This old Girl Scout song has been on my mind today:

Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other gold.

The reason this came to mind is because we (finally!) got a copy of The Lutheran Study Bible from Concordia Publishing House. There has been much anticipation for this replacement for the Concordia Self-Study Bible for several reasons. First, it’s the ESV translation, which is helpful, because many of our LC-MS churches have switched over to the ESV for Sunday morning readings, Bible studies, etc. More importantly, this study Bible has all of the notes/supplementary materials done by Lutheran scholars. In the old study Bible, as far as I understand, we took another publisher’s notes, and clarified some to reflect a Lutheran perspective, but for the most part, the notes were not “Lutheran.”

So, I’ve very much been looking forward to getting this new Bible. And, having looked through it a few times, it’s going to be a great tool for Bible study. But I’m left feeling a little confused as to what happens to my old Bible. I received it as a gift from my parents in 1991 (let’s try not to dwell on the fact that my Bible is almost 20 years old!), and it served me well. It’s full of highlights, notes from Bible studies and retreats in high school, and, of even more value to me, notes from all my theology classes in college.

I guess it would defeat the purpose to re-copy all the notes from one Bible to another. And I wouldn’t ever get rid of the old Bible, even if only for sentimental reasons, not even considering all the scholarly ones. But I also realize that once I really start using the new Bible, I won’t go back and look at the old one that often, even though I know it has lots of good information, and all of my favorite verses marked.

I guess I need to just start making my new “friend” mine, by taking notes, marking, and highlighting. But I won’t ever get rid of my old “friend,” either, because it truly is gold to me!