Writing in your Bible

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When i read my Bible and read meaningful quotes, I often underline them so that i can easily find thtem. Is it bad to write little notes in my Bible, or mark meaningful quotes or paragraphs? I like to be able to easily find things, but at the same time, i do not want to be sacreligious. Thanks for your opinions.
 
I sure hope that everyone would feel comfortable writing and taking notes directly on the pages in their Bible.

Especially people like me who learn better when we take notes.

It is definitely NOT sacrililigous (spelling?) to write in your Bible. It is the Word of God that is holy… not the paper on which it is written.

Jesus I’m sure is very happy that you’re writing in your Bible, taking notes! It’s a sign that you’re taking your reading and studying His word very seriously!

Sometime if you have a chance to watch Scott Hahn on EWTN, you’ll see him holding HIS Bible… which has hardly any square inch on it that is not either highlighted or underlined… or his own notes in the margins.

Go for it!

👍 😃

I found a highlighter in a “Christian” bookstore that doesn’t bleed through to the other side of the paper on which I’m highlighting. I like yellow the best. They have them in different colors.

I just now went out to the living room to grab it from the side table next to my easy chair that has my Bible so that I can use that pen as often as I need to highlight so that I don’t lose that place where a particular quote just struck me as being particularly significant in my life right now. I wanted to be sure you knew what brand of highlighter it is:

Zebra by Zebrite.

It says on the barrel that it’s “flurorescent pigment ink – also writes on FAX and carbonless paper.”

One end is a small medium -straight end. The other end is a tiny sharp end. Both ends have their own cap.

Costs about $1.25.

I like it because my Bible has very thin paper, yet this highlighter still doesn’t bleed through to the other side.

Yup… go for it!!

Enquiring minds want to know!
 
I like to write in other people’s bibles; when they aren’t looking.
 
There’s no real problem with doing so. In fact, one can buy colour-coded marking pens – one colour for promises, another for prophesies, and so on – to really do it up.

Personally, I don’t write in my books, any of them, my Bibles included. I take notes in a notebook.

Blessings,

Gerry
 
personally i like to takes note in a notebook. i been taking a bible study an that is the way i do it.:blessyou:
 
It is not sacreligious, but you may invite a problem. That is, your mind is constantly stuck on the stuff you underlined, and what is meaningful today may not be so much tommorow. In fact, I am almost inclined to want a bible that does not have the chapter and verse markings. It would be hard to concentrate, but it would keep your thoughts from being boxed in by the numbering that was added a thousand years later.

Scott
 
The Bible I used in high school was SO marked up it fell apart! LOL!

I write in mine and do color coding. If you are into apologetics, you might want to consider getting a copy of the Bible Cheat Sheet and going through your Bible marking all pertinent passages (this is a HUGE task!) so you are prepared with Scripture when defending our faith. The Cheat Sheet is only $2.65. There is also a set of tabs for this purpose, too – heard about them on the radio, but can’t remember what they are called.

'thann

P.S. My son Ted is a freshman in high school and is VERY active in the faith – I’ll try to get him to post on this board so you’ll have someone else like you for support!
 
You can get the apologetics tabs on this very website:

shop.catholic.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/online-store/scstore/p-CB289.html?L+scstore+bjhn5650fffb66fb+1115369297

I have been marking (highliighting and note making) my Bibles for 20 years and highly recommend it for both regular Bible study and apologetics reasons. When note making, use only pencil in case you change your mind or find something is no longer useful. And beware of making your notes too small when you are young because when you get in your 40’s you might not be able to read them!
 
Greetings

This made me laugh. I have bought and have been given several new, New American Bibles (my favorite), over the past 25-30 years. They are beautiful. Do I use them??? HAHAHA!

I have my old, horribly marked up with hi-lighters, colored pens, pencils and any other assortment of writing tools I could put my hands on at a particular occasion. I drag it along with me to Conferences, Prayer meetings and sometimes Mass. I have a few pages taped back in and I do carry it in a very lovely leather, suede zippered cover, I found on Ebay. However my so awfully, worn and dearly loved Bible is the one I can find everything I am looking for at a moments notice. Can find the exact readings for any Sunday of the year.

I have seen folks, over the years, with nice looking, new Bibles that look as if they have never been opened.

For me, I will stick with my old favorite.

smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/17/17_1_14.gif
 
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lil_lady:
When i read my Bible and read meaningful quotes, I often underline them so that i can easily find thtem. Is it bad to write little notes in my Bible, or mark meaningful quotes or paragraphs? I like to be able to easily find things, but at the same time, i do not want to be sacreligious. Thanks for your opinions.
Click to expand...
A Bible is just a book. It is indeed inspired but still it is just paper and ink. Sacred Scripture is a tool that the Catholic Church gave to Christians to help teach the word of God. Like any other tool it is good but not better then the mechanic that uses it. A tool that is clean is an unused tool. Make your Bible usefull and use it till it wears out. Do what you need to in order to make it more usefull for you to use. Write in it, make notes, draw pictures, highlight, etc… It is just a tool.

