I remember the excitement when I finally received it. Right after my salvation my wife ordered me a new Bible. My pastor was a member of a book club and obtained me an Old Scofield at a great price; my first new Bible after getting saved. Oh, the aroma of a new Bible. I read it from cover to cover; and kept reading. Before long I began to preach out of that Bible and soon the pages became tattered and torn. The cover became unattached at some point, so I glued it back on. It was filled with marks and underlines and notes on top of other notes. My how I miss that Bible. I lost it somewhere. I hope if someone found it, they likewise put it to good use. Over the years I have had other Bibles, including the giant print that I need now.
I know I am behind the times. With each passing month, the world is becoming more digital, and I suspected at times that sticking with a paper Bible might be backward. Actually, I’ve tried my hand at reading the Bible on a computer or laptop. The digital media offered quick clicks to study notes and commentaries, as well as the ability to copy and paste for other uses.
I guess I am weird, but the devices seemed to wear on me over time. Whether it was eyes or my brain or just the feel of paper, I felt like I was missing something with pixels instead of print. My soul didn’t seem quite as settled, quite as calm and at peace, when I looked at a screen. And I was far more easily distracted on those devices. Somehow or another, I kept making my way back to my old paper Bible. It’s like the Bible itself is holy…not just the words. It’s hard to look at a computer as being holy.
Strange as it might seem paper and ink seem to make a difference in your time alone with God. Now, if you’re happy with your screen, and not falling into the pitfalls of digital distraction and shortened attention span, well and good. I am not making a new law. There is no Scripture that forbids it, and I know it has a place. Some today talk of our “bi-literate” brains. I understand we have discovered that man develops two kinds of reading skills. One is more linear, slower, deeper, deliberate, logical, coherent, sustained, and usually on paper. The other: more nonlinear, fast, scattered, disjointed, and shallower, as we browse and scan, eyes jumping or darting around the page. We are told that is the nature of digital reading.
We need to understand the value of what we may be losing when we skim text so rapidly that we skip the precious additional seconds that deep reading may require. For it is within these moments that the Holy Spirit might reach us with our own important insights and breakthroughs.
Some time back, Karen Prior, professor of English at Southeastern Seminary, writing about how screens are changing the way we read Scripture, noted that “reading on digital devices does not create the same kind of brain circuits as deep reading” and warned of “the habit of superficial comprehension developed in digital reading.”
The Bible is the kind of book, of all books, designed to be read slowly, deeply, thoughtfully, and repeatedly. Years ago, when books were rare and costly, texts tended to be much more dense with meaning, they required the kind of attentive reading that is uncommon in our age. Back in those days paper was too expensive to fill with fluff. The Bible is a book like that, ancient and slowly written over the centuries, not rushed off to press. It was carefully copied and designed for slow, thoughtful, careful reading; and multiple readings. Maybe it’s because I am ancient and slow also, but paper and ink helps me.
I am not making a case for no digital Bibles. The ship has sailed on digital. We can’t avoid it. We will read digital. And it is a tremendous gift. It is not all bad, but if we lose the ability to read deeply, that would be a great loss. And nowhere would that loss be felt more than in the pages of Scripture. I am talking about reading deep and slow while totally saturating your mind and heart in God’s words, rather than skimming. Then, as you slow down you can let the text truly speak to you and convict you, rather than browsing paragraphs for data to fit preconceived notions.
So, a paper Bible helps you to…
Slow down and meditate on God’s specific message for you.
Take notes and easily record them for future reference.
Visualize the location of text on a specific page.
Preserve a written heritage of your Christian growth. Printed Bibles often become a legacy handed down from generation to generation.
Provide a public testimony of your faith. Your children will see you reading your Bible and know you are not just scanning the internet. Others will see you going to church or at church with your Bible at your side.
Personalize the Scriptures by writing down your own notes and thoughts.
Learn the order of the books. A printed Bible may not help you find the books faster, but it will help you remember where they are.
The Psalms frequently celebrate the kind of life formed and filled by meditating on God’s words day and night (Psalms 1:2; 63:6; 119:97). Such meditation happens by slowing down, fixing our eyes on God and His wondrous works, and pondering Him in our hearts.
So, should you ditch the digital Bible altogether? Of course not. I use digital sometimes. The fact that a Bible is so easily accessible is a miracle. I would rather you use a digital than none at all. I am only suggesting that we understand the limitations the digital format may have.
Dr. Worthington has been in the ministry for over forty five years and serves as President of Pathway Ministries and Christian Bible College.