Tips On Marking Scriptures


GayLDS
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I color code my whole set like this:

The Father: I don't touch. (There is not much of this)

The Saviour: Red

The Holy Ghost: Yellow (There's more than you would think)

Angels: Blue

Women: Pink

Men: Brown

Narrarator: Green

Satan: Grey

I only color first position. So if a verse said: 'And Moses said: Verily the LORD has said, Ye must repent.'

It would look like this: 'And Moses said: Verily the LORD has said, Ye must repent.'

It's great when you flip to a verse and can easily isolate the full quote and the context. The idea is just a Red-Letter-Edition to the extreme.

-a-train

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I color code my whole set like this:

The Father: I don't touch. (There is not much of this)

The Saviour: Red

The Holy Ghost: Yellow (There's more than you would think)

Angels: Blue

Women: Pink

Men: Brown

Narrarator: Green

Satan: Grey

I only color first position. So if a verse said: 'And Moses said: Verily the LORD has said, Ye must repent.'

It would look like this: 'And Moses said: Verily the LORD has said, Ye must repent.'

It's great when you flip to a verse and can easily isolate the full quote and the context. The idea is just a Red-Letter-Edition to the extreme.

-a-train

I guess the same could be done with subjects instead... Faith, Repentance, etc ...
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  • 3 months later...

I simply write down any meaningful passage in a notebook or journal. I've got this sort of deep respect for books, and I don't like to write on them and even if I did, I wouldn't do it with the scriptures. I just feel like I'm committing some act of vandalism on God's Word if I do.

I'm not saying anyone's wrong for doing it, I just can't bring myself to do so.

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Hi,

I have often why one would want to 'color' in an entire verse. Once one becomes truly devoted to them they will be marking 90% of them, and then it defeats the purpose - one might as well leave them 'white/black'.

For what it's worth I mark the key words, and small phrases with a wax pencil, as highlighters bleed through and are a pain.

Now this will get you. I recite 40 - 60 scriptures each night and that cures any insomnia (LOL). After 2 or 3 thousand time of reciting, let's say the Psalm of Nephi you get the begin to relate to Nephi, and the prophets better. It is truly rewarding.

I have a talk named "Feasting on the Word" that some may be interested in.

In conclusion, "Do you know what the most important scripture to learn/memorize is?" It is the NEXT one. This way you can, NOT impress your friends but allow the Spirit to guide you, in blessings, talks, prayers, and for personal revelations.

I do not color code the scripures as so many overlap. Also, during GC Ii try to find the scripture references the Authorities quote before they tell us. That is fun.

Just some thoughts.

GW

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I do not find topical marking effective at all.

I mark mine according to what a term "shock value"

I have yellow, green, orange, and red. Based on the significance, relevance, or impact words have on me (ie "shock value") I color it based on the scale.

I also use blue as a wildcard, to highlight things that may not be particularly important, but that for some reason I want to stand out.

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I guess the same could be done with subjects instead... Faith, Repentance, etc ...

I really like your idea of marking by subjects. . . I just got a set of scriptures for Christmas, and until now I've had a very difficult time deciding what method to annotate them. What I have previously been doing is only using two different colors - one to highlight important details & summarize message/ storyline, and the other to make note of passages I found particularly enlightening or special. And of course, a different colored ballpoint pen to make random notes to myself in the margins.

Personally, I don't think doing it by speaker (Holy Ghost, Savior, etc.) would be helpful to me. I'd become too preoccupied with the nitty-gritty details instead of the intended message. But that's just my opinion.

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i've always wanted to be able to find things in the scriptures easily. i find it easy to find things in my husbands missionary scriptures because it's marked. i could never mark my own though. i have a hard time doing so...but i need to in order to effectively use my scriptures. so i decided to do so, and buy myself another set and leave that one clean. lol. call me crazy...but that's just me! lol

just thought i'd leave my 2 cents.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have marked scriptures in many ways, using different systems. Currently, I underline significant words and phrases with a ball-point pen and write notes about them in the margins. Colors don't particularly matter, but I use two different colors if I'm trying to sort out two different subjects within a chapter.

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I underline some things which have a specific impact on me. I also make notes in the margins. I have a colour coded system for different topics such as 'second coming/millenium', 'missionary work/teaching', parables, priesthood, prophecy etc. I also have stickers which are see through pictures to attract attention to specific scriptures.(some of these are seminary related)

I think how you mark them is a personal thing which evolves in relation to how best it helps you personally with your scripture study. I have a very tatty old quad which is so thoroughly read and re-read and marked and written in and mended where pages have come loose. I did my myself a whole new quad not long ago but found it impossible to find things I was looking for as all the familiar old 'landmarks' were missing so I ended up giving the new one to my daughter and going back to my familiar tatty old thing.

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  • 1 year later...

Some think my system for marking is a little overboard, and I must admit, I am a bit obsessed. Preach My Gospel says that we should find a method of marking that works for us. This is what I've done.

