Sunday, December 30, 2007

The Blank Bible


I am not exactly sure how I came upon the 'Blank Bible', but I think it has to do with the fact that I am currently reading the book Meet the Puritans written and compiled by Joel R. Beeke & Randall J. Pederson. For one reason or another I was googling the title, and came across a blog that had labeled Meet the Puritans as book of the year. While the review was interesting, what was even more intriguing was the "Do It Yourself: Blank Bible". Rather than go into all of the details I will just give you the link to the blog and you can see for yourselves. If you thought Wide Margin bibles were useful...it is time to have your eyes opened. It takes a little work, and my first attempt turned out worse than I had hoped, but now that I know the steps and have an idea of what I am doing I will most likely make another Blank Bible in the near future. Here is the link to the DIY: Blank Bible. It's an amazing idea that came from Jonathan Edwards. Check it out.

DIY: Blank Bible

Also, there appears to be a great series called "Humble Calvinism" on the same blog. It is not audio, but rather a series of blog posts that explain Calvinism. I haven't been through the entire series, but the first few seemed very informative and helpful. Here is the link to the series if you like.

Humble Calvinism

For fun, here are some pictures of my Blank Bible...


(I purchased a classic reference ESV hardcover bible, sawed the binding off, added a blank piece of paper between each page of scripture, and the bible grew from one book into five!)



(Here is another view showing the beautiful spiral binding courtesy of Kinkos. Everything looks just as it should on the outside. I just wish that the inside looked just as good...)




(Here is what it looks like from a distance on the inside. Original bible page on one side, blank journaling page on the other. Sorry that the photos are backwards. It's late and I didn't really care if it looked perfect or not.)



(And here is what some of the inside looks like. Unfortunately when I cut the binding off, the glue went so deep into the bible pages that by the time I had rid myself of all of the glue there was hardly any bible left. This made binding a problem, but I decided to cut my losses and get it done anyway. Most of the Old Testament is great, but the New Testament (bummer) and some of the Old has binding that covers words. Oh well. It is still useful, and not bad for a first try. I can still take notes just fine, but the perfectionist in me is not happy. I WILL learn to get over it however, and I am still determined to fill this baby up with notes galore!)

Here is the financial break down for the whole project give or take a few bucks.

-ESV Classic Reference Bible: $2 (I had a gift card. You can get these for a measly $12 at Westminster Bookstore as well.)
-Removing binding/cover: Free!(If you have access to a table saw.) I think Kinkos will do it for about $5, just make sure they clamp it down or your Bible will be destroyed. Bible pages don't cut as neatly and easily as regular old paper.
-Ream of acid free copy paper: $4
-Cutting the copy paper to the dimensions of the Bible paper: $3
-Binding each book: $5/book. I had to break mine down into 5 books which made it $25.

TOTAL: $50-$60. This really isn't so bad considering most people pay this much for a leather-bound study bible. Plus you get to put a massive mount of notes inside of each page! You just can't get that anywhere else.

Well that's it for this post. I hope that whoever reads this takes a chance and tries to make one of these. It really is exciting...and almost totally insane. Who takes a table saw to a Bible anyway?

2 comments:

  1. Paul, I have to admit that I must confess another sin... I am coveting your blank bible! Someone here at school talked about the blank bible but I didn't think anything about it... but now that I have seen for myself, it is pretty awesome.

    Why did your bible come in 5 volumes instead of 3 like Tony's? Did you do something differently?

    Anyway, thanks for the post. I appreciate it (and I am frightened that anyone let you get near a table saw).

    Eric

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  2. Eric,
    I'm glad that you like it! I am actually a little perplexed myself as to why mine did not fit into 3 volumes. I may have picked up the wrong version of the ESV, which may have caused the problem. Mine may have been a little smaller in dimension, although I'm really not sure. If you are thinking about doing it, just order the $13 dollar one and saw that baby into oblivion! Or you could take it to Kinkos, but that is not nearly as fun. I will probably try it again in a month or so, but this time with a Greek Interlinear. I'm hooked...

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