Have you ever seen something and then thought… “Wait! We can do that?” That’s exactly how I feel when I see Jason Mayfield’s videos when he customizes his Bibles, or as I like to call it Bible hacking.
I discovered Jason when I was trying to make heads and tails of all the different types of ESV Journaling Bibles (I’ve been looking for a Bible where I can easily add notes and highlights). Jason’s video helped explain the differences and then it took me down a long rabbit hole of his videos. Check out this video on how he prepared his Bibles for use.
The Six Bible Hacks Jason adds to his bible
- Start date
- Answered Prayer
- Places Preached / Videos Taught
- Bible reading tally
- Note key / legend
- Change the ribbons (this is specific to this bible I guess)
When he mentioned changing the ribbons it really took me aback. In hindsight, of course you can add or change the ribbons in your bible as it’s a paper book. Still, perhaps I’ve been too caught up in the mindset of having to treat a Bible (the actual book) as some extra precious object rather than one to be used.
Jason’s approach really makes me think of what Austin Kleon calls reading with a pencil. Not just letting the words pass over you but digesting and reflecting. It also made me think about how I felt when I first came across sketchnotes. Although I had taken notes with colour and some formating, suddenly seeing notes that had pictures and didn’t just flow from top to bottom blew my mind. It was like a whole new world opened up to me.
Would you benefit from Bible hacking?
Of course, Bible hacking could go wrong like Thomas Jefferson who removed Jesus miracles from the bible, and there is the risk of some elements becoming ritualistic (marking something as “done” risks avoiding actually engaging.) Still, I’m going to adopt some of Jason’s ideas for my Bible, what about you?
Do you customize your Bibles? How?
Blessing Mpofu says
Thanks Chris. This definitely got me thinking about picking up a hard copy Bible again.