Why Write Bible Notes in your Bible?

Do you write Bible notes?

As in, marking passages, or dating them, or simply writinga note.

Why?

Why not?

It’s a long-standing tradition and has valuable results.

Two of my favorite writers did it all the time and it’s interesting to see what they said.

Lettie Cowman’s Bible notes

Lettie Cowman notoriously read through many copies of the Bible in her 90 years. She wore them out as she turned the pages and engulfed herself in the truth of Scripture.

It was fun to page through some tired copies and see how often she wrote Bible notes.

As in, frequently.

In the above, she’s commenting on Ephesians 2 and wrote herself a note:

“We are God’s inheritance. Seal 1=13 stamp of authority or approval. We need some stamp to give us dignity (to know who we are as children of the King.”

The note in a reddish color explains “God is making out everything ‘according to’ His own purposes.”

The Bibles were coming apart at the seams!

She particularly liked to write hymns or poems on any empty pages she found. Opposite the title page of her 1904 Bible, she wrote “A Missionary’s Son.”

Lettie may have used it as a personal anthem:

I go among unloving hearts,
Lord, go though with me there,
Andlet me breath Thy love always
Just as I breathe the air;
Let each day’s hands of thankless risk
Be temple words for Thee,
And every meal a Eucharist.

Poem by Lettie Burd Cowman

Lettie’s Bible notes were meaningful to her–and a way of exploring how her faith played out in different times of her life. (Or, perhaps, when she needed to use a verse for Streams in the Desert!)

What about Biddy and Oswald Chambers’ Bible notes?

Always a private person, Biddy Chambers wrote few notes in her Bible.

If you can tell me what the one on the left says, I’ll be happy to hear it:

Yep. She wrote them in shorthand.

(Though not all. See this post.)

Oswald Chambers, however, wrote, drew, and even seemed to decorate his Bible with information.

Bible notes like the above were interesting to me as a biographer.

What about in modern times?

My friend Janet McHenry buys a new Bible each year with wide margins.

She reads through it in a year, decorating the pages, offering prayers for her grandchildren, commenting with Bible notes, and pointing out information she believes is pertinent to that particular child.

“I’d been reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation for more than ten years when I joined the Bible Girls Facebook group ten years ago. A couple years into reading with that group I decided to journal through a Bible.

When I was partway through, I decided I wanted to do that again but with a fresh Bible. So it occurred to me then that I could journal one of those Bibles for each of my grandkids. I’m finishing up number eight this year and have two more to go.”

“I’m not an artist, and sometimes I’ll Google search for images that I can copy. I keep it simple, so that I can keep up from day to day.”

When she “finishes” personalizing the Bible for her grandchild, she wraps it up and hands it over.

Impressive.

As Janet continued:

“What’s thrilling is that my grandkids tell me they read all the scriptures I journal for them, as well as any personal notes I also write to them. I pray God’s Word will always stay in their hearts.”

Do you write personal Bible notes?

Raised to never write in a book, I felt uncomfortable marking special verses in my first Bible all those years ago.

Apparently, however, I’m in the minority who feels that way.

When I asked the question on my Facebook page, 24 people responded.

Almost all of them doodle, take notes, date significant verses, and even include prayers in response to passages.

We all greet God with the creativity He gave us and what works for one person may not for another.

Another friend explained that coloring and decorating her Bible, “helps the Word to stick and makes me smile when I see it!”

I understand another friend’s motivation: “When the same key word or phrase is repeated in the book, I highlight it in the same color with colored pencils.

This reminds me of the Kay Arthur’s Precepts method of studying Scripture. It’s how I prepare to teach my Bible studies (but on a piece of paper).

Reading through my friends’ thoughts, I’m torn, now, at all the “dark nights of the soul,” I didn’t detail in my Bible. (But hey, which one? I change versions every ten years, whether the Bible is worn out or not).

I look at Janet’s wide-margined Bible and wonder.

How about you?

Tweetables

Do you write notes in your Bible? Why? Why not? Click to Tweet

Oswald and Biddy Chambers, and Lettie Cowman, all wrote notes in their Bibles. Do you? Click to Tweet