Here is a diverse and pretty comprehensive collection of Bible reading plans. All of them are easy to follow and most include a printable copy you can keep in your Bible.
They range from two week commitments to year-long commitments, from reading straight through cover to cover, to topical readings, to a mixture of readings each day.
Let me know in the comments if you know of any other good ones.
Click on an image to view the plan or download the PDF (if available).
- Getting an Overview of the Bible
- The Bible in a Year
- Short-Term Commitments
- New Testament Reading Plans
- Sources and Other Reading Plans
Getting an Overview of the Bible
These plans do not go over every book/chapter of the Bible, however, they give the main people, topic and events of the Bible.
60 Day Overview
This one from Zondervan is nice because it doesn’t just give you the reading for the day, but also gives you the topic of what you’re reading. I consider that a nice cherry on top.
Every Book in 61 Days
This reading plan walks you through key passages from every book of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, in just 61 days.
Major Events and People in 61 Days
This reading plan introduces you to the major people and events of the Bible in chronological order, beginning with Creation, moving through the birth and history of the Israel nation, and ending with Revelation’s prophetic words.
90 Day Overview
Another one from Zondervan, this one goes a little more in-depth than the 60 day version.
121 Days of People in the Bible
The advantages of this approach include ease in seeing the story of the Bible and becoming acquainted with the entire Who’s Who of the Bible.
180 Day Overview
The plan offers a kind of bird’s-eye-view. The daily readings consist of 180 selected passages, including at least one chapter from each of he Bible’s 66 books.
The Bible in a Year
Here is a diverse collection of different reading plans that take you through the Bible in a year.
Read by Genre
It divides up your reading into the main types of Genres (literature) such as Gospels, Law, Narrative (History), Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy, and Epistles!
Read From 4 Separate Places
This plan gives you a good mix of reading an Old Testament book, a wisdom book and two New Testament books for each reading.
It is also structured well enough that you could shorten your reading for each day by focusing only on Old Testament, New Testament or some other variation.
Since you’ll have several “free days” each month, you could set aside Sundays either not to read at all or to catch up on any readings you may have missed in the past week.
Read Two Books at a Time
Readings from two places in Scripture every day: an Old or New Testament book and one of the Old Testament wisdom books.
Read from the Old/New Testaments, Psalms and Proverbs
The One Year Bible daily reading plan consist of passages from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs.
Read from the Old and New Testament
This is a pretty straightforward plan starting from the beginning of the Old and New Testaments and working its way to the end.
Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s Reading Plan
There are two types of readings in this plan: family and secret.
The family readings are meant for going over with your family, in groups or at a Bible study whereas the secret readings are for your own personal devotional time.
The problem with this is that there’s really no difference in the two types. You could just as easily read the secret readings in a group and vice versa. In fact, M’Cheyne even points this out when he describes the plan.
So, *shrug*.
The whole Bible will be read through in an orderly manner in the course of a year. – The Old Testament once, the New Testament and Acts twice.
Read in chronological order
This plan is based upon the historical research of scholars as it compiles readings according to the order that the events actually occurred.
Read in the order each book was written
This plan is founded upon the research completed in regard to the dates each canonical book was authored. The books in the Hebrew and Greek Bibles are not in the same order as in our modern Bibles, and this plan restores that original ordering of the scriptures.
Read from cover to cover
The classic plan. Start at Genesis and end in Revelations.
Short-Term Commitments
These plans take no more than a month to complete and focus on a specific topic.
2 Week Guided Tour
This plan takes a look at various topics (eg. life of Jesus, teachings of Paul, the Old Testament, etc.) and condenses them each into two week courses.
There are 10, two week courses.
This is a place to begin reading the Bible. These two-week reading courses take you quickly into passages every Christian should know. [...] they are frequently quoted or referred to elsewhere. Second, they are relatively easy to read and understand.
30 Days for New Christians
New to Christianity and never been through the Bible? This plans for you!
30 Days in the Psalms and Proverbs
Take 30 days to go through the main themes in the Psalms and another 30 days to go through all the Proverbs.
30 Days with Jesus
Consider this a short biography on Jesus. ;)
30 Stories You’ve Probably Never Heard
These are some interesting stories that help make the Old Testament a little more fun to read.
New Testament Reading Plans
In case you find the Old Testament dry and boring, you can focus on the New Testament instead. Just be sure you go through the Old Testament sometime. ;)
5 Days a Week, 5 Minutes a Day
5 minutes per day, 5 days per week, 5 ways to dig deeper. Takes you through one chapter each day.
With Psalms and Proverbs
Get the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs in one year.
New Testament in a Year
Thanks for putting this Bible reading plan page together. Just what I was searching for. Thank you for blessing others with your software talents specifically this website. I’ve added your feed to my list. God bless you brother. – Peter, Hainesport, NJ
Good to have you drop in Peter!
For a one-year reading plan, this one is my favorite.
Thank you for taking the time to put together such a creative yet exhaustive set of bible reading plans. May God bless you!! I am so glad I found this site.
Your welcome! Hopefully one of these plans will make it easier to dig into the Word on a regular basis. I know they’ve helped me and my overly systematic self. ;)
This is my favorite reading plan – it was designed by professor Grant Horner. It gets you reading through the Bible multiple times a year and you repeat some portions more frequently than others. It also has no set days so you can start anytime and miss a day or get only part done if life gets too busy.
The Facebook group is http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=46416541831
and this is another place to download the reading plan if not on Facebook http://www.4shared.com/file/84820158/92ad7a9e/professor_grant_horners_bible_reading_system.html
@Wallace: Sweet!!! Thanks so much for sharing that with me. I’m always on the look-out for new plans. In my next update of this post I will be sure to include this one!
