The Boundless Bible
The Boundless Bible is a podcast dedicated to discussing the many layers and perspectives the Bible offers to those interested in deepening their views and understanding.
Hosted by three friends from very different walks of life and life experiences, who've come together through curiosity of, and respect for, the living Word.
Our hosts are:
- DAVID SHAPIRO -- was born an Orthodox Jew, later an atheist, ex-military and MMA fighter, David heeded the call to Jesus and is now an ordained Pastor, specializing in Apologetics.
- JAVIER MARQUEZ -- Originally from Brooklyn, moved to LA to be an actor, and deeply found the Lord which led him to work in the church, lead Bible studies and grow his faith.
- JASON HOLLOWAY -- grew up in the church, left in college, and spent the next 2 decades immersed in learning world religion, spirituality, science, and mythology, recently returning to the Faith with renewed insight and perspective.
After a year of weekly discussions, we came to find that sharing and debating their different perspectives had become an exciting way to introduce new ideas to old thinking, grow their understanding, and strengthen their faith.
We are aware that there are many people out there who feel their questions haven't been answered, whose curiosity has been tamped down, or who just generally feel their community doesn't allow open dialogue, and our goal is to give those people a place to listen, ask questions, and engage with their curiosity to find a deeper and more robust connection to their faith.
The Boundless Bible
QUICK Qs: Do you Mark Your Bible or Not?
Have you ever wondered how others interact with their sacred texts? In this lighthearted yet revealing conversation, we dive into our personal Bible study habits and uncover surprising differences shaped by our backgrounds, traditions, and personalities.
Javi confesses his Bible "looks like I'm trying to write a new Bible" with extensive notes and highlights throughout. He's recently returned to his physical study Bible after a digital phase, rediscovering old highlights that remind him of his studious younger self. Meanwhile, our other host details an elaborate color-coding system where yellow marks passages to revisit, green signifies daily life lessons, pink identifies instances of Jesus being harsh, and blue highlights significant questions.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn when David shares how his Orthodox Jewish upbringing instilled reverence for sacred texts that prohibits marking them in any way. Despite more than a decade in a different tradition, he still struggles to make even the smallest mark in his Bible—a powerful testament to how deeply ingrained our spiritual practices become. "If you drop the book on the floor, you pick it up and kiss it," he explains, describing how the Torah is never touched directly but approached with a pointer.
Whether your Bible looks "like a unicorn exploded on it" or remains pristine and untouched, this episode reveals how our approaches to scripture reflect our unique spiritual journeys. Join us for this thoughtful exploration of faith practices, and share your own Bible study habits with us!
Have a topic, verse, or story you'd like us to cover?
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Quick questions with David. Yeah, yeah, ah. All right, guys, we are back for quick questions and David has got some zingers for us today. Let's see what we got.
Speaker 2:How's it going? All right, here we go. Do you guys journal highlight or keep your Bible pristine? Ooh.
Speaker 3:Javi.
Speaker 2:I like this question.
Speaker 3:What do you do? So recently I started opening up my old school Bible one of my first Bibles that I got and I've noticed all the highlights that I've had on it. It's like a bunch of highlights and I'm like, wow, I was really studious, Look at me, All right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, look at me.
Speaker 3:I went digital for the last maybe couple years, I'll be honest. But I have this big bible. It's a study bible and so, yeah, I've been enjoying reading, sitting down and kind of diving into it and even diving into some of the stuff that I highlighted. So I would say I'm definitely it's highlighted and written on.
Speaker 1:You're a highlighter. Are you a multi-color highlighter or a single color highlighter?
Speaker 3:yeah, I'm yes, I'm, I a weird creative, I'm type A a little in some ways.
Speaker 1:Do you know your color codes? I color code too, by the way, and I know exactly what my colors mean. Yellow is things to go back and check again, green is things to remember in life, like daily things I have to remember, and pink is times when Jesus was harsh. That's a very particular one, because I got in this thing where I was thinking about how Jesus is pretty harsh sometimes and I started taking that one. And then blue is like big questions. I love that.
Speaker 3:Mine, if I could briefly say David, my yellow ones are pretty much quotes or sayings that anyone could take. It's general, it's like life-giving and green. It's. I need to go back and see like it's almost like a question like what's going on here, is there something deeper here? And blue. I usually just use it as a bookmark. So I'll bookmark blue for, like, this is a big chapter that's important for you to know for your life so I think I already answered the question right.
Speaker 1:So I definitely hide my my bible looks. My Bible looks like I'm trying to write a new Bible. I have so many notes in it I think I need a second Bible next to my Bible so I can just keep writing all my notes to it. But yeah, I do love the digital Bible. I do love the holy. What's the app? You use? The same one, Javier.
Speaker 3:I know you use the Bible app. I just forgot what it's called Gateway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Bible app no, not Gateway, sorry. You version no the you version one. Yeah, I love that one because I can go back and forth between the different translations. I love that and I do highlight that one. But I have a really big ecumenical study Bible. That is. It looks like a unicorn ran into it and exploded. Yeah, I'm a highlighter. What about you, david? I?
Speaker 2:grew up Jewish, so you have prayer books it's called the Siddur that you use in temple. Obviously the Torah is at the front. But you are taught you do not write, you do not highlight, you don't do anything. If you drop the book on the floor, you pick it up and kiss it. You don't touch the Torah. You actually use a pointer to touch it. So there is no way that you're allowed to mark up. And when I tell you it has taken me over a decade to be able to just put a little bit of a mark in a book, when I'm in the men's group and I just want to mark something out, I put a bookmark in it and I'll put a little dot next to it and that's. That's all I could do. I cannot get myself to do more, and I know it's okay, I know it's just something that tradition told me I wasn't able to do, but man it it. It has been one of the hardest habits to break from being grown, you know growing up Orthodox.
Speaker 1:I'm just imagining your eye twitching, like looking over at my Bible, being like ah don't do that, I don't look I would imagine you wouldn't so all right guys Well see, we learn something new every day. Thanks for listening to our silly questions and we'll be back with more next week. Talk to you then, bye. See you guys, bye.
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