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Harris Highlighting
Method for Bible Study
Maybe you just received a brand new Bible for Christmas, or perhaps youve been
holding off marking your Bible for years because you just dont know where to start. Or
maybe you are like I was and have a Bible where youve tried multiple different
highlighting systems and now youve got a big mess on your hands and need a fresh
start.
If you fall under any of those categories, this post today is for you. Ive been given
special permission to share with you Dr. Harris (Head of the Bible Exposition
Department at The Masters Seminary and Founder of Glory Books) personal
highlighting system that hes been using for decades.
This highlighting system changed the way I study and read books. Not only do I
apply it to my Bible, but also to every academic book that sits on my shelf. It crosses
over well into any genre except maybe for ction.
The Importance of Highlighting and Marking Your Bible
Some prefer not to mark in their Bibles, and thats perfectly ne. But for those who do,
or are perhaps on the fence, here are a few benets to marking your Bible:
Color delineates subject is a very popular, if not the most popular, method of
highlighting Scripture. Almost everyone I talk to about Bible marking has used this
method at one time or another. My daughter is currently using this method in her rst
big girl Bible.
This technique is slightly more advanced and less common than the color delineates
subject method. People who use this method like to assign a certain priority level to
different color highlighters and then mark each verse or passage with the
corresponding color of its importance.
First, often times (but not always), the importance of a verse is subjective to the reader
and can even change within the same reader as he or she grows in Christ over time.
Second, it makes me nervous saying one verse of Scripture is more important than
another. Doesnt it just sound weird when you say it out loud? Is not all Scripture useful (
2 Timothy 3.16)?
I will say this about it (or write it rather). For those of you who really like this method, I
think youre really going to appreciatethe Dr. Harris method because it applies a
color-based priority system grounded in logicnot the subjectiveness of the readers
opinion.
Highlighting is Outlining
There it is. Think of an outline with Roman numerals and letters. Lets take my preferred
structure: I, A, 1, a, i. Anytime I make an outline I use that structure. So what Dr. Harris
does is apply a highlighter color to each step in the outlining process. He then takes
these colors and breaks down the logic inpassages of Scripture. So for instance,
yellow would be the primary point (I), blue would be anything supporting the primary
(A), green supports blue (1), pink supports green (a), and purple supports pink (i).
Once this is applied to a book or passage of Scripture you can literally break down
the entire logic and flow with a single glance. You can quickly flip through pages and
see all of the primary points and their supporting verses.
I wish I had more to explain but its really that simple. Just use color to outline your
Bible. Youll never again get lost trying to nd where a line of thought begins. Your Bible
will instantly make logical sense to both your eyes and your brain.
A Few Examples
This method is probably best described visually so lets look at a few examples.
Revelation 3-5
1. Note how I used yellow (my primary point) to indicate the beginning of each church
in chapter 3 and then used blue to support those primary points with things unique to
that church. Its not complete by any means but thats the beauty of this system: you
can work your way through passages at your own leisure. You may start on one
passage, leave it to visit another one for a week, and then come back. Whatever works.
2. At the beginning of chapter 4 I chose to make behold, a throne stood in heaven (v.
2) my primary point because everything following is about the throne room of God. I
then used blue to indicate the various beings in the throne room, and then used green
to color anything about those beings I wanted to bring to attention.
I added thisnext page because I wanted you to see that just because a new chapter
begins, doesnt mean its a new primary point (chapter markings were not in the original
manuscriptstheyre man-made). Notice how in 5.1 we arestill in the throne room of
God and, therefore, we do not need a new primary point yet.
1 Timothy 2-3
One other small tip I picked up from Dr. Harris that Id like to point out. Notice how for
the green sections under overseer and deacons I just outline the section with the
highlighter rather than color each line. If you have a huge passage of Scripture to
highlight, be kind to your Bible and dont paint the entire pageyour Bible will
thank you later. A simple border outlineof large passages will do the trick.
Romans 6-7
Finally, I wanted to share this part of my Bible to make the point that you dont have to
do everything at one time. Romans 6 and 7 (and 8) have some of the richest theology in
all of Scripture and I want to make sure I really take time going through it as I apply this
system. Notice how Ive hit just a few of the main points, and I didnt break down the
entire passage in one sitting.
Take your time doing this. Make sure your markings are correct and in doing so, it
will force you to understand the context and big picture of every passage in
Scripture rather than picking out individual verses without an understanding of their
relevancy.
Concluding Thoughts
I hope this has been helpful for you. This is justa way of marking your Bible and is by
no means the only way. If you have a system that works for you, I would encourage
you to continue using it.
Tips
1. Where do I start? Pauls letters make this methodincredibly easy to apply. Start with
Romans.
2. Look for key words that start or continue logical thought such as therefore, but,
and for.
3. Make sure youre right before you mark. That is one thing I love about this method is
that it forces me to really go back and check the logical progression of any passage. I
want to make sure I understand it before I start applying the highlighter.
4. Get a study Bible with detailed outlines at the beginning of each book. MacArthurs
study Bible does this. It will help you, at the very least, to nd the main points in each
book and then you can follow the logic from there.
5. Use different colored pens and shapes to mark subject matter, not a highlighter color.
This gives youway more freedom and options to cover the vast number of subjects
youll nd in Scripture.
6. This does not mean you should highlight every single verse in your Bible. Just hit the
main points. Not everything will t perfectly into an outline.
7. Apply this method to every academic book you read. I cant tell you how many times
this has come in handy for me. I love being able to go to my bookshelf, open a book,
and instantly have a visual outline of the writers arguments. Its fantastic!
8. Oh, and if youre looking for highlighters that dont bleed through, Ive found the
Zebrite Bible Highlighters to be the best. Just dont mash down too hard!