Organising The Bible in Obsidian

As a student of the Text myself, I started using Obsidian for a similar purpose. My use case may be different as my teacher was Jewish and more “eastern” in thought so my approach focuses on “digging” into the Text through personal discipline to find hidden treasure. My notes are are made as I read/study a passage. My approach is as follows:

  1. First I have a folder that contains the written Text. I write/type the Text as a daily discipline. As I go, I highlight proper nouns, concepts, themes, or anything that jumps out at me for being out of place. Then if there is a link or common theme with another passage latter, I am familiar with the entries referenced.

For example, I recently was typing through Gen 18 in which the three visitors come to Abraham’s tent. I’ll have links to Abraham and Sarah as named people, but also links to “Patriarch running” “Hospitality” “Under a tree” and “Three Measures of Fine Flour”. Then when I get to Matt 13 I’ll notice a link that could clue me into the Remez being used.

  1. Second I have a folder that contains any word references. These are catalogued by their Strong’s numbers. I will make note of case, part of speech, references, and first mention.

  2. Third I have a folder for nouns with sub-folders for People, Places, Things, and Numbers (I’m not into the whole cabal/mystic ideas about numbers, but numbers are often used as pictures/themes such as seven being a number of completion and five being the number of Torah.) These will have back links from any references and I will also include any other research sources/links from outside the Text itself.

  3. Lastly, I have quotes/notes in folders to organize my own notes and any quotations from other books/commentaries/lectures/etc that I’ve listened to.

Most of these are just raw md files sorted alphabetically which serves my use case (I look up Abraham under “A” in the “People” category) but the written Text is the exception. For that I have each book is its own folder with a number (eg “01-Genesis” to “39-II Chronicles”) so they are sorted in order. Each contains a md file with the abbreviated name and chapter number (eg “Gen-18”). I then use headings for each verse. (I use heading 6 and use my CSS to make the numbers the same as the background color so they don’t get in the way while just reading) This allows me to call or embed a link with a nice shorthand such as “Gen-18” for a chapter or “Gen-18#v6” for a specific verse.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions. I’m always down to discuss and learn when it comes to the Text.

Grace and Peace,
Lithou

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I dont have much to add other than to share this link to a bunch of existing bible visualizations - https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/gallery/2013/sep/05/holy-infographics-bible-visualised

I haven’t had time to look into it yet, but I hope that some of the datasets are public. If not, would you be open to sharing what you put together?

4 Likes

I wonder how you can quote multiple verses with this e.g. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

From what i see, you can only embed one verse at a time unless u made a separate header to combine more than one verse.

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This is exactly what I am looking to do:Importing The Bible into Obsidian. I don’t have any programming knowledge, how do I do it?

This is an important point and distinction of how Roam’s “block-level translcusions” are far superior to headings. Not only would you not need to create a million headings for every verse (though I’m sure a script can/has done it), you could much more easily refer to each verse in various ways.

As you say, you’d have to quote each verse one by one, or group verses that are all part of the same sentence/idea into their own subheadings. A big job.

2 Likes

Thank you all for your responses and takes on how to engage with the Bible in Obsidian. It has been very insightful. I’ll elaborate some more on the workflow on which I settled and the strengths and drawbacks of that method.

First off I’ll talk a bit more about my use case.

Use case

Within Obsidian there are three mechanics I use: Hard links, Embeds and Backlinks.

  1. Hard links: When receiving teaching on a specific topic, I want to be able to reference the mentioned Bible verse quickly.
  2. Embeds: If necessary, I want to be able to embed parts of Scripture conveniently into existing notes.
  3. Backlinks: When navigating to a specific Book/Chapter/Verse I want to see all of the references in other notes to that specific text. If I am asked to speak on a specific part of the Bible I can see all of the context in one place.

I hope this has been a helpful representation of what my use case is. I would really appreciate your suggestions on follow-up questions.

Method 1: Each verse is one note

This was my initial approach. I want to see backlinks for Books/Chapters/Verses. Whenever I referenced a specific verse I linked to three notes: The book it was in, the chapter in that book and the verse.

