Is it okay to write in your Bible?
Biblical scholar and "Bible in a Year" podcast host Jeff Cavins discusses this topic with ChurchPOP editor Jacqueline Burkepile in a recent interview about this year’s release of Ascension Press’ The Great Adventure Catholic Bible, Second Edition.
Watch the interview with Jeff Cavins below:
Cavins debunks the misconception that Catholics should not mark their Bibles, saying that too many people hesitate to write in them. But for him, however, marking Scripture is essential and personal.
“If you are going to write in your Bible, the hardest thing to do is the first entry,” Cavins said. “You don’t want to make a mistake. You don’t want to smudge. You want to make this perfect. Well, our lives aren’t perfect, so we end up making some mistakes here and there.”
He insists that notes and highlights are not damaging or sacrilegious, but can become a personal encounter with God.
“The Bible is the Word of God, but the Bible is also my meeting place with the Lord. It’s very personal. What the Lord is dealing with me in my life about in scripture, I like to highlight that. I like to maybe make a note in the margin about something about a cross-reference.”
For those who can’t bring themselves to mark in one, Cavins offers this solution:
“If you really have a hard time writing in it…well, don’t. Just get another one and write in that. Put the one you don’t want to mark on the coffee table or the bookshelf, but then get busy studying.”
Cavins has several of his own well-used Bibles and tells some of his own stories regarding these important markings.
“I have four or five of them now that are pretty marked up. Two of them are really marked up from years and years and years of use. I’ve already designated who those go to when I die. My hope is that they’ll open it and see the foot tracks of their grandpa—where I wrestled with God, where I was encouraged by God, what accompanied me around the world.”
He compared a worn Bible to “the wrinkles on your face” that “tell a story.”
Even family Bibles continue to speak to Cavins, especially over many years of use.
“My grandpa’s Bible still has the bulletin in it from the week he died. Everything is right there. I haven’t moved it. I go through it and I read his notes. My grandpa still witnesses to me today by looking at that Bible.”
Cavins’ wife’s mother also left behind a powerful witness:
“Within two days of dating Emily, I was sitting in her kitchen with her mother, who had that open Bible in front of her, talking to me about how much God loved me. I have that Bible now. And that means a lot.”
Cavins hopes Catholics will embrace the practice of writing in Scripture, especially as Ascension released The Great Adventure Catholic Bible, Second Edition. This edition features updated study tools, redesigned timelines, and expanded resources to help Catholics dive deeper into the story of salvation history.
“It becomes a record of your walk with God. That’s something your children and grandchildren can hold in their hands someday.”