Updated the 4th of September, 2023
Ever since this idea was given me by a fellow priest of the diocese, I have endeavoured to find my way regularly through all of Sacred Scripture, for if you don’t go to it you don’t quite get it in full. The liturgical sequence we get at daily Masses, even for those of us who can attend Holy Mass every single day, is quite inadequate. And the Sundays, if we attend on Sundays only, give us even less. And, of course, the readings prepared for the Masses are often cut and pasted in ways that extract very significant parts of the whole.
The solution is to actually grab for the Book of books, and make a brave attempt of our own. It’s not easy, since the Bible is not a single book, but a library of books, and each of those books has overall a certain genre. It’s not like reading a single modern book which has the same manner and presentation throughout. Among the various genres we find in the Bible are: history, poetry, narrative storytelling, prophecy, apocalyptic vision… Even the history in the Bible is not history as we understand it today, and many books have a mixture of the above: history and poetry, storytelling and vision, etc. We may not always understand what we’re reading – but it’s good to make a stab of it and get it done. So, there is an element of endurance.
My sister recently got me a copy of the Augustine Bible (pictured above), which is the English Standard Version translation, and a Catholic edition, so it should have all the books of the Catholic canon. I’m going to start working my way through it, beginning today. Below, you should find a list of the books of the Bible, and I shall update this post regularly, as I find my way through over the next few months. Having grown up with computers, I depend on progress bars, and this post is the progress bar I shall use for the Augustine Bible. Let’s go…
Bible progress: 8% (currently Genesis 36%, Book of Psalms 8%, Gospel of S. Matthew 24%)
1. The Pentateuch (the Torah)
Genesis (36%)
Exodus (0%)
Leviticus (0%)
Numbers (0%)
Deuteronomy (0%)
2. The historical books
Joshua/Iosue (0%)
Judges (0%)
Ruth (0%)
I Kings/1 Samuel (0%)
II Kings/2 Samuel (0%)
III Kings/1 Kings (0%)
IV Kings/2 Kings (0%)
I Paralipomena/1 Chronicles (0%)
II Paralipomena/2 Chronicles (0%)
I Esdras/Ezra (0%)
II Esdras/Nehemiah (0%)
I Machabees (0%)
II Machabees (0%)
3. Traditional literature (much historical material)
Tobias (0%)
Judith (0%)
Esther (0%)
Job (0%)
Psalms (8%)
Proverbs (0%)
Ecclesiastes (0%)
the Wisdom of Solomon (0%)
Ecclesiasticus/Sirach (0%)
the Song of Songs (0%)
4. The prophets
Isaias/Isaiah (0%)
Jeremias/Jeremiah (0%)
Lamentations of Jeremiah (0%)
Baruch (0%)
Ezechiel (0%)
Daniel (0%)
Osee/Hosea (0%)
Joel (0%)
Amos (0%)
Abdias/Obadiah (0%)
Jonas/Jonah (0%)
Michaeas/Micah (0%)
Nahum (0%)
Habacuc/Habakkuk (0%)
Sophonias/Zephaniah (0%)
Aggaeus/Haggai (0%)
Zacharias/Zechariah (0%)
Malachias/Malachi (0%)
5. The Gospels
Matthew (24%)
Mark (0%)
Luke (0%)
John (0%)
6. The later history
the Acts of the Apostles (0%)
7. The letters of Saint Paul
Romans (0%)
I Corinthians (0%)
II Corinthians (0%)
Galatians (0%)
Ephesians (0%)
Philippians (0%)
Colossians (0%)
I Thessalonians (0%)
II Thessalonians (0%)
I Timothy (0%)
II Timothy (0%)
Titus (0%)
Philemon (0%)
the Letter to the Hebrews (0%)
8. The letters of the Apostles
James (0%)
I Peter (0%)
II Peter (0%)
I John (0%)
II John (0%)
III John (0%)
Jude (0%)
9. The epilogue
Apocalypse/Revelation (0%)
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 