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Last year I had the pleasure of reviewing The Bible Recap: A One-Year Guide to Reading and Understanding the Entire Bible by Tara-Leigh Cobble. This year, I have been reviewing two additional books that accompany The Bible Recap.
The Bible Recap Study Guide: Daily Questions to Deepen Your Understanding of the Entire Bible is a softcover book of 379 pages that takes readers on a 52-week journey to read the entire Bible. The Study Guide provides information on how to use the guide itself:
- Pick a reading plan
- Use The Bible Recap Journal
- Use the study guide
- Listen to the podcast or use The Bible Recap book
- Visit thebiblerecap.com for weekly discussions and more information
Tara-Leigh Cobble writes that you don't have to use all the resources, but they will complement each other. Personally, I used The Bible Recap book this year and the reading plan on YouVersion but did not venture to the podcast or website. This year I would like to incorporate The Study Guide and the journal into my daily Bible reading.
The Study Guide is very easy to navigate and to use. Each of the 52 weeks of readings is broken up in the table of contents by days and provides the Bible book and chapter number. So even if you aren't reading the Bible in its entirety using The Bible Recap chronological reading plan, you can find each Bible reading easily.
When my copy of The Study Guide arrived, I was on about week 49 or 50 using The Bible Recap chronological reading plan. It was very easy to pick up where I was in the study guide. I really like how the two books complement each other so well. I can sit with each and my Bible to answer the questions.
What Are the Questions Like?
There are some questions that require outside research, such as Day 345: Romans 14-16, #2
"Look up the word used for 'keep' (14:22) in a Greek lexicon and write down what you find. How does this help inform our understanding of this verse?" (page 357)
There are also some questions that are repetitive but not in a bad way. As you start a new book in the Bible, The Study Guide asks:
- Who wrote the book?
- "To or for whom was it written?"
- "When was it written?"
- What is the literary style?
I like that we are asked to think about individual authors as well as put the books of the Bible into context while working our way through the reading plan.
There is plenty of room to write one's answers in The Study Guide. The pages are of a nice quality, but I can still see my writing showing a bit through on the reverse side. (I don't see this as a distraction, though.) I like that the cover design is the same as The Bible Recap. They all look nice on my shelf. I do find the material of the book covers tends to grab dust if the book sits on the coffee table a day or two untouched.
What Do I Think?
I think if you are looking for a study guide to help you deepen your understanding of the Bible, this will be a welcome resource. The questions go beyond just simple identifications and ask you to think critically. You can write your answers in
The Study Guide or your own journal or Bible. I think teens to adults would find
The Bible Study Guide to be helpful. I look forward to using it as I continue to read through the Bible year after year.
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