[post_intro]By PGH[/post_intro]
I had a goal to read the New Testament through from beginning to end during the month of January, and I did it. Here’s the one month/30-day reading schedule I used.
| Day | Chapters | # of Chapters | Approx. # of Words |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matthew 1 to Matthew 9 | 9 | 6,348 |
| 2 | Matthew 10 to Matthew 16 | 7 | 6,613 |
| 3 | Matthew 17 to Matthew 23 | 7 | 6,045 |
| 4 | Matthew 24 to Mark 1 | 6 | 6,692 |
| 5 | Mark 2 to Mark 8 | 7 | 6,525 |
| 6 | Mark 9 to Mark 13 | 5 | 5,272 |
| 7 | Mark 14 to Luke 2 | 5 | 5,915 |
| 8 | Luke 3 to Luke 7 | 5 | 5,655 |
| 9 | Luke 8 to Luke 13 | 6 | 6,901 |
| 10 | Luke 14 to Luke 20 | 7 | 6,152 |
| 11 | Luke 21 to Luke 24 | 4 | 5,617 |
| 12 | John 1 to John 6 | 6 | 6,174 |
| 13 | John 7 to John 12 | 6 | 6,536 |
| 14 | John 13 to John 20 | 8 | 6,979 |
| 15 | John 21 to Acts 7 | 8 | 6,979 |
| 16 | Acts 8 to Acts 14 | 7 | 6,545 |
| 17 | Acts 15 to Acts 20 | 6 | 5,478 |
| 18 | Acts 21 to Acts 28 | 8 | 7,026 |
| 19 | Romans 1 to Romans 8 | 8 | 5,139 |
| 20 | Romans 9 to 1 Corinthians 3 | 11 | 6,308 |
| 21 | 1 Corinthians 4 to 1 Corinthians 13 | 10 | 5,757 |
| 22 | 1 Corinthians 14 to 2 Corinthians 7 | 10 | 5,866 |
| 23 | 2 Corinthians 8 to Galatians 6 | 12 | 6,370 |
| 24 | Ephesians 1 to 1 Thessalonians 2 | 16 | 6,039 |
| 25 | 1 Thessalonians 3 to 2 Timothy 4 | 16 | 6,387 |
| 26 | Titus 1 to Hebrews 10 | 14 | 6,412 |
| 27 | Hebrews 11 to 1 Peter 3 | 11 | 6,419 |
| 28 | 1 Peter 4 to Jude 1 | 13 | 6,338 |
| 29 | Revelation 1 to Revelation 12 | 12 | 6,520 |
| 30 | Revelation 13 to Revelation 22 | 10 | 5,895 |
More information
To come up with the reading schedule, I took the total number of words in the New Testament (186,598 words, according the KJV text file that I downloaded from Project Gutenberg) and divided that by 30 days, getting 6,220 words per day. I then went through and divided the text of the New Testament into 30 sections that were more or less 6,220 words in length. I didn’t want to break up chapters, so some of the 30 sections are longer than that and some are shorter. The shortest section was 5,139 words, and the longest was 7,026 words.
I read the New Living Translation (NLT), and it was so, so, so much better than the King James Version. I understood and learned so much more than I would have otherwise. I read it on the NLT Bible Android app, and it was great. It’s relatively pricey for an app, but it works offline. For iOS, I used the free Bible app. You can read the NLT with it, but you need a data or WiFi connection (i.e., it doesn’t work offline). You can read the NLT online for free here.
Next up? The Book of Mormon in a month.
PGH is the founder of Mormono. He can be contacted here.
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Image source: Flickr user gwilmore