The Highlights of Bible Study, with BT Wallace - Episode 088

Carey Griffel: Welcome to Genesis Marks the Spot, where we raid the ivory tower of biblical theology without ransacking our faith. My name is Carey Griffel, and I know, I just know that you all are going to love this episode because we're going to be talking about note taking, and I'm certain that I've convinced you all of how important note taking is, and you all now love it just as much as I do.

[00:00:31] Okay. Maybe not as much as I do. It's not a competition anyway. but really I am excited to have here today my good friend, BT, who is a fellow podcaster and he is going to be nerding out with me about note taking and a whole lot of details with that. So welcome BT.

[00:00:49] BT Wallace: Thank you for inviting me onto the show.

[00:00:53] Carey Griffel: So you have various podcasts that you're actually involved with. Do you want to tell us a little bit about those?

[00:00:59] BT Wallace: Yeah, absolutely. I've got Truth and Shadow podcast. That's my personal hobby. It's where I talk about the intersection of the supernatural and Christian faith. And then I'm paired up with the great Brandon Spain and Lindsay Waters on the unrefined podcast. com where we talk about all things Christian fringe.

[00:01:18] Carey Griffel: So you do a range of things and I really highly recommend people who are interested in the supernatural and things of that nature to check both of those out.

[00:01:27] Now, I'm a little bit over the top talking about note taking. I know that I am, but I genuinely do love it, and I find it beneficial. So I've really appreciated the feedback and encouragement that I've gotten from people who have appreciated and maybe tried out the Zettelkasten system that I described in a previous episode.

[00:01:48] BT Wallace: Well, I find note taking in any kind of venture, if you're trying to learn something new, is probably one of the most important habits to develop. And that would mean being able to take and document your learning journey in a way that you can go back to at any point in time to revisit something you've learned, relearn something you've forgotten. Or even possibly learn something you may have missed.

[00:02:14] Carey Griffel: How much do you think our note taking habits are actually enmeshed in our personalities and habits that we've developed?

[00:02:22] BT Wallace: Well, it depends on who you're asking. I've got ADHD. So note taking is something that is a love and a joy. And at the same time, I don't like doing it. And this means constantly having a battle within my own mind when it comes to needing to research a topic, investigate a specific guest for my shows. And this means looking at things that I may forget five minutes after reading the page. And that means taking the time to scribble a couple of notes down. That'll give me keywords, phrases, thoughts, ideas to consider when I am actually needing to talk to somebody about a specific topic.

[00:03:03] And oddly enough, I also keep a notebook usually at hand that I can write notes in at any given time. For example, names, I find myself forgetting people's names frequently, and I'll have to make a note, guy in the gray shirt, that's this person's name. And that usually helps when I'm in scenarios where I'm meeting new people aside from that, when it comes to helping our brains, remember, I do believe as children were taught how to remember and memorize and make notes. And I think anybody who misses the opportunity to learn how to properly take notes is missing out an important developmental skill.

[00:03:46] Carey Griffel: I think a lot of the time, at least for me and for other people that I've, talked to about note taking, part of the problem is in wanting to do it perfectly and just going, well, I'm not going to do it if I don't have the system set up exactly. If I don't have everything at hand, if I'm not going to do it exactly this way from here on forward, you know, I have a lot of that problem myself.

[00:04:13] And so when I got into my note taking system that I use now, I still have that problem sometimes because there will be times when I will take more notes than I will other times because I'm busy or I just don't have the time or I don't have the paper. You know, so every time that I do it, it's not perfect. And it's not ever going to be perfect. But every time I do it, I find that it's Helping me to formulate the habit and, you know, so what if some things are kind of left and they drop off the apple cart? That's just the way it is. You're not going to be able to take in every thought from every book, every thought from every podcast you listen to. That's okay. You're just going to take in whatever you can.

[00:05:03] As far as like physical notes versus digital notes, do you have an opinion for that?

[00:05:10] BT Wallace: I do have an opinion on physical notes, and I'm assuming the other is digital note taking. Well, handwriting something out seems to do something with the brain. I don't really understand it myself. I'm not a science kind of minded person, but what I, what I do remember is Writing something out by hand actually does go a long way to improving memory and helping one understand the material.

[00:05:36] And on the other hand, sometimes when we write notes down by hand, we might have a harder time remembering where we wrote a specific note down. And that means Handwriting can end up being less searchable in the long run. I find handwriting notes is less distracting. It's really easy to open up Facebook or Facebook messenger app while I'm trying to do a digital note. And then I'm off watching reels for the next 30 minutes and can't remember what happened to all that time.

[00:06:08] And then The issue comes with, storage. You know, I said, I, I carry a small little notebook around that allows me to memorize or remember certain small little key details, but those three by three notebooks, they fill up pretty fast and I just basically throw them away because I'm not going to keep decades worth of notes around.

[00:06:31] And then, you know, as you said on digital note taking. The thing is with digital note taking, you could pretty much categorize and store notes nearly indefinitely, and then you'd be able to use a search parameter on your computer or computing device to look for those keywords in a specific topic. And it means that things like organization, portability, and even things like backing up or syncing your notes are going to be easier to find and easier to look for then if you had something in hand.

[00:07:05] But once again, if you get tech dependent, that means you have to, you know, if you make all your notes on a Mac or an iPhone, You may be stuck having to use that technology dependent in that particular software. And then studies show that typing doesn't offer the same cognitive benefits as handwriting and it actually shows that your comprehension and retention are going to suffer from that, too.

[00:07:34] Carey Griffel: Yeah, there are things today, that kind of try to bridge the gap between the digital and the handwritten. I know there's several things out there. There's certain types of pens. I know that there's, a system with the Moleskine notebooks. But those, a lot of those are really expensive.

