# Bible readers



## Deborah White

Hello,

   My teacher used to tell us if we ever finished reading Bible, we would definitely have a better and deeper understanding of the western culture.

But in the fast-paced modern life, we who face a lot of tasks week by week actually have no such ambition to carry out the huge reading project.  Besides, as a foreign language learner, our vocabulary is not so big to enable an easy and enjoyable reading.

I wonder what is the rough proportion of people who really finish Bible reading for at least once among you native English-speaking countries?  

Do you think Bible reading is a feasible reading task for you natives as well as foreign learnes?

Thank you in advance for paying attention to my post.


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## Hulalessar

If you want to understand western culture you need to have an understanding of the many forms of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and you will not obtain that just by reading the Bible or any other one book.


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## Sepia

If you can find a modern translation of the Bible it is probably one useful piece of the puzzle. However, to understand Western culture it is probably not so much the content of the Bible itself that is important rather than the whole constellation:

The present content of the Bible as opposed to what was changed or deleted from previous versions of the Bible, the politics and the way the religion as such was instrumentalized to form society and even some of the states that we still know as sovereign states.


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## ernest_

I would suggest some sociology or even antropology book rather than the Bible. Honestly, I don't know what can be learnt from the Bible that has something to do with the modern world.


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## Miguelillo 87

And By the way, as far as I know Bibli is not writen only in english, but in many languages, Spanish, French, German and I supposed Korean too, 'cause there is some catholic or christian koreans Right? 

I mean Bible wasn't written originally neither of this languages so... Why don't you try to find a korean Bible?


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## Nunty

Much literature in the English language contains overt references or subtle allusions to Bible stories and words or phrases. Being familiar with them would certainly be a help.

It's not so big, you know. Many of Dickens' works are longer!

I've read the Bible start to finish many times, and I know many other people who have as well. But those who grew up in an English-speaking environment imbibe a lot of "Bible culture" even without having read it.


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## palomnik

To answer your first question, the majority of people in the west have not read the whole Bible.

Many fundamentalist Christians have read the whole Bible; some have read it several times. Members of the Christian clergy (like Nun-Translator, for example) regardless of denomination, usually have read the whole Bible; Jewish clergy too, although of course Jewish clergy would probably not have read the New Testament, although a surprising number have done. Most people who consider themselves serious Christians, regardless of what denomination they profess, have read at least most of the New Testament at one time or another.

By way of an example, I come from a Christian background. I have not read the entire Bible, and I don't think that I ever will. Still, I know where most of the major stories in the Bible can be found if I have to find them.

As to whether it is a feasible reading task, it can be if you believe in the Bible. However, it is a difficult task to undertake if you are simply trying to learn the sources of Western culture, and I wouldn't recommend it as a way to learn more about the West.

In fact, it can be argued that western culture since the Renaissance is largely an exercise in subverting what the bible has taught, at least in some ways and in some cultural milieux.

You're obviously quite proficient in English. While reading the Bible would not be a waste of time, you may want to confine yourself to the New Testament, at least initially. You may also want to read the major Greek philosophers, or at least some part of them.


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## sokol

Hello Deborah,

I cannot agree with your teacher's claim that you will "understand" Western Culture if you've read the Bible. It will help, but *much *more is needed.

Further, to understand Western Culture especially the New Testament would be important - so if you want to try then begin with that.
Much in Western Culture directly or indirectly refers to the Bible and it certainly helps to know some parts.

I haven't read the entire Bible either - far from it; but I've read it in parts (and personally I prefer the Old Testament which is about the history of the Jewish people while the New Testament is about Jesus; nevertheless my suggestions stand to begin with New Testament if you want to come to a deeper understanding of Western Culture).


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## JamesM

I have read the Bible from cover to cover at least twice. I can't say that I would find it to be the best way to learn about western culture but at the same time it can shed some light on many aspects of modern culture, particularly in the U.S. The Bible has also had a tremendous influence on English, just as Shakespeare's writings have. Reading all of Shakespeare's works would be quite a task for many, but knowing the key characters and plots of his most famous works would explain many words, phrases and idioms in English. The same is true for the Bible.

