/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.16504998]

I'm not Christian, but I want to understand Christianity better. Will reading the Bible help me? Is it a difficult read?

[Anonymous No.16504999]

Don’t waste your time with Jewish fairytales

[Anonymous No.16505007]

No, reading the Bible won’t help you understand the religious themes the Bible is built on. You’ll need a history of religion for that

[Anonymous No.16505008]

>>16504998
It will help you but it's a hard read.
Also if you don't read Koine Greek, your shit out of luck.
Oh wait...
Actually no you're not, there is a direct translation of only the new testament into english.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Testament-David-Bentley-Hart/dp/0300186096

[Anonymous No.16505037]

The Old Testament will bring you through Judaism and the New Testament has lots of references back to the OT but brings you through the foundations of Christianity. Starting with the life of Christ in the first 4 books in the NT and then the rest is expounding on the teachings and ways of Jesus.

[Anonymous No.16505040]

>>16504998
Penny catechism

[Anonymous No.16505042]

>>16504998
https://www.amazon.com/James-Study-Genuine-Leather-Full-Color/dp/0718079892

[Anonymous No.16505621]

>>16504998
The bible is a pretty good read but I implore you to exercise critical thinking while reading and not take most of what you read at face value.
It offers some philosophical components to modern Christianity but I don't think it'll give you a good baring on the actual social/political climate of the christian religion. Most of the stories found in the old testament are the setup for Judaic teachings and can be rather odd at times form the way it's interpreted. The new testament is the foundation for Christianity and has a lot of the more notable stories you see from pop-culture.

I recommend you look into the history of the bible and the lost/removed books as well as the history of organized religion in order to further understand how the modern Abrahamic religions were developed over the last couple centuries.

[Anonymous No.16505695]

>>16504998
Putting aside whether the new athiests have actually read scripture in the first place, one of the things that makes their analysis so shitty is that thier emphasis on scripture in religious criticism just does not map to what most religious people believe both because reading scripture alone doesn't tell you how it's commonly interpreted by a religious movement and because no one no matter how much they actually say so actually practices sola scriptura. If you want to understand Christianity as actually practiced you need both an overview of theology as well as enough sociology to grasp the more low brow religious behavior of the Christians that don't read much scripture let alone theology

[Anonymous No.16505838]

>>16504998
Friendly reminder to all that we are all sinners that can't stop sinning and are on our way to the everlasting hellfire unless we trust in Christ alone (Faith Alone) for salvation.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for all your life's sins (your future sins too), and rose again.

Ask Jesus to save you if you believe he died for you and rose again.

In John 5:24, Jesus said:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

Also to answer your question op, it's impossible to understand the bible if you are not saved because the words are spirit and they are spiritually discerned with the help of the Holy Spirit.

If you want to hear the gospel, here is a short video you can watch.

https://youtu.be/vH1ZvIdqORw

[Anonymous No.16506023]

>>16505838
>simp for a Jew who died 2000 years ago and believe you will go to some bad place after death if you don't

[Anonymous No.16506342]

>>16505621
>The bible is a pretty good read but I implore you to exercise critical thinking while reading and not take most of what you read at face value.
So much this.
I started reading the Bible with a philosophical eye.
Funny thing is the more i read it the more i believe something beyond our comprehension was behind this, it's hard for me to believe that an intellectual from a few millenia ago could write this as a made up story. It must have been someone with a great knowledge on human nature and the psyche.
Feel free to shit on me or recommend books that would counter/backup my take.

[Anonymous No.16506343]

>>16504998
Yes but start at the Gospels. Genesis is a bit difficult to start off with.

[Anonymous No.16506352]

>>16504998
get an academic study bible

[Anonymous No.16507366]

>>16504998
Read Mere Christianity and Simply Christian by N.T. Wright

[Anonymous No.16507382]

>>16504998
>I want to understand Kikeanity
To what end?

[Anonymous No.16507452]

Wouldn't the Talmud be a more appropriate choice?

[Anonymous No.16507476]

>>16504998
id argue you start with the greeks unironically as a lot of christian ideas expand upon plato/aristotle. St Augustine becomes a lot more comprehensible if you understand what is being built upon

[Anonymous No.16507529]

>>16504998
My advice as someone who can't get enough of this stuff at the moment:
>As many people have pointed out, reading the Bible alone won't give you the full picture of Christianity. 2000 years of debates have taken place since these books were passed down. There is no one-stop-shop that can summarise all of this fairly. Getting a selection of books by Christian theologians from different time periods will help.
>For the love of God don't skip over the bible for other sources. You can't be critical of a commentary when you've not read the original piece.
>The Bible is a collection of stories and can be read in any order. They are from different sources and written in different ways for different purposes. At times it seems to make no sense at all but it all clicks into place as you read more.

