r/Bible

Hey Im a teen and im just going around asking fellow christian and you guys for any tips or advice about me this is my story my whole life I was born a catholic Christian,went to a catholic school yet only Recently ive come to realize I feel like Im using my religion as a mask. Like a costume I act and say I truly believe in My lord and savior Jesus Christ yet the way I live and the things I do aren’t according to what he has set us to do which is understand and truly have faith and be a guiding light to others to share God’s love so I would pray every night and recently now every or every before meal I would pray.

And recently I decided Ill start reading the Bible the ERV version is what we have. I started reading about 1-2 weeks I feel into sin for the past 2 days so I stopped reading the bible but now I have started to read it again. People recommended Matthew first so there I started with 2 chapters then finished 2-3 then 3 and so on and now i jutt finished chapter 20th of matthew today. And Its like I was looking for a book to read but I realized oh the bible never bothered to read that so since I wanted to know and understand God I did and as I go through these few days It feels like I dont understand what God wants me to understand. In a way it feels like I have a need that I need to understand this and as I try my best it just doesnt say in my mind, I do understand reading the Bible is getting to know God and Jesus Christ and I understand it takes time as you truly understand what God wants and his direction

Yet I feel rushed almost like I have to understand it, Like I want to understand it but I cant is how to say it better. I have a need that I must now God instantly and thats just not how it works and this takes time especially faith. Also it feels like a chore and i read about 2-3 chapters a day and I read it before I sleep but as any other Christian I want to truly understand and know Jesus through the Bible and in Prayer

So my fellow Brothers and Sisters if you have any advice that you would be willing to share with me as I continue my Journey with God please would be wonderful!

I am looking to give a Bible to a friend who is a native Greek.
Which translation would you recommend? I guess I will buy it from on Amazon.

I am reading the first 5 books of the bible - pentateuch and I am encountering the genealogies a lot.

What is the importance of genealogy?

and what is the cultural significance of it in the ancient culture?

I have been loosing my faith lately in God but I want to get closer to him😔

Here's Matthew 1:23 in the KJV, NASB, even the Message and the TPT:

✔King James Version, a historic, hyper literal translation:

>Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

✔New American Standard Bible, a modern, highly literal translation:

>“Behold, the virgin will [a]conceive and give birth to a Son, and they shall name Him Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”

✔The Message, a modern, highly interpretive paraphrase:

>Watch for this—a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son;
They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for “God is with us”).

❌The Passion Translation:

>Listen! A virgin will be pregnant, she will give birth to a Son, and he will be known as “Emmanuel,” which means in Hebrew, “God became one of us.”

And the TPT footnote says:

>Or “God with us” or “God among us”; that is, God incarnated. See Isa. 7:14; 8:8, 10 (LXX).

At this point the TPT is going far beyond being a paraphrase and is now making the Bible say what the translators want it to say. Not even the Message Bible rendered this verse in such a way that the theology of the translator was presented as the biblical text.

Immanuel - עמנואל is by no means a difficult Hebrew word to translate. It's made up of two words: עמנו - with us, and אל - God. Literally "with us is God" or "God is with us". This Hebrew word doesn't mean "God among us" (there are other ways to say that in Hebrew, Immanuel is not one of them) and it definitely doesn't mean "God became one of us".

Even as a Trinitarian Christian who does believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, I have to say that inserting one's theology onto the biblical text or presenting one's theological interpretation as if it's the biblical text is unacceptable.

Hi! <3

I’d be interested to hear what makes you decide which passages in the Bible you highlight with a pen. Is it connected to a feeling that this particular thing speaks to your own life in a special way? Does it feel like it fits the way you see the world, and therefore you give it some extra attention by highlighting it on the page?

And what do you usually choose not to highlight, and why?

And most importantly: What do you think about someone reading the Bible and highlighting and writing down their own thoughts only on the passages that feel personally meaningful to them? In other words, almost like the parts that are highlighted become "your own Bible" that bases your own belief system?

I am trying to find a good literal version that I like. Which ones should I go to and which ones should I stay away from?

La biblia habla de dos versículos los cuales al leerlos hace que las iglesias se vean muy sospechosas, ya que lo que dice en esos dos versículos es una verdad que ninguna inglesia enseña

Hey guys! I'm first time bible reader and I have so many questions, up until now I've been using Gemini for my questions but I'd like to get better answers from real people.