I would say that reading Genesis (the first book) would be helpful because it includes many stories that are still deeply embedded in modern English. Many of our images and expressions in English spring from these stories: "Let there be light", "the garden of Eden", "forbidden fruit", "Eve and the apple", "Am I my brother's keeper?", "the tower of Babel", "Noah's ark", "ashes to ashes", "The Great Flood", "fire and brimstone", "Sodom and Gamorrah", "Adam's rib", "Lot's wife", and more. You may run into these phrases and allusions to these stories in anything from a book review to a discussion on ecology to an editorial on the current political climate. 

Reading one of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John) would be handy as an outline of events, expressions and archetypes that are often referred to indirectly in English -- "doubting Thomas", "Last Supper", "breaking bread together", "salt of the earth", "faith that moves mountains", "an eye for an eye", "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak", "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die", "turning the other cheek", "casting stones (let he who is without sin cast the first stone)", "Pharisees", "Judas", "the kiss of death", "good Samaritan (shortened to good Sam sometimes)", "the prodigal son", "the scales fell from my eyes", "those who live by the sword, die by the sword", "I wash my hands of it", "blood money", "thirty pieces of silver", "the blind leading the blind", "going the extra mile". It wouldn't take long to read all the gospels and each one has a slightly different point of view and presentation style.

Many sayings also come from the Psalms and Proverbs, two other books. Proverbs is probably more interesting to read than Psalms, although there is some beautiful poetry in Psalms.

I don't know that reading the entire Bible, particularly without some sort of explanatory commentary, would be that useful, but I do think that reading through the key books and stories would provide some insight into many expressions and idioms.


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## Teena

ernest_ said:


> _I would suggest some sociology or even antropology book rather than the Bible._ Honestly, I don't know what can be learnt from the Bible that has something to do with the modern world.


 
I've to agree with this one.


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## miguel64086

Miguelillo 87 said:


> And By the way, as far as I know Bibli is not writen only in english, but in many languages, Spanish, French, German and I supposed Korean too, 'cause there is some catholic or christian koreans Right?
> 
> I mean Bible wasn't written originally neither of this languages so... Why don't you try to find a korean Bible?




Amen to that!

I think that it's an overstatement to say that "until you read the whole Bible you'll understand western culture". If it helps, it should not matter in what language you read it.
Now, being Christian and all... I can tell you that you can understand everything about humanity and God from studying the Bible... a never ending task... but that's another post in another forum.

I guess a more accurate statement would be that reading the Bible can help you understand western culture... along with Newspapers, TV, anthropology, sociology, etc...
If you still would want to read the Bible, instead of reading the whole thing  you should at least read Genesis and the New Testament, for the cultural references and other things mention in other posts here...  or join a Bible Study group if you are living in Europe or US or...


by the way... since United States is East of Korea... do your people call us "the East" ?     and call Russia and the Persian Gulf "the West" ? 
(I'm just kidding)

Greetings!


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## Sepia

ernest_ said:


> I would suggest some sociology or even antropology book rather than the Bible. Honestly, I don't know what can be learnt from the Bible that has something to do with the modern world.


 
How would you describe the sociology of Europe without taking into consideration what impact approx. 1000 years of religion based on the Bible has had on it?


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## JeanDeSponde

Sure, the Bible is an interesting book to understand the Western, Christian World.
So are thousands, hundreds of thousands of books of all kinds and scopes.
When cultural roots are concerned, Greek and Latin mythology are a great reading, too.


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## Miguelillo 87

Sepia said:


> How would you describe the sociology of Europe without taking into consideration what impact approx. 1000 years of religion based on the Bible has had on it?


 
Yes you're right, but also we have to consider that we have another 1000 years of greek mytology, Rome; Aztec, Mayan and Inca culture in America; Muslims in Spain; I mean all this you can find it in an antropology book.

Bible is good, but Religion id not 100% the mixture of a culture


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## JamesM

Miguelillo 87 said:


> Yes you're right, but also we have to consider that we have another 1000 years of greek mytology, Rome; Aztec, Mayan and Inca culture in America; Muslims in Spain; I mean all this you can find it in an antropology book.
> 
> Bible is good, but Religion id not 100% the mixture of a culture


 
I suppose I'm thinking about this from the impact on language as much as culture, since this is a language board.