[Anonymous No.16507800]

>>16505008
>commieshit

Don't listen to this dude, he's a well-known Marxist.

[Anonymous No.16509039]

read The Christian Life

[Anonymous No.16509381]

>>16504999
holy based and checked

[Anonymous No.16509400]

>>16505621
I remember I read a bit of the bible starting from the beginning years ago and did the exact opposite, I took it at face value and kept reminding myself this shit actually happened and was absolutely floored. Became a believer for a minute and even started praying to the son ghost and holy spirit or whatever just like it said, honestly felt incredibly light headed and surreal at this time. It helped me understand that state of mind. I couldn't see myself doin that again but it was interesting.

[Anonymous No.16509416]

>>16504998
i think it will if you have a decent understanding of the general ancient mindset. if the stuff in heroditus and the styling makes sense if you suspend your modern conceptions of what is obvious what is good etc and cone from a simpler pov i think its pretty good. not christians but the development of an explocit patron diety that is begining to become amonadic one in the mythical history of the tribes of isreal is interesting from a meta pov and how faith and providence is coalesced into a single being. though i have to say a lot of it like the samuels and judges are kinda dry, but i find them the most telling in the implicit ideas of the writing. Genises is more captivating, but its more of a creation myth though still worthwhile. its a bit of a slog, but would recommend. the nt and a few other books are pretty easy readings though.

[Anonymous No.16509476]

>>16505008
>DBH
>ever listening to a universal salvationist

[Anonymous No.16510075]

>>16504998
The Bible is absolutely important to understand Christianity but you won’t suddenly understand Christian practice, tradition, or history by reading Christian scriptures
My suggestion is read an easy Christianity intro book, like Mere Christianity by CS Lewis. Then read the New Testament after that, then the Old Testament

[Anonymous No.16511699]

>>16504998
The first half is about pic related and his kids going around and stealing/killing/lying/raping/etc anyone who's not a member of his chosen peoples.

The second half is about a rape baby pretending to be pic related's avatar and scamming people with faith healing and how he's brought to justice for his ponzi scheme. After that it's the story of how the other members of the scheme branch out and start the first church. At the end it's some omega virgins fantasy about how everyone who's not a member of the church is going to suffer in every way imaginable and about how jelly they all will be when pic related returns.

[Anonymous No.16511706]

>>16511699
not relay most of the time the jews suffer in the OT

[Anonymous No.16511718]

>>16511706
I should have put attempting to
>going around attempting to stealing/killing/lying/raping/etc anyone who's not a member of his chosen peoples.

[Anonymous No.16511801]

>>16504998
get a Catholic Bible OP. It has the full 73 books rather than the stripped 66 Protestant Bibles. I'd recommend starting with a New Testament study Bible (pic related)

[Anonymous No.16511929]

>>16504998
read this

[Anonymous No.16511938]

>>16504998
this is also good

[Anonymous No.16511942]

>>16504998
this is the core of Christianity in about 30 pages booklet

[Anonymous No.16512032]

>>16504998
The (KJV) Bible isn't a difficult read but it isn't particularly well-written and can be very boring and sometimes propaganda-like at times.
That being said, it is worth the read if only just to see how people over the years could have manipulated the masses using rhetoric based in their understanding of the text.
t. Christian

[Anonymous No.16512676]

>>16504998
Yes, most of it is easy. For Christianity, read the New Testament. The New Testament is not long.

[Anonymous No.16512699]

>>16504998
>I want to understand Christianity better. Will reading the Bible help me?
If you are interested in u understanding what Christians believe read the catechism. If you are interest in Christian theology read fathers of the church. All of these of course reference the bible so you should use it at least as reference material
Is it a difficult read?
Yes

[Jesus No.16514066]

>>16504998
Nietzsche, The Antichrist.

[Anonymous No.16514099]

>>16509039
this might be one of the worst book covers ive ever seen

[Anonymous No.16514163]

>>16514099
I agree, it's still a great book.
https://b-ok.cc/book/5346018/b56cda

[Anonymous No.16515238]

>>16504999
*tips fedora* ma' based gentlemen

[Anonymous No.16515963]

>>16504998

Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, and Saint Augustine can help you

[Anonymous No.16516401]

>>16504998
Read a more modern translation like RSV (RSV-catholic edition for the included apocrypha) or ESV-CE before something with more archaic english like Douay-Rheims or KJV. Words like 'study' that appear in the KJV don't have the same common meaning they do today, so you could end up misunderstanding several things if you just go into KJV/DR first.

