# Color-coded Bible highlighting



## au5t1n (Feb 4, 2011)

Does anyone here highlight Bible verses based on a topical color scheme? e.g. "yellow" for key justification verses, "blue" for verses related to the Trinity or Deity of Christ, "green" for significant verses in explaining the doctrines of grace, etc.?

I'm getting a new Bible soon and I'm thinking about highlighting key verses that I would like to be able to find easily.

Also, if you don't do this but mark in some other way, I'd like to hear about what you do.


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## he beholds (Feb 4, 2011)

I had a Rainbow Study Bible once. It had the different topics already highlighted. I have no idea how orthodox it was, the Bible was stolen before I was a strong enough Christian to really know. The Bible was KJV, so I know the words were orthodox--I just don't know whether topics were contrived or legit, etc.


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## au5t1n (Feb 4, 2011)

Wow! That's a lot of color. I just want to highlight key verses I plan to commit to memory. I used to highlight as much as the Rainbow Study Bible when I was 13 because I would set out to highlight the most important things and then I just couldn't seem to find anything that wasn't important.  Needless to say, that defeated the purpose.


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## he beholds (Feb 4, 2011)

When I was in college I highlighted "government" verses in green! It started because I was using a green highlighter in poli-sci when our prof was pointing out what the Bible said about the gov.


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## Jack K (Feb 4, 2011)

I can see why it might be helpful for some things. But I think if I tried to color code verses (based on the "theme" I felt they spoke to) I'd end up pigeonholing verses, and only seeing what they have to say about the particular theme I'd assigned to them. It also seems like it'd make it harder to notice the larger themes of complete passages. I tend to believe the Bible is best understood a book or a passage at a time, not a verse at a time.

So I don't mark up my Bibles. I can see your point about making verses easier to find, though. Maybe color-coded asterisks in the margins? I might be able to deal with that.


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## au5t1n (Feb 4, 2011)

Jack K said:


> I tend to believe the Bible is best understood a book or a passage at a time, not a verse at a time.



I totally agree with this. That's why I don't use reading plans that involve reading only one chapter from a particular place at a time, like the M'Cheyne calendar or Grant Horton's method. I prefer to read a whole epistle or read through a larger book in large chunks. 

I'm just looking for a quick way to find memory verses and verses that I want to be able to find quickly to share with someone.


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## Berean (Feb 4, 2011)

Jack K said:


> I tend to believe the Bible is best understood a book or a passage at a time, not a verse at a time.
> 
> So I don't mark up my Bibles.


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## au5t1n (Feb 4, 2011)

Brethren, Jesus quoted individual verses against the devil. QED.


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## Jack K (Feb 4, 2011)

austinww said:


> Jack K said:
> 
> 
> > I tend to believe the Bible is best understood a book or a passage at a time, not a verse at a time.
> ...



I didn't mean to criticize. If you think highlighting verses will work for you, I say go ahead and try it. I suspect you can still read it in context. I'm the one with a block in that regard.


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## au5t1n (Feb 4, 2011)

Jack K said:


> austinww said:
> 
> 
> > Jack K said:
> ...


 
No worries. I think we all probably have a tendency to pull verses out of context and neglect the passage as a whole. I try to counter that tendency in myself by reading larger portions at once. Highlighting would just be for quick reference.


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## MarieP (Feb 4, 2011)

he beholds said:


> Rainbow Study Bible


 
Let's hope this doesn't give the Metropolitan Community Church any bright ideas...


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## VictorBravo (Feb 4, 2011)

austinww said:


> Also, if you don't do this but mark in some other way, I'd like to hear about what you do.


 
I could never color-code. It's a personal quirk, probably, but color coding drives me nuts in any context. 

I like symbols better. I used to put either a star, a square, top pointing triangle, bottom pointing triangle, circle, etc., in the margins of my first Bible. I had a legend explaining it all, and it was quite intricate. Now I look at that Bible and roll my eyes at the effort. At least the little symbols are on the margin and don't mess with the text. 

I'm sure it was helpful, but I don't do such things now. Instead, I simply keep a sheet of paper or notebook handy and jot down whatever thoughts I may have, citing the passage and cross-references, maybe translation notes, etc. As they accumulate, I either scan them or type them up so I have my own little logbook that is a humble personal commentary.

And, on slow days, I mark up the scans or notes with nifty tags to make them searchable. I might do that once every other month for an hour or so.


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