I would reference Romans 8:2 as such: [[Romans]] [[Romans 8 | 8]][[Romans 8:2 | :2]]. This renders as [[Romans 8:2]]. 1

This is how it’s presented in the graph view:

Strengths

The strength of this approach is in the use case of backlinks. In the note Romans I can see all backlinks pertaining to that book, in the note Romans 8, all regarding the chapter and in Romans 8:2 all regarding the verse.

Drawbacks

When importing the Bible into Obsidian having one note for each verse gets blown way out of proportion. That would mean over 30 000 notes. Because each chapter note should contain all of its verse notes that is also a ton of embedding.

Method 2: Each book is a note

This is my current method that I use while importing the Bible into Obsidian. Each chapter is a level 1 heading (# Matthew 1), each verse a level 2 heading (## Matthews 1:1). This is how the Gospel of Matthew looks like for example:

This is pretty much what @bdillahu has proposed:

It’s also a very similar workflow to @Lithou’s.

Strengths

Embedding verses and even Chapters is now very straightforward by referencing the specific headers.

Here is an example note:

Referencing either Books, Chapters or Verses is also very straightforward using Heading links.

Drawbacks

In this method, backlinks suffer a bit. Backlinks to specific headers aren’t ordered in the backlinks panel. If I am looking for backlinks to a specific verse, I need to navigate through all of the chapter’s backlinks.

Additionally, the headings obstruct longer Bible reading within Obsidian. Even when embedding the headings are annoying.

As pointed out, there is also no straightforward way to quote multiple verses or even a sentence trailing over multiple verses:

Conclusion

I believe the current drawbacks of the one book, one note approach will eventually be smoothed out.

Regarding the obstructing heading a workaround has been provided in this thread and there are even more workarounds and suggestions in a different thread.
.

In another thread there is a similar discussion on referencing bible verses and block referencing. There is also a Plugin idea for toggling hidden UIDs.

There is also a feature request for having Backlinks appear for linked headings.

So I think as development progresses, this workflow of organising the Bible will get more straightforward.

How to import the Bible

Once I have imported and formatted the whole Bible into a Markdown, it would be easiest for me to share that file but I am quite sure that violates the publisher’s (in my case ESV) guidelines. Unless someone else has a better insight (or I contact the publisher) I wouldn’t want to share a Markdown copy, although I believe you can find some online.

I believe I can share the script I used though. It is a basic AppleScript which copies and formats the chapters. In order for it to work for you, it would need a bit of tweaking. If someone finds flaws, I’d be grateful for suggestions/corrections. You can find the script in this pastebin here.

Advanced Use

Thank you, @Lithou for explaining your workflow in such depth. It is exciting what Obsidian/a Zettelkasten system in general opens up when it comes to personal study. Your approach is very inspiring.

I’d be curious, why are you using a new note for each chapter rather than note for each book and subheadings?


1: This way of writing is a bit tedious that’s why I use Espanso for the text expansion. You can find the script I use here: Bible Verse Script.

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@Joschua, this is well thought out, I wish you luck. I am going to offer a different perspective not to change your mind but to add more food for thoughts.

While loading the text of the Bible seems like a great and useful idea, I found the time it took, and the benefits I gain almost always had some sort of limitation, which had diminishing returns.

I took the approach of a separate tool that handles Biblical texts much more effectively than anything I was able to develop. I am a Mac user and use Accordance Bible Software, .and I have the Starter collection with a few additional add ons. Also, I have used it for years. When it comes to searching and accessing verses, different text, original language texts, and amplification, and cross-referencing, it exceeded anything I was able to develop on my own. I am not promoting Accordance; I am sure other tools work as well. I am suggesting using the best tool for the job may have advantages.

Having a tool that handled the text and searching and referencing verses improved my use of that text in my studies. For easy access to verses text, I cobbled together an Apple Script with Textexpander that allows me to type a verse reference, then copy it to the clipboard, enter the TE abbreviation. It pastes the text into whatever document or note I am working in. It has become mind-muscle-memory for me and works well.

