A year ago, Slate’s David Plotz (“a proud Jew, but never a terribly observant one,” in his words) began reading through the Hebrew Bible for the first time, blogging his reactions as he went along. He’s finally completed the task, and his running commentary on the Bible makes for a great read—it’s the Bible as seen through the eyes of somebody reading it for the first time, with the mixture of confusion, appreciation, and insight you might expect.

I was raised in a Christian home and school environment, and I find that years of Sunday school lessons, religion classes, and church sermons have made it hard for me to recapture the experience of reading through the Bible for the first time. All that Bible education is a huge blessing, in that it helps me understand the Bible much more clearly when I read it—but at the same time, I sometimes feel that overanalysis can dull the narrative edge of some of the Bible’s more interesting stories. At any rate, take a look at Plotz’ commentary, and try to imagine yourself flipping through the Bible for the first time. How would you react to the varied stories and colorful characters of the Old Testament?