I could read a history of England and get a very good idea of Shakespeare's position historically in England, but it would never introduce me to phrases like "the play's the thing", "all's well that end well", "the lady doth protest too much methinks", "all the world's a stage", "goodnight, sweet prince", "once more unto the breech", "he loved not wisely but too well", "much ado about nothing", "in one fell swoop" and dozens of other expressions adopted into everday English from his writings. 

History would not introduce me to archetypes like Lady Macbeth, Iago, Romeo and Juliet and so many others. I would be looking at the setting for the source material but not the source material itself.

I think there is great value in reading the source material for the impact it has on a culture and language. For that reason I think there is quite a bit of value in reading the Bible, in my opinion, if only as literature.


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## ernest_

Sepia said:


> How would you describe the sociology of Europe without taking into consideration what impact approx. 1000 years of religion based on the Bible has had on it?



Well, certainly the Church was a powerful organisation once upon a time, and it had a direct influence over the governments of the European nations and over those societies, but you won't learn that from the Bible, as the book predates the Church itself, so it says nothing about it, as far as I can tell. Maybe I'm wrong, but I once read the Genesis, and right now I can't recall anything specific in it that could help understand the society I live in.


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## xqby

ernest_ said:


> Maybe I'm wrong, but I once read the Genesis, and right now I can't recall anything specific in it that could help understand the society I live in.



So people are just going to figure out that saying "let there be light" before hitting the switch is a joke through... telepathy? I mean yeah, if you're not interested in understanding the finer points of what literate people are talking about then I guess you can skip the corpus of Western thought. References to the Bible pop up all the time even in informal media though, and I don't see how that can be safely ignored by someone who wants a deeper understanding of a culture that was influenced by said book for centuries.

Also, Deborah, this was easy to find; I can't imagine a paper copy would be hard to come by.


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## Kevin Beach

It is true that western civilisation is based largely on Christianity, but not necessarily on what would be found in the bible alone. The religion and culture of western Europe was based on Catholic Christianity, and that of Eastern Europe on Orthodox Christianity. Though they both lean heavily on the bible, neither rests its belief wholly on it. It is only Protestantism, and not all branches of it, that rests its faith solely on the bible. Western culture was over a thousand years old by the time of the first Protestants. The bible didn't start to become widely read in any language (including Latin) until the late medieval period, when the printing press was invented.

To take that subject further here would be to risk an explosion of heated theological and ecclesiological debate that would be definitely off-topic.

As to reading the English bible to improve one's English, it is said that early Modern English rests on the works of Shakespeare and the King James version of the bible. That's an exaggeration, but they are the major surviving influences. If you want to read the bible for its spiritual content, then I recommend that you do it in your own language, because you will derive far more meaning from it. However, once your own version of the bible (or some reasonably large passages of it) are familiar to you and resonate in your mind, you could learn a lot by comparing the same passages in a modern English version


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## ernest_

xqby said:


> So people are just going to figure out that saying "let there be light" before hitting the switch is a joke through... telepathy? I mean yeah, if you're not interested in understanding the finer points of what literate people are talking about then I guess you can skip the corpus of Western thought.



You can't expect a man to read every single piece of literature that the Western civilisation has produced in the last 4.000 years, just so that he can understand a joke or an obscure reference that occasionally may pop up in a conversation.
Granted, the language is full of religious references. It's also is full of pagan references, football references, literary and historic references and so on. If you are interested in classic literature, go ahead, read the Iliad and the Aeneid. But don't do it, if you just want to know what a Trojan horse is... it would be foolish. There are infinitely more efficient ways to find out what a word or expression means.


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## Chaska Ñawi

I'm going to post first as moderator, then as forera.

As moderator, I'm cautioning all posters to bear in mind the guidelines regarding religious topics and personal opinions.  Obviously, this topic will engender many personal opinions - please make sure that you support them.  Otherwise your posts will be removed.  (Some posts so far have been very close to the edge here.)

