How to keep a Bible reading journal (one line a chapter)
How to journal while reading the Bible without it turning into homework: one line a chapter, prompts for each kind of book, the SOAP method and a template.
The short answer
A Bible reading journal is a record of what struck you as you read. The simplest one that lasts is a line a chapter: the reference, what happens, what caught you, and any question. At a one-year pace that is three or four lines a day, 1,189 lines for the Protestant Bible and 1,334 for the Catholic. Kept by chapter rather than by date, the journal leaves no blank page for a missed day, and a second reading finds what you wrote the first time.
In this guide
- What is a Bible reading journal?
- How to journal while reading the Bible: one line a chapter
- A Bible reading journal template
- Bible reading journal prompts for every kind of chapter
- The SOAP method, and when it is too much
- How much to write in a Bible journal
- When you miss days
- Paper journal or app?
- Questions people ask
- Sources
Advice on keeping a Bible reading journal often pictures a quiet half hour and a full page every morning. Some days have that, and most do not, so a journal that depends on it has nothing to hold on the ordinary ones. What follows is a smaller habit that can last the length of a whole Bible: one line for every chapter you read, prompts for each kind of book, a template to copy, and the longer SOAP method for the days that have room for it.
- 1,189lines for the whole Protestant Bible
- 1,334for the Catholic Bible
- 3.3lines a day, to finish in a year
- 2.7 minto read an average chapter
What is a Bible reading journal?
A Bible reading journal is a record, kept as you read, of what struck you in each passage: what happened, a phrase that stayed with you, a question to come back to. It is about the reading itself, and it grows a little with every chapter. The name is used for three different things, and it helps to know which one you mean before buying a notebook.
| Bible reading journal | Bible journaling | Study notebook | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What goes in it | A few words per chapter: what happens, what caught you | Drawing, lettering and color beside a chosen verse | Word studies, cross-references, notes from commentaries |
| Where it lives | A notebook, a file or an app | The margins of a Bible, often a wide-margin edition | A notebook or binder |
| How much it covers | Every chapter you read | The verses you choose to illustrate | The book you are studying |
The rest of this page is about the first column: words, kept by chapter, simple enough to keep up from Genesis to Revelation. The habit underneath it is an old one. When the shepherds told what they had seen at the birth of Jesus, Luke writes:
But Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart.
Luke 2:19, World English Bible
How to journal while reading the Bible: one line a chapter
The simplest Bible reading journal that lasts is one line per chapter, written as soon as you finish it. The line has up to four parts, always in the same order:
- The reference. “Genesis 22”, first, every time. It is what lets you find the line again, and it is the one part never left out.
- What happens, in a few words. Not a summary for anyone else, only enough for you to recognize the chapter a year from now.
- What caught you. A phrase with its verse number, or one word for what you noticed.
- A question, if one came up. Questions are often the most useful thing to reread.
Chapters make a good unit because plans, references and progress are already counted in them, and because they are short: an average chapter takes under three minutes to read silently. To read the Bible in a year takes 3.3 chapters a day, so three or four lines. The whole 66-book Protestant Bible is 1,189 lines, and the 73-book Catholic Bible is 1,334.
Here is what a few lines look like, with phrases quoted from the World English Bible:
| Chapter | What happens | What caught me | A question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Genesis 22 | Abraham takes Isaac up the mountain | “God will provide himself the lamb” (v. 8) | What did Isaac understand? |
| Leviticus 19 | Laws on harvests, wages and neighbors | “love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 18) | Why does it sit among the farming laws? |
| Ruth 1 | Naomi goes home, and Ruth goes with her | “where you go, I will go” (v. 16) | |
| Psalm 117 | Two verses of praise | “all you nations” (v. 1) | |
| Mark 1 | Jesus is baptized and calls Simon, Andrew, James and John | “Immediately,” again and again | Why does he go off alone to pray (v. 35)? |
Some lines will have only the first two parts. A line with only the reference is still a record that you read the chapter.
A Bible reading journal template
A template is really a decision about order: by date, like a diary, or by chapter, like an index. Both work, and they suit different readers.
Ordered by date
Write each line in the order you read, with the date above each day’s lines. This is the easiest way to begin, needs no setup, and handles any plan, including ones that move between the Old and New Testaments every day. Its weakness shows on a second reading: finding what you wrote about Genesis 22 means paging back through a year.
Ordered by chapter
Give each book its own run of lines and number them in advance, one per chapter. Genesis gets 50, Psalms 150 and Obadiah one. At 30 lines to a page, the Protestant Bible takes about 40 pages and the Catholic Bible about 45, so one notebook holds all of it with room left for longer entries. Every book’s chapter count, which is the number of lines to leave, is in our list of the books of the Bible in order.
Laid out this way, the journal is its own index. When you come back to Genesis, perhaps years later, the line from last time is already on the page. Write a date on each entry, or use a different color of ink for each reading, and two readings of the same chapter sit side by side.
If you also want to see at a glance which chapters you have covered, a chart with a box for every chapter does that better than any journal. Our printable Bible reading tracker has one for every canon, and it pairs well with either layout.
