Public Reading of Scripture
Welcome to the Public Reading of Scripture app! Public Reading of Scripture brings the church back to the practice of reading and listening in community.
Reading the Bible in community was foundational to the life of God’s people in the Old and New Testaments. Public readings of scripture served as an act of remembrance and identity formation. This practice is found throughout the Bible from the reading of the Law in the time of Moses to the reforms of the righteous King Josiah and leaders like Ezra, who brought renewal to the people of Israel.
In the time of Jesus, reading the Law and the Prophets aloud in synagogues was a central element of Jewish life. Early Christians maintained this tradition, and the letters of the Apostle Paul were read aloud in their gatherings. This practice was so important to Paul that in 1 Timothy 4:13, he instructed all to “...devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to preaching, and to teaching.”
Today, you get to share in this practice with your own communities. As God’s people, the word of God is our food. Regularly gathering for extended reading and listening makes knowing and loving God’s word as simple as eating a good meal. May your community grow in knowledge and love of God and be equipped to participate in His work! Thank you for being a part of this movement!
Best Practices
When you facilitate your own Public Reading of Scripture gathering, we have found that it is best to have print Bibles available so that participants can read along.
You can choose a reading plan for 20, 30, 45, or 60 minutes, depending on what seems best for your group. Keep in mind that the Bible takes 90 hours to be read in its entirety.
Within any reading plan, each session starts and ends with a Psalm as opening and closing prayers. Each session also includes an Old Testament reading and a New Testament reading. Our 45 minute and 60 minute reading plans take about two and a half years to read the Old Testament once and the New Testament about two times.
We recommend taking brief pauses between readings so that everyone can prayerfully reflect on what they have heard. These moments are marked within each session.
You will see videos from The Bible Project embedded within each session. These videos are optional, but they provide helpful context, such as narrative structure, themes, and historical background of the book in that session. These videos are engaging and accessible, and they can enrich your group’s understanding of the passages being read.
At the end of each session, be sure to thank your group and encourage them all to join for the next session. Discussing the Bible passages is entirely optional – the most important thing is listening to God’s Word together.
Category : Lifestyle
Reviews (23)
Past selecting language, nothing happens. Not impressed. The preview had me sold. Sad.
What a great resource. Two small issues: 1. You can't swipe the app away from the notification bar once finished. 2. It is a little difficult to move between different books in the bible. Thanks guys!
Downloaded the app a few days ago. As soon as I downloaded the audio for offline listening I could not use the audio offline. The error says license is no longer valid. Just got it uninstalled.
Best Bible reading program ever created! I have used the One Year Bible for almost 20 years but became overwhelmed when I got behind in my reading and found myself rushing through to catch up. PRS solves all of that. it's so relaxing to hear God's Word spoken so eloquently.
The Public Reading of Scripture has been life- changing & is such a blessing!
I love this app! I can't say enough, how good it is to hear the word of the Lord over all the negativity in our world. I cast this app to my tv to read and listen in full stereo. The dramatization of the scripture brings it to life. The music makes the very words songs of praise.
Excellent audio version with sleep timer. Tools easily available to highlight and save verses. I hope they produce a chronological version.
after using this app for about a week i have realized this bible is an absolute must have for serious bible lovers... the audio drama is priceless ... its gives one an additional facet or perspective in the overall study of scripture! a huuuuge blessing. still trying to figure out the screencast button which is greyed out for me...
The only one thing I would ask for is a choice other than only the New King James Version. Love you guys. Keep up the good works!
This gets 3 stars bc of the issues it keeps having. Everytime i try to open it, it automatically closes and wont open. Uninstalled it and reinstalled to try and open it .
Very professional and comprehensive presentation of God's Word. Introduction are very clear and helpful for newcomers; great for review for those more familiar with the books of the Bible.
It's been a blessing being able to read Scripture everyday. It's amazing how blessed we are to have Scripture with us unlike the people in the Bible who had to wait for someone to read scripture for them.
I love this app! I love the animated voices and the sound effects. It makes the Bible come alive. Praise the Lord for this app.
I wish you had ESV available! But it's really cool to be able to listen to the Bible. If I can't sleep I especially enjoy it.
Was really excited to listen to the Bible with adventures in odyssey but was disappointed because I only read KJV and u didn't offer that. So sadly I'll be uninstalling. 😔
I can read along or just listen and catch up on years of knowledge and wisdom in a short amount of time Because God is Good All The Time Amen
I love listening to it. It's easy to comprehend the way it is done.
All of these for free!! Amazing.
Excellent , it is really blessing for all
faith comes by hearing the word of God. So good things will come of it.
This app looks like it would be a real blessing, but forcing me to submit an email address just to open the app as well as all the background trackers this app contains makes it a no-go for me. Trackers include: AWS Kinesis, Facebook Analytics, Google AdMob, and Google Analytics. PLEASE NOTE: These are background trackers (NOT permissions). Unfortunately Google Play does not inform users of background trackers built-in to apps. In order to discover trackers you can use a free online service at exodus-privacy dot eu dot org. Or if you already have an app downloaded you can use free apps like ClassyShark3xodus or Tracker Control (which utilizes a faux VPN to capture all Network connections an app makes) which I have found to be more accurate than the Exodus Privacy database. Unfortunately these apps are not available on Google Play (as Google exposing these developers using secret background trackers would likely cause outrage among developers), but you can obtain them at the non-Google, popular open source repository call F-Droid. Just Google it! LOL
Its Great!
I love this app! Love the voices and background sounds, makes it like you are there in person. There is so much more to this app, they have this awesome thing called Bible Project... you've got to see this, simply amazing. I've learned so much about each book of the Bible by watching this fascinating illustration and description. This is a must have app for me.