Wherever I use a verse reference in my notes, the text is included. I don’t worry as much about backlinks and find full-text search works well for finding other notes referencing books, verses, keywords, phrases, etc. Always including the verse text makes each note self-contained and is one way I try and future proof my bible notes. I want my notes to be autonomous, self-contained, and not dependent on the software I may be using.

I spent lots of time loading Bible texts and trying to make a handy system for referencing verses. Eventually, I spent more time doing that then actually studying, learning, and using the text of the Bible in my workflows.

Your mileage may vary. I hope my experience in some way contributes to your efforts and goals.

I am not an Apple script expert. I offer the following as is in case someone wants to use it and add more magic to it. I am not sure where I found the basis for this script; it was so long ago. It may have been somewhere in Accordance forums. I am sure something similar can be done on the Windows side of things.

global theResult
global moduleName
global input
global citationFormat
set inputFromUser to the clipboard
set oldDelims to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "/"
set input to text item 1 of inputFromUser
set moduleName to "NASB"
set citationFormat to "true"
if (count inputFromUser's text items) = 3 then
set moduleName to text item 2 of inputFromUser
set citationFormat to "false"
end if
if (count inputFromUser's text items) = 2 then
set moduleName to text item 2 of inputFromUser
if moduleName is "" then
set citationFormat to "false"
end if
end if
if (moduleName is "n") then
set moduleName to "NIV"
else
if (moduleName is "k") then
set moduleName to "KJV"
else
if (moduleName is "") then
set moduleName to "NASB"
end if
end if
end if
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oldDelims
if citationFormat = "true" then
tell application "Accordance" to set theResult to («event AccdTxRf» {moduleName, input, citationFormat}) & " "
-- & moduleName & ")"
--& --"
--
--(" & input & ", " & moduleName & ")"
else
tell application "Accordance" to set theResult to («event AccdTxRf» {moduleName, input, citationFormat}) ----& "]
-- -" & moduleName & " "
set theResult to input & " (" & moduleName & ") "  & theResult
end if
return theResult

Please let us know how you finally decide to succeed.

2 Likes

You are most welcome. I love seeing different approaches to workflow and study and enjoy the discussion. It’s interesting to see the more granular approach vs the broad approach. This made me think about my own method.

Thoughts on breakdown of files:

I break my files down by chapter primarily because this is the closest to dividing by complete and distinct thought. Chapters are generally the dividing line between one thought, theme, idea, story,etc and another.

I agree that dividing by verse is too small (even without system resource concerns). Many verses aren’t even a complete sentence and lack context. When I look at how the Text is used by the sages I. When a rabbi/teacher/sage would reference a passage they would be drawing from the context of that reference. If quoting a verse from a Psalm, the whole Psalm is referenced. (Similar to who when we quote a movie, we include all of the characters, plot, etc of that moment into the connotation of the quote)

Rom 3:10-18 is a good example of this. When reading at first, it appears as if Paul is waxing poetic and just saying the same thing eight different ways. The quotes are essentially the same in content taken in isolation, but each has their own context so the last reference sticks out.

This is something I’ve been tinkering around with since this thread started. I suppose it depends on your definition of “convienently” is going to be. :slight_smile:

CSS can do a few things here that would allow for customization of how things look. First, lets look at some embedding/linking options without any CSS applied:

Without CSS:

Creating a block quote via copy/paste then formatting the text looks better, but takes more work and embedding two verses in a row is less than ideal. With some CSS magic though:

With CSS:


You can apply whatever theme you want. I’m using a higher contrast theme here so it’s easier to see the elements. Here’s the code I used to pull out the verse numbers:

.markdown-embed-content h6{
  position: absolute;
  font-size: small;
  right: 101%;
  margin-top: 3px;
}

I always use heading 6 for verse numbers so this calls only heading 6 and only when it falls inside of embedded content. (I can set how it shows normally elsewhere).

  • The ‘absolute’ postion removes them from the normal flow so the text can move up to the top.
  • font-size: small takes the normal css for h6 and makes it smaller
  • the right: 101% positions the element essentially 1% to the left of the leftmost edge.
  • margin-top 3px moves it down 3 pixels so it lines up better.

