Knowing the Bible is useful when debating creationists. For instance, nothing is quite as pleasurable as when someone claims that dinos and man co-existed because of the “behemoth” passage in Job and the “tail swings like a cedar” bit. What’s funny about that? It’s that if you read the passage in context… er… its pretty plain that “tail” is being used as a euphamism and that what we’re actually talking about is a big eyeful of hippo dick. So much for that theory! ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/38 "2006-08-23T14:48:55Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] Nah, I read it and still don’t understand how you believe that guff. I didn’t understand it even when I believed in God, though, being Jewish. [/QUOTE] You may not understand _why_ we believe, but you’ll have a pretty good grasp of _what_ we believe. Parts of the Bible are dead-boring, it’s true. But parts of it are magesterial and beautiful, like Shakespeare. (Especially the King James version.) And, as noted above, there are some great stories in the Bible: Daniel in the Lion’s Den; Jonah and the Whale; Jesus walking on water. Parts are romantic (Song of Solomon) and parts are scary as hell (Revelations): > [@](#): > > And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. > And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. > And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. > And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. > And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. > And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. > And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. > And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. > And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. I mean, jeez – That’s a horror movie, right there. (It’s Rev. 6:1-8, BTW.) But as literature, you can also see the use of repetition and strong imagery indicative of epic poetry. I think the Bible is an amazing book on several levels, and well worth reading. . And parts have the strong imagery and use of repetition found in epic poetry: [quote] ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/39 "2006-08-23T15:06:06Z")
I won’t let my children read it until they are older, just like I wouldn’t let them watch a movie or play a video game that glamorizes rape. But maybe that’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809/40 "2006-08-23T15:08:51Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] I’m afraid that I agree that this was far from his best work. He was also very reticent about challenging even the most blatant of absurdities. I wasn’t expecting a Skeptics Annotated Bible, but a bit more reality would have helped. I got the sense that he was very worried that it wouldn’t sell if people realized he was an atheist, and he held back. I also agree that his research seemed very superficial, though. [/QUOTE] I’d have to re-read his introduction, but I think it was a matter of Asimov sticking with what he felt qualified to explain (i.e. the historical context, not the theology). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-worth-reading/369809.md?page=3)