There are generally two camps of Bible readers out there—those who can’t bring themselves to write in their Bibles and those who throw caution to the wind and mark it up! I fall into the latter category. I underline, highlight, circle, color code, use keyword symbols, and write in the margins. I believe that actively engaging with the Bible helps you understand it better and get the most out of your Bible study time.
At this point, you might be asking…what are the benefits of marking the text, how and what do you mark? Well, let’s explore these questions together.
SIX BENEFITS OF MARKING THE TEXT
1. Helps You Engage in More Thoughtful Bible Study
God’s Word is meant to be contemplated, studied, and turned over again and again in our minds. The Psalmist says, “I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways” (Psa. 119:15, ESV). Marking the text helps you slow down and pay closer attention to the more subtle details of the Bible. Engaging with the content on a deeper evel will help you get more out of your study time. I tend to read fast, sometimes missing the essential details in my rush to get to the conclusion. For me, marking the text serves as an emergency brake. It forces me to slow down, pay attention to every word, and engage with the Bible.
2. Helps You Remember What You Learned
Engaging multiple senses while reading the Bible can significantly enhance your ability to remember the text. Studies show that taking notes facilitates learning and memorization. Details like ink, highlighter color, and other marks on the page help you process information. When you mark up your Bible, you do more than just read it; you make it come alive to your senses. This enables you to memorize and hide God’s Word in your heart. Also, when you write in your Bible, you can go back later and look at your markings and better recall what you learned about the passage.
When I mark the text, I make it my own. Every mark has meaning; it is a written record of my conversation with God, one I can use to recall what the Holy Spirit taught me about the passage.
3. Helps You Recognize Repetition and Make Connections
Repetition is a crucial way biblical writers convey meaning and connect text. Marking your text is a visual marker, enhancing your ability to see these repetitions. Also, by marking the text, you can easily identify these repeated words, phrases, sentences, patterns, and themes. Finally, these markers serve as a reminder to go back and study the marked text later.
4. Encourages You to Go Back and Read Previous Chapters
Marking the text builds excitement for God’s Word. Seeing repetition and patterns in a specific book of the Bible piques your curiosity. You can’t help but go back and read previous chapters, other Books by the same author, or even a different Testament in search of those exact words and patterns. It’s like sorting through puzzle pieces, trying to find all the pieces required for the part of the puzzle you are working on. I like a good puzzle and find great reward in piecing it together.
5. Helps You See How You’ve Grown Over Time
It’s easy to forget how far we’ve come in our knowledge of the Bible or even that we took a deep dive into a particular passage. However, if you mark your Bible up and revisit the same passage later, you can see what you’ve already learned and add any new “nuggets” from your current study. This way, you can continue to gain knowledge and grow your understanding of the Bible.
6. Serves as a Powerful Witness to the WORD
People need to see us reading the Bible. They need to see what is in our Bible. A marked-up Bible proves that you value God’s Word and have spent considerable time studying it.
Marked Bibles give opportunities for conversations that might not otherwise happen. Conversations where you can talk about God, Jesus, and the Word. Like John the Baptist, our Bibles can be a witness to the LIGHT!
Okay, now that you know how marking the text can help you study the Bible, let’s dive into how you can actually mark it up!
HOW AND WHAT TO MARK
When marking your Bible, you can use symbols, colors, or a combination of both. However you decide to mark it up, it’s a good idea to be consistent as you study the Bible.
I like to read the text the first time without marking it to get a sense of what it’s about. But once I’ve read it, I grab a pen and a highlighter and start marking it up. Here are five basic steps you can follow to begin marking your text:
1. Mark or Highlight Repeated Words and Phrases
When you see a repeated word or phrase, use a keyword symbol, circle, or highlight it. Making Him Known has a Bible marking system, where we use keyword symbols and color-coded highlighting to help us recognize repetition and patterns. The cool thing is that if you like paper, we’ve got you covered, But if you prefer digital, we’ve got you covered, too!
2. Mark or Highlight Key People, Places, and Time References
To better understand God’s role in the text, mark all references to the Trinity: God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Also, it is helpful to mark place and time references to establish the historical background, setting, and sequence of events. You can identify these references by looking for and marking names of locations, events, and words indicating sequence, such as “then,” “after this,” “when,” and “until.”