[00:07:52] One that I have used before is called Rocketbook. And it's really interesting. It's like these are notebooks or they're cards and things like that that are basically they're plastic and you use a certain type of pen on them that are, they're pretty easy to get these pens. They're not super specialty, but they're erasable pens. So you use the pen on the paper, and because the paper is actually really plastic, it's washable, but once you've taken your note, you can scan it, basically just taking a picture of it, and then you can file it into the Rocketbook system.

[00:08:32] Now, again, you're kind of dependent, then, on the system. Now, you can, like, Download them. You can email them to yourself. So they're not totally lost anywhere. You can make a PDF out of them. But within the actual Rocketbook system, like their app, you can search your handwritten notes. And I've actually been exceptionally surprised with how easy it is To write really messy notes and it will still be searchable. So that's pretty impressive.

[00:09:04] What do you think about highlighting?

[00:09:07] BT Wallace: What do I think about highlighting?

[00:09:09] Carey Griffel: Yeah. Highlighting like in a physical book.

[00:09:13] BT Wallace: All right. So this is going to take me back to some college years myself. I learned how to highlight text specifically in college prep classes and then learn how to do it better in a college course, but highlighting has its benefits and it's problems as well.

[00:09:31] We can usually highlight the wrong things, and then that means we may remember the wrong information when it comes to a test. However, many of the courses that I have taken, if the teacher writes something on the board and it's related in the book, that's what you highlight. And I have found that basically I didn't have to pay nearly as much attention by highlighting the page in the book for specific classes. It's usually anthropology related or something in the social sciences. Making notes for math actually required me to handwrite things out. But when it came to utilizing my highlighters, I. Frequently did that because, well, my favorite were open book tests because it was just, Oh, there's the answer. It's in the highlighted section of my particular book.

[00:10:18] But I've also learned that highlighting other books that I'm doing research for helps me just read, I'm going to highlight something and then I can remember later on to go back and I read that again. And it usually triggers my memory to remember a specific thought related to that.

[00:10:34] If I'm not around a notebook to make a note. But once again, I usually always keep a small pocket notebook with me and I can do that when I'm out and about.

[00:10:44] Carey Griffel: So if you do keep physical notes and you're putting them in a notebook, what do you do with them after they're in the notebook? Because you said you don't keep the notebook.

[00:10:54] BT Wallace: Well, it depends on what the project was. typically, if it's associated with podcasting, it'll have been reading a specific guest's book and then finding something that was interesting to me, highlighting that, creating a question. And then I'd have those questions available to me. Usually maybe I'll write them on the three by five note cards for when I actually have the guest on the show. Then I'll have the particular question available.

[00:11:21] If it's a reading a book that's for me and something like relationship development. I'm a married guy, and so reading books on how to be a better husband is a must. And If I find something in a passage in a book, I'm like, Oh, that's great. I'll highlight that. And typically then I have the book at home and then I've got the book and I could look at it, discuss it. I usually have conversations with my wife about interesting stuff I read. And that actually keeps it alive in my brain better than simply writing it down as having a full on conversation.

[00:11:52] Not everything I highlight that every note I make is actually important for me to remember next week, next year, next month. But sometimes they're a little fun, do dad next knickknacks that come along and conversation and they just pop up out of nowhere

[00:12:06] Carey Griffel: I've seen some people highlighting things and you know, they'll show me their page that they've highlighted and like every Sentence is underlined and it's like I don't really see how that's helpful like it won't help you that much when you're trying to go back to the book to find out those particular points. I mean unless you make like a star in the margin or something like that, then those will be Obviously more noticeable when you go back to the book.

[00:12:34] I think that maybe sometimes though people you know, they're tracking along the thought and they're trying to get that physical attribute of involvement, and so they're moving their hand to highlight the thing. And even if it's not the kind of highlight that's going to be necessarily helpful to go back to later, sometimes just that physical action of your hand, it's not the same as writing a physical note, but it can have the same kind of mental connections and mental benefits at least to some extent.

[00:13:08] And what about highlighting in the Bible? You know, a lot of people have problems with Bible highlighting because a lot of times our Bible versions have really thin pages or really small words, you know, really cramped writing and it's hard to write in our Bibles or take notes inside of them.

[00:13:28] BT Wallace: Yeah, absolutely. there is the issue with the type of ink that a highlighter uses, the type of paper that a Bible will use. And I've run across this too over the years, and I've learned that one of the smartest things to do is to usually do a test on the back of a Bible. There's usually a couple of blank pages at the end. And if there isn't a couple of blank pages at the end, there might be, say, a concordance at the end of your Bible. And if that's the case, you can highlight and see if you end up with a really bad ghosting effect on the other side of the page.

[00:14:04] One of the issues, though, when it comes to Bible highlighting that I've had to deal with and someone might also relate is the cost of the book. You know, some of these Bibles are not exactly inexpensive we'll find a Bible that we really enjoy. It's in a good quality cover, lamb skin, goat skin, et cetera. And . We look at that and we're like, gosh, you know, I just dropped 100 or 50 or for some people, 30 on a Bible, I'm, I'm not gonna run the risk of ruining it. And I understand that completely.

[00:14:40] And what I did to compensate that, for example, is there are companies out there that make these gel. Well, I, I think they're more like crayons, to be honest. An Accudry. Highlighting that basically it's a wax based system. And so you can highlight and there won't be any ghosting on the other side.

[00:15:00] The second step to that is to actually get a Prismacolor colored pencils. They usually come in the best colors that you want. If you're after a specific yellow, a specific purple, a specific pink, you're going to be able to find any of those quality of colors within the Prismacolor colored pencil system. You might not find it specifically in the Bible brights AcuDry colored system.

[00:15:27] There are other types of highlighters that I recommend, and I think we'll get into brands here in a little bit, but I think, there's 100 percent of an issue when we go back to look at something, you said people just highlighting or underlining the whole page.