You could change the position to put the verse numbers off to the right over by the link too or hide them all together. Whatever style you are looking for. Let me know if you have any CSS question. I’m always happy to help.

So ESV is an interesting case. For personal use, the entire text is available online for free. There are limits to how much you can post online or in print, however. I also found out today that they have an API too. There are tons of options for importing text as @Mike mentioned. You can find copyright and all that at the ESV Site

5 Likes

Thanks for your response again, @Lithou. This is very insightful to me. Thank you for taking the time to include screenshots as well.


On the breakdown of files

I really like the way your approach is rooted in the traditions of understanding the text. There is plenty I can learn from you, so thank you for sharing.

One advantage of a note containing a chapter rather than the whole book is backlinking. Rather than having the backlinks to Romans cluttered with all connecting, Rom-8 lets you see more specific links to the chapter.

I’d be curious, what is your usage of backlinks in general? Moreover, after having eliminated the “a note per verse” approach, which advantages do you see in having a note per chapter, rather than the whole book in one note?

On Custom CSS

The CSS magic is absolutely incredible, thank you so much for sharing. I immediately copied and pasted this snippet. Embedded verses are readable and look absolutely gorgeous now.

On your previous reply: Just to clarify, within the chapter note the headings would not be visible to have unobstructed reading, correct? I am sure it is not too complicated but would you mind sharing the CSS snippet for that modification?

On importing the Bible

Thank you for sharing the API! It is also good to know that for personal use, the entire text is available for free. I just gotta brush up my understanding of python to pull from the API. That lead me to AppleScript initially.

How did you import the text?


Finally, I am very impressed with the amount of effort you put into studying the Bible, “digging” through it to find and preserve gems. Your vault sounds like a treasure chest. :slight_smile:


A different approach

Thank you for your response as well, @Mike. Thanks for offering a different perspective, I wasn’t aware of Accordance Bible Software and I will certainly have a look at it.

I think the beauty of Obsidian is that it allows for so many different approaches. Directly entering the verses and finding the references sounds like a good workflow to future-proof the notes.

I am just enchanted by the connections of the graph view and backlinking :sweat_smile: Your reminder that it is easy to spend more time constructing a system rather than using it certainly hits home.

Thanks for sharing the TE snippet as well, would it work to reference multiple verses as well?


ZK and Scripture

I am pleasantly surprised by the number of people who actually use Obsidian/a ZK method to study of the Scripture.

My hope would be to continue the discussion in this thread and distil different methods/best practices so that others can benefit from the thoughts and beginners can find a starting point.

I am also very impressed by the interactive IMF Starter Kit. Dreaming for a moment, I’d be excited about an interactive kit that introduces different approaches to studying Scripture within the mechanism of Obsidian. Potentially even different practices and disciplines for (daily) study of Scripture like the one @Lithou mentioned above.

1 Like

Yes, Any verse reference strings Accordance recognizes it will return the text for them.

For example: Rom 8:28, Psalm 33:6-7, Heb 4:12, 2Tim 3:16-17, Isa 41:10

Here is a screen capture demo for the above reference string with Obsidian. This works in any app on my Mac. I haven’t taken the time to figure how to emulate this in IOS, but I simply copy and paste directly from Accordance on IOS when I work there.

Within Accordance, in preferences, you can control the format of citation references. You could even add double brackets around the verse refs.

And change the separator from a colon (since colon not allowed in filenames) to a period and have roam style tag links.

It just occurred to me you can do this. I doubt I would have thought of this if you had not posted here. Thank you. This opens new possibilities I had not considered. All your verse references become roam type of tags. Amazing.

Accordance gives you lots of possibilities with formatting verse references and citations.

Again I have no relation with Accordance I just really enjoy using the app.
I feel the same about Obsidian. Two amazing apps.

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There were some issues that I found:

I was unable to run it the first few times because I didn’t have Atom installed, so I installed it.

I also apparently needed SizeUp. From the looks of it, it’s not really required to run everything, so I deleted the line from the script that tells the app to do something.

