How to Read the Bible for the First Time: Where to Start and How to Keep Going

More than 500 million Christians live where access to the Bible is restricted, and Adoniram Judson spent decades of his life translating it into Burmese. If you have a Bible in a language you understand, you hold something people have suffered to give the world. The question is where to start.

First, Know What You're Holding

The Bible isn't one book; it's a library. The Protestant Bible has 66 books — 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New — written over many centuries, in many styles: history, law, poetry, prophecy, letters and the four Gospels about Jesus. (Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include several additional Old Testament books.)

That's why starting at page one often ends badly. Genesis and Exodus are gripping; then Leviticus arrives, full of temple law, and many first-time readers stop. You don't read a library front to back. You start with the books that open the rest.

Where to Start

1. 1A Gospel. Begin with Jesus. Mark is the shortest and fastest-moving. John was written so "that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31).
2. 2Acts. What happened after Jesus rose — how the first church began and spread.
3. 3Genesis. Creation, the fall, and the beginning of God's promise to bless all nations through Abraham.
4. 4A psalm a day. The Bible's prayer book — honest, raw and full of hope. Read one alongside whatever else you're reading.
5. 5Then a short letter. Philippians, James or 1 John are brief and practical.

From there, the rest of the library starts to make sense.

A Simple Method for Each Day

You don't need a commentary to begin. Read a short passage — a chapter, or less — and ask three questions:

1. 1What does this show me about God?
2. 2What does this show me about people — including me?
3. 3What should I do in response? One thing, today.

Pray before you read ("Lord, help me understand") and after ("Help me live this"). Write down a verse that stands out. That's it. James warns against hearing the word and doing nothing with it: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says" (James 1:22).

Choosing a Translation

Pick one you'll actually read. Common, reliable modern English translations include the NIV (readable and widely used), the NLT (very readable, a little freer), the CSB and the ESV (closer to word-for-word). There's no wrong choice among them for a beginner; the best translation is the one you open every day.

Make It a Habit

• Same time, same place. Morning before your phone, or the last thing at night.
• Start small. Ten minutes a day beats an hour once a month.
• Use a plan. A simple reading plan removes the daily decision of what to read.
• Miss a day? Just continue. You don't have to catch up; you have to come back.

God told Joshua to keep His word on his lips and "meditate on it day and night" (Joshua 1:8) — not as a chore, but as the way to a steady life.

Read With Others

You will hit passages you don't understand. That's normal — even the apostle Peter wrote that some of Paul's letters contain "things that are hard to understand" (2 Peter 3:16). Read with a friend, a small group or your church, and bring your questions. If you're new to faith, our guide on what to do after someone accepts Jesus suggests reading a Gospel together in the first week.

Why It's Worth It

Scripture describes itself in vivid terms: "alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword" (Hebrews 4:12), "a lamp for my feet, a light on my path" (Psalm 119:105). People who read it steadily don't usually describe sudden transformation. They describe something slower and deeper: knowing God better, one chapter at a time.