Which Bible passages are in Texas’ proposed student reading list? Here’s what the selections reveal.

By Ellie Ashby, The Texas Tribune
June 19, 2026

The State Board of Education is preparing to vote next week on requiring Texas schoolchildren to read about a dozen Bible passages and religious stories, stepping into the long-running debate over religion’s — and specifically Christianity’s — place in the public school classroom.

A detailed look at the religious excerpts, part of about 200 passages that could become required reading in kindergarten through high school, shows a reliance on Christian perspectives without clear guidance on how to place the stories in historical or devotional context.

The new curriculum would have students as young as 6 interact with biblical stories titled “Noah’s Ark,” “David and Goliath” — meant to be read aloud from picture books — and “Daniel and the Lion’s Den” in their English classes. Daniel’s story is to be supplied by the Christian Broadcasting Network, a media company founded by televangelist Pat Robertson in the 1960s.

In fourth grade, students would encounter Luke 14:7-11, a New Testament passage where Jesus says: “All those who lift themselves up will be made humble. And those who make themselves humble will be lifted up.”

The long-debated reading list — preliminarily approved by the education board in April — requires schools to use specific Bible translations, a situation that can influence the tone and message of the passages.

The Christian scriptures were not written in English, so historically, any attempt to translate the original Greek and Hebrew involves intense debate over the most accurate way to present the text.

For instance, one of the required readings for high school English is the second chapter of Genesis, which discusses the creation of Adam and Eve. The proposal before the education board requires teachers to use the New International Revised Version of the Bible, taken from the most widely read English translation and simplified to third-grade reading level.

The translation is intended for “new Bible readers of all ages and abilities to understand God’s Word,” according to the edition’s online mission statement.

In the version of Genesis intended for Texas schoolchildren, God does not want Adam to be alone and creates a variety of animals so he may find “a helper who is just right for him.” When the animals fall short, God creates a woman from one of Adam’s ribs. Eve is described as the “helper that was just right” for Adam.

Other Bible translations describe Eve differently:

• The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, preferred by many academics, says Adam found “a helper as his partner.”
• In the Contemporary English Version, created with a younger audience in mind, Eve is described as the “right kind of partner for the man.”
• In the King James Version, Eve is a “help meet [sic] for him.”
• In the New American Bible, Revised Edition, primarily used by Catholics, Eve is “a helper suited to the man.”

The story of Adam and Eve also exists beyond Christian texts. The Tanakh, also known as the Hebrew Bible, has its own set of English translations and commentaries regarding Eve’s relationship to Adam. Islam considers Adam the first prophet and has a variety of interpretations of Adam and Eve.

David Holland, the John A. Bartlett professor of New England church history at Harvard Divinity School, said the choice of Bible translation can prioritize a certain religion’s perspective.

“The minute you use a textual translation of a book that is shared across religious traditions, as the Hebrew Bible is — but you’re choosing a translation that was created in a particular religious context — you’re inevitably going to privilege certain kinds of Christian understandings of that text,” he said in an interview.

The proposed reading of Lamentations Chapter 3 is the only scriptural reference taken from the Tanakh. Catholic-approved translations of the Bible, as well as sacred texts from non-Christian or non-Jewish faiths, are not present at all.

The State Board of Education is expected to take a final vote on the mandatory reading list during its June 22-26 meeting in Austin. If approved, the changes would be applied in 2030.

“It’s going to lead to divisiveness”

The proposed Texas reading list also includes passages from the King James Bible, one of the most popular and well-known translations, and the English Standard Version, one of the best-selling Bibles among conservative evangelicals in recent years.

Created in the context of the Protestant Reformation, the King James Bible was specifically designed to be a Protestant Bible.

Chad Seales, associate professor of religious studies at the University of Texas at Austin, said the King James Bible was taught in public schools “up until the 1950s … which explains why there’s so many parochial Catholic schools in America.”

“Catholic parents didn’t want their kids to be taught Protestant theology in public schools,” Seales said, adding that some Jewish parents created their own schools for the same reason.

“Any time compulsory religion happens in public education, it’s going to lead to divisiveness,” he said.

Even so, Seales believes there is a place for biblical literature in public schools.

“I grew up in the evangelical Christian tradition in Florida, and we read lots of biblical passages,” Seales said. He found it strange when his high school teachers did not acknowledge the many biblical allusions present in Western literature.

“A complete ignorance of religion doesn’t help a student understand American history, but compulsory forms of religion also limit the ability to understand religion in any specific context, whether it’s historical, social or cultural,” he said.

