Putting ON the blinders

I've been trying a new approach to my personal study of the Bible recently, and it has given me some new insights. I've put ON blinders, rather than trying to take them off. Let me explain. The way we study the Bible is strongly influenced by our preconceptions, our knowledge of other parts of the Bible, our life experiences, etc. This is rightly so, we should use as many resources as we can to determine the context in which the Bible is written, so that we can correctly interpret God's Word. But right now, what I'm trying to do is to approach the Bible as if I have never read any of it before, and have never heard of Christianity, church, etc. What if someone had never heard of any of this stuff before (an alarming number of people in our own nation, in reality), and just opened the Bible and started to read? What understanding would they come up with - of God, of Jesus, of Christianity, of the church? I've started with the Gospel of Mark (It's the oldest, and, let's be honest, the shortest!) and have been recording my observations of what Mark tells us about God and Christianity, as well as writing down some questions that come up for me as I read. And (at this point) I'm not looking to other parts of the Bible for those answers, I'm just taking what I can from Mark. I'll continue through and begin to piece it together as a whole, but right now I'm purposely seeing it with 'tunnel vision' and not trying to make sense of it all in the context of everything else. It's been an interesting exercise so far, and has given me a fresh perspective on some very familiar passages and stories that have become a bit too familiar. It's nice to see them again with a fresh perspective.