[00:15:41] Well, that's great and all, because there's a lot of stuff that goes on in the Bible that's really impactful for our lives and highlighting or underlining it may be great, but if you don't have a way to engage both sides of your brain, which is exactly what you're supposed to be doing. So when you're reading and highlighting, highlighting is kind of an art form, you're going to engage both sides of your brains.

[00:16:05] But you also have to be writing down notes. So if you take the opportunity to highlight something, whatever it might be on, whatever that topic is, something that's impactful for you at that time, if that's how you do it, find yourself a prayer journal, write down that Bible verse, write down why it was important, what it means to you, and all those associated topics with that particular verse.

[00:16:31] And then when you go back to that, it'll engage that deep part of your brain. It'll remind you of why it was that that particular section was underlined or highlighted.

[00:16:42] Carey Griffel: I like that because I have a hard time getting myself to do enough devotional reading, you know, just sitting down reading because I'm trying to engage with God and pray alongside my Bible reading, right? It's a little bit easier for me to just read intellectually. read for facts, read for information, and all of that's great.

[00:17:06] But I think you need to have a separate time, like a distinct activity that is a devotional reading. And I have done that with a prayer journal aside with that, or with just, you know, a dedicated notebook sometimes for Particular books or whatever, but the idea of writing down thoughts and connecting those thoughts, because you can't write everything in your Bible, even if you use a tiny pen and I have What is this, a .38 pen that I use all the time because I can't stand to use anything thicker than that anymore now that I've started writing with a thinner pen.

[00:17:46] Like, I can write small notes with those, but I'm still not going to fit everything in on the margin or even in like a scripture journal where it has the big blank page on the side or whatever.

[00:17:58] BT Wallace: Yeah, there's a handful of little techniques that I have picked up over the years. I do have a small Bible that I use they call it a large print compact Bible it's published by Holman, it's the CSB, and I think we can talk about Bible translations in a minute, but I was a strong ESV user, and I found that, If I was reading the Bible, I would get hung up on these loaded words. They're basically words that we have grown up hearing in a sermon. And we attribute that specific word to mean a specific set of emotional or specific set of things associated with it. And when we read it, our brain just goes with what we have been hammered into our brains for so many years.

[00:18:43] And what I had decided to do is I was like, okay, look, what I need to do is I need to do a couple of things and then you got to sit down with a Bible. You got to sit down with a Bible that will allow you to use fresh eyes. And that means, I know a lot of people are really used to study Bibles. The ESV makes a really good study Bible. But if you're going to use fresh eyes, use a non study Bible for this particular system that I'm talking about.

[00:19:10] And then what you want to do is you're going to find a translation that is readable. And what I mean by readable is, when you read it out loud, do you trip over words or do they sound alien to your everyday conversation? And I find that this is important because when we're talking to other people, we don't use Shakespearean language.

[00:19:34] And I don't mean to offend any King James only people out there, but when we're stuck using King James English and we're reading it to ourselves, that's one thing. But the Bible was, honestly the way it's written, it was meant to be read aloud. And there's a lot of contextual evidence to support that.

[00:19:51] And when we read the Bible out loud, it does something to our bodies. It does something to our minds. And that means finding a Bible that we can read out loud, that doesn't have these jarring sounds that don't go with our everyday language. And then you have to set aside distractions. Put your phone away. You may not be able to put your children away, but I've heard of individuals have an hour in the morning where the husband does Bible time and then the wife will go do Bible time and the husband will act as active defense and keep the mom completely away from the children. And that'll work.

[00:20:24] and I think that something else that's really important is that when you start highlighting a Bible, seasons are going to change in your life. Where you are today, isn't going to be the same place that you are in 10 years, not if you've been faithful reading the Bible anyways. and What that means is you're allowed to change the system that you use to highlight your Bible with.

[00:20:46] You're not locked into anything specific. So when we get to talking about some of the systems or a handful of systems that I use, understand that this might not be the same system that I'm going to use next year or in five years.

[00:20:59] Carey Griffel: Yeah, that goes back to the fact that sometimes we get stuck in wanting it to be perfect, wanting it to be this is how we're going to do it from here on out, and it just doesn't have to be.

[00:21:11] It's okay to be switching, and you know, that will also give you some added depth and layering to your Bible if you're using the same Bible over time. You're going to notice that you're actually growing in your faith and in your discipleship and in your knowledge of God. And that might actually be really relevant and noticeable in your notes and your highlighting.

[00:21:37] BT Wallace: Yeah. You can also write small little notes in the margins of your Bible. Talking about the compact large print CSB from Holman. It's got this leather flex or whatever they call it. And it's a single column, the only places that you have a whole lot of space to write in the margins are in the poetry books because it's written in that poetic format. So they're really small handful of words per line, but if you get somewhere, you know, a book of acts, for example, and you're looking at this, you've got almost no space in between verses and you've got almost no space on the margin.

[00:22:13] What I have done once again, is this Bible pairs with an actual writing journal, and that means that if I highlight a verse in the Bible in a specific color, it has a corresponding note in my note journal with a corresponding little symbol or something, if it's important in some kind of way next to the verse. And so pairing note taking with Bible reading , Bible prayerful journaling, it's going to set you up for a better developed discipleship.

[00:22:44] Carey Griffel: I like the idea of using symbols because if you add words, I mean, I do add words, so I'm not saying you can't do this, but sometimes you read the same Bible and you're going to have the same highlights. You're going to have the same notes. Then when you go back to that page, you're going to be thinking those same things and it might not be helpful to you to think new ideas because you're already thinking the things already thought. But if you do something like a symbol that connects to another journal or something, then you're going to be less likely to really, I guess I want to say like, obsess and think the exact same thoughts every time, right? And maybe try and help yourself look at it a little bit differently and bypass those things. But you can still access what you were thinking.

[00:23:38] Another thing that I have done, like if I'm doing a class or if I really want to dig down into a passage, is I will actually take The passage, and I will print it out on a printer, and I'll print it out in a single, like, I'll do it double columned, but it will only print on one of the columns, so then I have half the page with the text, and the rest of the page is blank.

