A Danville, Virginia church group is in the news for reading the entire Bible from cover to cover nonstop in 77 hours. This sets a new world record. The previous time in the Guinness World Records is for 113 hours. Danville residents are happy they read the Bible as a group and won the current title by a landslide.
The group finished the reading just after 2 PM on Thursday, May 3, which was the National Day of Prayer.
Roman Eagle Rehabilitation and Health Center and the community of Danville has out done themselves.
— Itinease McMiller (@IMcMillerNews) May 3, 2018
Today they make history! Breaking the Guinness World Record of reading the entire bible in just 77 hours!
The current record is 113 hours. pic.twitter.com/juq00tvgUi
The participants
The Roman Eagle Rehabilitation & Health Care Center decided on Monday that it wanted to break the record for reading the Bible nonstop from the beginning to the end.
After the announcement went out on Tuesday, the staff at the health care center, churches in the area, students from Westover Christian Academy and volunteers in the community signed up for 30-minute reading slots.
According to Pastor Myron Bruce of the First Pentecostal Holiness Church, 60 of his members participated. Westover Christian Academy had 75 students volunteer. The reading took place at the Roman Eagle Rehabilitation Center where 35 people from that facility participated. That was a total of 170 participants who ranged in age from 6 years old to 92.
Pastor Bruce stated that it was a privilege for him to be part of the reading from beginning to end. He began the reading in the book of Genesis and other readers followed.
He was the one who ended the reading in the book of Revelation. In all, there was a total of 66 books with 39 in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament.
After reading for 30 minutes, the next person took over. That means more than one person read parts of the longer books. For instance, there are 150 chapters in the book of Psalms, which is the longest book in the Bible.
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records will have an easy time proving the results because a video recording of the entire 77 hours will be sent to the record keeping company, along with a list of names and the times the volunteers read. The group as a whole and all individuals who read will be recognized.
After approval by officials, the Bible reading group will be included in the 2019 Guinness Book of World Records.
In the meantime, the group will celebrate the achievement on Monday, May 14.
Brenda Walker said reading the entire Bible from cover to cover became possible because of volunteers like herself. She stated that it was very meaningful, especially since it happened on the National Day of Prayer.