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Reading plan · 14 days

New to the Bible: a 2-Week Reading Plan

For anyone opening the Bible for the first time, or coming back after a long while, who does not know where to start.

The Bible is a big book, and starting at page one is how many people get stuck in the first month. So we will not start there. We will start with Jesus. The Gospel of Mark is the shortest and fastest of the four accounts of his life, and it is the place almost everyone recommends a beginner to begin. Read a little each day, in any modern translation (the verses on this site use the public-domain World English Bible). Do not worry about understanding everything; just get to know him.

  1. Day 1: Mark 1

    Mark wastes no time. In one chapter Jesus is announced, baptised, tested, and already calling ordinary people to follow him. Notice the pace and the word "immediately".

  2. Day 2: Mark 2-3

    Jesus forgives, heals and eats with the wrong sort of people, and the religious leaders begin to bristle. Watch who he goes out of his way to welcome.

  3. Day 3: Mark 4-5

    He teaches in stories, stills a storm with a word, and is not put off by the unclean, the frightening or the dead. Nothing here is too far gone for him.

  4. Day 4: Mark 6-7

    He feeds thousands and walks on water, yet keeps asking what is really going on in people’s hearts. Faith and confusion sit side by side, as they often do.

  5. Day 5: Mark 8-9

    The turning point: Peter realises who Jesus is, and Jesus starts to speak plainly about the cross ahead. Following him, he says, will cost something.

  6. Day 6: Mark 10-11

    On the road to Jerusalem he welcomes children, unsettles a rich young man, and rides into the city to a crowd’s cheers. The collision is coming.

  7. Day 7: Mark 12-13

    Cornered by trick questions, he answers with the heart of it all: love God, and love your neighbour. Then he looks ahead to the end of the age.

  8. Day 8: Mark 14-16

    The cross and the empty tomb, the centre of everything. Read it slowly. This is the news the whole Bible has been leaning towards.

  9. Day 9: John 3:16

    The most famous verse in the Bible, and a one-line summary of the whole story: God so loved the world that he gave his Son.

  10. Day 10: Ephesians 2:8-9

    The good news in a sentence: you are saved by grace, through faith, as a gift. Not earned, not deserved, not something you have to be good enough for first.

  11. Day 11: Romans 5:8

    The timing matters. Christ died for us not once we had sorted ourselves out, but while we were still a mess. That is the kind of love this is.

  12. Day 12: Psalm 23

    Step into the Old Testament with its best-loved psalm. This is the God Jesus called Father: a shepherd who leads, provides and stays close.

  13. Day 13: Philippians 4:6-7

    A first lesson in prayer: bring everything to God, with thanks, and let his peace stand guard over you. This is what talking to him can look like.

  14. Day 14: Matthew 11:28-30

    End on the invitation that runs through it all. Come to me, Jesus says, all who are weary, and I will give you rest. That invitation is open to you.

You have read the heart of the Christian faith: the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and why it matters for you. From here, a Gospel like John, or the letter to the Philippians, is a natural next step. If a verse along the way stayed with you, follow it up. This is the start of something, not the end.

Carry on from here