Friday, 16 October 2009
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The Bible, 140 Characters at a Time
Oh wow, Twitter. In the just over three years since its origination, Twitter has become one of the fastest-growing websites in history. Where else could you find out what Ashton Kutcher had for lunch, read a daily Bible verse, or keep up to date with what's new on Revelife? With over 5 million twitterers, according to TwitDir, the amount of content produced by the site's diverse membership could easily fill the pages of countless books. Twitter's imprint on our modern, technologically-driven society is monumental. It has not only become a place of socializing but a place of ministry. Influential Christians like John Piper and Mark Driscoll use Twitter to share faith-filled insight, and now, a group of over 3,000 German Christians have used Twitter to translate the Bible into the site's format: short, 140-character status updates.
“Thank God! It's Sunday!” describes the day God rested after creation.
“The project was scheduled for May 20-30,” reports The Christian Post, “it was completed 37 hours ahead of schedule and achieved a world record.” In total, some almost 4,000 posts summarizing over 3,000 parts of the Bible were “tweeted” over the course of the project. They were compiled and are being published in a book entitled And God Decided to Chill. The book will be shown for the first time at the Frankfurt Book Fair this weekend.
There are a lot of Bible translations, but I don't think anything compares in style to the “Twitter Bible.” Completely immersed in modern technology and relevant to our socially-networked society, who knows what sort of possibilities might arise from having a summarization of the Bible so comparable to the instant communication of today.
Do you think the idea of a “Twitter Bible” is something that could do a lot of good for Christians and non-Christians alike, or do you think it was a waste of time? What sort of results do you think the “Twitter Bible” will have?
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- From: modernmelody
- Name: Rebecca
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Comments (3)
Given that there is so much RICH content and contexts in the Bible that so many people (Christians and non-Christians alike) tend to overlook and misunderstand, a summary like this could easily help to build understanding and explain the Bible's relavance. This is definitely a beneficial project. Any way to pass on the truth, I think, is good. If there is an exception, I cannot think of it presently.
Further, the method used - in this case, technology - is definitely of a good nature. Whether it is paper or computer screens, the Word is getting out to people who may never know of it otherwise.
I guess it's okay.
But..."thank God! It's Sunday"...? If that is an example of how the entirety of the Bible has been translated, seems to me like it could be a bit lacking.
I do think it may be a frivolous use of God's Word as already made available to us.
Wait... So did they tweet the bible in paraphrase and are publishing it or are they publishing several thousand tweets that are somewhat bible oriented? Either way it seems like a waste of paper and production to me. Put it online for free. That's not worth paying money for.