Reading the Bible in a Year: My Story - Susan Becraft

I love to read, and little excites me more than a challenge. This was my mindset when I embarked on what became a remarkable journey. That I would complete my task on time, I had no doubt. But aside from patting myself on the back for a job well done, why would I choose to read the entire Bible at all, much less in a year? What was I hoping to gain? What were my expectations?

As a scientist, I am naturally inquisitive and love research. Embarking on the Bible challenge began as a research project. Aside from my philosophical questions, I wanted guidelines on the book itself. Before tackling the first word, I read Reading The Bible: A Study Guide, by Timothy R. Carmody, Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from Catholic University. Aside from receiving outstanding reviews, this book immediately spoke to me. Dr. Carmody, S.J. is a lover of books, and his study guide provided countless guidelines on reading what he calls “a collection of collections.” Because of my longstanding interest in Paul, I also read Karen Armstrong’s fascinating book, St. Paul: The Apostle We Love To Hate.

Learning the history of the Bible helped me immensely. As I knew, the Bible has many authors and was written over hundreds of years. It has been translated countless times, and like Dr. Carmody and the clergy at St. Paul’s, I selected the NSRV, published in 1989. It is described as “widely ecumenical”, “as literal as possible” and “only as free as necessary.” Perfect, I thought!

As the schedule dictates, I read three chapters of the Old Testament, one Psalm and one New Testament chapter each day. Completing my daily readings was a page from the companion book, compiled by Episcopalian clergy worldwide. Despite the diversity of the three parts of my Bible reading, the writers found commonality which was not always obvious.

The questions I wanted answered were:

1. What is the bridge between the Old Testament and New
2. Does Jesus forgive ISIS and other groups conducting the Christian genocide

Although it could easily stand on its own (and does in the Jewish faith), the Old Testament is a prelude to the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This may seem surprising because, until reading the books of the prophets, I often had difficulty reconciling the two major parts of the Bible. When I read the book of the prophet Isaiah, I found my bridge.

The Book of Isaiah is sometimes called the Fifth Gospel. Isaiah describes in detail the coming of the Messiah, his life and his ignominious death. Until I reached Isaiah, I had read of the Creation; the Great Flood; Moses’ efforts to take the sniveling, ungrateful Israelites across the desert to the Promised Land; countless wars; brutality; sex; treachery; genealogy; laws and statistics. In fact, if most of the Old Testament were renamed, it very likely would find itself on the bestseller list. The reviews would be mixed: too much violence (boiling people in oil?), fantasy (Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark), kinky sex, contradictions (rife throughout the Old Testament) and overly detailed and often tedious narrative (I admit to plodding through Numbers and Kings). As a film, the Old Testament would likely be R rated.

As an antidote to what seemed like constant mayhem after the Pentateuch, I found the Psalms and the Song of Solomon, which are filled with stunning poetry. And if I needed advice, I needed look no farther than Proverbs. With the help of Dr. Carmody, I also learned some trivia. I had wondered why the Old Testament reading, as published in the weekly order of service, used LORD. I assumed that it was intended for emphasis. To my surprise, I discovered that certain Jews were prohibited from writing “Yahweh”, god of Israel. As a matter of respect, the Biblical translators substituted the name “LORD”, all uppercase. I also learned that Isaiah occurs most frequently in the Lectionary.

My wonderful, magical prophet Isaiah, who provided George Friedric Handel the text for much of The Messah, starred in my favorite Old Testament book. I read it aloud, sometimes humming The Messiah, and I read it twice because good news was on its way.

The Gospels, written in an entirely different style from the entire Old Testament, are immensely readable. Each writer provides his account of the same events, and not surprising, the stories differ. For some reason, I remembered how courtroom litigators characterize eyewitness testimony: it is often unreliable because people see one event differently. Of course there are discrepancies among the Gospels! Otherwise, scholars would accuse the writers of collusion. The amount of detail varies, but the essence of the story is the same. The stories that we all know well came vividly to life.

The Gospel of John is unique. John writes of miracles, but he includes no parables. His passion narrative is consistent with that of the gospel writers, but otherwise he strikes out on his own. Using an interesting writing technique, he gives Jesus a much larger platform for teaching. He also ascribes to Jesus what I call the “I AM” statements. I AM the way; I AM the truth; I AM the life; I AM the resurrection, to name but a few. Different from the other gospel writers, John, to me, suggests the equality of Jesus with God, the Father. Jesus said, “...I am in the Father and the Father is in me”; “The Father and I are one”. He writes of the Word with God, and according to Dr. Carmody, the Nicean Creed was inspired by John’s writings.

“I AM the good shepherd”, says Jesus. To begin to answer my second question about forgiveness, I borrowed the following quote from Dr. Carmody (who borrowed it from John…): “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

But what transpires if the recalcitrant sheep are really wolves in sheep’s clothing? I remembered a college philosophy course and intense debate over a concept, developed by Gottfried Leibniz, coined “theodicy”. This attempts to answer the question of a loving God allowing all manifestations of evil. Theodicy literally means “justifying God”. The question, why do bad things happen to good people, has been debated for centuries by everyone from esteemed philosophers, religious scholars and pseudo psychologists who reap monetary rewards for cliche-ridden books and appearances on the Dr. Phil show.

What better Biblical source could I find about suffering than the Book of Job? This book is a dialogue between Job and his friends about his continual misfortunes. His friends try to convince Job that he is being punished by God for his sins. After all, this was the philosophy of the times. When Israel behaved badly, God punished her; when she redeemed herself, God rewarded her. If this could happen to a nation, surely it would work for beleaguered Job. Can human suffering be reduced to punishment for sin? If true, would not all of humanity suffer? In Job’s mind, humans were created to suffer and die. Does God cause evil, Job wondered? Can God stop evil and suffering? Does God even care? If Job had voiced these doubts thousands of years later, he would have been convicted of heresy and burned at the stake.

His friend calls Job a hypocrite, while Job insists that he is a faithful servant of God. God insists that He sees the world differently from humans. Sea monsters are his pets, and catastrophes a part of nature. When I hear, “She has the patience of Job”, I now laugh; Job is anything but patient and never gets a satisfactory answer to his question. Nor do I! Must we have evil to have good? Is everything relative such that God is not absolute? My second question remains largely unanswered.

I cannot omit Paul. After his conversion, Paul became the biggest champion for the Word with God and Jesus Christ. He traveled far and wide as the most famous missionary, preaching in synagogues about the Messiah. If the town had no synagogue, he preached from his tent maker's stall.

He wrote letters to the communities he had formed. He was a genius of oratory, using classical Greek methods to convince his readers. Thirteen of the twenty-three books in the New Testament are written by or attributed to Paul. Over half of the Acts of the Apostles are devoted to Paul.

Paul was controversial during his life, but I think it is safe to say that his influence on the development of Christianity is second only to that of Jesus. We at St. Paul’s should be proud of our Saint.

I loved the challenge, and I developed a deep love for the Bible. It inspired me to continue striving to be a better sister in Christ. It brought special meaning to my confirmation last year. Bishop O’Connell made a point of saying he possesses no magic hands. But I must disagree. When he pressed his hands on my head, I felt something. This feeling has remained with me because I realized that the laying on of hands, receiving the Holy Spirit, dated back to the Apostles. Long, long ago, an Apostle laid his hands on a believer, and the chain continued until it reached me. A kind of miracle!

Having completed the challenge, I feel a small void each day. Aha, I thought. I have the perfect solution. I will read the King James Version in a year! And so I begin anew.

I conclude with my favorite words: “This Is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:17