Holy Books

I've read bits and pieces of various religious texts, mostly while doing research on specific topics of discussion.  I have not, however, read the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, or other religious text cover-to-cover.  One of things I'll be doing on this blog is working my way through them and posting my thoughts as I read them.  I'll start with the Bible.

Which begs the question, which Bible?  I don't speak Hebrew, Greek or Latin, so that rules out "original" versions of the Torah, Septuagint or Latin Vulgate Bible.  The next thought I had was the Gutenberg Bible, but as this was printed in the 1450s, it's not terribly easy to read today:

This isn't a simple question, and nobody will be happy with the selection.  Do I take the King James version?  The New International Version (NIV)?  I thought there were several different versions, but it turns out there are LOTS of different versions.  What's important to me is that there be an online version that I can read, that includes commentary to help understand what's going on or how certain passages have been interpreted.  For this reason, I'm going with the King James Version (KJV), which is in the public domain and is easily available.  For access and commentary I'm going to be using the Bible Study Tools website with Robert Jamieson commentary available on that site.  I'm also going to be referencing the Skeptic's Annotated Bible to provide an alternate view on understanding the Bible.

What do I hope to get out of this?  It's an awful lot of work (and a lot of awful work) to get through this cover-to-cover.  It seems reasonable to ask what the point is.  First, I want to know, first-hand, what's in there (and the Koran, and the Gita, and the others).  I want to read and understand it myself, so when someone throws some chapter and verse at me I know the context, the whole story, and the point.  But I'm not just going to be reading it uncritically or non-skeptically; BS doesn't just stand for Bible Study, and I won't hesitate to point out BS when I see it.

But in addition, I want to understand what other people get from it, from whatever perspective.  I want this to be both an education and a discussion.  If I'm reading something that has had a particular impact on your life, tell me about it.  If you think I'm missing the point or getting the wrong interpretation, then tell me what I've missed.  If you think I'm being unfair in my reading, set me straight.  I reserve the right to form my own opinions (and please see the Rules of Discussion, if you haven't yet), but that doesn't mean I don't want to hear yours.