[00:24:03] So, if, in particular, if I'm looking for, like, a chiasm, And I'm looking for the repeated words and the repeated ideas and things like that, then that's a lot easier for me to do that because it doesn't have any other notes, it's structured in a way that I can actually highlight things, and use a lot of different colors and things like that, and it's very particular to that passage, and it's not locked into my particular Bible. But of course, you don't really want to do that with the entire Bible. But if you're really drilling down into something, then Printing it out is actually not a bad option.

[00:24:40] Before I move on into Bible translations, do you want to talk a little bit about the brands of things that you are using and stuff like that?

[00:24:49] BT Wallace: Yeah. Earlier I had mentioned the use of Bible Brights AcuDry highlighting. they're much like crayons. They're a clear kind of crayon. So when they go on the page, they're going to go on the page similar, but smoother than a Crayola crayon, because if you've used crayons, you know, they kind of flake the wax and aren't consistent.

[00:25:09] The second one that I recommended was the Prismacolor colored pencils. There are a lot of brands out there that make similar products that are going to be cheaper. I noticed that Prismacolors can be up to about 2 a pencil. And for anybody who uses, like me, I use an eight to 10 color system. You're going to be out 20 on some colored pencils.

[00:25:32] The next ones I recommend are actually the Zebra Mildliners. Zebra Mildliners offer a wide array of colors, and I make sure, Carey, that you get the particular package that I use, along with all the other things. I'll make sure we can get those to people. But the Mildliners that I use, they'll have a A broad head on one side, that's like a regular highlighter. Then on the other, it's a fine tip. And the fine tip allows me to underline, whereas the highlighter is usually designed to be a broader stroke, even though I have been able to underline using just a regular highlighter. I've been doing it for years.

[00:26:11] And then I also use ink joy pens. They're by paper mate. I find that any kind of ballpoint pen, if you're going to use pen, works better than gel pens or definitely not fountain pens. Don't do that. I love my fountain pens, but they do not write well in a Bible.

[00:26:32] So zebra mild liners, ink joy pens by paper mate. Once again, I'll make sure that the colors are all available that I talk about when we break down some specific colors and what I use them for.

[00:26:45] Carey Griffel: I've actually found that ink joy pens are the best white that I've ever found. So like if I'm sketching on black paper and I want a white pen, I've got to use those because other ones just don't cut it.

[00:26:59] So you said you use eight to ten colors, generally speaking. How do you kind of proportion that? Are certain colors for certain topics or categories or what?

[00:27:12] BT Wallace: Yeah. So there's a handful of different methods that I utilize and I'm going to do, I think what I'll do is I'll talk about a generic one that is probably the easiest for a lot of people. And then I can be a little bit more specific towards the end on a specific topic that I really focus on heavily in my own life.

[00:27:32] And that's using, basically it's a five color system. And. I'll go ahead and talk slowly so people can make notes if they're listening or they can pause.

[00:27:42] So pink, pink is an important one. I use a specific color pink. Not so magenta, not so dark, but honestly pink. And this is for family marriage, friendship, parenting. these are positive relationships. And that means a lot of my first and second Corinthians, Ephesians five is going to have a lot of pink in it.

[00:28:10] The next color I use is orange, and it's not like a dark pumpkin orange. It's a pretty light color orange, and this is for prophecy, dreams, visions things of the future, end times, and that means for example, the Book of Daniel is see a lot of the color orange in it.

[00:28:32] I use yellow, and the yellow that I use isn't the standard bright, super bright yellow. it's a little bit on the darker side of yellow, but. that'll make sense later on. And this is for prayer, worship, Thanksgiving, thankful praise. And that means there's going to be a lot of yellow in the book of Psalms, for example.

[00:28:54] The next color I use is green. And this is a light green. And it's for wisdom. Instruction teaching. For example, the book of Proverbs is going to be full of the color green.

[00:29:09] I did say I started out with five. I had to add a couple of colors as I was working on this because I came into an issue and that was I needed a color in between green and blue. And so I went with this teal. And this is in the zebra mild liners. And there's a teal pen that matches in the ink joy. And teal is for like law, covenant, oaths, and Christian living.

[00:29:35] And that was helpful to distinguish because blue is for God, the father, God, the son, God, the Holy spirit, Messiah, savior, relating to the Lord, basically positive attributes for God. So that's going to be like the book of Isaiah, right? It's going to be full of this and green. And it's going to have a lot of orange in it, oddly enough. So I needed a color that would work in between.

[00:30:03] And then I found a purple, a zebra mild landers. Purple is a very nice purple. it's not too dark because dark colors are kind of a problem and I'll talk about that here in a minute. Purple's for blessings mercy promises love or signs depending on you know, if you're in the book of John. John doesn't use the word miracle He uses the word signs all the time. Or the gifts of God, For example, you know the fruits of the Holy Spirit are going to be in purple.

[00:30:33] And then finally I may have gone over my five, but we're going to keep going. The next color that I went with was brown. And I know brown is kind of like an ugly color and that's on purpose. Brown had to be an ugly color for what the topic is. And this deals with sin, death. Idolatry, false worship, false teaching, false teachers, false doctrine. It deals with a hypocrisy or temptation or foolishness. And I needed basically a color that would go well with these ugly things that we would find in scriptures. And while Brown can be a dark color, you have to be careful with it. The AcuDry Bible, Bible bright Brown, or there's a Prismacolor Brown. These work better. the zebra mild liners. It's not too dark that you can't read it if you've got a, nice printed Bible.

[00:31:32] And then the last color I do want to go over is the color red. And this one I use being rebuked by God talks about, you know, the things that are displeasing to God. Consequences for disobedience are going to be in red. God's justice, God's correction. Those are going to be in red. So basically the entire book of Jonah is going to be read.

[00:31:53] And that's a real simple system that's utilized. and I'll make sure to get that to you too, so that you can include that in your show notes. But I use other specific ones, specific topics.

