Have you ever heard of scribing scripture?

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. See full disclosure here.

I hadn’t heard of it either until recently when I was invited to a telesummit on Christian journaling. I enjoy journaling during my daily quiet times but knew that I would benefit by learning more.

So I tuned in to the podcasts.

They were all fantastic – so much so that I listened to them multiple times.

And that is where I learned about scribing scripture.

“What is scribing scripture?” you might be asking.

Scribing scripture is when you take the time to write out scripture – entire books – word for word, just like the scribes of old did.

In the Old Testament, there were scribes who had the task of passing down God’s Word by writing them down word for word.

Deuteronomy 17: 18 – 19 (ESV) says: “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them.”

Isn’t that amazing? God instructed kings to write out His Word – scribing – and to read it all his life in order to learn to fear Him by keeping these laws.

Here are some of the benefits that I believe have helped me as I scribe:

1. It helps me to meditate on the richness of the words, even more than just memorizing.
2. It aids in memorization – and hiding God’s Word in my heart.
3. I experience God’s Word in a new way with the hand/mind connection that accompanies writing.
4. It helps me reverence God even more.

As soon as I learned about scribing scripture as a new discipline, I dove right in.

Here are some tips for getting started with scribing:

1. Choose a short book of the Bible to start with. I choose I John for starters. One of my friends chose Ephesians and another chose Colossians.
2. Remember to write out an entire book. This helps with continuity and understanding the book as a whole.
3. Earmark a specific notebook just for your scribing. It can be a fancy faith journal [affiliate link] or can just be a simple composition notebook.
4. Write about a page a day or earmark a certain amount of time – like 15 – 30 minutes.
5. When you finish for the day, put the next number of verse as your list writing so it is easy to know where to start the next day.
6. Put a square around the chapter number so it is easy to see what chapter you are in.
7. Go slow. This is not a race. Meditate deeply on what you are writing. Psalm 46:10a says “Be still and know that I am God.” ESV
8. Ask God to help these verses go deep into your heart and mind.

Let me know your thoughts on scribing. If you are currently scribing or if you are going to start, share the book in the Bible you are working on.