Do show Scripture the respect you would show any great tool. Don’t abuse it or misuse it. Some sects may worship a KJV Bible as a god (sort of like Sola Scriptura:whistle: ) but it is not to be worshiped like God or our Saints, etc… Use the the tool and let the tool help you.

I write in some Bibles but I never mark in my study Bible at all. Why? When I study Scripture I do not want any of my notes as a protestant to interfere with proper context and intent of Scripture. I do not write down notes in it from Catholic sources either. I want my Scripture to be as literally accurate so I can meditate and concentrate on it, then go to Catholic source to see what proper interpretation should be and if that is what I came up with or not. In my AKJV Bible for example I put notes and highlight verses all over so that when I talk with protestants like Baptists, Mormons or JW’s I have passages listed and references to go to to support the truth and in context. I have some KJV Bibles from the Mormon church with just LDS notes to prove Mormon opinions wrong (or right too when they are;) !)

What I am saying is this. Get one Bible you like to study that is the best written you can, lets say a litteral translation like the NAB. Keep this one to study without distraction of notes that may prove to be right or wrong in years to come. Then get a Bible in a poetic language like the DRV and mark it up till your heart is content. A well worn Bible is the best Bible. Make sure you at least know where to get protestant versions on the internet too. Their edited and abridged versions give their take on their opinions and sometimes are easy to read too. I like the NIV to see how it uses words too.

Use your Bible!
 
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robertaf:
Greetings

This made me laugh. I have bought and have been given several new, New American Bibles (my favorite), over the past 25-30 years. They are beautiful. Do I use them??? HAHAHA!

I have my old, horribly marked up with hi-lighters, colored pens, pencils and any other assortment of writing tools I could put my hands on at a particular occasion. I drag it along with me to Conferences, Prayer meetings and sometimes Mass. I have a few pages taped back in and I do carry it in a very lovely leather, suede zippered cover, I found on Ebay. However my so awfully, worn and dearly loved Bible is the one I can find everything I am looking for at a moments notice. Can find the exact readings for any Sunday of the year.

I have seen folks, over the years, with nice looking, new Bibles that look as if they have never been opened.

For me, I will stick with my old favorite.

smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/17/17_1_14.gif
Click to expand...
Hi Roberta, Many of the bibles are still in the original box they came in. Someday they may become collectors items.Thats why its the number 1 selling book,for people like us who use them… 😃 God Bless.
 
I used to write in my Bibles, but now I write in a journal. I have given away so many Bibles with my notes in them, that I decided I better not write in them anymore because I never knew when the Holy Spirit was going to have me give another one away.😃

God Bless,
Maria
 
I have 1 that I don’t write in to keep it nice & 1 that I do write in for a reference. I’m thinking of getting 1 Bible to mark all the readings from the A,B, C liturgical year just to have the visual impact of how much of the Bible is covered in 3 years.
 
Isn’t that what a personal Bible is really for? I underline in pencil because I find it less distracting. I have a buddy whose got his totally color coded… I can’t handle that, hence the pencil… :bible1:
 
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lil_lady:
When i read my Bible and read meaningful quotes, I often underline them so that i can easily find thtem. Is it bad to write little notes in my Bible, or mark meaningful quotes or paragraphs? I like to be able to easily find things, but at the same time, i do not want to be sacreligious. Thanks for your opinions.
Click to expand...
Quite to the contrary, I think it is a wonderful thing to write in your Bible. I believe that when the Lord gives you an insight, you should write it down in order to remember it. Now, I am not saying that you necessarily have to write in your Bible, but I do not see anything wrong with it.
 
The first thing I thought of after finding this thread was the following I first heard years ago:

A collector of rare books ran into an acquaintance who told him he had just thrown away an old Bible that he found in a dusty, old box. He happened to mention that Guten-somebody-or-other had printed it.

“Not Gutenberg?” gasped the collector.

“Yes, that was it!”

“You idiot! You’ve thrown away one of the first books ever printed. A copy recently sold at auction for half a million dollars!”

“Oh, I don’t think this book would have been worth anything close to that much,” replied the man. “It was scribbled all over in the margins by some guy named Martin Luther.”
 
On a related note…does anyone have a particular format for writing in their bible (i.e. color coding, shorthand, topics, etc., etc.) that have worked well for them?

God Bless…
 
I underline verses in my Bible which seem important to me or which explain why Catholics believe certain things. I use a pencil for underlining so I can erase if I make a mistake or decide I don’t want something underlined. Also, I’ve found that highlighter ink tends to fade over the years. I have one book that I can barely make out what I highlighted. Maybe it was just the highlighter I was using, but I don’t want to spend a lot of time highlighting only to have it disappear.
 
As long as it is your Bible, keep doing it-- and make sure you note in your will which of your grandchildren gets it.

Pencil is good for writing in books (cookbooks are my favorite targets) because a) you can change your notes and b) if your writing gets wet, there’s no ink to run and ruin either the book or your notes.
 
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