Just spent hours on the internet looking for a new bible reading schedule. I found exactly what I was looking for here! Thank you so much. I have bookmarked this page for future reference. Iwish it had come up at the top of the searches instead of getting buried at the end of many pages…but it was worth looking for! Excellent resource. Thank you!
@Renee: Glad this post was helpful! God bless in your reading!
I found this reading plan unique and interesting. And I followed it for a month or so to test it out. I like how it never stays the same because of how it rotates.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/12349985/Professor-Grant-Horners-Bible-Reading-System
There is a helpful Bible reading chart there too:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/17554962/biblereadingchart970034
I wanted to pass it along to you since I am subscribed to your Reading Plan page (since last October) and just received Renee’s comment in my email. You have the most comprehensive list of Bible reading plans on the web, I think. Thank you.
@Peter: I knew your name looked familiar when I saw your comment needing moderation. ;) Great to see you’re still following this thread.
And you’re the second person to recommend Professor Grant’s reading plan, so I’m definitely going to have to check it out.
Random aside. It’s been just over two years since this post. I think before the New Year I’m going to do a follow-up post. Do a little more digging and see if I can some new plans.
Let me know if you know of any others not listed here!
what a wonderful resource – just printed a plan for my 4th grade granddaughter that will work for her – thanks for your work to get people into the Word
@candy: Your welcome! I’m curious to know which plan you chose for your granddaughter? I wish I had a grandmother when I was in 4th grade encouraging me to read the Word. Props to you for being awesome! ;)
Thank you for putting this list together. As a Christian mom of 4 all under the age of 6 I have found it hard to keep up our bible reading as my children have such short attention spans. I think the 2 week studies and the 30 day studies will help us work through import bible readings. Thank you again.
Wow, four kids under the age of 6! I’m glad you found something you think will work for the little kiddos!
Have you considered picture Bibles?
The visuals may help keep the attention span a bit longer than reading out loud.
Do you any teachers and student books for a study of t he 2-weeks reading plans?
Unfortunately, I don’t know of any teacher/student books for the 2-week plans. Sorry!
But you could always use a commentary for each of the books in those plans. Just look up the specific verses.
Did you find a plan that takes you through the OT once, NT twice, Psalms twice and Proverbs 12 times in one year? I’ve been searching for an online version of this. Thanks.
That plan sounds almost identical to the M’Cheyne one I link to above.
It meets your requirements with the exception of going through the Proverbs 12 times in a year (it only goes through once). But you can easily just do that yourself by reading a Proverb once a day.
I am a new christian who has never been thru the entire bible. What are your recommendations? I am eager to learn and read the word daily. Bring on this new life Lord!!!
yay, excited for you! just sent you an email!
I’m looking for a Bible reading plan that is 7 days per week, that goes from the beginning to end, except for the Wisdom books that are added to each day.
Does this exist anywhere???
Hiya Paul, I believe the closest match that I’m aware of is the one listed above under “Read From 4 Separate Places.”
It goes through the entire Bible in a year and has a reading from one of the wisdom books each day. The only difference is that the reading is only 25 days out of the month. So the reading averages 6 days per week. ;)
It’s one of my favorite plans.
Awesome resource thanks PJ!
thanks! if you’re looking for some more plans, youversion.com also has a pretty good list!
Do u have any teachings for everyday trials and tribulations? I’m battling a spiritual warfare at this time.
Excellent list. I picked up a few good ones. Thanks.
Have you ever seen a good reading plan for the Prophets? I’ve been searching to no avail.
Howdy Dave!
Appreciate you droppin’ by!
I have not seen any specifically for the prophets, but you could always take some of the plans I listed which include the prophets and just isolate them out of the plan.
Thanks, these are great!
You’re welcome!
It’s been awhile since I compiled this list. If you’re looking for some others (as well as an app for your phone to keep track of your reading progress), I highly recommend checking out the plans at YouVersion.com.
This is a beautiful page you have put together! I was looking up overviews of the Bible so my boys could essentially read all the main passages of scripture. Thank you so much…your blog
is commendable!
Thanks Naomi! Way to get your boys plugged into the Word!
My friend, greetings from Romania. I recommended this page to our youth group. You bring together every bible plan anyone could look for, in the best way you can find on the internet. Depending on our interest or time, we can find the bible plan that fits us perfect. Thanks for taking your time. God bless you!
I really like the idea of the 5X5X5 plan. The amount of reading is not too much, so you have can focus more on the details of the passage. Plus, you have 2 days a week of reflection on the whole passages. Of course, if life gets busy, you can also catch up if needed. However, I am trying to figure out the wisdom behind the order of the text. It does not appear to be chronological, and it is not straight through. Any ideas?
Hmm, I just took a look at it and can’t seem to determine the reasoning as well. If you ever figure it out let me know!
Thank u so much for this website – so easy to navigate and print….. a great blessing as i try remain focused reading Gods word
You’re welcome!
This is an awesome post! EXACTLY what I was looking for!! Thanks for putting this together!
No problem! Glad it was helpful.
Can u clarify the exact readings for days 10 & 20 of the 30 day plan for new believers?
hmmm. well look at that. looks like you caught an error in it!
i’m not exactly sure what the readings should be for those days. i tried to search for an updated plan, but all the plans i found online have the same errors.
sorry i couldn’t point you in the right direction!
Thanks for putting this together, Alex! We have been wanting a reading plan we could print out for our family and this gives us some great options.
Dude, that’s so awesome you’re getting your family reading together! Glad this list could help out.