Then I come across this error that prevents me from running the script any further :frowning:

Screen Shot 2020-07-09 at 11.18.41 AM
Screen Shot 2020-07-09 at 11.18.54 AM

Idk what this means so I’m stuck, would appreciate some help :slight_smile: .


On another note, one thing I noticed from the script is I can pretty much change the translation to another one if I wanted to, which is what I like about using the script compared to waiting for the Bible to get imported in ESV only. Just my thoughts.

Thanks for trying the script! I included it fairly unpolished, without expecting anyone to actually use it, so thanks for having a crack on it and sorry for the mess! :sweat_smile:

Now that the script would actually be helpful for you, I will polish it a bit more with some clarifications.

Yeah, I use Atom as a text editor and the script is written for it but you don’t necessarily need to use it.

That’s right, SizeUp isn’t really needed. In the script it just turns Atom into fullscreen mode.

The error message is from another utility that needs to be installed. It controls mouse clicks. You can download and install it from here. The installation isn’t the most straightforward in my opinion. So you can try installing it or just wait until I do a bit of a better write-down of the script and the installations needed. Feel free to also reach out on Discord: selfire#3095.

Thank you very much for your thoughts! I am glad the script is even a bit helpful to you! I’ll make sure to keep the option of picking another translation.


PS: Script 2.0

I am also currently working on a “Script 2.0”, incorporating @Lithou’s approach and incorporating @Mike’s shortcut for referencing multiple verses.

Rather than copying and formatting a whole book into one note, it will save each chapter separately to make referencing and back-linking more straightforward. I also changed the headings to h6 to work with @Lithou’s magic CSS.

Additionally, I also added chapter navigation on the top and the bottom of the page. That makes reading in Obsidian even easier.

After adding some more CSS magic to make the h6 headings fully disappear, reading within Obsidian will be quite pleasant as well, I reckon.

1 Like

@Joschua Thanks so much for replying! Thank you in general for everything that you’re doing :innocent:

So I installed cliclick in /usr/local/bin. Now the error is gone, but the script is doing things I don’t think it’s supposed to, clicking and typing on the wrong areas of the screen it seems like. I think it has to do with which apps’ windows are open and the difference in our screens’ sizes (??). At the end, it didn’t seem to finish the job, and it reinforced the idea that idrk what I’m doing lol.


But putting that aside, I do look forward to the Script 2.0, as you said that you’ll possibly provide the option to change translations, but I also think that the 1-note per chapter idea is better than having 1 note per book, overall it looks more polished than your initial script.

With that, perhaps also consider making an MOC/index for each book linking all of the chapters contained in that book. I believe this somewhat combines the ideas of having 1-note/chapter and 1-note/book. I also believe that by having an index, there’s the option to give a description of what each book is about idk. What do you guys think? I don’t really know how useful this would be, but it’s an effort to make the text more organized i guess.

Generally speaking, the chapter breaks are decent at delineating between topic/story/theme. Finding similar passages will generally be by chapter. For example, looking at the story of Abraham and the story of Isaac, you will see that they paralell each other (which the author uses to point out some interesting things :slight_smile: ) This is easily seen when chapters line up to each other. Ch 20 and 26 will have lots of links in common. Ch 21 and 27 will also have links in common etc.

I didn’t initally set that up because I haven’t decided how I want to display everything in the actual text. Primarily because I have the Masoretic Text and the LXX interliniear for each verse. Right now I have those at the bottom and can link to them, but I’m looking at a good way to use them that allows both word/concept study and reading. I’ll post the CSS and screenshots when I’m done, but you can use the following to edit the verse numbers in normal md preview panes:

.markdown-preview-section .h6{
 code goes here
}

How do I import text? I type it. By hand.
This is because I value the time spent with the Text. If I just read through things, my brain will gloss over things that I don’t have context for.

When reading a genealogy or historical account, my brain goes “ok so some weird name was the father of some other weird name and he was the father of some other weird name and-- oh hey there’s a guy I know-- and more weird names…”

When I have to take the time and make sure I’m spelling something correctly I find I have that “I’ve seen this name/place/number/etc before” moment a whole lot more often.

