Do you find the bible boring?

by ChrisVance 28 Replies latest jw friends

  • Leolaia
    Leolaia

    It is ironic what happened in my case. 99% of Watchtower publications would have utterly turned me off from the Bible for good. But then there was the Aid book which actually had some real meat to it ... biased to be sure in a number of different respects, but it actually made the Bible interesting for me. It showed me that there was much, much more to the Bible than what we were normally shown in the other publications. I read the Aid book cover to cover at least twice by the time I was done with 8th grade, and I regularly researched topics in it for a long time. The 1984 Reference Bible was also a godsend; it made meetings bearable. I always brought it to the meetings and read the chain references and footnotes, manuscript notations, etc. during the otherwise very boring talks. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that many Witness teachings were unbiblical and untrue, but those books definitely played a big part in the origins of my own fascination with the Bible. Had I only the Watchtower, Awake!, the Babylon the Great book, the Revelation Climax book, etc. to read, I would've developed no abiding interest whatsoever in the Bible.

  • chrissy
    chrissy

    kjv or niv are more poetic. a better read all around. but i dont plan to read the bible again. or even open the pages. never say never. but yes, i find myself wanting to nap at the very thought of it.

    well john doe, not everyone has the attention capacity required to read the bible, or to, say, juggle like ten upper-level university classes at the same time. hey shouldnt you be studying btw? jk ;)

  • fairchild
    fairchild

    I find the bible not boring at all. Some of the bible books contain the best poetry I have ever read. The bible is among my most favorite books to read. I have the bible in three different languages, but for some reason I get most out of the Dutch bible. I truly love reading in it.

  • Daunt
    Daunt

    The bible is highly tedious and boring to me. The publically acknowledged exciting books are spread apart by dry begats and tedious "he did, she did". It doesn't seem possibly to enjoy the bible unless you put a great amount of effort into enjoying it.

  • stillajwexelder
    stillajwexelder

    in places like Chronicles yes - in other places the bible is a literary masterpiece - not quite Shakespeare but still good

  • bebu
    bebu

    I really enjoy it, no kidding! It is rich like cheesecake, even while it has such "simple" stories in it.

    Which reminds me... I had a Catholic New American Bible, back in the early '80s, that was wonderful--especially the psalms. After reading that, the NIV sounded dry (especially the psalms)... but now I'm adjusted to the NIV. Anyway, I picked up a copy of the NAB a few years ago to read the psalms as I remembered them... and discovered that the newer edition they had decided to revise the psalms!

    ...I will say that certain parts of the Bible were dry to me at certain points in time. I'm still generally not excited by geneaologies for example, but even there I can occasionally find some really interesting details.

    bebu

  • tetrapod.sapien
    tetrapod.sapien

    there is a certain mystique in reading ancient texts.

    the bible, however, was not written like a book. it was compiled like a book of sorts, but the story, or theme, was really a Nicaean after thought. and, it's used to fool people, plain and simple. how could i find mistique in that anymore, what after being a witnoid?

    sure sure. some people will counter that JWs are not true xians, and the bible not truly theirs. i find this similar to JWs actually saying that the rest of xianity are not real xians, but xisendom. so, really, are not the different interpretations simply variations on the same theme? different flavours that can only be found at the one ice cream shoppe, so-to-speak?

    i have read War & Peace. yes, the bible is boring, IMO.

    TS

  • Sara Annie
    Sara Annie
    Some parts are boring, others are not, like Sirach, wherein he encourages people to induce vomiting if they eat too much.

    Evidence, of course, that Jehovah loves a good, theocratically sanctioned case of bulimia.

  • I quit!
    I quit!

    Anyone who was raised as a JW could experience Bible burnout even though the Bible is only used by the Watchtower as a series of proof texts to support what they believe. People raised in the Watchtower associate the Bible with five boring meeting per week a the tedious business of wasting their weekend going door to door with Watchtower message instead of doing something normal like playing baseball or going to the beach.

    I find parts of it boring but overall I find it interesting although my interest in reading it seems to ebb and flow. There are a lot more interesting and honest versions than NWT. I have been reading the New Living Bible on my PPC. I also like the New King James and the NIV.

  • Elsewhere
    Elsewhere
    Do you find the bible boring?

    Actually, I can't find my bible anywhere... I lost years ago.

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