Bible Reading Plans 365 Day Plan

I’ve read through the entire Bible several times, but I’ve never been able to read the books in order from Genesis to Revelation.  I’ve also never been able to finish in exactly one year.  The first time I attempted this plan, I fell behind as much as 5 weeks, but still managed to finish in eleven months.  The second time took me twenty one months since I added study notes and commentaries to the schedule.  I’ve probably averaged about 15-18 months on each additional cycle, sometimes reading multiple translations.

The following is a plan that I’ve found to work for me.  I get four bookmarks and place them at the beginning of Genesis, Psalms, Proverbs, and at Matthew.  I then divide each day’s reading into two parts, consisting of a reading from the OT and the NT.  Every other day, I begin with a selection from either the Psalms or Proverbs (kind of like an appetizer), then continue to my Old and New Testament reading.  This makes the readings more interesting and easier to see the links and consistency between the testaments.  The OT books are read in the order of the Hebrew Rabbinic Canon, and the NT books in their traditional order.

Other "Thru the Bible" Plans:  If this is your first time to read thru the Bible, we suggest you check out our First Time Thru the Bible section.  Experienced readers might consider our Two Year Reading Plan.  This plan is similar to the plan on this page except, over a two year period, you’ll cover the entire Old Testament once, and the New Testament plus the OT books of Psalms and Proverbs twice.  Since this takes less time per day as the one year plan, you should be able to read the Bible daily along with some supplemental readings.

Navigation Notes:  For speed of loading, and ease of navigation and printing, we've split this into multiple pages and placed "Jump to Reading" Links near the top of each page.  You may click on the "[TOC]" links within the pages to return to these links.

Entire Bible Reading Plan

We’ve labeled the readings by reading number, so you can start any day of the year.  You’ll notice some days do not have a reading listed for Psalms or Proverbs.  There are 181 chapters in the two books combined, so reading one chapter a day will take six months.  Except for Psalms 119, I prefer to read a chapter in its entirety every other day.  Others may prefer reading half the chapter one day and the other half the next.  Either way, we’ll finish in about the same time.

If you don’t finish a reading or miss a day (or two) and fall behind, just continue where you left off.  Be cautious about trying to do too much to catch up.  As I stated before, I’ve never finished at exactly one year.  I think the one year plan helps with discipline and keeping us on course, but sometimes we might miss a day.  At other times, God may want to deal with us for two or three days on a single reading.  I’ve sometimes repeated a reading several days in a row when felt led.  The most important thing is to be consistent.  Try to set aside a certain time and place for your readings.  Before long, you’ll find yourself craving the Word.

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