When the bible reminds you how much you don’t actually know

I’m currently in the first segment of a multi-year, self devised, bible reading plan.

The gist is pretty simple. I read, chronologically, segments of the bible. I start by reading the passage first slowly, then looking in depth at passages I didn’t understand.

At the moment, I’ve reading Genesis 1-25 until the end of next week.

If you asked me at the start of the year how many passages I’d be stumped by, them I’d probably guess around a half dozen.

This isn’t because I’m an Old Testament scholar.

But, I’ve got a bachelor of theology. I’ve been reading the bible for more than a few decades. I’ve written over ten years of Tiny Bible Bits. I’ve taught hundreds of scripture lessons.

I would think that I’d, at least, be familiar with much of the first few dozen chapters of the bible…

Nope.

Turns out the list of things to look deeper into is actually fairly extensive.

Genesis 4, 5, 6:18, 9:18-27, 10, 11:10-32, 12:10-20, 14, 16, 18:16-33, 19, 20, 21:8-21, 23, 24 & 25.

In a way, I’m a little disappointed. I feel like I should know more.

But, at the same time, it’s refreshing to be reminded that I - in fact - know far less than I often suppose.

It’s a good reminder, especially if I’m still going to have another half century of following Jesus - and thus reading the Bible - ahead of me, that there’s still a lot of things I need to dig into and a lot more to learn.