Anytime I read, I always read with a pen in my hand cause I find that annotating helps me with digesting books. It is my dream to 1 day read a bunch of religious texts.
On 1 hand I can see it as engaging with God’s work which if I were God that would make me happy but on another hand it could be seen as degrading God’s work soooo I don’t know exactly what to think. I guess the ultimate solution would be to have a piece of paper near you and write your annotations on that and leave them in the book.
by DavidDavid10080
24 Comments
Annotating Bibles seems to be common practice, however I don’t know if it’s common for the Qur’an to be annotated, since Muslims revere the book itself.
On the other hand, if you want to annotate a holy book and don’t tell anyone, how could anyone take offence?
I think this would be a better question for a religious subreddit. The most common opinion here would probably be write in it if you want—if there is such a thing as god I doubt they’d care either way.
There are several people who claimed their version of the bible is the real deal and all others are BS. None of them got reprimanded by God. If they can get away with THAT you can get away with annotations.
There is no god so don’t worry you won’t hurt his feelings
Annotating the bible has a centuries long tradition so I am very sure that you will be fine!
Annotating the Bible is well established. I have no idea about the Quran, though, not being Muslim.
You should see the shit that evangelicals have in their bibles. Just underlines and highlights and post-it flags to the point of illegibility.
Its your book. Do as you please.
Annotate whatever you want.
Annotating the Bible is not only okay, it’s encouraged. I doubt it’s the same for other religions, but I do not know.
I’m in a Bible Journaling class at my church v where we make artwork inside of our Bible. We mostly use Pinterest for ideas to give you an idea of how accepted the practice is . We usually use Study Bibles which are designed with extra large margins for you to engage with the text.
But even people who would never make art in theirs will write or underline in their texts.
It may have something to do with how copies of the Bible are everywhere & easy to print, as well.
Muslims revere the Quran as holy and the word of God, but most Muslims think that annotating copies of the Quran is completely fine, whether it be highlighted, writing notes in margins, or whatever. As long as you make clear that whatever you’re writing is separate from the text of the Quran and are respectful of the text, go ahead.
Well, people have been annotating religious texts for at least 700 years & probably longer. In some cases those annotations & commentaries have become an indispensible source for interpreting the original work.
So I say so long as it’s your own copy go for it. Perhaps some day you could be as famous as Rashi.
I’d think of it in terms of different scenarios:
1) God is real, the text represents God’s work, but God is the kind of entity who would be okay with you annotating it … in this scenario, annotating seems fine.
2) God is not real … in this scenario, annotating it seems fine.
3) God is real, the text represents God’s work, and God is the kind of entity that would be offended by you studying and making notes in a man-made copy of that text … this is the only scenario in which annotations might not be fine. Me personally, in this scenario I would not care about offending God if he/she is the sort of entity to take offence at something like that.
Use post-its. That way you’re noting your annotations, and technically, not on the book.
It’s sacrilege to annotate books full stop in my opinion
The book is a book. It’s just ink and paper. I’m a Christian and I wouldn’t annotate a Bible myself – but that’s just because I don’t like writing in books, whether religious or not. I wouldn’t call it sacrilege to do it, but if I make notes I do it in an exercise book or notebook.
Doing it in a separate book is also useful for me because (when I’m studying) I read several translations in parallel, along with the original text, and keeping my notes in one place is more practical.
The main exception I make to this is that I’ll write the meanings of the words on my printed copy of the original text, effectively making it into my own interlinear.
If you’re Protestant, it’s fine.
If you’re Catholic, you can just ask for forgiveness later.
When I was in church we were encouraged to do that. My Bible actually had places to write in set out.
It’s perfectly OK. I even got a Bible specially designed for notes — nice, wide, lined margins.
“Study Bibles” often actually have areas in them to take notes, so it’s not considered an issue for the Bible. There’s even an actual “Note Taking Bible” that you can find online.
No idea about the Qur’an.
I know people who went to a religious school, and all of their Bibles (they all had several) were heavily annotated.
It’s a book. And it’s your book. Do what you want with it.
And beware of the word sacrilegious. It places power in things and ideas – that religion as a whole doesn’t really deserve.
Nobody ever got shot for scribbling in a Bible.