It's OK to write in your Bible. If it helps your study then go for it!
Transcript
[Darris McNeely] Some people feel that it’s not right if you write in your Bible. Well, it’s OK if you do. In fact, one of the keys to understanding the Bible. And we’re at number twelve in this episode – series of keys to understand your Bible. It’s to take notes, and sometimes you can take those notes right into your Bible. You know, taking notes is an active, participatory action when it comes to learning. And we want to learn as much as we can from God’s word. Taking notes, reflections of your own meditations and thoughts about what you’re reading or from some other material can really be a great aid to understanding the Bible and really enhance your Bible study.
Take the notes into a notebook. You might want to just have a spiral notebook and use that, take notes on Exodus or the book of Kings, or a psalm or Proverbs, as you’re studying. Many of our digital versions of the Bible that are online on our pads or computers, they offer ways by which you can enter digital notes right into the Bible program and it’s with you no matter what device you might be using. That’s another form, as well.
There’s another form of using notes, and that is, as I mentioned, just writing right into the Bible. This is a friend’s Bible he’s had for a number of years, and you can see how he has color-coded certain verses, written right into the margins of the Bible, his own notes and observations to help him understand and remember and to keep track of what he has studied. It’s okay to do that right into a Bible.
In fact, there’s a very interesting verse back in the book of Deuteronomy that talks about when the kings of Israel came into the throne, they were to take and write from the law before the priest, their own version of the Bible, as it was at that time, the law, the Old Testament scriptures. It says in Deuteronomy 17:18, “When the king sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book from the one before the priests and the Levites.” So again, he was being active, he’d have to do that, and by writing it out, he would be learning a great deal about the law.
So take notes, learn to reflect, meditate, and think about what you are reading and observing in the Scriptures, and take an active role in your part in understanding the Bible – God’s Holy Word.
