[B-Greek] One-year GNT reading plan
Randy Leedy
Rleedy at bju.edu
Mon Sep 12 15:25:05 EDT 2005
I am exploring the possibility of putting together a plan to read through the Greek NT in a year. It's easy enough to generate a list of roughly equal-length passages: the 138,019 words of the UBS/NA text divided by 365 days is about 378 words per day. A MS Word macro can easily be written to move the cursor forward 378 words in an unaccented text. Or one could also use page counts in a text without apparatus (i.e., a text with approximately the same amount of Scripture text on each page). So laying out 365 passages of approximately equal length is a relatively trivial task.
If one wishes to factor in the difficulty so that easier passages are longer and harder passages are shorter, aiming for evenness not in word counts but in reading time, the matter becomes cloudy, especially given the subjectivity involved in assessing difficulty. Still, I'm thinking that it may be worth a try. What I currently envision is laying out 365 passages of as equal length as possible consistent with maintaining attractive break points (at paragraphs wherever possible and never within a sentence). Then I would enlist a number of readers willing to read as much as possible within a year and, in a standard form (preferably in an Excel file that I would supply) report back their assessments of difficulty on a scale of 1-5, where 3 is the default, and 1-2 are assigned for easier passages and 4-5 for more difficult ones. I would compile these numbers and assign each passage an average difficulty factor on which I would then base adjustments to the length of the daily passages. The result would be a reading schedule that would hopefully turn out to be maintainable within a fairly predictable amount of time each day. One could also gauge his progress by the speed with which he is able to complete daily readings, which would hopefully decrease over time. But then some readers will maintain a slower pace but will find themselves understanding better with time, which of course is progress but not in an easily measurable form.
Anyway, before I and others invest effort in this scheme, I thought I would inquire whether anyone is already aware of such a reading schedule extant. I did a Google search for "read 'Greek New Testament' year" and did not find any hits on the first page of results.
Thanks for any help. If I end up doing this, I may return to the list before long, offering the provisional schedule and soliciting readers.
I see the list only in digest form, and my email reader sometimes clips off the end of the digests, so please CC me on any replies.
Blessings in Christ! (Acts 3:26),
Randy Leedy
Bob Jones University Seminary
Greenville, SC
RLeedy at bju.edu
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