I love bibles!
For obvious reasons....The word of God and everything, that always helps ;)
But also for the construction of them. The paper. The fonts that are used. They can become quite incredible. Which adds to the experience we have when we dive into scripture. I truly believe, the better the bible feels in your hands, the more time you will spend in it. Which is the main goal always!
So this weekend, I took on a little project I've been putting off for a while now...
A little back story. I've been in the market for a wide margin bible for years now. And I found the perfect text block that I wanted. It was the KJV Sovereign Wide Margin by Thomas Nelson. I even spent the money for a genuine leather edition and everything....Sadly these bibles are constructed poorly. But the rumor was, if you do find one that is properly built, it's fantastic.
So I actually went hunting for one and after a few attempts, found a copy that is pretty much perfect. While not a genuine leather edition, it is a leathersoft cover but honestly, you couldn't tell it's fake leather unless you knew. This thing is just amazing!
So my idea was to take all my notes and highlighted verses from my old bible that is falling apart and bring them to the new one...
I even had a color code system in place to categorize all the notes I plan to take....So I broke out both bibles, my PIGMA Micron pens, rule and highlighter and got to work...
Now I have to admit, this plan sounds great and all but if I don't follow up and actually read the bible and use it, this is not going to be fruitful.
So I started in Genesis....
The margin space wasn't too bad in my old Thomas Nelson Verse by Verse reference bible. But as you can see, I had to squish words in and if you would have seen the spine of this bible, you would have agreed it was time for a new one. The text block was literally peeling off it.
Hey if your bible is falling apart, the saying is that you life won't be :)
So I started to move the notes and highlights over...
I can't begin to describe how much I love the layout of this bible.
The margins aren't huge but they are around an inch in the inner and outer margins. Plus plenty of space on top and bottom. The font is the Thomas Nelson 2K Denmark font which is pretty much the best font I have ever read from on any bible. And the paper....Oh my!
Perfection!
I also started a color code system like I mentioned...
Pink for the character, personhood of God....
Yellow for health and diet messages...
Purple for God's moral law..
Blue for prophecy...
Green for God's promises and grace...
Red for God's love and plan of redemption...
I'd use my ruler to put a color box around the verses that go along with that color code system outlines above!
I think I should be able to highlight most of my favorite verses using a simple yellow highlighter as well. But all in all, I am looking forward to working on this bible for the next decade plus, God willing :)
I got through Genesis and Exodus last night, so only 64 more books to go ;)
Like I said, this is going to be a project...