2 Likes

Script 2.0

I am glad to share it now! You can find the full script in this pastebin here but I will comment on some specifics of the code. Now it runs way more reliably, saves by chapter into a folder containing the whole book. I also added Navigation on the top and bottom of the notes. Using it, I imported the Bible in a night and an afternoon :smile:

Before Running the Script

  • Install Atom. Any TextEditor works but I optimised it for Atom
  • Install CliClick. This tool emulates mouseclicks

What the script does

  1. In Safari, it opens a chapter on biblegateway.com in print view (so that there is less to clean up)
  2. It copies and pastes the webpage into Atom
  3. Using find and replace mechanisms, it deletes the additional text.
  4. It formats the text into an Obsidian-compatible format and adds Navigation on the top and bottom.
  5. It saves each chapter in a separate file and creates a new folder for each book of the bible.

Setting up to import

  • Before running the code, make sure you disabled Footnotes and Headings on biblegateway.com. The script is not compatible with that.
  • The script chooses the top folder in your favourites bar as the parent folder to save the book folders in. Make sure you set that accordingly.

  • Set the mouse coordinates correctly. Via Command-Shift-4 you can find the coordinates. The upper coordinate is X, the lower Y.
    • Clicking into the Atom text field: set textX to 53, set textY to 86
    • Toggling Regrex search: regX to 1121, set regY to 674. In Atom, press Command + F to open the search field. In the top right, find the “.*” button and set it’s coordinates.
    • Pick folder to save in: set folderX to 290, set folderY to 201. In Atom, press Command-Shift-A to open the “Save as”-Dialogue. Pick the coordinates of the top folder of the favourites bar.
    • Creating a new folder: set newX to 285, set newY to 470. In the “Save as”-Dialogue in Atom, note the coordinates of “New Folder” in the bottom left.

Commentary on the code

Options

set shutdown to false -- Do you want your Mac to shut down after importing?
set savedialog to true -- Choose if you want to display a dialog asking you to save each chapter. For longer books I found that helpful to be able to exit out. It has a timeout of 5 seconds if you don't bother picking an option.
set bigdialog to false -- Choose if you want a dialog to display after exporting a book
set dialogchosen to false -- Choose if you want a display showing you the books you're about to import

Delays

In the code, you can set the delays according to your internet connection and computing power. When choosing very low delay, I would recommend enabling the option of a dialogue to exit the program. You don’t want your Mac to be stuck on the script without being able to abort.

Abbreviations

In the “book information” list, you can pick different abbreviations.

A note on translations

I chose to import the ESV. You can pick a different translation in the code:

set translation to "ESV" -- pick your translation

Just make sure to optimise the find and replace process of deleting unwanted information.
When copying from the ESV, it copies the following blurb as well:
English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Using find and replace I made sure to delete that unwanted text:

keystroke "f" using command down
			keystroke "The Holy Bible, . ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers."
delay DelayShort
key code 48 -- tab
delay DelayShort
keystroke "a" using command down
key code 51 -- delete
delay DelayMed
key code 36 using command down --enter

When copying from a different translation, you need to adjust the text to replace accordingly.

Current pitfalls

The Psalms are formatted differently to the other books. Therefore I haven’t been able to import them using the script yet. I might share a later compatible script. It has a description and allows me to jump into the first chapter.

Overview notes in Obsidian

In the navigation on the top and bottom I included a link to an overview note/MOC.

The script formats the overview notes with an underscore, so that it appears at the top of the folder. Because my navigation is more based on links and less on folder, I actually deleted the underscores in my vault. So feel free to use it to your liking :smile:

As always, feel free to reach out to me if you run into problems. I really appreciate the interest.

5 Likes

Thank you so much for this script! I’d say you’re doing your part in the building of the Kingdom :wink:

I did notice that the script was unable to format the text properly. The regex thing was unable to add the headings before each verse. Luckily I somehow fixed it. I think there was a mistake in the script???