[00:32:05] Carey Griffel: One thing I can see people thinking of is, well, I've already highlighted, and what if I do a new color system? What am I going to do? Well, the good thing about that, in my mind, is if you go to a new type of highlighter, or a new type of pen, or you're using the Prismacolor pencils instead, that's going to help you kind of track those things.

[00:32:28] So when you see the Prismacolor green, it will mean this, things like that. So that is another benefit to using different materials as far as you're highlighting.

[00:32:39] BT Wallace: Yeah. And you can always buy, I mean, if it's potentially a possibility for you, there's always Bible sales going on different stores are selling Bibles at a lower price. Different times of the year, publishers are moving into a new format and they might be getting rid of an old format and you'll be able to pick up Bibles for pretty inexpensive.

[00:32:58] You can find these at thrift books. You might find a Bible that is technically used, but there's nothing in it. Somebody got it and then they donated it somewhere. Or you can pick up a Bible like I did for 15 dollars that was a complete different translation than I'm used to. So it's a brand new Bible. It's not all highlighted up. I can engage the text in a way with new eyes.

[00:33:22] Carey Griffel: Right. Well, you know, Bible's being such a very common thing that's printed and sold, it means that if you go into like a thrift store, or a used book store, or a library book sale, or, you know, anything like that, you're likely to come across some sort of Bible. So if you don't have a whole lot of money to spend on a whole bunch of different Bibles, but you want different Bibles for different purposes, that's a really good way to find them.

[00:33:54] All right. You said that dark colors are a problem, potentially. Why would that be?

[00:34:00] BT Wallace: Well, the issue with dark colors on Bible paper is the ink that the Bible is usually, words are usually printed in black. And that means any kind of highlighter that's going to kind of mask the color black may mask the words underneath from visibility.

[00:34:17] Utilizing the right browns, the correct color red, the right color blue, those are usually the darkest highlighters. The purple can even be pretty dark, but being mindful of the tone of ink you're using is going to be very important. And once again, use the concordance in the back of a Bible to highlight something that you don't normally look at.

[00:34:38] You know, if you Find a section, they talk about something and you're like, well, I don't really research this yet. Highlight that in those darker colors and see what it looks like. And this will also give you an opportunity to look on the back page to see how it's ghosting the other page. I know a lot of Bibles print on very lightweight paper. And this will clue you in whether or not you're going to be able to use the pen system.

[00:35:01] Carey Griffel: And sometimes the wax based materials can kind of be a problem if your book gets hot. So if you're using a wax based thing that you are not quite sure if it's going to be really great and it's going to last in your book, or if it's going to end up transferring even to the other side of, you know, the opposite page, Then, you know, highlight something in the back, pretty heavily, then leave it in your car on a hot day and see what happens.

[00:35:28] Because I've seen it, like, either bleed through to the other side, or transfer to the opposite page. It's like, that's not what I was going for, yeah.

[00:35:37] And as far as pens, and if you want to do, like, really little writing on the side my favorite pen that I use for everything is a Uniball Signo DX, and it's 38 size, so you can write pretty small with it. And it does come in different colors, so you can get it in different colors.

[00:35:57] The other option that I like is the Micron pens. Those are really good because the Signo isn't waterproof, but Microns are. And so if anything spills or whatever, it can dry out and it'd be fine. Or you can paint over it, you know, so that's another thing. I can't paint over my sketches, but I can paint over, you know, watercolor or whatever else with my Micron pens.

[00:36:26] BT Wallace: Yeah. Waterproof. What's that for? You know, I mean, I used to ask that question and then sometimes I realized that we don't highlight in ink. We highlight in tears.

[00:36:36] Carey Griffel: Yeah. That's an important thing to be considering when you're using your Bible in a way that might produce that kind of thing.

[00:36:45] Do you have any other technical tips or things that you want to get into before we talk about Bible translations?.

[00:36:52] BT Wallace: Yeah, there's one more tip that I would like to talk about, and that's specifically ideas, topical ideas. Let's say you use a Bible for everyday reading use, and you find yourself wanting to research multiple different kinds of topics.

[00:37:11] There are other coloring systems out there that will allow you to use other colors that are of a different kind of shade that will allow you to do this. And I'm specifically talking about one that's big for me. And that's being a good husband or being a good wife or being good in your marriage relationship, whether that's husband, wife, or parent.

[00:37:34] And that means I spend a lot of time reading books that are associated with this every year, and I have a highlighting system that goes with that. And it uses a different pin system. It's designed by believe. And I'll include that in the show notes. And since this is for the men out there, this is a color system that I use for myself, because as a man, I want colors that are kind of manly and they're earthy tones.

[00:37:59] And that means using this kind of green, it looks like grass green, but it's light. for the red, I use a color that's, more of a wine color. It's like a nice Chardonnay. And then there's a purple, but it's like lavender. And then there's an orange, but it's a little bit closer to pumpkin. And then there's a light blue that's far enough away from the teal that it's turquoise.

[00:38:26] And I use all of these colors in order to distinguish different ideas, topics, typologies that are going to be associated specifically with this particular aim, Being a better spiritual spirit filled father, husband, et cetera.

[00:38:43] Carey Griffel: That's an encouraging way to look at it because I think a lot of times we're like we've got to find this particular Christianese thing in the Bible and this particular theme and I mean great, you know Those are things you need to be learning as part of understanding scriptures better and things like that. But we can't forget that these are supposed to be speaking into our lives.

[00:39:06] We're supposed to be changing our lives using the scriptures. And so thinking about the difficult things that we deal with or the challenging things or the things that are just the primary important things that we're doing every day That we need to improve on, like in an intentional way.

[00:39:25] It's a great way to use Bible reading, Bible study, Bible highlighting, including with all of the ideas for a devotional, like a prayer journal, things like that.

