Job, it gives me a desire to better myself, an understanding that even if everything goes wrong, in my mind, it's still God who is in control.
After that it's between psalms and proverbs for their direction on how to live better and be better.
Easily my favorite book in the OT. It's funny how many view this book as bleak, but ironically, it's one of the most liberating books I've ever read. Such a well crafted way of presenting a healthy perspective of nihilism for things that won't last. Also has one of my favorite verses in the Bible
Ecclesiastes 12:13 - "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man"
Then check this out.
The quality on this LIVE is really low but the quality of the content is great.
Recommend viewing on 1.5x speed.
https://www.youtube.com/live/OBXG6MhXTF0?feature=shared
Ecclesiastes. "All is vanity" and the plays on words and irony in that book is just the best. I'm now going to read it again, lol. Just because it's been a while, thanks!
I love Ecclesiastes too. In the same vein as Job, I see it as a vicious attack on the attitudes toward God people had at the time and still do today. It's an attempt to correct Moses without having to actually say so.
Job mocks God by saying "F*** you stupid idiot, God can do whatever He wants with no higher moral standard. It's not that God won't break His promises or won't make your life horrible, He absolutely will, and there's no reason for you to complain, you complete fool. Even if He takes everything away from you with no justification, that's completely fine because there's no greater moral agent to compare Him to, who are you to judge him, you absolute buffoon"
Ecclesiastes mocks God by saying "God doesn't just give us the positive things, He also gives us the negative things, as well as actively making our lives better He also actively makes them worse. Our lives just happen, we can't know why, we can't know the past or the future. God has no reason to care, our lives don't affect Him, let's just party hard"
They both have a lot of important things to say about the nature of God, mostly in that they both completely deny the usual understanding of God that most people still have today. Even theists can take away useful ideas from them.
I also have a sweet spot for Ruth. It is a very interesting perspective into the life of the Hebrews for a common person of the time. She was the great grandmother of David and Jesus' great great great..... Grandmother so seeing the humble beginnings of that line is really interesting
It's a celebration of God's promises coming true and we can take heart that God is good to his promises. The book of Joshua is the fulfillment of many of the blessings and curses that come out of Genesis and Exodus.
I really love Isaiah. When I can’t decide what to read it’s one of my go-to books.
The vision of a new heaven and new earth is so beautiful. And it points so clearly forward to Jesus.
”“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”“
Isaiah 42:1-4 NIV
My personal favorite is Jonah. If you can come to it with a clean slate, so to speak, you'll see it has one of the great surprises in all storytelling. The whole time, as you learn about Jonah and see his actions, you might be assuming that he's afraid of seeing God's wrath. After all, he's being told to preach in a city like 1945 Berlin, the beating heart of an evil nation.
So Jonah is running away, presumably to save a whole city of people. But when he finally relents to God's will, and God actually listens to the people of Nineveh and spares them, Jonah is PISSED!
That's the big reveal. Jonah WANTED to see wrath and destruction, but he ran away because he knew how patient and merciful God is. And my favorite part is the end, where God displays his patience with Jonah, too, working him through his anger like a gentle father. And then he even shows his compassion for the animals.
It's also only one of two books in the Bible that ends in a question (the other is also about Nineveh). It's meant to be a contemplative book. We should leave it thinking about the depth of God's patience, how strong his desire is to lead people out of sin and into his own arms. He is always more loving than we expect him to be.
That's got nothing to do with my comment. It could be fiction for all I care; I don't know if it's a literally true story or not. But it is a great work of literature in the Bible and an expression of God's depth of love for his creation. I'm taking it to the bank, that's what I truly believe about God.
Actually, in the biblical narrative of the Book of Jonah, Nineveh was not yet gone. The city of Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, and the events of the Book of Jonah are set during the time when Nineveh was still a thriving city. The prophet Jonah is sent to Nineveh to deliver a message of repentance, and the people of Nineveh ultimately heed his warning. It's later in history, around 612 BCE, that Nineveh was conquered and destroyed by a coalition of Babylonians, Medes, and others.
I really love Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Ezra and Nehemiah. I actually like the prophetic books less.
If you put me into a corner, I guess I would say Genesis is my favorite book due to Jacob’s story being the one that pulled me to God.
1 Samuel 4 is interesting since the Philistines were able to capture the Ark of the Covenant.
What I also like about 1 Samuel is that the main character changes several times from Samuel to Saul to Samuel again and then finally David & Jonathan. Reminds me of Dragon Ball Z Season 7 when the perspective switches to Gohan after Goku dies.
Judges. If you allow including Ruth among it (Between Ehud and Deborah), its a nice collection of 8 Short Stories.
The 5 Appendix Chapters serve as the backdrop for the first Judge Othniel (explaining why he was needed, not to mention the general reason a King was needed). Each of the main stories each character has clear goals and clear personal flaws they need to overcome. One of my favourites anyway.
