Marking Up Your Bible
Q. Bill asks: "I recently found your site helpful when purchasing my new goatskin leather NKJV copy of the Word. I was wondering if you had any advice when it comes to marking Bibles or making notes in them? Is there a way to do it without destroying it?"
That's a question that comes up from time to time. Unfortunately, the super thin paper Bibles are printed on isn't ideal for marking/writing. (For that matter, it's not always ideal for printing, but that's another story.) There are thin papers that work well for this -- for example, Smythson's thin paper, which will take even fountain pen ink without bleeding -- but they're prohibitively expensive for printing.
I've written about the subject just a little, and the community has filled in the gaps. Here's a good place to start:
Writing and Highlighting in Your Bible
For what it's worth, I've found the Pigma Micron archival pens good for use with Bible paper -- and when they aren't handy, I make due with ballpoints, typically the Space Pen. I'm not a big fan of highlighting in this context, but the new generation of "drylighters" seem promising. A soft pencil, while not as visible on the page, offers an old school solution to the problem, so long as you're careful not to let a sharpened point tear through. Whatever you use, it's not a bad idea to test the writing instrument on the paper first. A mishap in the concordance won't be nearly as disruptive as one that mars a key passage.
Above: Writing, underlining and highlighting in a Cambridge ESV wide margin.
The pen used was a Pigma Micron, and the highlighter was a Sharpie Gel.
Above: The reverse of the same page. The writing and highlighting are visible,
but neither has bled through the paper.
Readers, since the last time we talked about the subject extensively on the blog was in 2008, how about sharing your most recent thoughts? What are you using to write/highlight in your Bible, and how well does it work? Are there particular editions that seem better suited to the task than others?
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.