Writing and Highlighting in Your Bible
Do you write in your Bible? For me, it depends. I tend to leave most of them alone, saving the notes and highlighting for editions designed for it: wide margins. Here's a photo of my Cambridge KJV wide margin opened to Ephesians 1. The notes are for a class I taught on the text.
Over at The Foolish Galatian, Matt Blair has gone crazy with his Zebra highlighter, marking up his new Personal Size Reference ESV. As I mentioned yesterday, I've been reading mine daily and really loving it -- but I haven't worked up the nerve yet to write in it (and probably won't). Now I can experience it vicariously through Matt (and so can you).
Matt also links to an excellent post by Jesus Saenz on what kind of pen to use when marking your Bible (a Pigma Micron). In the past, I've used regular ballpoints, which don't seem to bleed through as much as my usual rollerballs. If I ever work up the nerve to mark up my Personal Size Reference ESV, I will now know the best tools for the job.
J. Mark Bertrand is a novelist and pastor whose writing on Bible design has helped spark a publishing revolution. Mark is the author of Rethinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World (Crossway, 2007), as well as the novels Back on Murder, Pattern of Wounds, and Nothing to Hide—described as a “series worth getting attached to” (Christianity Today) by “a major crime fiction talent” (Weekly Standard) in the vein of Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin, and Henning Mankell.
Mark has a BA in English Literature from Union University, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston, and an M.Div. from Heidelberg Theological Seminary. Through his influential Bible Design Blog, Mark has championed a new generation of readable Bibles. He is a founding member of the steering committee of the Society of Bible Craftsmanship, and chairs the Society’s Award Committee. His work was featured in the November 2021 issue of FaithLife’s Bible Study Magazine.
Mark also serves on the board of Worldview Academy, where he has been a member of the faculty of theology since 2003. Since 2017, he has been an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. He and his wife Laurie life in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
