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24 Bible Reading Plans That Will Satisfy Anyone

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. And if you’re looking for the best pen for highlighting in your Bible, check out my recommendation.

Click on an image to view the plan or download the PDF (if available).

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.

Zondervan_-_60_Day_Overview_of_the_Bible

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.

Bible_Gateway_-_Survey

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.

Bible_Gateway_-_Chronological

90 Day Overview

Another one from Zondervan, this one goes a little more in-depth than the 60 day version.

Zondervan_-_90_Day_Overview_of_the_Bible

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.

Another option is this one created by Scott Carlson that has you read the the following each year:

  • 1x Old Testament
  • 2x New Testament
  • 2x Psalms
  • 4x Gospels
  • 4x 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

Featured Download: Didn’t find the type of plan you were looking for? I pulled together 46 PDF Bible reading plans into one easy download. Download them now.

Sources and Other Reading Plans

226 replies on “24 Bible Reading Plans That Will Satisfy Anyone”

I wanted to really focus on the New Testament. I was going to read each book 10 times in a row, before going on to the next. I began with the NIV and then got the idea of using a separate translation for each pass.

I’m using Bible Gateway because it has over 50 English translations. Here are translations I used. They are in a general sequence of more literal to more dynamic:
1 ESV
2 NKJV
3 MOUNCE an interlinear that shows Greek words rearranged to same sequence as the English text
4 NWT Jehovah’s Witness version to see how they alter content to match their theology (not at Bible Gateway)
5 NABRE Catholic version with liberal scholarship footnotes
6 NIV
7 NLT
8 MSG
9 TPT considers Aramaic translations of the Greek to supplement the Greek source
10 VOICE

I’m doing this at a rate of around 8 chapters plus or minus per day (eg. Mark 1-8 in all 10 versions, then 9-16 in all 10). This keeps the previous translation readings fresher in mind, to help notice differences more easily.

Two things kind of surprised me in doing this so far (gospels through Romans):
1-there really wasn’t much difference in the overall impact, regardless of which translation was being read, and
2-when I did see something that seemed different, it usually was still there in the NIV which I use most often aside from this plan. I just hadn’t noticed it before. The slightly different phrasing made it jump out to me and become more noticeable.

If you want to get to know the word, in just 26 chapters per day you can read new testament 3 times in 30 days. If you do this for 3 months you will never want to stop. I would wager most people spend more time in front of telly than the time this takes,and the scriptures will truly open up to you.

Thank you for this varied list of choices, but I’m still looking for something specific. Do you know of any site that offers a plan focusing on end time prophecy? I’ve found lots of devotionals on the subject, but still looking for a comprehensive reading and study plan on it.

Nicky,
I couldn’t find one & am making one now. It also has daily readings from Proverbs (4X/yr), Psalms (2X/yr) & the Gospels (4x/yr). The NT portion is Acts-Revelation (2X/yr). If you’re intersted, let me know. Not sure when I’ll have it done.
– SC

Do you have a list of the standard times it takes to read each book of the bible. In order of shortest to longest?

I’m looking for something very close to this with Old and New Testament once a year, Psalms 4 times and Proberbs 12 times.

Hi Gina,
I have a plan that’s: OT (1X/yr), Four Gospels (4X/yr), Ac-Rev (2X/yr), Psalms (2X/yr) & Proverbs (4X/yr). You could modify it … or search online … it should simple to find an OT / NT plan that fits your requirements; Proverbs is one per day, every day of the year; Psalms … search online for “Read Psalms in three months”. That’s my 2 cents worth.
– SC

Edit by Alex: Download Scott’s plan.

looks like people are interested in your plan! would it be possible to upload a PDF (or other type of document/image) somewhere and link to it here in a comment?

By Post Author

Gina,
I’d be glad to send it if you could tell me where or how. Email would be easiest.
– SC

I’d be glad to send it if you could tell me where or how. Email would be easiest.
– Scott

Kristy,
I’d be glad to send it if you could tell me where or how. Email could be easiest.
– Scott

I have a copy of “Halley’s Bible Handbook” which has such a plan, with listings simply for “week one” (OT), “week two” (NT) and back and forth to complete OT once & NT twice in 52 weeks.

I would like to read ot, gospel, rest of nt, psalm each day. Do you have a recommendation?

Jackie,
I couldn’t find one & am making one now. It also has daily readings from Proverbs (4X/yr), Psalms (2X/yr) & the Gospels (4x/yr). The NT portion is Acts-Revelation (2X/yr). If you’re intersted, let me know. Not sure when I’ll have it done.
– SC

I know I’m just a random guy, but here’s another webpage with some different Bible reading plans to check out: https://www.ligonier.org/blog/bible-reading-plans/
Personally, I don’t like to simply read straight through the Bible because I often get stuck around Leviticus or Numbers, and I like a bit more variety. But you could just get the “Straight Through the Bible Reading Plan” and choose to just read 5 times per week.
Other good options that I’ve used and would recommend are:
1. “5 Day Bible Reading Plan” — It gives you 2 or 3 readings per day (5 days/week), and is roughly chronological instead of “straight through” the Bible. Highly recommend.
2. “5x5x5 New Testament Bible Reading Plan” — It will only take you through the NT one book at a time, in a somewhat random order.
3. “The Discipleship Journal Book-at-a-Time Bible Reading Plan” — This gives you one OT and one NT reading each day, one book at a time. It’s set up for 6 days/week, but you could modify it to fit your needs.

Mr. Tran: you’ve compiled a comprehensive, user-friendly, creative and cheerful list of Bible reading plans – thank you so much! I work as the Chaplain at an inner-city Christian health care center and I am going to forward your website to our whole staff of 240+ (and Volunteer Chaplains). I was also wondering: Do you know of a list of all the books of the Bible that would include something along the lines of: a) a 3-10 sentence summary of the book and b) key/representative passages of the book? Anything along these lines would be helpful. Your work on all of this is much-appreciated – you’re helping people feed from the Bread of Life!

I am looking for a bible plan that I’d printed from internet at the beginning of the year but realize I am missing some pages. It’s a chronological reading in one year plan. No dates just labeled Day 1, Day 2, and so on. Starts with Genesis, Psalm 1, and Luke. Any ideas?

I looked around a bit and couldn’t find one exactly like that… A similar reading plan might be the “5 Day Bible Reading Plan”. That one is roughly chronological, and quite popular.

Do you have a three-year Bible read through that shows the readings month-by-month. Usually is one chapter per day. I would prefer the OT and NT be read interchangeably (in other words, not straight thru from Genesis to Revelation).

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