Frequently Asked Questions about BRF's Bible reading notes

Why do we study so much of the Old Testament in BRF’s Bible reading notes? Surely these books are for Jews, not Christians?

At BRF we believe that the whole of the Bible is God’s revelation to us, and we need to read, reflect on and learn from every part of it. After all, these are the scriptures that Jesus himself knew and loved.

We do try to maintain a balance between Old and New Testaments but, obviously, there is a lot more of the Old, and it can be quite a challenge to avoid too much repetition of the same New Testament passages. As well as covering individual books of the Bible, we provide some thematic sets of readings, drawing on both New and Old Testaments.

Why are BRF’s Bible reading notes not more topical—i.e. referring to events and people currently in the news?

Publishing Bible reading notes is a long process! Our Bible reading notes are commissioned and written nearly a year in advance, and the editing and printing stages take another 3–6 months. For example, the notes for January to April each year are sent to press in the June of the previous year. This allows time for us to ship the booklets to readers worldwide as well as in the UK.

I have been reading New Daylight for many years and I’m starting to find it a little too ‘easy’. What can I do about this?

You may find it helpful to try reading Guidelines instead of (or as well as) New Daylight. Guidelines offers more in-depth study, aiming to build bridges between devotional life and current scholarly approaches to the Bible.

Why is New Daylight available on cassette only for the visually impaired? A cassette version would be useful to many people—to listen to while driving, for example.

Our cassettes for the visually impaired are expensive to produce and are heavily subsidised by BRF. It would be possible to provide a cassette version for subscribers who are fully sighted, but we would need to charge around £25 per year to cover our costs.

Wouldn’t it be better to date the individual sections in Guidelines, rather than just numbering them?

We are aware that many of our Guidelines readers prefer a more flexible approach to Bible study, and may read several sections at a time instead of on a daily basis. Many people find dated notes off-putting because of the ‘guilt factor’ that accompanies a missed day! If you find this confusing, it may be helpful to tick off each day’s reading as you complete it, or use a bookmark to help you find your place more easily.