As 2026 is around the corner, I thought I would recommend a Greek New Testament Reading Plan. Over the years there have been wonderful outlines, such as the well known and previously recommended Lee Irons Reading Plan. 

Timothy Paul Jones has a new take on Lee Irons' plan. This reading plan has several benefits over others that I believe sets it apart:

• Read the books in order of increasing difficulty of their Greek
• Longer chapters are broken up into 2 days
• Numerous "Flex" days are given which can be a day off, or to read the LXX readings given.

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TIPS FOR READING THE GNT

1. Read every day – Don’t skip days. Playing catch-up with Greek will not work when you’re behind. Read every single day, even on weekends, as this will help to reinforce the habit and discipline. When you have to take a day off, for whatever reason, use one of the Flex days.

In the past I posted two other reading plans for the Greek New Testament:

• GNT in a Year

• Sectional Reading - Moving Towards Comprehension

This plan below was put together by Dan Wallace, and I really like it. I appreciate the simplicity and focus of it, as it takes you through the books of the GNT in increasing order of difficulty. For most of us, reading a group a day, as is suggested, will be more than draining, though a chapter a day certainly is feasible.

by Dan Wallace

This list is organized along two lines: 1) easiest to most difficult, and 2) approximately 10 chapter segments which bear some semblance of unity (e.g., either literary [pastorals] or historical [James-Galatians]). If you do 1 group/day, you’ll read the whole NT in a month.

John 1-11
John 12-21
1 John; 2 John; 3 John; Philemon
Mark 1-8
Mark 9-16
Matthew 1-10
Matthew 11-20
Matthew 21-28
Revelation 1-11
Revelation 12-22
1 Thessalonians; 2 Thessalonians
Ephesians; Colossians
Philippians; Romans 1-8
Romans 9-16
1 Corinthians 1-10
1 Corinthians 11-16
Galatians; James
1 Peter; 1 Timothy
2 Timothy; Titus
Jude; 2 Peter
2 Corinthians 1-7
2 Corinthians 8-13
Luke 1-8
Luke 9-16
Luke 17-24
Acts 1-10
Acts 11-19
Acts 20-28
Hebrews 1-7
Hebrews 8-13

As 2011 ends and 2012 is upon us, I want to offer a reading plan for those who are desiring to read the GNT daily, but may not know how. I am not the originator of this plan, though I have changed it significantly from its original format. Any thoughts or ideas to edit or better it for the future are welcome.

PREFACE

This plan is designed for reading the Greek New Testament once per year. A minimum of first year Greek and vocabulary from a text such as Bill Mounce or Dave Black is needed in order to be able to follow, and it doesn’t hurt either to be an over-achiever in year one. Through this simple reading plan, your ability to read the Greek New Testament will increase dramatically. If your Greek is rusty, this will help you recover and sharpen your skills. You must be consistent and disciplined though in order to make positive strides and see lasting results. With a little each day you can accomplish much.

READING PROGRAM

There are 260 chapters in the Greek New Testament. Of these, 74 chapters have 38 verses or more: Matt 5, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 21-27; Mark 1, 4-6, 8-10, 12, 14, 15; Luke 1-12, 18-24; John 1, 4-13, 18, 19; Acts 2, 5, 7-10, 13, 15, 16, 19-21, 27; Rom 8; 1 Cor 7, 14, 15; Heb 10, 11. To read the Greek New Testament in a year, read one chapter per day. Chapters that are 38 verses or longer should be divided and read over two days, splitting the chapters up according to a paragraph break around the middle. This plan yields a total of 334 (260 + 74) daily readings. It also allows you to take 31 days off each year; more on that later. Thank you to Lee Irons for making this possible.

RECOMMENDED TEXTS

UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader’s Edition –This GNT is geared for reading large portions of the NT at one sitting. As such, it provides simple context glosses for all words occurring 30x or less, while also parsing the rare forms. Using this GNT will enable you to expand and stretch your vocabulary, while providing a more enjoyable reading experience as you will not have to “live” in the lexicon.

The New Exegetical & Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament – This book provides concise explanations of grammatical features that may not be immediately obvious to the reader. Occasionally it will refer to other works such as Wallace’s Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, BDAG, and others. This work is very accessible to those who have first year grammar and keep up with it.