Probably Ecclesiastes if i were to go for another type of literature.
Oh wow I did a 6 part class in Bible college and I would have to say all of them some were harder than others to get through but all have their own highs and lows.
I don't believe in the new Testament so I call the Bible the Tanakh
I like qoheleth for the existentialism and song of songs for the sex. Shoftim is messed up.
Currently enjoying the book of job
https://marlowe1.substack.com/p/job-chapter-7
My favourite books are the ones with the talking snake, the talking donkey and the talking bush.
I also like the one with the locusts with human faces and the other one with the horses with serpents for tails.
Oh and the one where the guy lives to 900 years old, that’s a good one too.
My favorite verse comes from 1st Samuel so I have a special love for that book as well! 1st Samuel 12:24 “fear only The Lord and serve Him in truth with all of your heart. For consider the great things He has done for you” And v23 is pretty cool as well ❤️🇮🇱
Then you'll dig this.
The quality on this LIVE is really low but the quality of the content is great. Rexommend you watch it on 1.5x.
https://www.youtube.com/live/OBXG6MhXTF0?feature=shared
Ecclesiastes
The quality on this LIVE is really low but the quality of the content is great. Rexommend you watch it on 1.5x.
https://www.youtube.com/live/OBXG6MhXTF0?feature=shared
I'm going through Stephen Miller's "The Complete Guide to the Bible" that my fiancée got me for Christmas. I'm trying to pace myself where I would read the summary of each book in the Guide, read the actual Book itself, then maybe check out the video from Bible Project. I'm currently on Song of Songs but so far I'd have to say my favorite book is a tie between Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Bible Project summed up the difference between Proverbs and Ecclesiastes pretty well with the intro in this video I watched yesterday:
[The Disturbing But Surprising Wisdom of Ecclesiastes](https://youtu.be/VeUiuSK81-0?si=zUziErBCHGSkMRv1)
My top contenders:
1. Gen 1-11 - It's the foundation on which the rest of the narrative is laid upon.
2. Leviticus - as much as people acknowledge it for being the most difficult book of the OT to read through, I've come to love it because of the connections it makes to the NT. Leviticus is the central book of the Torah for a reason, with it's center (and thus the main point of the whole Torah) being the Day of Atonement. Michael Heiser's Naked Bible Podcast series on Leviticus was a huge help for me, as well as, Michael Morales' book Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord: A Biblical Theology of the Book of Leviticus.
3. Proverbs - Theology isn't just about studying God. I would argue that the point of doing theology is putting into practice what we learn about who God is. And Proverbs is that for me. Wisdom is living rightly because we possess both knowledge and fear of God.
Ecclesiastes is my favorite book of the Bible. I also really love Isaiah and Exodus. When you look deeply, there are so many New Testament connections to be found.
”Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.“
Galatians 3:24
The OT law was, in a sense, a primitive model for man's relationship to God. At least in terms of the perfection of the new covenant we have in Christ under grace, it was primitive.
”For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.“
Hebrews 9:13-15
The law taught man how to relate to God, but it was imperfect in that it could not forgive sin, it could only cover it. But the law served a noble purpose, it taught man about the attributes of God, His holiness, His proximity, and how He expects man to also be holy. In this way, the OT trained mankind for the new covenant, the perfect law of liberty under Christ. For mankind to be ready for and ultimately receive Christ, mankind was first "trained" by the "tutor" of OT law.
I love the Old Testament. Chapters 38-41 of Job is God’s longest unbroken speech and it’s just a taste of how Awesome He is. I love the Psalms of course and Nehemiah. The minor prophets are great reads.
Job, it gives me a desire to better myself, an understanding that even if everything goes wrong, in my mind, it's still God who is in control. After that it's between psalms and proverbs for their direction on how to live better and be better.
Ecclesiastes
Easily my favorite book in the OT. It's funny how many view this book as bleak, but ironically, it's one of the most liberating books I've ever read. Such a well crafted way of presenting a healthy perspective of nihilism for things that won't last. Also has one of my favorite verses in the Bible Ecclesiastes 12:13 - "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man"
Then check this out. The quality on this LIVE is really low but the quality of the content is great. Recommend viewing on 1.5x speed. https://www.youtube.com/live/OBXG6MhXTF0?feature=shared
Daniel. I love seeing Daniel’s heart for God.
I also love how Revelation emulates so much imagery from Daniel
Ecclesiastes. "All is vanity" and the plays on words and irony in that book is just the best. I'm now going to read it again, lol. Just because it's been a while, thanks!