[00:39:37] BT Wallace: Yeah. And so when I mentioned using a very bright yellow. I mentioned using that or not using that one in the color system because I want the bright yellow to be saved for if I'm reading scripture and I find something that sticks out to me, today, in this moment when I'm doing my readings.

[00:39:57] It may have nothing to do with anything I'm studying, anything I'm researching. Or anything that I'm working to develop myself into a better, I just simply read a Bible verse and it's like, gosh, you know, I had been praying about this thing for this person, or I've been praying about this thing for me. I highlight that bright yellow because it'll be in my journey as I read through scriptures, over the years, that I'll find something that was in this bright yellow. And I may not remember what that was for. I might remember what it was for, but it was for me in the moment. And I believe that having an opportunity to be in the moment. When we're in scripture is key in our development with our Christian walk.

[00:40:45] Carey Griffel: Yeah. We tend to get a little bit too deep into the idea that the Bible wasn't written to us, but it was written for us, you know, and sometimes we give too much of a divide there. And we forget to leap into the application that yeah, even though we aren't the original context, God is still using these words and guiding us in our lives because of what we're reading and how we're reading it and what is impacting us and how Those words are really speaking into our lives.

[00:41:17] that's not something we can just say that's not a thing, which is why again Pairing our Bible study with prayer is always a good idea. Thinking about how these are Paralleling with our actual discipleship walk and things like that. I think this is really important when you're doing intellectual studies, it's so easy to kind of forget that and just go on your path of interest and you gotta slow down, stop, and I think that that's a good idea of having something bright that's going to highlight.

[00:41:50] Because when you come across it, even if you don't remember what that was speaking to you in the moment, you're going to be recalled to the fact that, Oh, right. This is really for my spiritual formation, for my development and things like that.

[00:42:06] All right. So let's talk a moment about Bible translations. What is your favorite and how do you use different Bible translations?

[00:42:17] BT Wallace: My particular favorite happens to be the ESV, the English Standard Version. And I use this one because it's really technical and it's probably, you know, it's easier for me to read. It's a more modern English than something like a King James or New King James even, but I really enjoy using the ESV as my every day, sit down and study Bible. This is for when I need to do serious study and research.

[00:42:44] But it's not the only one I'm using. Like I said, my current prayer devotional Bible is from Holman. It's the Christian standard Bible, and it sits right in the middle of formal equivalence or dynamic equivalence. it's right in the middle and it seems to be an easier to read text. Once again, it's a single column format and a lot of people prefer the double column, but this is for prayerful devotional time where I can sit down with no distractions. It has no reference notes. It has translator notes at the bottom because these are very important to have. But it has no cross references. It has no study notes, has nothing. It's me, the text of the Bible and some translator notes. And that allows me to read it page for page for page.

[00:43:35] I also utilize for my podcast, Truth and Shadow and things that I do with Unrefined, the NLT. And I find that the NLT is also readable, but it's way easier to read out loud. It seems to be a little bit more thought for thought and it allows for a wider range. So men, if you are tired of your King James, if you think the new King James is tiresome, I strongly recommend using the NLT, this is my every man's Bible.

[00:44:07] I have an every man's Bible in the NLT translation. And this is the one that I do all of my husband and marriage notes in, and that is the new living translation and it's very easy to read. It's really easy to read out loud. We find ourselves in quiet time reading the page.

[00:44:26] Well, if you take the page and you read it out loud, you might hear the words in a different way. And I find that that is helpful. So on a personal level ESV, that's study and research. For my prayer and devotion time, it's a CSB. And for my business related things, it's the NLT. And I simply stand with those.

[00:44:48] Carey Griffel: I find it really interesting you're using the NLT for your podcasting. I think that's good. Actually, I think that's a pretty good translation. It has, you know, every translation is going to skew in different ways in different parts of each translation. But I think the NLT is one that I think most of the audience who listens here would actually enjoy really well.

[00:45:11] It is really easy to read. And if you are using the ESV and you want to, Kind of kickstart a different translation so that you are still in the same kind of column of translation methodology, you can go from the ESV and I would suggest moving to the NASB if you are trying to do something similar to the ESV, but just it's using a little bit of different verbiage. And I think one of the good things about that is that there is at least some tendency and attempt in the NASB to use similar words so you can track themes and language patterns better in it.

[00:45:57] It's actually my newest Bible is an NASB, and it's the first one I've gotten that is a single column, and I really like that because again, I'm so used to reading the double columns with a really tiny type that just switching to something that has a single column until you get to the poetry, then it's double column. And that is a benefit because you can notice It points out when at least major poetry sections are, and it kind of helps me to read it in a different way just because it looks so different on the page.

[00:46:34] But what was funny is I bought my first NASB and it was like $50. I'm like, okay, this is a bit pricey. I didn't wanna spend this, but okay. Is the nicest version I can find here at the store. Like a week later, I was at the library book sale and they had an NASB for like a dollar. So, oh, well, okay, I guess I'll have two of them, then I'll have it in a different room. Because it was like a dollar, come on.

[00:46:59] And for people who are really into buying new Bibles, because I know you people are out there, these kinds of ideas can help to utilize them better so that you're not just buying a Bible to put on the shelf, but you're really using it for a purpose, different focus, different types of notes, or whatever.

[00:47:20]

[00:47:20] BT Wallace: Yeah, there is a new one. I don't know if you have an opinion on this one, but I've been doing a little bit of research on it. And that's the legacy standard Bible. Have you seen this one?

[00:47:29] Carey Griffel: I actually did a review of it. Not too long ago, a couple of months ago, I guess it was because it was a big in conversation. I said, what is this? It's because Ken Ham is talking about it. And You know, a lot of people are like, Oh, if Ken Ham doesn't like it, then I'm not going to like it either.