Others question whether religious stories and Bible passages belong in public schools attended by atheists, agnostics, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and children of many other faiths.

“We have a good, healthy proportion of people of other religions or no religion,” said Rebecca Bell-Metereau, a Democrat on the education board who voted against the proposed reading list in April.

“So there really isn’t, in my view, a good justification for trying to turn our public schools into Sunday schools,” she said.

Supporters of including religious texts in public education say the readings will help students understand the principles and values that established the nation and benefit the world.

Julie Pickren, a Republican member of the education board, said the readings are intended to provide “important insight into the moral and philosophical traditions that have shaped Western civilization.”

“A classical approach to education, one that emphasizes the careful study of primary historical documents, plays a vital role in developing strong critical thinking skills in students,” Pickren said in an email. “When students engage directly with original writings, speeches, sermons, and foundational texts, they can evaluate ideas and develop a deeper understanding of the principles that have shaped the USA and Texas.”

God, Jesus, Satan and divine figures

Verses that are often used to establish the divinity of Jesus — a defining feature of Christianity — are not included in the proposed curriculum.

However, many of the mandatory passages refer to God, Jesus, Satan and divine figures:

• Seventh-graders would be expected to read The Eight Beatitudes, a series of Christian blessings and virtues taken from Jesus’ most famous sermon, including “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” and “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”
• In high school, students would read 1 Corinthians 13, which states: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal … Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.”
• Sixth-graders would be encouraged to “not be anxious about your life” in Matthew 6:25-34, which instead suggests looking “at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
• Other scriptural passages include the Parable of the Prodigal Son, in which a son wrongs his father and is met with forgiveness instead of punishment, and over a dozen chapters from the book of Job, where Satan is allowed to test the faith of one of God’s most faithful followers.
• Two other readings are taken from the Hebrew Bible — Ecclesiastes 3, which includes the line “All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again,” and Psalm 23, which states, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want … I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever [sic].”

Some of the required passages contain nuances that could challenge teachers.

Fifth-graders, for example, would read two chapters about Moses from the book of Exodus.

Many religious studies scholars recognize Exodus — primarily the narrative around God’s “chosen people,” the Israelites, and how they escaped enslavement in Egypt — as integral to American history.

According to Holland, the Exodus story was used during the American Revolution to protest King George, a figure colonists associated with the pharaoh in Exodus.

Black Americans have also used it “to find inspiration for their quest out of slavery and into the promised land of full enfranchisement and civil recognition,” said Holland, who teaches a Harvard course titled Ballots and Bibles: Why and How Americans Bring Scripture into Their Politics.

Exodus has also been used to send a contradictory message.

“Those same texts were often used in ways that today we would find morally and ethically and politically objectionable, including the use of Old Testament text to reinforce systems of human enslavement, or the fact that the Exodus story has been used to justify genocidal treatment of indigenous people,” Holland said.

“To teach it responsibly, you’ve got to equip students with a recognition of the full range of scriptural invocations and what they have meant in American political history,” he said.

Seales, the University of Texas religious studies professor, said the proposed reading list involves extremely complex issues that challenge dedicated professionals.

“I don’t know how in the world a public school teacher would be qualified to help a student understand all the nuances involved in scriptural interpretation,” he said.

“Principles that have shaped the USA and Texas”

Bell-Metereau opposes the texts’ inclusion in the state’s public school curriculum as a violation of the Constitution’s Establishment Clause, which protects against government-imposed religion.

“The whole idea that we are a Christian nation seems to be just cemented in their brains in spite of the Establishment Clause,” said Bell-Metereau, professor emerita in English at Texas State University.

Pickren, however, said giving students the opportunity to study the Bible’s historical and literary influences would enrich their studies.

Republican board member Evelyn Brooks said she is comfortable with using certain aspects of the Bible in the public school curriculum. Inclusion, she said, is acceptable “if it’s something black and white, if it’s something as easy as ‘treat your neighbor as yourself.’”

But Gustavo Reveles, a Democrat on the board of education, is concerned about potential indoctrination of students.

“This separation of church and state is a valuable one for our country and for the protection of rights of every single member of our community, and I feel that the insistence of including one religion into our curriculum is very troublesome,” he said.

Involving readings from other religious traditions, like the Quran, would make “this flawed system a little more comfortable.”

“But it will still make me uncomfortable,” he said.

This story is published through a collaboration between The Texas Tribune and Religion News Service.

Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.