As a forera:

My knowledge of Shakespeare, together with the King James Bible, continue to enrich my understanding of other texts (everything from Anne of Green Gables to political speeches), which in turn continue to enrich my understanding of that aspect of my culture.  That which contributes to language cannot help but contribute to culture.  Linguistically, however, this is limited to the King James version.

For understanding of content, as opposed to linguistic enrichment, reading either text in the original isn't particularly helpful.  This is why I'd read any challenging text in English before tackling it in the original.

I think that James has provided the most comprehensive explanation of the benefits and limitations.  

Personally, I _think _I've read the entire bible, but I've never set out to read it cover to cover.  Sometimes I'll read it as reference, sometimes in search of an expression, sometimes in search of inspiration.  Sometimes I'll read it unassisted, and sometimes with accompanying notes.  Every now and then I'll switch to a more recent and possibly more accurate translation.  It's never in any particular order, and my forays are irregular and infrequent.

Are you sorry now that you even asked this question?


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## alexacohen

JamesM said:


> I have read the Bible from cover to cover at least twice. .


So have I, many times. My Bible does not match exactly the one that James has read, though. But I don´t know many people who have.


> I don't know that reading the entire Bible, particularly without some sort of explanatory commentary, would be that useful, but I do think that reading through the key books and stories would provide some insight into many expressions and idioms.


I agree wholeheartedly with everything you said, JamesM. The influence of the Bible (at least in Europe) can be found in language, literature, art, architecture, music. OK, I may be a Jew, but Passio Secundum Matthaeum, Westminster Cathedral, el Martirio de San Sebastián, the Chanson de Roland, the Arthurian legends, the Sixtine Chapel... that´s culture.


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## JamesM

You know, I completely forgot about the question regarding how many people have read it cover to cover. Even among practicing Christians in the U.S. I expect the percentage is very low. 

Here is an interesting set of summary statistics (from a few years ago) regarding Americans and bible reading. Honestly, I would be surprised if as many as 1 in 20 Americans had read the entire bible once. My wild guess would be more like 1 in 50 Americans. I imagine the percentage would be higher for those who have read the entire New Testament. According to this site, 65% of American Christians have not read the entire New Testament, which implies that 35% have. None of these statistics are correlated (and have no citations for verification) and it's difficult to say who was counted as Christian in this 65% figure, but assuming they are talking about all people who identify themselves as Christian (which is roughly 70% according to this site), I would guess that 1 in 5 Americans have read the entire New Testament. It's not that much to read.

I wish I could find a single site with all the statistics to bear out how many Americans have read the entire Bible or even the New Testament, but so far, no luck.


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## ampurdan

I have never read it "cover to cover" but I've read many passages and I'd say I've heard all the New Testament. 

You won't find an explanation of today's Western culture. You'll just find some very helpful keys to understand it. Idioms are a part of it (English, having been more influenced by Protestant Churches, which gave a central role to the "Holy Scriptures" and promote the vulgarization of the Bible, as Kevin Beach has explained, has been much more directly impacted by the idioms used in the King James version; I'd said that the Bible's influence in Spanish has been much more mediated, mainly because the Catholic Church forbade its translation to vulgar tongues, but you can find many biblical echoes in popular sayings, not to talk about educated speeches and literature).

However, irrespective of the language you read it in, you will find ancient myths and stories that are used today with different intents, the epic of the People of Israel (very important), lists of dos and don'ts that are still important for many people today in different ways. And you will find also many spiritual teachings to which we can root some of the values of Western people today, no matter how religious they are.

If you want to understand Christianity, it's very important that you read some of St. Paul's main epistles. That's where he explains his view of the transcendental meaning of the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross. You'll find here an explanation of the overabundance of the symbol of the Cross in Western art and the meaning of suffering, etc.

Of course, there are other books that will help you explain our culture. In fact, if you're just interested in Western culture, I think it would be better to read a book that has been primarily written for that purpose, today. I think it needs to explain many things that come from the Bible, though.

