Apart from War and Peace, my other reading project for 2012 was to read the entire Bible, a few chapters a day (or an entire book if it is short). I therefore finished Revelation, and the whole thing, this morning. I have already written up my thoughts on the Old Testamentavant la lettre). I was struck by how hardline Paul is, particularly in the early letters, on the issues that hardliners still stick to today, and also on the question of justification by faith; but there is a significant counterbalance from some of the later letters, especially 1 Peter which seems to be a direct response in some ways. (And the Epistle of Jude seems strangely familiar after 2 Peter ch 2…)
Finally, Revelation is the most Old Testament-y of the New Testament books. (There is nothing like the letters in the Old Testament, and the gospels and Acts are quite different in style from the OT historical books.) Again, Revelation is an attempt to express in words that which cannot be expressed in words; it is clearly not meant to be taken literally, but as one person's attempt to concretise the underlying truths.
Unlike War and Peace, I don't particularly recommend that others repeat this experiment, or at least that they should not do it in the same way as I did. But it's worth getting more familiar with a book which is so central to our own culture.
Mark October 23-29
Luke October 30 – November 9
John November 10-17
Acts November 18-27
Romans November 28 – December 1
1 Corinthians December 2-5
2 Corinthians December 6-7
Galatians December 8
Ephesians December 9
Philippians December 10
Colossians December 11
1 Thessalonians December 12
2 Thessalonians December 13
1 Timothy December 14
2 Timothy December 15
Titus December 16
Philemon December 17
Hebrews December 18-20
James December 21
1 Peter December 22
2 Peter December 23
1 John December 24
2 John December 25
3 John December 26
Jude December 27
Revelation December 29-31
Happy birthday!