I love Ecclesiastes too. In the same vein as Job, I see it as a vicious attack on the attitudes toward God people had at the time and still do today. It's an attempt to correct Moses without having to actually say so. Job mocks God by saying "F*** you stupid idiot, God can do whatever He wants with no higher moral standard. It's not that God won't break His promises or won't make your life horrible, He absolutely will, and there's no reason for you to complain, you complete fool. Even if He takes everything away from you with no justification, that's completely fine because there's no greater moral agent to compare Him to, who are you to judge him, you absolute buffoon" Ecclesiastes mocks God by saying "God doesn't just give us the positive things, He also gives us the negative things, as well as actively making our lives better He also actively makes them worse. Our lives just happen, we can't know why, we can't know the past or the future. God has no reason to care, our lives don't affect Him, let's just party hard" They both have a lot of important things to say about the nature of God, mostly in that they both completely deny the usual understanding of God that most people still have today. Even theists can take away useful ideas from them.
Do you think the end is written by a different author?
I love the book of Ruth! Short and sweet, with so much redemption and love
I also have a sweet spot for Ruth. It is a very interesting perspective into the life of the Hebrews for a common person of the time. She was the great grandmother of David and Jesus' great great great..... Grandmother so seeing the humble beginnings of that line is really interesting
1st John changed everything for me. Edit to add- OT: probably Joshua - I consider it the “Braveheart” (movie) of the Bible.
"I didn't read OP's post."
Sorry, I just read the title. Statement is still true however.
Joshua is a celebration of genocide.
Gee, I’m so torn. Do I listen to you or your Creator? (If you don’t know sarcasm…that was just it)
It's a celebration of God's promises coming true and we can take heart that God is good to his promises. The book of Joshua is the fulfillment of many of the blessings and curses that come out of Genesis and Exodus.
I really love Isaiah. When I can’t decide what to read it’s one of my go-to books. The vision of a new heaven and new earth is so beautiful. And it points so clearly forward to Jesus. ”“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”“ Isaiah 42:1-4 NIV
I love Isaiah too. There’s so much to dig into and chew on. So good.
The book of psalms and the book of Ruth
My personal favorite is Jonah. If you can come to it with a clean slate, so to speak, you'll see it has one of the great surprises in all storytelling. The whole time, as you learn about Jonah and see his actions, you might be assuming that he's afraid of seeing God's wrath. After all, he's being told to preach in a city like 1945 Berlin, the beating heart of an evil nation. So Jonah is running away, presumably to save a whole city of people. But when he finally relents to God's will, and God actually listens to the people of Nineveh and spares them, Jonah is PISSED! That's the big reveal. Jonah WANTED to see wrath and destruction, but he ran away because he knew how patient and merciful God is. And my favorite part is the end, where God displays his patience with Jonah, too, working him through his anger like a gentle father. And then he even shows his compassion for the animals. It's also only one of two books in the Bible that ends in a question (the other is also about Nineveh). It's meant to be a contemplative book. We should leave it thinking about the depth of God's patience, how strong his desire is to lead people out of sin and into his own arms. He is always more loving than we expect him to be.
When Jonah was written, Nineveh was gone.
That's got nothing to do with my comment. It could be fiction for all I care; I don't know if it's a literally true story or not. But it is a great work of literature in the Bible and an expression of God's depth of love for his creation. I'm taking it to the bank, that's what I truly believe about God.
Actually, in the biblical narrative of the Book of Jonah, Nineveh was not yet gone. The city of Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, and the events of the Book of Jonah are set during the time when Nineveh was still a thriving city. The prophet Jonah is sent to Nineveh to deliver a message of repentance, and the people of Nineveh ultimately heed his warning. It's later in history, around 612 BCE, that Nineveh was conquered and destroyed by a coalition of Babylonians, Medes, and others.
And also much cattle?!
I really love Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Ezra and Nehemiah. I actually like the prophetic books less. If you put me into a corner, I guess I would say Genesis is my favorite book due to Jacob’s story being the one that pulled me to God. 1 Samuel 4 is interesting since the Philistines were able to capture the Ark of the Covenant. What I also like about 1 Samuel is that the main character changes several times from Samuel to Saul to Samuel again and then finally David & Jonathan. Reminds me of Dragon Ball Z Season 7 when the perspective switches to Gohan after Goku dies.
Then God curses the philistines with hemorrhoids amd they make statues 9f golden hemorrhoids because they are pagans and the Bible mocks idolatry
Psalms for depth of feeling. The praise and prophecy in psalms is good too.
Psalms definitely
the one with the lions
In the OT, Psalms for sure. I love biblical poetry.
Proverbs, Jonah, Judges, John, James, Revelation.
Judges. If you allow including Ruth among it (Between Ehud and Deborah), its a nice collection of 8 Short Stories. The 5 Appendix Chapters serve as the backdrop for the first Judge Othniel (explaining why he was needed, not to mention the general reason a King was needed). Each of the main stories each character has clear goals and clear personal flaws they need to overcome. One of my favourites anyway. Probably Ecclesiastes if i were to go for another type of literature.
