“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16, NIV)

If you’re interested at taking a deeper look into the Bible’s message, Bible marking is a great way to help you look beyond the words on the page and begin to interpret them for yourself. I personally like physical note taking so I use a hard copy of the Bible for my study, however I know there are some great Bible apps available that allow you to insert your own notes. 

I have an NIV Bible from the brand Journal the Word, with a wide outside margin for note taking. I will say, my Bible has seen better days. Something I’ve had to come to terms with is that it’s probably going to get messy. I’ve included some pictures from my current Bible to show you. I’m a reformed perfectionist, so I know this is easier said than done! Your Bible may get damaged, and you might change your mind on something you wrote down, and need to cross it out down the track. But if you let these concerns hold you back, you’re going to stunt your progress in studying the Bible.

As for tools, I use fine tip pens for note taking and either highlighters or coloured pencils for blocking out sections of text. If you use highlighters I suggest sticking to pastel colours, as they don’t bleed through the paper as much as others. I also use lots and lots of sticky notes! I have big, messy handwriting and fill in the margins quickly so I’ve found sticky notes are great for when I need more space. They work well if you’re new to Bible marking and feeling nervous about putting pen to page. I also use small sticky note tabs as bookmarks and if I have a few different studies going on at once I’ll use different colours to differentiate the studies. 

When I’m Bible marking I’m basically trying to expand or elaborate on what is written on the page, create connections between other parts of the Bible, and highlight important themes. I’ll attempt to summarise my thoughts in dot points in the margin, although sometimes it ends up being less of a dot point and more of a paragraph. If I notice something refers, alludes to or connects with another part of the Bible, (for example the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus’ life) I’ll connect the two relevant passages, by writing the location of each in the margin. I use highlighters to connect a verse to a note I’ve made about it, by colouring them both in same colour. I also co-ordinate these with the colours of sticky notes and tabs I put on the same page, so I can easily follow my own notes later on, plus I find it really motivating to flick through my Bible and see how colourful it’s becoming!

I’ve seen people colour co-ordinate whole topics and themes cohesively throughout their entire Bibles, and while this sounds like an amazing study, it can be a little daunting to try to pre-assign study techniques to studies you haven’t even done yet. Which is why I only use colour co-ordination to help organise my notes within individual chapters.  

Sometimes when I’m studying a book of the Bible or a specific theme, it can be helpful to hear some fresh perspectives on it. There are plenty of great reference materials available for free online to assist your Bible study. I really like The Bible Project’s YouTube channel and podcast series. I have also recently started reading Enduring Word, which is an app and website that has extensive commentary on every book of the Bible. If you’re interested in Biblical translation and examining the Bible message by looking back at the original Hebrew and Greek, Blue Letter Bible is a great app and website for this kind of study. 

Resources and commentary are great but at the end of the day you want to be studying the Bible to gain a greater understanding for yourself. Bible study shouldn’t be daunting and intimidating, and once you get started you’ll find yourself gaining confidence along the way. Remember that God intended the Bible message to be accessible to everyone. The Bible is a tool in itself, to strengthen us throughout our lives. Life can be hard enough on its own, why not use every tool available to us. 

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path” (Psalm 119:105, NIV)