Are the Bible's Marginal Notes Trustworthy?
The marginal references we find in our Bibles have been compiled over the years by various individuals and revised by the different publishers. The marginal references in the Bibles published by the Oxford press and by the Cambridge press, for instance, were probably created by the divinity schools of each of those universities. The same could be said of those found in the Scofield Bible, the Thompson Chain-Reference Bible, the Open Bible, and many others on the market today.
Certainly, those references, even though they are often helpful, are not inspired by God but are the opinions of men, as educated and sincere as they may be. The notes are only aids and are subject to error. Therefore, one should use marginal references and notes with caution, evaluating them by the Scriptures themselves.