I'm reading Mark 16 this morning and came across where Jesus says Anyone who believes and is baptized be able to handle snakes with safety and drink anything poisonous and it won't hurt them. My question is; is this not a contradiction to when he says earlier not to test god?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated thank you!

I may get a Parallel Bible that contains the 4 versions listed above, do any of you think those are good versions?

Hi guys,could 1 timothy 15 be referencing that through the birth of Jesus that women (and of course everyone else ) will be saved. By his grace and sacrifice on the cross and his second coming. The verse reads
15 ESV Yet she will be saved through childbearing-if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self- control.

15 NIV But women will be saved through childbearing-if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

15 KJV Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety

Possibly could the words "if they continue" reference the characteristics Christian women should aim to have i.e being faithful (in God), loving (the 1st commandment ) holiness(being set apart by living according to God) and propriety ( self control). I am more inclined to this interpretation as looking at the verse at face value could lead to believing in being saved by works. As women could just be giving birth to children to make it to heaven and maybe neglect them after that. Also in the gospel it's stated that we are saved by grace not works. (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV 8 For by grace you have been savedthrough faith. And this isnot your own doing;it is the gift of God,9 not a result of works,so that no one may boast.) Jesus also mentions celibacy for the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 19:11-12 but he said to them "Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. 12 For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it." This idea is reiterated by Paul in 1 Corinthians 6-7 6 Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. 7 I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

Moving on, earlier in verse 14 Paul references the creation order and how Eve was deceived this is of course alluding to genesis. Could Paul once again be alluding to genesis by referencing the women's offspring (Jesus the son of Mary who was a virgin) crushing the serpent and redeeming us. all the days of your life.

(Genesis 3 ESV 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.") What do you guys think if you have any thoughts or different opinions please reply! I'd love to learn more. Have a great day.

What you are about to read is a singular thought unraveled as thoroughly as possible. This thought could be expressed in a sentence. But that wouldn't give you much to get angry over.

There is an old, haunting observation that the youth are no longer interested in the culture being provided for them.

I feel that weight every day.

Look at the landscape of modern creation—whether in music, art, or thought—and ask yourself an honest question: If I want to create as who I truly am, where do I go?

What path is left for a mind that refuses to flatten itself for the market? Are your only choices to become an underground oddity, a museum curio, or a monk retreating into a monastery? Why has genuine human expression been systematically purged from public space? Why is there no open air left for the uncommodified being?

The answer is simple, though staggering in its brutality: There are no open outlets left. Every avenue of modern expression must pass through their gates. Every channel is heavily curated, tightly regulated, and locked behind the altar of ad revenue. Culture is no longer an expression of spirit; it is an optimization strategy designed to sell out to the largest mass of people.

Our culture has not drifted into decay by accident. It has been degraded systematically.

When you witness this level of cultural flattening, you are forced to look at the root. You are forced to return to this ancient diagnostic: The love of money is the root of all evil.

We like to imagine we live in a brand-new, hyper-modern world of unprecedented progress. But when you step back and look at the architecture of our behaviors, our institutions, and our power—symbolized so plainly by the obelisks in plazas and the pyramids on currency—you realize we are merely playing out the latest iteration of an ancient blueprint. We are living inside an empire built on accumulation, central control, and the ruthless liquidating of organic life into ledger assets.

What we are witnessing is not the organic evolution of human civilization. It is the victory of a specific, predatory machine—a system that replaces the rooted and the neighborly with a hyper-narcissistic, exploitative ethos. It produces a culture so detached from authentic identity that it borders on total apathy.

And the most insidious trick of this machine is its ability to cover its tracks.

Once this system takes hold, it births new ideologies, new religions, and new political frameworks to obfuscate the root. It creates systems that pretend to attack money, wealth, or power, ensuring that we fight over the surface symptoms while the insatiable love of transaction remains completely untouched at the center.

Which brings us to the ultimate, terrifying crossroads.

Once a culture abandons its intrinsic worth—once it trades its organic, uncommodified being—can it ever go back?

Or is the mythic story literal? Once you step outside the Garden of Eden, are you cast out forever? Is there truly an angel standing at the gate with a flaming sword, barring our return to a world of true life, leaving us doomed to suffer the friction of death forever?