[00:47:47] I said, okay, well, I'll just wait a second. Let's actually look at it. And so I looked at it and it's easily accessible online. You can just go find the translation online so you can compare. The LSB with different other translations, and I actually kind of liked it because it, it really does try to be even more that level, like I was talking about the NASB tries to have the word for word correspondence, the LSB tries that even higher.

[00:48:16] Now, they don't always succeed. I can tell, like, you just look at some verses and they don't. But overall, it's very helpful to, at least in the majority of the uses of a word, they will translate it with the same English word so that you can see that underlying language.

[00:48:34] So, I actually don't think it's a bad translation at all.

[00:48:39] BT Wallace: Yep. I've been seeing a lot of that one popping up lately. I think they're new on the scene. And there's some, you know, some of us are, come from a different tradition where it's like King James only, or RSV only, and that's what the legacy Bible's gonna be doing is it's kind of a new translation on the stage with these older translation traditions.

[00:48:59] And I think there's usually some of this new kid on the block rivalry that happens

[00:49:05] Carey Griffel: always. Yeah. Well, and I think the LSB, it's like they're the same company or that the same translation people. I don't know what to say, who do the NASB. So it's like, did they really need to do this one when they have the NASB?

[00:49:23] But the NASB has, I think, three different editions. There's one from the seventies, there's one from the nineties, and then there is a recent one. Now, I don't really like the recent one nearly as much as the one from the nineties. So if you're using an NASB, try and get one from, I think it's 1995.

[00:49:42] The LSB is trying to go back to what the NASB was before, so it's really kind of interesting. , kind of doing a little bit more of a changeup, trying to go between and navigate around those different ideas. And, I mean, it's, it's got biases. All translations have biases. You're not going to get away from that. But it's fine, because you're going to use different translations. And you're, as long as you're aware of it, I think most adults are smart enough to figure out that they can navigate those lanes, right?

[00:50:19]

[00:50:20] Carey Griffel: Do you have any recommended study Bibles that are your favorite, like study Bibles?

[00:50:25]

[00:50:26] BT Wallace: Yes, I do. I strongly recommend the Everyman's Bible. I think it's done by, the executive editor for it is Stephen Arterburn. And so there's a lot of notes and he does a lot of things for being a better man in a specific way. I really like the study notes in there because they're designed to help men be better men.

[00:50:47] And then the next one I recommend is the ESV study Bible. This is a thick, heavy duty study Bible. It's going to be filled with all sorts of evangelical leaning notes. And if you're mindful of that, you're aware of that.

[00:51:00] And then the last one I recommend is the NET Bible. The NET Bible has an insane amount of notes. If you can get yourself a physical copy, I strongly recommend that. It's going to give you an intense amount of information from a wide assortment of avenues.

[00:51:17] Carey Griffel: No conversation about study Bibles would be complete without talking about the Cultural Background Study Bible. That one is definitely my favorite, there's a lot of pictures, charts, maps. What it is trying to do is give you a flavor of the biblical times.

[00:51:36] Trying to help you understand the text from that ancient context. So I've not seen anything that is comparative to that. I mean you have the Faith Life Study Bible, which most people can only get online. I do think there is a physical copy, but I don't know if it's in print anymore. But you can get it through Logos and that is an amazing resource for contextual studies.

[00:52:02] But for a physical book, I don't think you can really improve upon the Cultural Background Study Bible. Now, I do have the ESV, I think it's the Archaeological, or maybe just the Archaeology Study Bible, I think is what it's called. And I got that one before I got the Cultural Background Study Bible, and it's also really good. It has a lot of pictures and maps, but it just doesn't compete with the number of footnotes as the other Study Bible has.

[00:52:34] So those are the two I like, but the other thing I also highly recommend checking out are, they're scripture journals, right? So a scripture journal would have the scripture plus a lot of blank space.

[00:52:48] So, you have places to draw, places to take notes, and whatever. There's different ones out there, and sometimes you'll have it in columns, like really wider margins. The scripture journal I have is from the ESV, and it is actually a massive set of each individual book is its own book. So, you have one page of the text on one side, the other side is either blank, or it has the grid dots, or it has lines. And those are expensive, because it's a massive set. You can get the Old Testament in one set, and the New Testament in another set. But they are really, really good for, if you like to doodle, if you like to draw, if you like to just make copious notes, do a lot of writing on it, those are really good for that.

[00:53:40] I guess another question I would ask is, do you use these types of things in conjunction with studying with other people, like in small groups or, you know, with your spouse or whatever else?

[00:53:53] BT Wallace: a thing that I do with my spouse in the evenings. it's a tradition we began is called Bible time. And that's taking about an hour out of the evening and that's sitting down with the readings and my particular faith tradition. I'm Catholic. So we have weekly readings that we will hear at Sunday mass. And that means taking some time every night and we read one of the readings. And we have an opportunity to talk about anything that might have come up in there.

[00:54:22] And we have thank goodness to Peter Kreeft, who has three amazing volumes on the different yearly cycles. So we go through and we read commentary that Peter Kreeft has written for a particular reading. And we read these out loud. And this gives us an opportunity to put a star, put a note next to this particular reading and highlight in this situation.

[00:54:49] And then at the same time, I do Bible study with a group of guys. And in that opportunity, we read a passage of scripture, usually one chapter right now we're going through the book of Matthew.

[00:55:00] When we're done with Matthew, we'll move to Mark, Luke, John, et cetera, through the rest of the New Testament, however many years that will take, but we read a chapter every Sunday together. And that gives me an opportunity to find things that stand out. I'll underline things that make me feel a specific way that challenges me or something to be better I don't understand. I can underline that.

[00:55:21] Underline a passage that might talk about God, , what this tells me that is going on about God or Jesus and what it tells me about other people or people in general. It gives me a chance to highlight these things and we talk about them and in an open format and that way if someone says, Hey, this part of this passage meant this to me, I can actually put a little note in the Bible that I have dedicated to that specific sunday situation.

