If you are new to the Bible Challenge, we read the Bible in sections from September to June. There are readings for 6 days each week. If you follow the Bible Challenge for two years you will have read the whole Bible.
The first section of the Bible Challenge this fall is the Epistles.
The word Epistle means letter in Greek and that is what all of these books are - letter from a leader of the early Christian movement to congregations of believers all over what is today Italy, Greece, Turkey, and most of the middle east.
What happened was that copies were made of these letters and they were passed around from community to community. Most of the epistles were written between about 50 CE and about 80 CE. That means that most of the epistles are some of the earliest Christian writings that we have.
There are 4 categories of epistle:
The Pauline epistles are those written (as far as we can tell) by St. Paul himself. These are 1& 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians & Philemon
The pseudo-Pauline epistles are those written (as far was we can tell) by one or more of Paul's disciples, some of them after St. Paul's death. These are Ephesians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus and Colossians
The Johanine epistles are those that came out of the same theological school as the gospel of John. These are 1, 2 & 3 John
The pastoral epistles are written to individuals giving them advice. These are James, 1 & 2 Peter and Jude.
As you read the epistles, notice that most of them are focused on giving advice to the new Christians about what it means to live as a follower of Christ. Most of the epistles are concerned with the new Christians living differently enough from the world around them that people notice they are different, but not being so different from the people around them that they are seen as so strange that they should be avoided. That is because the followers of Christ at the time of the epistles believe that Jesus is coming back soon and that they need to share the Gospel with as many people as possible before Jesus returns.
Here are the readings for the section on the Epistles.
Week of September 8– Romans
Day 1 – Chapters 1-3 Day 2 –
Chapters 4–6
Day 3 – Chapters 7-9 Day 4 –
Chapters 10-12
Day 5- Chapters 13-14 Day 6 –
Chapters 15-16
Week of September 15 – 1 Corinthians
Day 1 – Chapters 1-3 Day 2 –
Chapters 4-6
Day 3 – Chapters 7-9 Day 4 –
Chapters 10-12
Day 5 – Chapters 13-14
Day 6 – Chapters 15-16
Week of September 22 – 2 Corinthians
& Galatians
Day 1 – Chapters 1-4 Day 2 –
Chapters 5-8
Day 3 – Chapters 9-11 Day 4 –
Chapters 12-13
Begin Galatians
Day 5 – Chapters 1-3 Day 6 –
Chapters 4-6
Week of September 29 – Ephesians,
Philippians & Colossians
Day 1- Chapters 1-3 Day 2-
Chapters 4-6
Begin Philippians
Day 3 – Chapters 1-2 Day 4 –
Chapters 3-4
Begin Colossians
Day 5 – Chapters 1-2 Day 6 –
Chapters 3-4
Week of October 6 – 1&2
Thessalonians, 1&2 Timothy
Day 1 – Chapters 1-3 Day 2 –
Chapters 4-5
Day 3 – 2 Thessalonians
Begin 1 Timothy
Day 4 – Chapters 1-3 Day 5 –
Chapters 4-6
Day 6 – 2 Timothy
Week of October 13 – Titus, Philemon
& Hebrews
Day 1 –Titus Day 2 – Philemon
Hebrews
Day 3 – Chapters 1-4 Day 4-
Chapters 5-7
Day 5- Chapters 8-10 Day 6 –
Chapters 11-13
Week of October 20 – James, 1&2
Peter
Day 1- Chapters 1-3 Day 2 –
Chapters 4-5
Begin 1 Peter
Day 3- Chapters 1-3 Day 4-
Chapters 4-5
Day 5 – 2 Peter
Week of October 27 – 1,2 &3
John, Jude
Day 1 – Chapters 1-3 Day 2 –
Chapters 4-5
Day 3 – 2 John Day 4 – 3 John
Day 5 – Jude
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