Early this week, I returned from a pastors’ conference here in Michigan. Conferences are always a great place to pick up free books and/or deep discounts on resources from the bookstores and publishers present.
At this conference, I was given a new product that has really gotten me excited. It is called a “Journible”. At first glance, it looks like any other pre-packaged, hardbound journal. But Journibles are not ordinary journals.
Journibles are focused on getting their owners to hand-write the Bible. The idea comes from Deuteronomy 17:18, which is where we find Moses saying that the king should obtain a copy of the Law of God and hand write a copy for himself when he becomes king. The idea is that he would have his own copy and that he would know what it contained because he had taken the time to write it out. What an amazing concept! Even today, it is recognized by many educators that writing things down helps a person remember them far longer than just listening to or reading material.
With that in mind, the idea of the Journible was born. The pages are pre-set with chapter and verse numbers for specific books of the Bible. The writer simply copies the text from whatever Bible version he/she chooses into the correct place. The way the Journibles are laid out, the Bible text is copied only onto the right-hand page, while the left-hand page is left for notes or other thoughts.
So far, Journibles are available for Proverbs, John, Romans, Galatians through 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy through Hebrews, and James through Jude. If you are interested, the can be purchased here.
What do you think? Is this a product you would be interested in? Is there value in hand-writing our own copies of scripture?
Theologically Speaking 
Interesting concept. I like it. It would require a lot of patience to write out Scripture in its entirety and it may help with remembering it.
But I’m not sure I’d actually do it. Even with the couple of Bibles I still own, I have never written in them or highlighted in them. I guess I just like to keep the pages clean. And it would be hard for me to let go of footnotes and commentary since I really find those helpful.
“Early this week, I returned from a pastors’ conference here in Michigan. ”
hmmm…..
Andrew: How do you study your Bible and not write in it? Mine are marked everywhere. I once had someone remind me that it is OK to write in our Bibles. We can always get another if we wear ours out. What better reason to get a new Bible than our old ones were filled up with study notes?
JTS: Yes, I have been neglecting my blog again. 🙂
One reason why I don’t like to write in my Bible is because passages speak different things to me at different times and if I wrote my comments about a section of Scripture at a certain stage of my life, I wouldn’t necessarily want that to be slapped on the page for next time…potentially distracting me.
But maybe another reason is that I’m pretty obsessive compulsive with keeping all of my books in good condition, haha.
Andrew: I understand what you mean about things you write being a distraction. I tend to only write things that help me understand the original meaning of the text (historical info, cross references, etc.) in my Bible. Those things should not change each time I come back to the passage, even if how I apply the passage may.
I also understand what you mean about keeping your books in good condition. I am that way myself, which is why I have journals that I have never written in. I guess I have just convinced myself that a worn out Bible is a good thing. 🙂
Andrew, I don’t write in my Bible either. Chalk it up to OCD or I just don’t like how it looks. Besides, how do you correct a mistake–whiteout? Naw.
I know this is an older post, I hope it’s still ok to comment :o)
As far a the Journible idea, I like it. I started to write down a copy of scripture for myself and I found it most helpful because it forced me to actually think about what was written. It is easy for me when reading anything, including scripture, to just let my eyes slide over the page without really taking anything in. Many times I get to the end of a page and realize that I don’t remember a single word that I just read. It is hard to do that if you are writing the words. One problem that I encountered is that my handwriting is awful, so I might try typing it instead, we’ll see.
As far as writing in your Bible, I think it’s a great idea. I think that the book is a tool that is designed to be used. I underline/highlight/take notes in every Bible that I own. My main studying/teaching Bible has really seen better days, but it only falls apart because I use it.
Andrew:
I understand your point about passages having different impacts at different times. This happens to me as well. Mostly I write notes pertaining to translation. However I’ve written things in my margins that I realized later were incorrect and needed to be changed. When I see a note scratched out or whited out it is a reminder to me that I am still learning and growing. Personally I love that.