The only thing better than Bible reading

I realize the title of this piece is a bit provocative, but I’m going to argue that carefully listening to the Bible read aloud has certain advantages over silently reading the Bible, and that you should try carefully listening to extended portions of the Bible while following along in a printed copy.

It all began for me back in 2011. I had silently read the Bible cover-to-cover several times, but never in the King James Version. 2011 was the 400^th anniversary of the venerable KJV and everybody in the blogosphere was celebrating it, so I thought this would be the year I’d try reading it in its entirety.

Now, truth be told, I had no clue what I was getting in to. I was raised on the NIV, and had basically never used the KJV, but thought, “It can’t be that hard, can it?”. I shouldn’t have thought so highly of myself! After about a week I was completely lost. Trying to decipher the KJV felt comparable to trying to read Chinese (and I don’t even speak Chinese). Quickly I was growing to hate Bible reading and wishing I hadn’t begun such an impetuous endeavor.

Everything changed when, as a last-ditch effort, I began listening to an audio version of the KJV while I read along. I discovered that by listening in conjunction to reading, my comprehension multiplied ten times. I actually have a hard time describing the effect; it was so profoundly helpful, it was a bit like seeing for the first time. Suddenly words and phrases which were previously meaningless began to make sense, dialogue which was incoherent started to fall into place, and my daily Bible reading quickly became one of the most enjoyable parts of my day.

That year I not only finished listening/reading the entire KJV but went on to listen/read the entire KJV twice more. Since then I’ve moved on to other translations, but have maintained this practice of carefully listening to the Bible as I follow along in a written text, and the benefits have been enormous. I honestly feel so strongly about the advantages of listening to/reading the Bible that I intend to continue it for the rest of my life, and commend it to everybody I can.

It shouldn’t surprise us that listening to the Bible has certain benefits over silent reading. This is how much (most?) of the Bible was originally designed by the Holy Spirit to be communicated (e.g., Exod 24:7; Deut 31:11; Neh 8:3; Col 4:16). Furthermore, throughout church history, due to illiteracy and (especially prior to the invention of the printing press) the lack of printed texts, most of God’s people imbibed God’s word though the ear-gate as opposed to the eye-gate. I find it interesting that Jesus describes his sheep as those who “hear” his voice and not merely as those who read his words silently (Matt 7:24; John 10:27; Jas 1:22-23; Rev 1:3, 22:18). And lastly, if the Bible reading is done by a competent individual who understands what he is reading, he’ll read with a good bit of interpretive colour, aiding understanding and application, something impossible to expect from a bare printed page.

Now if I’ve piqued your interests and you want to give Bible listening/reading a try, where should you begin? Here are a few suggestions.

First, don’t do your Bible listening/reading while you’re doing something else. My great fear in commending Bible listening is that somebody will think, “Wow, this is great, I’ll just listen to the Bible while I do the dishes, and that will be my time in God’s word”. Now it’s certainly fine to listen to the Bible while doing the dishes, but that’s not what I’m describing here. Instead, stop doing everything, sit down, open your Bible to follow along, and listen carefully.

Second, invest in a good audio Bible edition in the translation you prefer. In the past, I’ve used both Max McLean’s The Listener’s Bible (which is available in KJV, ESV, and NIV84) and the ESV Hear the Word Audio Bible, both to great benefit. Bible Gateway has several audio Bible translations available to listen to completely for free.

I’d encourage you to avoid audio Bible versions performed by famous celebrities. I tried this once, and it quickly became obvious that the celebrity didn’t understand the Bible at all but was simply paid to create a recording because he had a well-known voice. (Feel free to email me privately if you want to ask about that one.) If you’re going to invest 75-80 hours listening to the Bible read aloud, it’d be wise to get a decent edition.

Lastly, give it some time. You probably won’t experience the benefits I described above after a day or two, but after a week or a month, I’d be willing to bet you’ll sense your reading comprehension mushrooming. The combined effect of engaging multiple senses simultaneously will increase understanding exponentially. I suspect that soon you’ll be wondering, “Why didn’t I try listening/reading the Bible years ago?”

Try Bible listening/reading regularly for three months and let us know how it goes. It just might change your daily Bible reading routine forever.