I think most people here don't have read it, but a lot of Westerners have heard many of the stories and teachings of that book through their Churches or through literature and art. It's true that everyday it's less so, at least for Spain.


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## danielfranco

Probably another book, along with the Bible, that could help to understand the Western worldview would be "The rise and fall of the Roman Empire."

I think I have read the Bible from Genesis to Revelations at least once, but I'm not sure. Some details of the early years of my life are a bit fuzzy… But, for sure, a large portion of the Western Weltanschauung is steeped in Bible lore. Not all of it, obviously, but a good chunk of it.
D


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## Sepia

JeanDeSponde said:


> Sure, the Bible is an interesting book to understand the Western, Christian World.
> So are thousands, hundreds of thousands of books of all kinds and scopes.
> When cultural roots are concerned, Greek and Latin mythology are a great reading, too.


 
I was not talking about what is great reading. When I refer to the impact the introduction of Christianity has had on our societies I am hinting at the way it was used in a larger scale concept which included destroying important parts of the existing cultures at that time. It is obvious that many parts of the original scripts that became the Bible as we know it were reedited, and many were totally banned, in order to construct a religion that is suitable in the course of building empires. Empires that served as the foundation for the European states that exist today. So there is no way you can make yourself a clear picture how the Western world became what it is without some knowledge of the bible.


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## Miguelillo 87

Sepia said:


> I was not talking about what is great reading. When I refer to the impact the introduction of Christianity has had on our societies I am hinting at the way it was used in a larger scale concept which included destroying important parts of the existing cultures at that time. It is obvious that many parts of the original scripts that became the Bible as we know it were reedited, and many were totally banned, in order to construct a religion that is suitable in the course of building empires. Empires that served as the foundation for the European states that exist today. So there is no way you can make yourself a clear picture how the Western world became what it is without some knowledge of the bible.


 
I haven't seen it in this way, and I have to say, I TOTALLY AGREE; here in the "new world" when europenas conquerors arrived, the most powerful way to conquer wasn't exactly the sword but the Holy bible and the missioners, some really good who helped indegeous people to survive but always destroying their culture and idols


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## JeanDeSponde

Sepia said:


> [...] So there is no way you can make yourself a clear picture how the Western world became what it is without some knowledge of the bible.


This "some" would need to be quantified - as many, many people have never read it directly, or have read just small excerpts of it. Still _I_ wouldn't pretend they don't have a clear vision of their world.
_History _is necessary to understand how we became what we are. The Bible is part of History - though only a part of it...

The original question was whether reading the Bible was necessary to understand Western culture.
Reading the Bible to understand religion, not to mention culture, is like reading a book on advanced physics. Whithout guidance or background, it is hopeless...


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## Sepia

JeanDeSponde said:


> This "some" would need to be quantified - as many, many people have never read it directly, or have read just small excerpts of it. Still _I_ wouldn't pretend they don't have a clear vision of their world.
> _History _is necessary to understand how we became what we are. The Bible is part of History - though only a part of it...
> 
> The original question was whether reading the Bible was necessary to understand Western culture.
> Reading the Bible to understand religion, not to mention culture, is like reading a book on advanced physics. Whithout guidance or background, it is hopeless...



OK, what France is concerned I agree that the destruction of the original culture started with the the Roman invasion - which eventually even destroyed the language (except for some parts of the North). But after that came Christianity. Came out of Rome too, by the way.

It is my observation that people do not have a clear vision - what about women's rights? For how long did French women not have equal rights - and for how long did people consider this a normal thing? In the ancient Celtic cultures on the same territory women obviously did have rights and some were very wealthy, successful and had a lot of power. I'd be surprised if 10% of the population even have a vague notion of what changed that - or of what changed the culture drastically in other ways.


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## JeanDeSponde

Sepia said:


> OK, what France is concerned I agree [...]. But after that came Christianity. Came out of Rome too, by the way.


Nope - Rome was a mess, at the time. It came back to Europe through Irish monks, actually. Rome played no role at all (which can't be found in the Bible).
History, history...
And I fully agree with the importance of Women's rights, in France or else.


