My Completed Blank Bible

This past weekend I was able to complete my Blank Bible.  I will now take you through the steps I used and share with you some things I will do differently next time.  This is a longer post than I usually write, but it is loaded with pictures, so it’s not too bad.

Where it all started

The idea for creating my own Blank Bible came from a post I read over at The Shepherd’s Scrapbook.  He got the idea from Jonathan Edwards who would paste blank sheets of paper in between the pages of his Bible and use the blanks for notes and observations on the texts.  You can actually purchase a copy of Edwards’ Blank Bible here if you like.

Step One:  Choosing the Bibles

For my Blank Bible, I chose a very simple pew Bible in NIV.  Others who have done this project have used a study Bible and in ESV but I cut my spiritual teeth on the NIV and it is still my version of choice.  I chose to use a pew Bible rather than a study Bible because they are less expensive, and because I like to include my own notes and do my own research rather than having it all handed to me.  But to each his own.  The important point is to choose a version you will actually use.

I chose to use two Bibles because I wanted to split my Blank Bible up into multiple volumes of books rather than one or two volumes (more on this later) and since the text flows from one book into another, I wanted to be able to split the books more easily.

Step Two:  Cutting the covers and the paper

I took the Bibles to my local mail services and print shop and used the owner’s box cutter to remove the covers.  This was a fairly simple process:  Just open the cover of the Bible and where it attaches to the paper, use your box cutter to split it away.  Once the cover is split along the seam, you can pull it off the paper rather easily.

 

 

 

 

Then, the shop owner used his paper cutter to cut 1/8th of an inch off of the spines.  This was enough to remove the glue from the covers, but not enough to cut into the text of the Bible.  Remember, you don’t want to get too close to the text either because then the holes you punch for the spirals will punch through the text.

Next, I chose a ream of acid-free printer paper and had it cut into two bricks matching the size (as closely as possible) of the Bible pages.  The blanks are actually slightly larger than the Bible pages, which creates a nice textured look to the final product. 

Step Three:  Inserting the blank pages

I took everything back to the house and sat down to insert the pages.

 

I divided up the Bible into the following smaller booklets:

• Genesis through Deuteronomy:  1 blank per page of text (in Genesis I used 2 blanks per page of text)
• Joshua through 2 Chronicles:  1 blank per page of text
• Ezra through Job:  1 blank per page of text
• Psalms:  3 blanks per page of text
• Proverbs through Song of Songs:  1 blank per page of text (in Proverbs I used 2 blanks per page of text)
• Isaiah through Daniel:  1 blank per page of text (in Isaiah I used 2 blanks per page of text)
• Hosea through Malachi:  1 blank per page of text
• Matthew through Acts:  2 blanks per page of text
• Romans through Philemon:  2 blanks per page of text
• Hebrews through Revelation:  2 blanks per page of text

All of the inserting took about 1 hour to complete.  It takes this long because you will want to make sure that you are stacking your books neatly and that they are in the correct order.

Step Four:  Binding

I took the completed pages to my local big box office supply store and had them coil bind each volume with black covers and backs.  I will create white lables to stick on the front covers to identify each particular volume.

I chose coil binding because it will lay out flat nicely, and because it can be easily removed and replaced if I want to add additional blank pages in the future.

I picked up the finished volumes on Sunday afternoon and immediately went home to explore them.  Here is a picture of the finished product with a few notes already started on The Great Commission.

 

 

A note on the pens in the photo

I purchased a set of great archive quality pens for marking in my Blank Bible called the Pigma Micron.  The ink in these pens is pigment rather than dye so they won’t fade over time.  In addition, they almost instantly dry so there is no smudging and no bleed through.  They are PERFECT for writing in your Bible.  You can pick up your own at your local hobby shop or art supply store.  I found that the office supply stores generally do not carry them.

Things I will do differently next time

I had a great experience with this project so there are only two things I will do do differently next time:

1.  I would like to try and find a Bible with a thicker stock of paper.  I realize there aren’t many out there, but surely I can find one.

2.  I will do the punching myself.  On multiple pages, the operator punched into the text of the Bible itself.  I would like to try my hand at it to see if I can avoid that.

Overall, I am more than pleased with how this turned out.  I hope you decide to tackle something like this yourself and create this excellent tool for your own study of Scripture.  If you do, please let me know how it goes.