(Note: I DO NOT color-code mark according to subject because when I tried that, I found out very fast that some scriptures have to do with just about everything, and when you want to mark it for the atonement, it's already marked for missionary work, thus making colors very confusing and resulting in confusing boxes, shadings, and who knows what else. Subject color coding is EXTREMELY complex and difficult to stick to as a result, because you have to leave room for other colors every time you mark.)

1: Finding scriptures.

I like to remember where scriptures I have marked are. I have recently purchased a cheap triple soft cover, no metalic page edges, for a very good reason: it helps you when indexing your scriptures. I have written on the twelve inch front face of my scriptures 34 columns, each one representing a different gospel study topic. When I underline or highlight (or both) a scripture, I mark the edge of that page (And I mean the VERY right side edge) inside of the appropriate column, in one of three colors, so that when I close the book, if I want a scripture that has to do with any one of my subjects, I look inside of that column and can see, without opening the book, little slivers of color where the scriptures i have marked are. The colors i use on indexing are: RED for very relevant or useful scriptures, BLUE for semi-relevant, and GREEN for deeper or more difficult scriptures to explain or understand, but that still hold relevance to the subject.

2: Underlining for interpretation

I underline my scriptures with the four-color pens you can find at retailers. Those include red, blue, green, and black. I underline in RED for when God, Christ, the Holy Ghost, or Angels are speaking. In other words, when the source is incorruptible. I underline in BLUE when a prophet or some other inspired person is speaking. I underline in GREEN when uninspired people are speaking, or just to indicate when narrative or event-oriented wording is involved. (Again, note that I do underlining by who is speaking, and not by subject. This helps me interpret scripture sources more quickly and efficiently on the fly)

3: Highlighting for interpretation

I highlight using one of those over-priced, eight-color crayon-pens you can buy at LDS book stores. I use RED simply to place emphasis on a word. I use BLUE and PINK to indicate commandment lists, which helps me differentiate between where one commandment ends and the next one begins in commandment lists. I also use those colors to indicate cause-and-effect relationships between commandments and blessings. Blessings are indicated by YELLOW and LIGHT BLUE, as these often come in lists as well. This helps me when I am discussing promised blessings individually in relation to the commandments those blessings are connected to. ORANGE and GREEN are used to indicate detail lists, such as location details, or to otherwise differentiate between listed items that I deem important and that have no cause-and-effect relationship with anything else in the surrounding scriptures. I use BROWN to indicate satanic/tempting logic, logic that Satan uses to convince people to sin, stratagies used to cause spiritual downfall, etc., so that I can keep my eye out for things that I might be thinking at the time that could lead me on to sin.

4: glue-ins. I am a firm believer in glue-ins that help in gospel study. When I get handouts in church classes or when I discover interesting thoughts or make interesting footnotes, etc., I type out potential glue-ins. When a particular location gets enough glue-in information to mostly cover an entire page, I print out the glue-in, glue the extreme left side of the paper, and place it in the pages of my book so that it will not fall out unless I myself remove it.

5: Reader's footnotes and top-notes, and margin use

I place numbers next to words or phrases that relate to other scriptures but that are not footnoted to those scriptures in the text already. I then place a little arrow next to the little number, pointing up or down, to indicate where one will find the note, if it be on the top margin or the bottom margin. I use the inner-margins for hand-written notes, etc., and I use right-side margins to specify which scriptures that index slivers refer to.

Because of this system of marking, I never prepare talks word-for-word, because I can simply stand up at the podium and share insights and scriptures from my already studied gospel topics columns, and I have external sources, like general authority quotes, interpretation helps (Through marking), and so on, build in to my system.

If you would like to use this system, go for it. It really does help a lot. However, I do suggest that you change it to more perfectly match your own personal needs and goals. Like I said at the beginning, Preach My Gospel states that we each should come up with a system that works for us, and just because this system works for me does not necessarily mean that it works for everyone.

I hope that helps?

Edited by nickleboyblue
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Figures I'd have a system no one else has yet described. :) I do my marking with Col-Erase erasable pencil, since they come in a wide range of colors and do erase well if I make a mistake.

I have the Seminary Scripture mastery verses boxed in in red pencil (I do plan to learn them, even though I converted too late in life to go to Seminary). I've marked the footnote references by color code (purple for JST references, blue for HEB notes, green for GR notes, yellow for IE notes, orange for OR notes, rose pink for editorial comments, a darker red for BD notes, brown for TG). For me, this works. ;)

I've made some marginal notes on cross-references in whatever color makes sense to me at that time.

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I colour code my scriptures to the five lessons from Preach My Gospel

Lesson 1 - The Restoration - blue

Lesson 2 - The plan of Slavation - orange

lesson 3 - The Gospel of Jesus Christ - green

lesson 4 - Commandaments - purple

lesson 5 - Laws and Ordinances - yellow

and then, anything that is of special interest to me, I colour it red.

Also, I differenciate from highlighting a whole verse and underlighting sections of it for highly important matter, highlighting a whole verse for important verse, underlining a verse for less important matter, and and partially hihglighting to even lesser important. I also write brief notes and word son the margins and keep a study journal with me throught all my studies, which I keept pretty organized as well by the five lessons, the cannonical books, and different topics!