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## Sepia

JeanDeSponde said:


> Nope - Rome was a mess, at the time. It came back to Europe through Irish monks, actually. Rome played no role at all (which can't be found in the Bible).
> History, history...
> And I fully agree with the importance of Women's rights, in France or else.



So where, according to your history book was the Roman Catholic Church founded and when?


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## Mate

*Moderator note*:

As in any other discussion where religion is involved, this thread is starting to go off course.

In order to keep it open all participants are kindly asked to remain on topic. 

Thanks.


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## Forero

Both the Bible and Western Culture are quite complex.  Western Culture, for example, is full of contradiction, class struggles, etc.

I don't believe most Western people have read the entire Bible, but some have, maybe about 0.2% of Southern Americans.  Those that have almost always say they have been enriched by it, but I have never heard any of them say it has helped them to understand Western Culture.

The Bible is a collection of books by different authors, some of quite different cultures (in the Middle East, not the West), but the Bible is unchanging.  Western Culture is constantly changing.  Some members of Western Society have used the Bible as a weapon against others; some have used the Bible to appease others.  Some "write the words on their hearts and minds" and hold the Bible dear; others jeer at it.

If you prefer reading culture to living in it (reading is probably safer and more affordable), read whatever interests you about Western Culture, or compare news reports produced by different cultures.  Compare the Bible to a famous book from your own culture.  Google phrases from the Bible and see how they are interpreted differently by various Westerners.  The Bible, like other Western-known books, has been mentioned extensively in Word Reference, which I venture to say is a fruit of Western Culture at its best.


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## Hermocrates

Western culture is a set of complex and varied literary, artistic, philosophical, linguistic and scientific expressions. I'm afraid such complexity cannot be summarised by a single book (even if, yes, I am away the Bible is considered a "collection" of different books).

The Bible had a significant cultural impact on Western culture, but the shaping and metamorphosis that Western culture underwent in _several thousand _years is by no means limited to it. In order to have a good understanding of Western culture you should also study the basics of _Western history_ (from early Mediterranean civilizations to at least WWII) and the basics of _Western philosophy _(beginning with Greek philosophers). Then, knowing these basics, you can begin to read different literary examples produced in different ages and in different European countries. If you're unsure about what texts you should read, look for a typical "_Western canon_" list. 

In particular, classic (=Greek and Latin) mythology, epics and drama are as necessary as the Bible in order to understand the cultural basics that shaped the Western civilization. You will find references to them through centuries of literature and cultural clichés. 
And if you want to understand _contemporary_ Western culture, I think it would be recommendable to learn about Western literature up until the XX century.


Rye


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## Sepia

Forero said:


> ...
> I don't believe most Western people have read the entire Bible, but some have, maybe about 0.2% of Southern Americans.  Those that have almost always say they have been enriched by it, but I have never heard any of them say it has helped them to understand Western Culture.
> 
> The Bible is a collection of books by different authors, some of quite different cultures (in the Middle East, not the West), but the Bible is unchanging.  Western Culture is constantly changing. ...
> 
> ... .



This is more or less the point I am aiming at. Various political organisations of today are still trying to use the Bible as a political tool. Religion plays a major role in American politics and even in Europe numerous poltical parties wanted a reference to "God" written into the European Union's constitution. 
(They were overruled, though.)

Today people generally do not know what is in the Bible because they have not read it. Centuries ago they did not know either because they could not read it. Partly because they were illiterate and partly because for a long time it only existed in Latin, which lots of people did not understand. For a long time they preached in Latin although most people did not understand that. Nevertheless it is a fact that various people were successful in building empires based on the religion that people back then - just as people today - more or less only know based on relayed mouth to mouth information. 

This is why I claim that it would be easier to understand what is, what has been going on for some centuries, if one takes closer a look at this religion that used to be compulsory state religion in lot of countries - and a closer look at these countries today. What bits of pieces of this seemingly unchanging Bible has been used form society, or are still being used to form and influence society today. 