[00:55:45] Carey Griffel: I don't really have a particular, physical group that I study with right now. But I was thinking if I did, what would be really fun is having a big whiteboard, and then having people take turns just Drawing out something, writing out a chart, or here's a quick little map, and having that be something that people could, if they want, incorporate into their own notes or something.

[00:56:10] I'm a big fan of visual thinking. I think that's why things like Bible Project are so popular, because we're, especially more and more, we're such visual people. I think naturally we're visual, but these days when we're inundated by visuals, I think it takes a little bit of dedication and intentionality to make sure that you're also incorporating that visual element into your own Bible study.

[00:56:39] And for those of you who have kids, I would honestly encourage you to have your kids work on Bible highlighting. Bible journaling, prayer journaling, like all of the things that you think are good for you as an adult. Those are also good for kids. I tend to think that there's this idea that stuff for kids has to look like VBS or it has to look like a particular type of Sunday school.

[00:57:08] And I mean, that's great. Kids love that kind of stuff. So I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but kids love to follow their mentors, who are hopefully their parents, right? The things we are doing are things that are modeled for them. And so if they're seeing you do something, chances are they want to do it too.

[00:57:32] They might not even know that they want to do it. So find a way to incorporate that for your kids. If you have little kids, if you have teenagers, they can do practically everything you're doing, and they'll tell you that they can do everything that you're doing. But really, the intentionality behind giving them the empowerment to be able to study the scriptures on their own, ask questions, big think about asking questions, and even, even for us, I would say that for one of my biggest Bible study hacks is really when I sit down I try and intentionally come up with a question.

[00:58:11] It can be a weird question. It can be a question that might feel a little bit challenging, like, Oh, do I really dare ask God this, or do I really dare challenge my faith in this? But challenging ourselves is one of the best ways we can grow. And just because you ask a question doesn't mean that you have to, buy into Any particular answer to that question, right?

[00:58:37] So I think one of the most helpful things for me is just intentionally going in to ask a question. And that's also another thing that's hard, like, it's hard to drag kids thoughts away from them sometimes. You've got to ask me a question from this and they're like, I don't want to ask you a question. I don't have any questions. I don't know. Well, we're going to sit here until you find one, but really it's the habit building and it's the idea that they really have the freedom to ask questions and we all have that freedom.

[00:59:11] BT Wallace: Absolutely.

[00:59:13] Carey Griffel: All right. Well, it is probably about time to wrap things up and much as I hesitate to do that when we're talking about note taking and , but thank you for coming on to chat with me about this BT. I really appreciate your insights and your ideas. We will be putting links in the show notes for people. But before we go, for those who haven't listened to your other podcasts, I have a question for you.

[00:59:40] BT Wallace: Yes.

[00:59:41] Carey Griffel: What might you say is one of the best things that people would get out of listening to either truth and shadow or unrefined or both?

[00:59:50] BT Wallace: Absolutely. With unrefinedpodcast. com we focus a lot on discipleship and that means involving individuals who write exclusively on this. And that would clearly help other people into being a better disciple themselves. But we also talk about fringy topics and we do that to tell people about things that go on in the world that they might not be aware of, which is a form of entertainment, but we always bring it back on unrefinedpodcast. com to talk about the Lord and how it may involve our walk.

[01:00:25] And then when it comes to Truth and Shadow, Truth and Shadow podcast was developed and designed to be a podcast, a verbal audio chunk of my personal research. This is an opportunity for me not to merely talk with people who are either experts in their field, researchers in their field, or other individuals who have a passion related to topics that I'm passionate about. And this gives me an opportunity to research by talking to them. And I record these and I share them with the audience. That means the audience can get a little bit about what I'm researching, what I want to share, what digital information I want to provide to the world itself, if they happen to listen.

[01:01:10] And that's designed to tell us where things are maybe a little weird at the intersections of the supernatural and Christian faith.

[01:01:18] Carey Griffel: And not being afraid to talk about those.

[01:01:21] BT Wallace: Yeah, there's a lot of topics that I'll talk about that are a little bit transgressive. You know, I'll have conversations with people who may have been former cultists. Maybe even people who are. And, once again, It's usually best to get the information from the lion's mouth itself. You want to hear what's going on in the world and the people that are experiencing it firsthand.

[01:01:44] Carey Griffel: And I have to admit that I love that you used the word entertainment because I think a lot of these topics that people are interested in. They go to different podcasts in order to be entertained in that realm and in that topic. And there's nothing wrong with that. But what I really appreciate about you guys is that you do bring it back to the gospel.

[01:02:10] You do bring it back to living in the church, living in the body of Christ. What does that mean? And asking those deep questions and not just leaving it at the level of entertainment. That's hard to find these days. I wish it wasn't, but it tends to be.

[01:02:29] But yeah, thanks BT. I really appreciate that. I appreciate you coming on and talking. And I appreciate everyone out there who's listening. If anyone wants to reach out and let us know how this conversation's blessed you, we would love to hear that. And we'd love to see people's notes and highlights and things. So feel free to come and join my Facebook group if you're not there. You can show us all of your study notes and all of your highlighted Bibles and things like that. We would love to see them.

[01:02:57] Thanks to those of you who share the episodes, because other people might want to pick up some of these study tips and ideas, and this might bless their lives as well. And if you haven't done so, I would really appreciate it if you'd rate the podcast wherever you listen They do help to get the word out to other people who might be interested.

[01:03:17] Also, if you'd like to contact me to suggest future episodes or ask particular questions, you can always do that through my website at GenesisMarksTheSpot. com. And sometimes I honestly get really good rabbit trails from you guys who ask me questions to research. So thanks for all of you who do that.

[01:03:36] Some things I'm working on is getting out more blog posts, regular newsletters, and if you're interested in those, you can also sign up on my website.

[01:03:45] Thanks guys, and we are creeping up on getting a hundred episodes as well, and I'm considering doing a giveaway. So keep an eye out for that, and I wish you all a blessed week, and we will see you later.