It may seem confusing, but really is not at all. Its very clear! I think anything falls into these 5 chategories, or 4 sub chategories of importance to me...

Edited by Ezequiel
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  • 3 weeks later...

My scripture marking method is very simple, actually. I don't fill in the entire passage, but instead color around the borders. That way, if there is more than one topic (for me) in a passage, I can use more than one color.

Yellow: 1st Principles and Ordinances of the Gospel, Revelation, Inspiration, missionary work

Blue: Christ

Green: Priesthood

Red: Everything else

I underline in pencil areas of the passage I find especially relevant to me (so it is colored and underlined), as well as using a very fine pencil for making notations, comments, etc., alongside or at the top of the page. Sometimes I will simply underline in the appropriate color if I am in the mood to (typically only a line or two in one verse).

Anyway, it works for me.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I personally have trouble marking in my scriptures, it got to confusing for me and I didn't like the way it looked in my scriptures anyways.

Something I have recently started doing is to take a notebook and convert it to my study journal pretty much. How I have been doing it is I start at the very beginning of the book in verse one, then I write all my thoughts from that verse in my notebook. Then write down verse two and do the same for that, if I found cool cross references I write them down in my note book under the verse I was relating them to. I also am very specific to my self when I write in my notebook, I write how the things in that scripture can relate to me and my life. Sometimes I will read a short verse and then write a couple paragraphs in my notebook about it even if its not even related to the verse, its just the thoughts and personal revelation I felt while reading that verse. Other times I will just write a short sentence that just gives me an important detail of the verse. What I like about this technique is its kind of forcing me to read more into the actual context of the scriptures, I don't let myself move on until I've written something for every verse. Because I often find myself reading the scriptures but not absorbing what I read, I will have read a couple of pages and just realize I had no idea what I just read, so I would go back and re-read it.

So far its been really good for me, I feel like I'm getting a better feel of what its actually like to "feast upon the scriptures" and it feels good! :)

When it comes to marking, I am horrible, sorry I can't actually help there.

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  • 1 month later...

I too had a problem with marking my scriptures. I was so careful with them that even though they were several years old they looked brand new. Then I accepted a calling where I had to go to several Wards. Something I notice in my travels. I observe several people who treated their scriptures like old friends. These people would pull out their scriptures without an invitation. You would see something on their face when they wanted to write something down. I have seen them do this with laughter, sadness, and wonderment. Some I saw just marked what ever scripture that was being quoted. Some just had a special look that I would see from time to time. They would often give their scriptures an extra squeeze or a gentle pat. I asked myself what would my children see when I was gone. Would they see that my scriptures were "old friends" or would they see scriptures that look only slightly worn? Would they see my concerns, my needs, my love of the scriptures? The first time I marked my scriptures I had tears that dropped on the pages. When I looked down I thought," Some day one of my children will find these tears and wonder why I cryed."

OK, you can see what kind of member I am going to be. A story with every reply. I will try not to do that. I just could not say I color coded my scriptures! lol When I have more then one subject using that scripture I put a straight line by the scripture in the other color. I have a list of colors and how I coded in the front of my scriptures.

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For me, Scripture Mastery verses are highlighted in red and green, with a star at the front. Beyond that, I use read. Sometimes the whole verse, sometimes just part of it. I don't like to color the whole page, so I pick out what the nutshell of what is being said (to me). What's funny is that sometimes some other part is underlined next time instead.

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  • 4 months later...

Old thread... but still. An old EQ pres once counseled: one color for CAUSE, one color for EFFECT. I'm surprised no one else has mentioned it, because... I thought it was a good idea. But... it's incomplete, hence the reason I am looking at what others do. Of course, I could just be READING them, instead of reading about how others read them. Hmm....

BDR

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  • 1 month later...

I've never really marked them before, on occasion I color a verse that meant something to me. I want to know how you mark your scriptures.

Thanks

I write notes in the margins mainly.

Yellow indicates something very important or has impressed me greatly, or things that Christ directly tells individuals, pink is a step below that, dotted pink/yellow indicate parables, blue highlights physical actions that can be used to help determine geography, green highlights priesthood duties and responsibilities. Dotted Green Highlight Commandments.

I also like to write a 3-5 word summary at the top of the page of what the page covers.

I use the blacnk pages in the BoM to keep track of the transmission of the BoM, and the blank pages in the OT to keep track of lineage down to Israel.

I also go thru and mark the topical Guide and Dictionary as I use them.

Edited by Blackmarch
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I use:

red = basic doctrine faith, repentance, etc (sometimes I write the topicon the edge of the page with same color.

blue = personal guidance, pretty much reflects the verses that help and strengthen me

green= missionary work, makes the whole D&C 4 green...

yellow=profecies, deep doctrine, temple knowledge

orange=facts, temporal things like the lamanites' metallurgic knowledge or historical places

Edited by gusrod78
oops! I hit the enter button
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