Bible reading journal prompts for every kind of chapter
The questions that open up a chapter depend on what kind of writing it is: a law code reads differently from a letter, and a poem differently from both. The table groups the books into eight divisions of the Bible, with the chapters in each and one prompt to try.
| Division | Books | Chapters (Protestant / Catholic) | A prompt to try |
|---|---|---|---|
| Law | Genesis to Deuteronomy | 187 / 187 | What does this law protect, and whom? |
| History | Joshua to Esther; also Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees | 249 / 316 | Who chooses well in this chapter, and what does it cost them? |
| Wisdom | Job to Song of Songs; also Wisdom and Sirach | 243 / 313 | Which line would you say out loud, and which would you argue with? |
| Prophets | Isaiah to Malachi; also Baruch | 250 / 258 | Who is being spoken to, and what are they asked to do? |
| Gospels | Matthew, Mark, Luke and John | 89 / 89 | What does Jesus do here, and how do the people around him respond? |
| Acts | Acts | 28 / 28 | Where has the message reached by the end of the chapter? |
| Epistles | Romans to Jude | 121 / 121 | What is the writer asking for, in one sentence? |
| Revelation | Revelation | 22 / 22 | What picture is drawn, and what is it set against? |
The Catholic figures include the seven books that Catholics call deuterocanonical and many Protestants call the Apocrypha, along with the longer Greek forms of Esther and Daniel. Orthodox and Ethiopian Bibles include further books again, and they fall into the same eight divisions.
A few kinds of chapter have prompts of their own:
- Genealogies and census lists, such as 1 Chronicles 1 to 9 or Numbers 1 and 26: one name you recognize, and why it might be there.
- Psalms: whether it praises, laments or gives thanks, and one line you could pray as it stands.
- Parables: who in the story you expected to be the hero, and who turns out to be.
- A chapter that lost you: write where. “Lost me at verse 12” is a useful line, because it is exactly what to look into later.
The SOAP method, and when it is too much
SOAP is a four-part way of journaling on one passage, named for its steps: Scripture, Observation, Application and Prayer. It goes deeper than a line and suits a day with time for it.
- Scripture. Copy out a verse or two that stood out.
- Observation. What does it say in its setting? Who is speaking, to whom, and why?
- Application. What does it mean for you today?
- Prayer. A few sentences in response.
Written out in full, the four parts fill most of a page, which is why SOAP is hard to keep up across three or four chapters a day. The two methods combine well: a line for every chapter, and SOAP for one passage when a day or a week has room.
| One line a chapter | SOAP | |
|---|---|---|
| What you write about | Every chapter you read | One passage, often a verse or two |
| Length | A line | Most of a page |
| At a one-year pace | Three or four lines a day | One passage a day, not every chapter |
| Best for | A record you can reread | Thinking one passage through |
How much to write in a Bible journal
A line is enough for most chapters, because chapters vary far more than the time anyone has to write about them. The shortest in the Protestant Bible, Psalm 117, is 2 verses and 33 words in the King James Version and takes a few seconds to read. The longest, Psalm 119, is 176 verses and 2,423 words, about ten minutes at an average silent pace. A journal that gave every chapter a page would give both of them the same page.
Write more when a chapter gives you more. Let the length follow the chapter rather than a rule: a long entry now and then, a short one most days, and on some days just the reference. A blank after the reference means you read the chapter and went on, which is a perfectly good record.
When you miss days
A journal kept by chapter has no dated pages, so a missed day leaves nothing blank to fill in. Pick up at the next chapter you read and write its line. The days in between are not a gap in the journal, because the journal was never counting days.
Reading every single day is also less common than it can seem. In Lifeway Research’s 2016 survey of 1,000 Americans, 22 percent said they read a little of the Bible each day in a systematic way. A journal that only works on a daily rhythm would leave many readers facing empty pages; one kept by chapter works at any rhythm.
There is no need to back-fill lines for chapters read without writing. If you want them in the record, the reference alone will do. And if a reading plan has slipped as well, our guide to being behind on a Bible reading plan sets out ways to carry on without starting over.
Paper journal or app?
Either works, and the difference is that an app can count for you while a notebook cannot. A paper journal works without a screen, can be laid out however you like, and holds a sketch or a pressed flower as easily as a line. What it cannot do is count: which chapters you have covered, and how much is left, needs a separate chart. An app keeps the record and the notes together and dated, and finds a chapter’s notes for you, at the cost of a screen at the moment you finish reading. Using both works well too, a notebook for the long entries and a tracker for the chapters, as our guide to tracking your Bible reading compares in more detail.
Start with the chapter you read today. Write its reference, then as much or as little as it gave you; the next line can wait for the next chapter.
Questions people ask
How do I start a Bible reading journal?
Start with whatever chapter you read next, not with Genesis. Use any notebook, file or app, write the chapter's reference at the start of a line, and add a few words on what happens and what caught you. It helps to decide in advance whether the journal runs by date like a diary or by chapter, with a numbered run of lines for each book.
What is the SOAP method of Bible journaling?
SOAP stands for Scripture, Observation, Application and Prayer. You copy out a verse or two, note what it says in its setting, write what it means for you today, and end with a short prayer. It takes most of a page for one passage, so it suits a day with time to spare better than a plan of several chapters a day.
What is the difference between Bible journaling and a Bible reading journal?
Bible journaling usually means art, such as drawing, hand lettering and color in the margins of a Bible beside a chosen verse. A Bible reading journal is written, a few words on each chapter you read, kept in a notebook, a file or an app. One illustrates selected verses; the other keeps a record of the whole reading.
Do I need a journaling Bible?
No. A journaling Bible is an edition printed with wide blank margins for notes or drawings, which suits illustrated Bible journaling. A reading journal kept separately works with any Bible and any translation, stays with you if you change Bibles, and can be read on its own years later.
How long should a Bible journal entry be?
As long as the chapter gives you something to say. A line covering what happens and one thing that caught you is enough for most chapters, and it keeps pace with three or four chapters a day. Some chapters will earn a paragraph; on other days the reference alone is a record that you read it.
Sources
- Lifeway Research (2017). Americans are fond of the Bible, don't actually read it.
- Brysbaert, M. (2019). How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate. Journal of Memory and Language, 109, 104047.
- World English Bible, verse-per-line edition (public domain), eBible.org
- King James Version, verse-per-line edition (public domain), eBible.org
