Where to Start Reading the Bible as a Beginner

Where should you start reading the Bible? Start with the Gospel of Mark. It is the shortest of the four accounts of Jesus, it moves fast, and it gives you the center of the Christian story in a few short sittings. After that, read Luke, then John, and then go back to Genesis with the right map in your head.

Most people who give up on the Bible do it the same way. They start on page one, enjoy Genesis, and then stall somewhere in the laws of Leviticus. That is not a failure of will. It is a problem of order. This article gives you a better one.

The answer in short

Read in this order:

1. Mark, to meet Jesus quickly.
2. Luke, to get the fuller story, with its birth scenes and parables.
3. John, to hear the deepest reflection on who Jesus is.
4. Acts, to see what happened next.
5. Genesis and Exodus, to learn where the story began.

You can finish the first three books in a few weeks at five minutes a day. A Bible is not one book written in one style. It is a library of many books, and a library is not read from the first shelf to the last.

Why not page one

The Bible is arranged by type, not by the order a beginner should read it. The first five books include stories, but they also include long lists of laws, names and building plans. They are valuable. They are also hard to read cold.

Say a reader, call her Leila, opens Genesis in January. She loves the creation story and Noah. By the end of Exodus she is reading about tent curtains. Leviticus is next. By February the Bible is back on the shelf.

Leila did nothing wrong. She started a long trip without knowing where it was going. The Gospels give you the destination first. After that, the older books make sense, because you know what they were pointing toward.

Start with Mark, the shortest account

Mark is short, direct and quick. It begins with Jesus as a grown man at the Jordan River and moves from one scene to the next. The word "immediately" appears again and again. There is no birth story and no long speech at the start. Jesus calls fishermen, heals a man, and crowds begin to follow.

Mark is also honest about the confusion of the people around Jesus. His family wonders about him. His own hometown does not take him seriously. A reader who is unsure about faith can find company in those scenes.

Read one short section a day. Mark has sixteen chapters, so even a slow pace takes under a month. The track named at the end of this page begins with the first chapters of Mark.

Then Luke, then John, then back to Genesis

Luke is the longest Gospel and the most like a history. The writer says in his first lines that he looked into the events carefully and wrote them in order. Luke gives you the stories of Zechariah and Mary, the shepherds, and parables such as the good Samaritan that you may have heard but never read in full. If you are curious about the opening scenes, see why Zechariah was struck mute.

John is different. It begins before time, with the words, "In the beginning was the Word." It has fewer stories and longer conversations. It works best third, when you already know the outline of the life of Jesus. Our article on what "the Word" means in John 1 is a good first step into it.

Why four? Each writer tells the story for a different audience. If that puzzles you, read why there are four Gospels.

After Acts, go to Genesis. Now when you read about Abraham, Moses and the lamb of the first Passover, you will notice how the early Christians used those stories. The older books become more rewarding, not less.

A five-minute habit that holds

A plan that is too big fails in a week. Make a small one.

• Pick the same time each day: before the first coffee, on the bus, after the children sleep.
• Read one short passage, about as long as a page.
• Ask three questions: Who is in this scene? What happens? What surprised me?
• Write one line, even a few words, somewhere you will find it.
• If you miss a day, do not double up. Just read the next passage.

Five minutes is enough. A habit that survives a busy week beats a plan for an hour that you drop after ten days.

It also helps to read the passage twice, once slowly and once aloud. Reading aloud slows you down. It also helps if English is not your first language, because the sounds of the words support the meaning.

For a wider picture of what happens in the life of Jesus after those first chapters, see the ministry of Jesus explained for beginners. And if you want a helper for reading, compare options in the best Bible study apps for beginners.

When this does not work

This order is a suggestion, not a rule. If you grew up in a church that reads the Psalms every week, you might feel at home starting there. A Psalm is short and fits a five-minute habit well. Some readers want the Old Testament first because they are drawn to its stories. That is fine.

Another challenge is that Bibles come in many translations. If a version feels heavy, try another one for the same passage. The point is to understand, not to prove stamina.

Finally, some passages will confuse you however you start. Keep a short list of questions and return to them later. A list of open questions is a sign you are reading carefully.

Learn this passage in five minutes

The track "Good News in Galilee" takes you through the first chapters of Mark, from the baptism at the Jordan to the rejection in Nazareth. Each lesson takes about five minutes and gives you the passage, its setting and what it meant to its first readers.