Our Newsletter
Our newsletter, "Cross Current" is published each Sunday. Along with an up-to-date rundown of congregational activities, each edition features an interesting and challenging cover story that connects faith to real life.
Written by Rick Gamble, these articles are published the following week in the Brantford Expositor where Rick is the Religion and Ethics columnist.
Drawing On the Bible
Holy doodles!
That's how writer Angel Hill describes one of today's biggest trends in Bible study. As the name implies, it involves ordinary people illustrating their Books with words and pictures, not so much for decoration, but to help them find and remember deeper meaning.
But that's not a new idea. For thousands of years, believers have illuminated manuscripts with initials, borders, and miniature illustrations, often using silver and gold. The earliest examples are Italian, from the year 400.
In the beginning, illustrated texts were produced by monastery monks on parchment — calf, sheep, or goat skin — and the finest skins were known as vellum. Artisans worked in a scriptorium, a separate room where they would be undisturbed by others, which was a sign of how much their work was valued. Eventually, commercial scriptoria emerged in France, Italy, and the Netherlands, and women were often the key artists.
When paper took over with the invention of the printing press, empty spaces were left for decorative, hand-drawn details. Meticulous illustrations used bold colours, to bring the stories to life and captivate an audience, especially at a time when even many rich people couldn't read. Pictures helped people connect.
Some gospel manuscripts were written entirely in gold, not just because it captured attention but also because illuminators saw their artistry and use of gold as a way of praising God. At one point, gold was so common, it accounted for only a tenth of a book's cost, but the richness and depth of the illustrated Bibles made them valuable nonetheless and helped preserve art and scripture for future generations.
When wealthy patrons commissioned an illuminated Bible, they were often painted into a scripture scene, becoming part of the story. Bibles were personalized with family crests and pictures of important events. Though that process has undergone some change, modern “Bible journaling” still has much in common with its ancient roots. Except there's a whole raft of new technology making illustration possible for anyone, even those of us who, when it comes to art, can barely draw breath.
For starters, there are special Bibles with wider margins and blank pages to accommodate drawings, stickers, and stamps. You can buy journaling kits with gel pens, coloured markers, paints, elaborate rub-ons, and tracing paper. Pinterest and YouTube are awash with video tutorials. Blogs abound, and some churches even hold journaling sessions during Bible study.
Again, the intent is to get past the paper-thin superficiality of decoration to something deeper. According to science, adding any kind of visual element to text engages the entire brain. In a process called dual-coding theory, both the left side — which controls logic — and the right — which handles creativity — work together when we journal, which helps us concentrate better and remember more.
It could be something as simple as taking sermon notes, highlighting key verses in colour, sketching a main theme, or applying stickers. The process involves thinking the story through, synthesizing the material, and deciding what's most important.
It's fitting, really. The Bible was never intended to be a religious relic, put on display and treated like a remote symbol of veneration. The message is holy. The medium is not. In fact, the apostle Paul tells us to use scripture like a blueprint or a tool. “Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval,” he writes in 2 Timothy 2:15. “Be a good worker, one who doesn't need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.”
So let's not get too narrow here. The most important way to illustrate the Bible is to live it — to draw on it as a source of guidance and inspiration. When we allow God to paint us daily into the picture of scripture, the Word comes alive, captures attention, and helps others understand it — and connect with it. When we customize the Bible by applying it to every dimension of our life, the Jesus values and character traits we illustrate become a golden means of praising God, and help preserve a true understanding of scripture for future generations.
Paul says the scriptures give us “the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus”. He adds that, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what's true and to make us realize what's wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we're wrong and teaches us to do what's right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:15-17)
Picture that.
By Rick Gamble. Reprint at will in not-for-profit publications. Originally published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of Followers of Christ, an independent, nondenominational church in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. To get these free weekly articles by email, with no strings attached, send a note to Rick at info@followers.ca
That's how writer Angel Hill describes one of today's biggest trends in Bible study. As the name implies, it involves ordinary people illustrating their Books with words and pictures, not so much for decoration, but to help them find and remember deeper meaning.
But that's not a new idea. For thousands of years, believers have illuminated manuscripts with initials, borders, and miniature illustrations, often using silver and gold. The earliest examples are Italian, from the year 400.
In the beginning, illustrated texts were produced by monastery monks on parchment — calf, sheep, or goat skin — and the finest skins were known as vellum. Artisans worked in a scriptorium, a separate room where they would be undisturbed by others, which was a sign of how much their work was valued. Eventually, commercial scriptoria emerged in France, Italy, and the Netherlands, and women were often the key artists.
When paper took over with the invention of the printing press, empty spaces were left for decorative, hand-drawn details. Meticulous illustrations used bold colours, to bring the stories to life and captivate an audience, especially at a time when even many rich people couldn't read. Pictures helped people connect.
Some gospel manuscripts were written entirely in gold, not just because it captured attention but also because illuminators saw their artistry and use of gold as a way of praising God. At one point, gold was so common, it accounted for only a tenth of a book's cost, but the richness and depth of the illustrated Bibles made them valuable nonetheless and helped preserve art and scripture for future generations.
When wealthy patrons commissioned an illuminated Bible, they were often painted into a scripture scene, becoming part of the story. Bibles were personalized with family crests and pictures of important events. Though that process has undergone some change, modern “Bible journaling” still has much in common with its ancient roots. Except there's a whole raft of new technology making illustration possible for anyone, even those of us who, when it comes to art, can barely draw breath.
For starters, there are special Bibles with wider margins and blank pages to accommodate drawings, stickers, and stamps. You can buy journaling kits with gel pens, coloured markers, paints, elaborate rub-ons, and tracing paper. Pinterest and YouTube are awash with video tutorials. Blogs abound, and some churches even hold journaling sessions during Bible study.
Again, the intent is to get past the paper-thin superficiality of decoration to something deeper. According to science, adding any kind of visual element to text engages the entire brain. In a process called dual-coding theory, both the left side — which controls logic — and the right — which handles creativity — work together when we journal, which helps us concentrate better and remember more.
It could be something as simple as taking sermon notes, highlighting key verses in colour, sketching a main theme, or applying stickers. The process involves thinking the story through, synthesizing the material, and deciding what's most important.
It's fitting, really. The Bible was never intended to be a religious relic, put on display and treated like a remote symbol of veneration. The message is holy. The medium is not. In fact, the apostle Paul tells us to use scripture like a blueprint or a tool. “Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval,” he writes in 2 Timothy 2:15. “Be a good worker, one who doesn't need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.”
So let's not get too narrow here. The most important way to illustrate the Bible is to live it — to draw on it as a source of guidance and inspiration. When we allow God to paint us daily into the picture of scripture, the Word comes alive, captures attention, and helps others understand it — and connect with it. When we customize the Bible by applying it to every dimension of our life, the Jesus values and character traits we illustrate become a golden means of praising God, and help preserve a true understanding of scripture for future generations.
Paul says the scriptures give us “the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus”. He adds that, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what's true and to make us realize what's wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we're wrong and teaches us to do what's right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:15-17)
Picture that.
By Rick Gamble. Reprint at will in not-for-profit publications. Originally published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of Followers of Christ, an independent, nondenominational church in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. To get these free weekly articles by email, with no strings attached, send a note to Rick at info@followers.ca
