The pleasure I have come to derive from reading my Bible is one that is difficult to describe. The depth of knowledge, inspiration, and satisfaction found in it is second to none.
There is just one minuscule issue though. In all my years of reading the Bible, I am yet to read it along with a Bible Commentary or concordance.

When I was younger, one of my greatest desire was to be able to afford a Bible commentary. I had pastors for neighbors and I would spend time watching them go back and forth between Bible versions and Bible commentaries.
What was on my mind was one day, I would have my own Bible commentary. Whatever it is that these pastors do find in it, I will find it too.

As I grew older, I challenged myself to read through the Bible. From cover to cover.
I wasn’t following any Bible guide or devotional. I wasn’t doing it because someone asked or encouraged me to. This was for me. There was no one monitoring me while at it.

It took over two years, but I was finally done. You need to have witnessed how my heart was racing as I completed the last book of Revelations.
I would spend the next year reading different books, but none excited me as reading the Bible did.

A year later, I was reading the Bible again. This time around, I was reading a bit slower, although I had a lot more time on my hands.
In less than two years, I was done again.
You can imagine my shock when occasionally someone would quote a Bible verse and my intuition would tell me “there is no way that verse is in the Bible. This person is just forming it.”

All of that changed when I got my first smartphone. Immediately you say something is from the Bible and I am unconvinced, I’ll either get on Google or search within my Bible.
You have no idea how many times I surprised myself.

It was at this point I realized that there is a big difference between reading the Bible and studying the Bible.
This was when I began studying the Bible for myself. Thankfully, the Bible version I used on my phone had an inbuilt concordance. With this, I was able to glide and pivot between passages as necessary.

There is no need for me to tell you how often I found myself staring at the Bible with my mouth wide open.
It was like I was given a cheat code. Time and again, I only got aware of time after I found myself in a Bible rabbit hole. Over thirty minutes gone.

Now I understand the use and importance of Bible commentary and concordance. They give you an in-depth and richer experience with your Bible.
I have not used many versions yet, but the Strong Concordance that comes free with the Tecarta Bible has proven to be good enough for me.

In my look at various Bible commentary, I have discovered a major gap. Try as hard as I did, it seems there is no Nigerian Bible Commentary.
There are translations to Nigerian languages. There appears to be a Bible Commentary for Africa. What I need is one for Nigeria.

Not a historical Nigeria. Not a pre-independence Nigeria. Definitely not one for older Nigerians.
There is a wave of revival among Nigerian youths. I have witnessed it. I have experienced it. And I believe the time has come to situate the Bible in the Nigerian millennial experience.

This is not a call to rewrite the Bible. I am not asking for chopping and switching the books. And I am not saying anyone should edit the Bible for a Nigerian market.
My desire is for someone to take their time and go through the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. They should then prepare an unbiased, informed, easily digestible, pungent, and Spirit-inspired Bible commentary for Nigerians of the present and future.

I would have volunteered for this role, but today, as I shared from what I read in the Bible, I decided to add my notes.
In the midst of writing my note, I realized that this would be a very unique, personal, and divisive way to write a Bible commentary.

I know a lot of people would enjoy reading what I wrote, but I also know a lot of people would find it unsettling.
That might increase the popularity of the book, but it would in its own way defeat its purpose.

I just might wait a couple of years and see if someone is inspired to pick up the challenge.
If no one does, be ready to welcome The Wilson J’s 21st Century Nigerian Bible Commentary. I don’t know if I should be telling you to look forward to this or warning you to hope that this is never needed.

Wilson Joshua is a Video Editor, Content Creator, and Creative Writer.
You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. @IJOSWIL