By Hand

I'm copying the whole Bible by hand for my kids! I'm starting in Genesis and going right through to Revelation, taking as much time as I need to complete it, likely years!

Copying is a lot slower than reading, but only a couple of days into this project, I began to realize that's exactly where the value of this lies. At a pen's pace, I notice things my eyes skip!

His face shows up in every verse, once you stop to actually look.

The routine

Most mornings I'm up before anyone else in the house. I usually make myself a protein smoothie, exercise, and then grab my NKJV Bible and start writing. There's no real rhythm to how much (or little) I will write that day; it can often depend on anything from how long it took me to get out of bed to how long it takes for the kids to come bursting into my office. There is no daily goal either way; the point is to take the time to transcribe scripture and enjoy Father through it.

The tools

• Paper. This has to outlast me, so after some research I decided to use a Marrakech Mocha travelers journal (opens in a new tab) from Leatherpress. It's lined with heavy stock, and has a leather cover that will hopefully protect it for decades to come.
• Pen. I picked the Pigma Micron PN, 0.45mm nib. The ink is archival and waterproof, and it dries fast enough that I don't have to worry about smudging if my hand catches it. As with the journal above, it's also a pen I can keep buying. I'll need a lot of these (and a fair few journals, too), so for consistency's sake I wanted something I could rely on.
• Corrections. There are bound to be mistakes, although I didn't bank on having one in Genesis 1:2. Being so early into the project, I decided to rip that page out and begin over again, but suffice to say that isn't a long-term solution the further I go. So I rely on trusty White-out for any future issues!
• Next. There are a couple of things outstanding; the first is some sort of letter stamp I can use at the top of the page for the beginning of each new book, and the second is a method of etching the volume number and books enclosed on the spine of the leather journal itself.

Why the NKJV

Every translation makes tradeoffs, in its source text and in the century it was made. I'm really not interested in arguing about them (here or anywhere else, to be honest).

The KJV has held up for four hundred years, but English has transitioned a lot in that time. For example, "Let" used to mean "hinder." "Prevent" used to mean "go ahead of." Reading the KJV well means you'd have to catch every one of those nuances, and I know I wouldn't be able to do that! The NKJV tends to keep the sentence structure but also updates the words that have changed over the centuries.

Obviously the English language continues to adjust, but one of the bigger reasons I picked the NKJV is that it hasn't been modified since 1982. That's 40+ years a translation with mostly modern English has not been iterated on. Other versions such as the NIV, NASB, CSB and ESV are frequently revised as the English language drifts through time, but I felt confident that the NKJV would stay put and so any word I handwrite today will be the same as in the NKJV in another 40 years from now. Ultimately it's a tradeoff with where the English language will be in 40 years, vs what is handwritten remaining true to the version it was copied from.

When it's done

I'm expecting to have several leather-bound journals housing the Bible in my handwriting. Of course I want them to be read rather than stored; if my kids wear out a volume but still pass it on to future generations anyway, that's the best result a father could hope for.