The Bible Now Has Emojis In It

It’s here: now you can read Bible scripture with emojis.

The Apple iBooks store will sell a new kind of Bible. The new electronic tome is marketed as the “scripture 4 millenials” and it is distinct from the other Christian bibles by the use of emojis which are sprinkled over individual verses. The writers of this bible hope that this new age innovation will eliminate the requirement to read every verse word by word.

The Bible Now Has Emojis In It[/tweetthis]

Of course, the translation of the bible into another language or mode of communication is nothing new. In fact, the Christian book was first translated from Hebrew and Greek to English by William Tyndale in the 16th century. Church authorities at that time held the view that the Bible was to be read only by holy and learned men, capable of reading Hebrew or Greek. The Christian text was written to keep it indecipherable from ordinary English folk.

The result was not good for Tyndale. Not only his unauthorized translation raised the hackles of the church clergy, the animosity towards him was further increased when he disagreed with the divorce of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Tyndale was executed through strangulation and body burned at the stake to make sure he was truly dead.

The bible was translated again by a person known only by a sunglass emoji after all these years. The new emoji scattered holy texts are now part of standard Apple iBooks repertoire. The move to translate into this modern form of communication can be taken as a logical progression. Like the old languages of Hebrew and Greek, there is no compulsion to read the bible in old Oxford English. The holy book is now available in a number of other world languages, but all can be construed as boring. It is natural that someone should take the book and transform it with jazzy picture symbols. The fact is that emojis now span different languages and used as part of electronic communication in all parts of the world.

@BibleEmoji That is so cool. Amen

— SouthernBetty (@HtownSobetty) December 16, 2015

@BibleEmoji's translation of the Bible with emojis is pretty ingenious! I love it! 🙂

— Chelsea+Kappy† (@Jesus_Freak_91) December 9, 2015

For the author, accessibility is the framework for emoji Bible project. The author justifies this by saying that emojis are emotional, allowing individuals to express their feelings visually sans structure of standard language. The symbols are language agnostic, permitting an idea to be conveyed to any person, independent of the language that person speaks. The author hopes that the emoji Bible will spread the word of God to wider audiences. 

Resources

• Relevant
• The Memo
• iTunes

Follow the Conversation on Twitter