[Anonymous No.16516418]

>>16504998
Watch Brazilian evangelist preachers. That's what Christianity is nowadays

[Anonymous No.16516992]

>>16505695
>no one no matter how much they actually say so actually practices sola scriptura.
Wat

[Anonymous No.16516998]

Is there anything wrong with reading it cover-to-cover like a novel?

[Anonymous No.16517225]

>>16516998
You could do that but it would make for a very uneven novel. The book of job alone could make for a novel-like experience, the psalms are closer to poetry, the gospels are the same story told from different perspectives, and so on

[Anonymous No.16517893]

>>16504998
>"understand" Christianity
ngmi

[Anonymous No.16518036]

>>16504998
HAH! LOL NO!

Look man, this is an ancient text, from somewhere around 2000 years ago. Based on stories of something that happened a couple of hundred years prior to being written down. The a whole bunch of politics altered it. Then culture started to change it. Now, most people are cherry picking and focusing on what they like about it.

The essential chirstian is very simple:

>God dangerous
>God judge me for doing bad stuff
>God likes Jesus
>Jesus can vouch for me
>If Jesus forgive me my sins I'm safe

AHA! It is simple, we pray to Jesus!
Jesus negotiates on our behalf!
We get into heaven despite being imperfect!!!

It is really not hard to grasp.

Now, some people like to use scripture as a start for philosophical thoughts. Like Jordan Peterson, but you can do that with Snowhite and the seven dwarfs.

See, it is an allegory for puberty in women, where the mother gets jealous of the daughter riding the cock carousel, getting more attention than her. And this psychological crisis within the family is then solved, in most cases, by putting lust aside and holding out for a man.

Essentially, locking oneself in a glass box, putting ones beauty on display, but remaining in chastity for the manlet workers. Waiting for that 6 ft tall Chad prince to end to slumber of arousal.

There, just pulled that one out of my ass.

[Anonymous No.16518451]

>>16516992
He's right. Both proties and catholics claim to care more about the text, but Catholics base half their shit on tradition and proties regularly substitute their own arbitrary moral values for biblical text.

[Anonymous No.16519969]

>>16504998
>I want to understand Christianity better.
Read Basic Christianity.

[Anonymous No.16520009]

>>16518451
protestants objectively care more about the text than catholics though

[Anonymous No.16520122]

>>16509039
>That book cover
Keking outloud

[Anonymous No.16520174]

>>16505838
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

[Anonymous No.16520375]

>>16504998
Prepare to learn what biblically-accurate angels look like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CnQDDT2ryc

[Anonymous No.16520452]

>>16520375
hate this reddit shit, they show up as humans as well

[Anonymous No.16520486]

>>16520452
Do you prefer your angels to be little gay humans or balls of light? Besides only the lower angels are humanoid, the majority aren't.

[Anonymous No.16520501]

>>16520486
angels can appear in different shapes since they don't have a defined physical body like us.

[Anonymous No.16522111]

>>16520174
faith-only fags btfo

[Anonymous No.16523285]

This is the best way to start. The bible is very dense and while you should read the four gospels (and the whole bible eventually) you would be better served reading this as a cursory introduction.

[Anonymous No.16523326]

>>16504998
>I'm not a Christian
stopped reading there

[Anonymous No.16523924]

>>16507529
What's that one super long verse in the middle?

[Anonymous No.16523937]

>>16520375
>>16520486
I just started reading the Bible the other day, I'm 40 chapters into Genesis and through numerous appearances, angels haven't been anything but humanoids who walk on legs and extend their arms to point at things, or even wrestle Jacob (though my catholic friends insist that's an angel, I think the text makes it sound like God in an avatar)

[Anonymous No.16524234]

>>16523937
Angels start getting bizarre when you start reading the prophets how they see judgement day, that angel in the video is described in Revelation by John.

[Anonymous No.16524317]

>>16524234
>when you start reading the prophets how they see judgement day
Are you saying that for most of the Bible, angels are like they're depicted in popular culture? It sounds like that is the biblically accurate description.

[Anonymous No.16524360]

>>16524317
There are a lot of times when angels aren't really described, it just says angels are there and what they said, like when they appear to the shepherds
But then there are certain passages where it specifies that angels appear as men, for instance in the story of Sodom or Joshua's encounter with the angel of the Lord
But then there are other parts where angels are described as very strange and unhuman creatures, such as when Ezekiel sees the wheel or when John is shown the apocalypse

[Anonymous No.16524931]

>>16523937
Messenger angels are human-like for obvious reasons. While the angels that are more important and not supposed to be seen by living people are very weird and for lack of a better word, Lovecraftian.