The Bible Project: a remarkable resource
I think I had been aware of The Bible Project very vaguely in the past, but for some reason merely looked at information technology more carefully when someone told me how helpful they had establish it in the last few days. I am not sure whether lots of friends are using information technology and simply haven't mentioned it—or whether it remains an undiscovered secret on this side of the pond.
The Project is essential a collection of animated videos on their YouTube channel which offers non only introductions to all the books of the Bible, but explorations of biblical themes and ideas, and really good textile on how to read the Bible. Information technology is produced by a crowd-funding collaboration between Tim Mackie, who has a PhD in Old Attestation, and Jon Collins, who studied theology and and then went on to be an animator. They met at Multnomah Biblical Seminary, which is evangelical and premillennial, but the the videos deliberately avert 'tribal' readings (as they explain in this interview) and offering a wide, theological reading of the texts. Their curt, introductory video is a good place to start in seeing what they are aiming for:
In exploring, I naturally turned first to their book videos on Revelation. As with other longer books, this is carve up into two parts, the first looking at Rev 1–11 and the second at Rev 12–22. These illustrate the typical 'whiteboard animation' fashion that they employ for private books of the Bible.
There are lots of things that I really liked most these two videos. The 'whiteboard animation' is engaging, and actually includes some detailed data that is passed over in the script, so information technology is worth paying conscientious attending to, and watching a couple of times if you are not very familiar with the text of Revelation. From the beginning, it sets out the 3 chief genres of Revelation—as apocalypse, prophecy and letter—and puts each of those in a brief historical and cultural context. Equally a result, it pays conscientious attending to both the historical and the canonical context of the book, repeatedly highlighting the way that Revelation takes upward and re-uses Quondam Testament imagery. But perhaps the almost powerful thing about the script and the supporting animation is the way that this introduction manages to offer an overview of the overall shape of the book, pointing out the ways in which earlier parts of the text anticipate things that come up later, which are expanded on.
I was particularly interested in the style that they handled the closing chapters and the questions of concluding judgement and the return of Jesus. Despite both having studied theology at a establishment committed to a premillennial understanding, they but notation that equally one possible view, and offer alternatives, without making very much of the theological disagreement, preferring to focus on what is common in the reading of the text.
There are a couple of things that I would accept a slightly dissimilar view on. I think it is a shame that the groundwork story (of Apollo and Leto) was not mentioned in passing at the beginning of the second video, and I am not persuaded that the blood on the robe of the rider on the white horse is Jesus' own claret, mostly considering there are too many correspondences with the grape harvest scene in chapter 14 (though their coverage of the dual harvest there is fantabulous)—on both of which see my commentary. Merely overall, this is an excellent introduction and, like all the videos on books of the Bible, ends up by producing the complete graphic which I take at the superlative of this article.
They are adding mini-series on specific sections of the biblical text, and one that is now available is on Luke-Acts, which might be of interest to anyone reading Luke with the lectionary this year. I think I was slightly less convinced about these, since they are longer than the individual volume videos, but not long enough to include pregnant item. For example, the video on Luke three–9 did not mention the miraculous catch of fish in Luke 5, which I think is a pregnant episode.
A second type of video, using a dissimilar animation mode, focusses on biblical themes. I watched the Exile theme, since we are looking at this in our electric current sermon serial:
This does a really excellent job at looking at exile as a theological theme in the Old Attestation, connecting it to our own existential experience of exile, and suggesting this as a style of understanding the importance of Jesus' ministry in the New Attestation and the manner it is understood. If you are theologically alert, you will meet the fingerprints of Tom Wright's theological reading in this—though they do not mention Wright anywhere as an influence.
Related to the biblical themes are a series of really helpful videos offering word studies, in nonetheless another animation manner. There is a cluster based around the Shema in Deut half-dozen.4, and I was very struck by the one onnefesh (since I had done some work on this myself recently). Every bit the video points out, this word is often translated 'soul', but that is very unfortunate, since information technology suggests a Greek philosophical dualism between trunk and soul which is absent from the Hebrew thinking of the Onetime Attestation. They rightly first with the literal sense ofnefesh as 'throat', and illustrate the way the word is used in different contexts, citing specific verses, before returning to reflect on its meaning within the Shema'love…with all mynefesh'. I think information technology is a great niggling study that has wider significance for how we read the OT more than generally.
A quite distinct group of other videos tackles questions of how we read the Bible overall, particularly focussing on questions of reading different kinds of writing, and learning to be aware of issues of literary criticism around narrative, poetry, law and so on. (I was interested to note that some of the typography suggested a debt owed to Stuart and Fee'southward landmark How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth.) I would guess that many 'ordinary' readers of the Bible could be put off at this signal, worried that you lot accept to go some sort of literary skillful before you lot can simply pick up your Bible. Only in fact the explanations draw very effectively on everyday examples, and are very accessible. I think ane of the afterward videos in this series, on the 'Design Patterns in Biblical Narrative', shows most clearly where the authors are coming from—they are offering a theological reading of the whole texts, and merits unashamedly that the whole biblical narrative is a unity which points to and reaches its climax in the person of Jesus. Some will react against that, noting that it might not practise justice to the diversity in the canon, and the points of theological tension and fifty-fifty contradiction plant in the text. But their position is not one without some serious academic support.
A last video to note is one that grabbed my attention, and touches briefly on an important issue frequently neglected—the public reading of Scripture. It offers a quick overview of why public reading is important and how it features at key points in the biblical narrative, and gently suggests that but reading the Bible together is an essential spiritual discipline.
The accompanying website includes further resources, including a regular podcast which explores groundwork issues and questions of detailed estimation in more depth. I have not listened to these, but I am told they are very interesting.
So, hither's the question: how are you lot going to brand utilise of these in your context, to innovate people to the Bible, to encourage appointment, and to build understanding?
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