And I do think that the Bible itself has been influential in its own right. For just one brief example, consider the prevalence of literary allusions to the Bible. I imagine it would be hard to be successful in the field of literature without at least some basic familiarity with the Bible.

In general, though, Christianity derives its ideology from the Bible. That alone is reason enough to be familiar with it, although I confess that if one approached the Bible with the intention of becoming familiar with it for academic reasons, a general overview would be more practical than a reading of the complete text, as I suggested in the post.

And again, I believe that the Bible changes lives, so that would, of course, be my primary motivation in suggesting it.

Thanks again for discussing this!

To clarify, your point seems to be that the bible has been a major influence on our culture and therefore it would benefit even non theists to be familiar with it.

While I agree it is an illuminating read I must disagree that the Christian text itself has been a major influence on culture. Christianity as a religion and the Church as an institution certainly have, but not the text itself. At least not more than other great works of literature. I think if your advice was meant to give someone an understanding of the genesis of our culture, you would have been better off recommending a history of Christianity.

Aside from this point I enjoyed the post.

Oh, and obviously I believe the Bible carries more weight than those things, as I believe in it as God's Word and as significant for our lives…but I figure that's obvious from the subtitle of my blog.

Why had we better know that book? What of the various books written around the same time that were destroyed by the church or lost favor and were neglegted by history?

Why not The Odyssey or the philosophy of Sartre? Why not the Scrolls of Abraham or the Qur'an?