That is the terror of our age.

And terror is what it feels like to live inside it.

I’m curious whether being in places mentioned in Scripture changed the way you understood a story, verse, or even the geography behind it.

For those who’ve been, was there one place that gave you a new perspective on the text?

I hope this is the right place for this! I was on Amazon and stumbled across The Drunk Bible. Looking through the sample, it’s apparently a complete, chapter and verse adaptation of the King James version, just totally Drunk History coded, if that doesn't give you an immediate understanding of what it read like, i don't know what will. At the same time, it also appears to still be accurate to the underlying original context.

For example, this is the opening of Genesis:

1. Okay so first there's nothing, like actually nothing, and God's just there and he makes the heaven and the earth, that's it, that's the opening move, unreal.
2. And it's all void and dark and wet and God's spirit is just hovering over the water like a duck that hasn't figured out where to land yet.
3. So God says 'let there be light' and there's light, that's the whole spell, four words, I need whatever he's on.
4. He looks at the light, decides it's good, and splits it from the dark, which means up until this exact second light and dark were just mixed together in one pile, think about that.

Getting rid of the "church-speak" and the thee/though eye glazing text. This zero reverence lens weirdly feels like reading something new.

I won't drop a direct link so I don't trigger any spam filters (it's easy enough to search for on Amazon if you're curious), but I’d love to hear from the actual scholars here:

1. Do you ever find value in deliberately "irreverent" or extreme cover-to-cover adaptations (like a "Drunk History" approach) simply to break "reader fatigue" and force you to look at a familiar narrative in a new light?
2. Where do you draw the line between a "retelling" and a "commentary," especially when modern humor or slang is the primary vehicle for the author's observations?
3. Is there any actual historical precedent for looking at sacred texts in deliberately informal, uninhibited, or "altered" states just to draw out different contextual perspectives?

Would love to hear your thoughts!

EDIT: Missed this the first time because I didn't click "Read More".

>At the back: sixty six drinks. One for every book, each taken from a verse in that book.

There's apparently 66 Cocktail Recipes in the back of it, themed to each book. Not necessarily relevant, but interesting.

Does the Bible tell me when I should be fasting? I personally have not felt called to fast yet (only a true believer for a little over 2 years). I am still working my way through the whole Bible so I am not sure entirely. Thank you!

Hi, I was wondering if their are websites that I can download free info graphics high quality that I can use. I am trying to find info grphics, like bible timeline, family tree from adam to jesus, info graphics about what God showed to John about the last days.

If mankind has an immortal soul, then why does scripture speak of a resurrection? And what is the second death?

Hey, I’m kind of stuck on this point a little bit and was wondering if I could get some advice on how you guys navigate the fact that Christ’s divinity was something that evolved over time, and wasn’t necessarily what the historical Jesus himself actually did.

I personally place my faith in the Resurrection as being foundational, which I personally think has a robust case. I’ve tried to reconcile parts of the gospel that are mythologized or been read into the Old Testament text. When I read Matthew for the first time, I didn’t realize how much emphasis was on things being prophesied. E.g by Isiah.

There are also parts in which things are borrowed from one gospel to another or things that didn’t directly occur. For example, the graves opening up and the dead walking around - surely several independent sources would have written about something like that.

If I’ve got anything wrong, apologies, I’ve not studied properly the scholarship but it’s a pattern I’ve noticed that professors of religion mention about the gospels. This is not to say that they are entirely unreliable, for example they all agree on women being the first to see the empty tomb, which would have been something odd to make up in that social context - considering women’s position.

I just feel that to be intellectually honest in my faith journey and ask others about questions I have. This isn’t to sound snarky or edgy, but I believe or like to think that God would understand how our different minds process different bits of information, and that some things will confuse us a little, but nonetheless we try to make sense out of it the best way we can. I am autistic and adhd diagnosed so I tend to be very analytical.

See the response from u/Deer_Hart, he explained it better than I did

I'm currently reading the Bible for the first time and am about to finish the Old Testament. I've been reading it so far in chronological order, but am not sure if that's the right move for the New Testament. Is there a better order I should read the New Testament books in, or should I stick with my chronological plan?