What is the most commonly read version of the Bible in the United States?

[Moonbear]

I read the Bible for fun...not that I read all of it. But I did read the entire OT (skipping a couple of the begats here and there) and about 60% of the NT.

Well, I haven't read the whole thing yet, but I've read about 1/3 of it so far, along with some skipping around the New Testament. I consider it an interesting historical document; essentially a set of laws written down for ancient people to follow. The threat of God's wrath was just embellishment to get the unruly masses to listen to their kings. The New Testament turns more into religious propaganda, but the Old Testament includes rules that made a lot of sense for the time they were written. A lot of it really dealt with simple hygiene issues.

I also find many parts of it interesting because of my perspective as a scientist. You can see how the people at the time it was written viewed the world around them. There are descriptions of things that, for example, sound a lot like tornados and water spouts, but instead are described as the water funneling up to the heavens, or something like that. I find it amusing that it's almost like they made the first, even if misguided, attempt at biological classification systems too. For example, things with wings all seem to get lumped together (birds and flying insects), things that creep (including non-flying insects) get lumped together. They distinguish between animals with and without cloven hooves, etc. I actually think you'd miss that level of information and detail if you read it from a purely religious standpoint.

 

[Bartholomew]

If you haven't gotten it yet, you're not going to, and i know better than to waste my time forcing intellectualism into people that just don't get it.

I already consider myself an intellectual, because of what I, personally, can think. There is no intrinsic intellectual value to reading literature, and particularly not in reading thousands of pages of the same book. All philosophical ideas can be summarized in a few pages.

 

[Wardw]

Are the books that never made it into the bible available?. Although not a christian, I know that there are many that were not included by Constantine that the Vatican still hold but I don't know if they were ever released or remain firmly hidden away in the vaults of the Vatican.

 

[spender]

I already consider myself an intellectual, because of what I, personally, can think.

There is nothing intellectual in reading bible, it just takes time, your nerves(big time) and clenched fists while you say to yourself- **** ! how I'm going to make it thru all this garbage ?
This happened to me when I started reading Illiad, but with every page turned I found story interesting and intriguing.Idon't think bible has the same value it only teaches greed and shows human corruption while pretending to be the word of God !?

 

[Janitor]

... A lot of it really dealt with simple hygiene issues...

Indeed, one of the O.T. books (Leviticus?) deals extensively with how to recognize leprosy and also what to do if mold (?) appears on the walls of one's house.

Given the primitive state of sewerage in Biblical times, I am a little surprised that there doesn't seem to be commandments dealing with that particular issue. "Thou shall not squat within five and fifty cubits of the stream from which mine people drink the waters which refreshest." That sort of thing.