The problem was with this line:
key code "26" using {shift down, option down} -- write "\"
The key code seems to type instead of \,
so when finding from the text copied from the Bible: ([0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|100)
no results would appear because it gets typed as ([0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|100)‡s instead of ([0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|100)\s.
Consequently, Atom fails to replace the verse numbers with headings.

Thankfully, your comment -- write "\" gave me a hint as to what needs to be typed. After a bit of searching, I was able to fix the problem by changing the line to:
key code "42" -- write "\"
which now types \ instead of
I then find-and-replaced the other parts from the script that contained the line.


On another (and probably a bit controversial) note, I also added the option to include the 7 deuterocanonical/apocrypha books. I had to search the abbreviations for those books to add them.


Again, thanks so much for this @Joschua! I’ve been meaning to get into studying the Bible lately (with Obsidian) but don’t quite know how I should do it.

How do you guys go about studying the Bible? What is your workflow? And how do you take notes?

2 Likes

Haha, thank you! I am very glad this is of help to some one :slight_smile:

Good on you for fixing the script! I am quite sure this is due to me using key codes for my German keyboard that don’t correlate to the same symbols on other keyboard layouts. Glad you were able to change the script to make it work.

Great! Now the script is even more complete :smile:


So far, my workflow is mostly engaging with Scripture through other content. Whenever I listen to a sermon or pick up a reference to a scripture, I’ll write a note in Obsidian an link it.

I have been very inspired by @Lithou though to use Obsidian to engage directly with scripture. (So @Lithou, please feel free to share more! :smile:) To have understanding emerge from me spending time with the Spirit and Scripture.

So now I am thinking about implementing practices to engage with the text within Obsidian. Since I haven’t imported the Psalms yet I am thinking about copying a Psalm each day as a part of my daily-ish morning journaling. That seems like a good way to start the day spending time with Scripture and God’s presence. To value the time spent with the Text.

4 Likes

Take this with a grain of salt as I’m not religious nor have I studied the bible. But it serves as an interesting case study for knowledge management because of its age and widespread use.

The way you do it with headers seems excessive to me and breaks you out of the flow of reading it? The way I’d do it is just keep it in the paragraph form and excise a note and link to it when you find a line you decide to connect to other lines or write commentary on. I did a quick couple of notes to how it’d look in my mind

either of these

Or instead of links you could turn the lines into just straight up embeds that could be clicked, but for that to work and keep the flow you’d have to alter the CSS of embeds to be naked embeds and minimalist.

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I love getting the input from those who aren’t religious or students of the Text. I find you have perspectives on things that the rest of us are blind to. Rabbi Fohrman calls this the lullaby affect. We hear a story so much growing up that we take things for granted until someone hears the story for the first time and points out “Hey, isn’t it that a little weird?”

So with your approach, you add the center note for any verse(s) you are annotating? Then you copy the text in plus add any embed from external sources like a third party commentary (the righthand pane) or quotes from another book, etc?

I love your point that paragraphs might be a better division within each file. When I memorized passages, I didn’t do verse numbers, just chapters and paragraphs (or paragraph sections for places where each sentence is it’s own paragraph.) For example, Romans 16 was 4 “Paragraphs”/sections. I think I’ll try this out for a bit and see how it goes.

If you use designations for each, it would make sense to embed the full paragraph/section even if you were referring to a specific verse within that section.

Also, if you wanted to do something unique, you could just copy/paste the portion you wanted into a block quote with a link at the end to the section in which it is located.

Wouldn’t this create a file for each embed that you did? While it would start out fine, I think it could grow cumbersome rather quickly. Depends on what use case you have though. I personally would avoid it because I create embeds for proper nouns and concepts so that will probably interfere.

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@Lithou yes it would create a file for each embed that you did. But I would only create embeds for lines that you plan to write more on or connect to others.

Also it doesn’t seem too excessive. Wikipedia tells me there are " 31,102 verses" in the Bible. Luhmann had 90,000 notes by the time he was done. So you could have a note for each verse in the bible and then a bunch of connecting notes for each verse.

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