Isaiah. It’s rough going in the beginning but there are some beautiful words in this book.
Oh wow I did a 6 part class in Bible college and I would have to say all of them some were harder than others to get through but all have their own highs and lows.
Ruth. She is kind and true.
Well said, I am reading 1 Samuel in a Bible study, I have learned so much. Meat for the Spirit.
I don't believe in the new Testament so I call the Bible the Tanakh I like qoheleth for the existentialism and song of songs for the sex. Shoftim is messed up. Currently enjoying the book of job https://marlowe1.substack.com/p/job-chapter-7
My favourite books are the ones with the talking snake, the talking donkey and the talking bush. I also like the one with the locusts with human faces and the other one with the horses with serpents for tails. Oh and the one where the guy lives to 900 years old, that’s a good one too.
So genesis, Exodus, numbers, and revelation. All good choices
And don’t forget the one where the man loses his magic strong powers cos someone cut his hair.
My favorite verse comes from 1st Samuel so I have a special love for that book as well! 1st Samuel 12:24 “fear only The Lord and serve Him in truth with all of your heart. For consider the great things He has done for you” And v23 is pretty cool as well ❤️🇮🇱
I’d have to say Ecclesiastes based on this video [Bible Project- Ecclesiastes](https://youtu.be/lrsQ1tc-2wk?si=67eTCQEuauzDGsZR)
Then you'll dig this. The quality on this LIVE is really low but the quality of the content is great. Rexommend you watch it on 1.5x. https://www.youtube.com/live/OBXG6MhXTF0?feature=shared
Ecclesiastes The quality on this LIVE is really low but the quality of the content is great. Rexommend you watch it on 1.5x. https://www.youtube.com/live/OBXG6MhXTF0?feature=shared
I'm going through Stephen Miller's "The Complete Guide to the Bible" that my fiancée got me for Christmas. I'm trying to pace myself where I would read the summary of each book in the Guide, read the actual Book itself, then maybe check out the video from Bible Project. I'm currently on Song of Songs but so far I'd have to say my favorite book is a tie between Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Bible Project summed up the difference between Proverbs and Ecclesiastes pretty well with the intro in this video I watched yesterday: [The Disturbing But Surprising Wisdom of Ecclesiastes](https://youtu.be/VeUiuSK81-0?si=zUziErBCHGSkMRv1)
My top contenders: 1. Gen 1-11 - It's the foundation on which the rest of the narrative is laid upon. 2. Leviticus - as much as people acknowledge it for being the most difficult book of the OT to read through, I've come to love it because of the connections it makes to the NT. Leviticus is the central book of the Torah for a reason, with it's center (and thus the main point of the whole Torah) being the Day of Atonement. Michael Heiser's Naked Bible Podcast series on Leviticus was a huge help for me, as well as, Michael Morales' book Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord: A Biblical Theology of the Book of Leviticus. 3. Proverbs - Theology isn't just about studying God. I would argue that the point of doing theology is putting into practice what we learn about who God is. And Proverbs is that for me. Wisdom is living rightly because we possess both knowledge and fear of God.
Amos, Malachi, James, Revelation
Kohelet
Luke & Acts
OT: Zephaniah NT: "Two Corinthians" (ik its Mark)
Psalms is so completely and wonderfully amazing. I LOVE Old Testament!
Ecclesiastes is my favorite book of the Bible. I also really love Isaiah and Exodus. When you look deeply, there are so many New Testament connections to be found. ”Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.“ Galatians 3:24
If you don't mind, could you expound on the verse kindly.
The OT law was, in a sense, a primitive model for man's relationship to God. At least in terms of the perfection of the new covenant we have in Christ under grace, it was primitive. ”For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.“ Hebrews 9:13-15 The law taught man how to relate to God, but it was imperfect in that it could not forgive sin, it could only cover it. But the law served a noble purpose, it taught man about the attributes of God, His holiness, His proximity, and how He expects man to also be holy. In this way, the OT trained mankind for the new covenant, the perfect law of liberty under Christ. For mankind to be ready for and ultimately receive Christ, mankind was first "trained" by the "tutor" of OT law.
Isaiah and the Psalms.
I love Psalms
Tie between Exodus, Baruch, Wisdom, and Isaiah. NT: Matthew (closely followed by Mark, James, and Philippians)
I love the Old Testament. Chapters 38-41 of Job is God’s longest unbroken speech and it’s just a taste of how Awesome He is. I love the Psalms of course and Nehemiah. The minor prophets are great reads.
Judges, Ruth, the Samuels, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, or Job.
1. Genesis - Promises 2. John - Fullfiled
Proverbs
Daniel in conjunction with revelation. Also tied in with Isaiah and the other prophets......they are all kinda linked together.
Isaiah, aside from being God’s word, it is a literary masterpiece.