When I say "seemingly unchanging" it is because the official claim still is "this is God's word", sometimes with the addition "... spoken by the mouth of human beings". This sounds pretty cathegoric and unchanging, and when we take a closer look the book that we know as "The Bible" has been changed numerous times on several points, as it seems in order to fit into the politics at the time editors put their hands on it. 
Some of the changes are probably OK because if they were using the original Bible including the original 10 Commandments, there is no way that the churches would find widespread acceptance in a democratic society. They were changed, boiled down to a minimum and did in some cases influence lawmaking ...

And if you ask "couldn't we make further changes" they'll probably claim nothing has been changed. I've seen that happen several times. Does this guarantee us that nothing is changed if it fits into the policy of the Church?

However lots of processes where society might change faster are in many cases being delayed by individuals that have a strong influence on people based on religion. I already mentioned women's rights. Another good example is the divorce-issue in the Rep. of Ireland. 
And the strange phenomena that in Germany you are not entitled to welfare-money if your parents or your children are wealthy enough to support you - this is also based on the Catholic interpretation of Christianity. 
Various methods in the field of alternative medicine are still frowned upon simply because clergymen at some time in history defined these methods as "pagan" methods or "the work of the Devil". Not that people care much about the Devil but once they get used to "frowning upon something" they sometimes keep on doing so for a few generations. 
So if you want to know why "Traditional Chinese Medicine" is world famous and only a few even know of any "Traditional Germanic Medicine" or "Traditional Celtic Medicine", then just follow the track of The Bible. 

Etc.

So that is why I won't go for the argument - "most people have not read the whole Bible, so reading it does not give answers about our society". Even if 90% were claimng to be atheists the impact of the religion had on our societies will not be gone for a long time to come.


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## Lugubert

There is much in the culture where I live (Sweden) that refers to expressions and events in the Bible. A certain knowledge of the Scripture gives you a useful background to many aspects of literature, music and art.

I had already read the book(s) through once, including the Apocrypha, and the complete NT at least twice more, when I took up Religious studies. Soon afterwards, when I had to argue my views in an academic setting, my reading left one alternative only: I had to be an atheist.

Now, I'm in 3rd semester OT studies. It's great fun to be unmoved by the text, being able to (I hope sufficiently) unbiased dig into how the Hebrew words can be interpreted and what they might have ment to contemporary people. It's also quite challenging to find a perfectly new and personal but well argued translation (did I mention that I'm a professional med/sci/tech translator?) without stepping too heavily on believers' toes.


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## Forero

Like the complete works of Shakespeare or Dickens, the Bible can seem to a Westerner to be "too full of quotations" to be read normally.  In other words, culture may have a greater effect on reading the Bible than reading the Bible does on culture.

 Where I live, a certain number of misreadings and misquotes are built into the culture (e.g. "an helpmate for him" for "an help mete for him", "the handwriting on the wall" instead of "the hand writing on the wall"), and actually reading and understanding the source can sometimes put a person at odds with the prevailing culture.

The Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches take as their official source a different version of the Old Testament than most Jewish and Protestant traditions.  One significant difference is the phrase  "a virgin will conceive" in the Greek and Latin Old Testaments for "a young woman (or maiden) will conceive" in the Hebrew, resolved for most Protestant churches, but not for the Jewish traditions, by the reference to the "virgin" version in the New Testament.  It is, however, the Catholic/Orthodox Old Testament that documents the miracle of the lamps on which the Jewish Chanukkah festival is based.

Just as it would probably be hard for Shakespeare to recognize the language of England today, or for Abraham Lincoln to recognize the 21st century GOP as his own party, you may find little correlation between what the Bible says and the practices of the various denominations, including many who claim to be Bible based and non-sectarian.

I daresay the number of Western Cultures is greater than the number of original versions of the Bible.  An infinitude of practices  have been condemned for biblical reasons by some and insisted upon for biblical reasons by others, often members of the same congregation: cristening/baptizing of infants, corporal punishment, marrriage for clergy members, divorce, polygamy, dancing, movies, television, theater, bingo, use of alcohol, use of musical instruments, taking of oaths, praying to various persons, pledges of allegiance to various entities, slavery, war, inequitable treatment or expulsion of foreigners, and inhumane treatment and killing of sinners.


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