What is your favorite book in the Bible? I started reading it

Judges is one of my favorites. It's very proto-Western, since it covers a fairly lawless period between Moses/Joshua being the leaders and the first Kings of Israel.

Genesis
Memesters will shit on it because their God, The Great Lord Science says it didn't actually happen but the prose is beautiful and the messages and the meaning of it is the most human thing to come out of ancient times
>redemption
>forgiveness
>perseverance
>struggling in the face of an absurd world
>brotherly love and the bond of family and friendship
>pride in one's offspring
>service and duty not just to God but to yourself and to your family and to humanity as a whole
Don't let autists tell you genesis is shit, it's like saying any work of literary fiction is garbage because it didn't actually happen

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>>8845823
Bible has a lot of lessons about love and morality, and if you read past Psalms you will see all the poetry and a little of history about many ancient civilizations

The real problem is when you read it with the preconcibed idea of critisism it in a atheist thought

> read it complete, cover to cover

>>8845823
I like the one where everyone fucking dies >:-)

>>8845858
You'd feel cheated if it never happened. Without the grounding reality,
it's just a trite bit of puffery, pure Hollywood, untrue in the way all such
stories are untrue. Yet even if it did happen—and maybe it did,
anything's possible—even then you know it can't be true, because a true
story does not depend upon that kind of truth. Absolute occurrence
is irrelevant. A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may
not happen and be truer than the truth.

>>8845868
Ah yes, Sampson. Kind of strange to put that in there but I guess the jews needed a herculean figure.

>>8845858
>>8845878
Genesis is "shit" because it's honestly not that well-written in the context of the 50+ other books of the Bible.

The whole point of Genesis is that it's a quick history lesson that leads up to Exodus (or Shemot in Hebrew, which means "Names" -- that is, the names of the Hebrew people's ancestors). A big point in Exodus is that even during the Egyptian exile, they remembered the names and stories of their ancestors, and all of that gets summed up as Genesis.

IMO, Genesis lacks many of the interesting characterization and detail that's in other books (for instance, the Book of Samuel for cool characters, and many of the prophetic books for awesome imagery). Genesis might be a standout of the Pentateuch, but it's mediocre at best if you read more.

Reading Genesis in the context of "is it true? is it not true?" is a weird Christian habit that was almost never done in the distant past.

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Be sure to read pic related when you get to the NT

>>8846049

I will never read it due to your constant shilling. What compels you to post it in every single thread related to the bible? Are you the author or is it just autism?

>>8846079
>What compels you

The holy spirit

>>8845823

Psalms is great; my other favorite OT book is Isaiah
For the NT, my favorite gospel is John, but Matthew is a close second. I also especially like Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and 1 John
No need to read cover-to-cover, which can get tedious (although you've already read Leviticus, maybe the most so). I recommend reading from the OT and NT concurrently

>>8845880
>I guess the jews needed a herculean figure.
The Book of Judges predates the myth of Hercules by well over 500 years
>>8845858
>The Great Lord Science says it didn't actually happen
>>8845868

I don't think I'm ever going to get used to sharing discussions with smug redditors

>>8845858
Top taste.
>>8845832
How.

Book of Job desu.

>>8845823
Book of Job

There are no answers to suffering, only mysteries.

J O B

O

B

I like Isaiah quite a lot.

Luke is my favourite gospel almost purely because of the dialogue between Christ and the two criminals. John is pretty swell too.

>>8845925
The great thing about genesis though is that it's a relatively decent introduction to the abrahamic religions.

>>8846693
Luke>Matthew>Mark>John
John's homolust for Jesus is annoying

>>8845823
proverbs, kjv

>>8845823
Isn't Ruth just the comfiest and dearest of them all? All tiny and neglected and contested, sitting there among her bigger sisters--all serious and preaching and lamenting and warning of terrible doom. Meanwhile, all she wants is to remind you there is good in the world amid the suffering and it comes from God's hand and through those who are righteous in his eyes. A nice, quick Christmas eve read.

>>8846693
>>8846083
What's so great about Isaiah? I have skipped it for the moment (reading the Bible through for the first time). I'm going to get back to it. Until then, make me look forward to it.

>>8849665
Isaiah is arguably the most important prophetic book.
It is constantly referred to in the Gospels (it was written about 800 years before them). It's prophesized Jesus, which is pretty damn important, and it's cool seeing those prophesies coming to fruition in the various Gospels, and being quoted by Jesus and the disciples.
There's also a handful of aphoristic statements that you catch in Western literature, that's always cool.
Also it wasn't written by just one person, it's widely accepted to have 3 authors, but little to nothing is known of each of them.

Also, there was a fully intact scroll of the complete book of Isaiah found among the dead sea scrolls, I saw it at a museum. neat shit.
So yeah, as far as the continuation from old to new testament goes, Isaiah is most important

Nothing beats Revelations.

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>>8845858
this guy has the right idea.

>>8846543
>>8846674
these too.

>>8845925
>The whole point of Genesis is that it's a quick history lesson that leads up to Exodus

wew lad

Isaiah, the First Epistle to the Corinthians and the Epistle to the Romans are my favorite

>>8849721
>Revelations
At least get the title correct, and the reason for it

>>8847657
Nah, Mark's the best. Gets right into the good shit and doesn't bother with Jewish genealogy crap.

>>8845823

The Wisdom books are most relevant to the modern mind.

The Gospels are the most enduring

Judges and Kings for power fantasy violence and adventure.

>>8845823
Favorites?

Psalms and Proverbs to start. Good, small doses. Nice for quick reads or mid day inspiration or when you're short on time.

Old Testament: Isaiah and Jeremiah

NT: Anything by Paul, really, but Romans and 1Corinthians in particular.

>>8850700
>Kings for power fantasy violence and adventure.

wrong

Kings is terrible in that regard. 1st Kings is just Solomon and his ridiculously tacky temple/mansion, and 2nd Kings is just a roll-call of the Kings of Israel and Judah, with very small bits of interesting narrative material.

Samuel is much better for adventure stuff, IMO.

>>8849879
It kind it is. It explains a lot of what happens during the exodus.