Where in The Bible to Start Studying

New to old. It is highly recommended to start with some New Testament scriptures before diving into Old Testament. Personally I agree because having started with the New Testament with establishing God’s plan and love and justness... I feel His hand steadying me through the tragedies of the earlier books of the Old Testament, of understanding God’s eye for detail and need for Him as we can never be perfect and understanding fully the hope He speaks of in the books of the prophets.

That said, I start with a book that starts with... In the beginning. And I have already established it's not in the Old Testament so it's not in Genesis.

A great place to start in the New Testament is in fact with the biography and words of the key main character. This can be found in the Gospel.

As mentioned in the characteristics of the Bible, we have 4 Gospels. John is the one that is generally recommended to start with which I support, however all Gospels are important.

In fact I am going to touch on each of the books before zeroing into John.

In Matthew the first verse starts with the genealogy of Jesus from King David who was the king of Israelites, later named Jews. Incidentally the purpose of Matthew is to establish Jesus Christ as King of the Jews fulfilling the law and prophecies. In Mark, the first verse reads, “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.” Sure enough Mark establishes Jesus as the Messiah as well as a servant of God through His works. Luke, as mentioned in my post Who is the author of the Bible, did research, eyewitness statements and his own accounts — as also stated in his introductory statements. It is an educational account of Jesus’ walk and works and for a non-Jew audience. It shows He is the Saviour for both Jews and non-Jews.

These first 3 Gospels focus on Jesus’ earthly ministry and works. However, John focuses on Jesus’ Divine ministry and goes more in-depth into His character. Some characters include Jesus is the light, life, Word, and the Lamb of God as well as the 7 I am’s Jesus used to describe Himself: I am the light of the world, I am the way, the truth and the life, also I am the bread of life, the good shepherd, the door, the true vine, the resurrection and the life. Simply, John inspires belief and John 1 would be the first book we look at on our podcast so tune in.

I wish I could tell you John is the easiest book. It's not. I mean it's ok, it's definitely not the hardest. But the Pharisees were annoying, Jesus was talking above my head a couple of times, and so I had to spend extra time on breaking certain things down.

For some persons who are just eager and enthused and ready to pop this book open, that is great but a lot of times it would be difficult to keep up the momentum if you start in John. And if you are not in the place to just pop open the Bible, then push. Push through and keep reading, and read other books of the Bible because as I said before in What Bible should I use? It's like a jigsaw, starting with one scattered piece is difficult.

Now stand-alone John is great, it tells you about Jesus, and well it has Jesus, always amazing, can't really say anything bad about Him anyway, like... literally He is watching and it includes His own words. His own words. Of God.

After John, some people recommend studying Romans. I find Romans a bit complex for new Christians. Personally, I would have preferred starting with 1 John or Colossians. 1 John has a way of wrapping me in God’s love, and Colossians helps cut through the noise and confusion that can come when you're trying to navigate all the fluff and misinformation. Now I do definitely think there is a need to include Romans, Luke and Acts in your starter package. Thereafter you can continue with the New Testament or start on the Old Testament.

In regards to the Old Testament. It's recommended to start with Genesis however I started in Samuel and I have to say I wouldn't do that any other way... I am sure once you have gotten in the key scriptures from the New Testament just let God guide you on the rest.