By: Amber Dillon
What is the Bible?
People have tried to answer this question for years. Some say it is a hodgepodge of inspirational insights; others see it as a controlling, oppressive rulebook. With definitions like these, how can we approach such daunting writings?
Enter The Bible Project.
Founders Timothy Mackie and Jonathan Collins wanted to combine the wisdom of the Bible with the modern creative form affectionately known as “explainer media.” With Tim’s rich biblical knowledge and Jon’s passion and knack for visual storytelling, The Bible Project was born. Two videos were created in 2014 and made available online — for free. We are now a registered nonprofit and an entirely crowd-funded creative studio, made possible by our online community. We are approaching 100 million views in more than 200 countries, with over one million subscribers worldwide. We couldn’t be more excited!
So what is The Bible Project?
Our videos and resources help people see how the Bible is one unified story that ultimately leads to Jesus. We believe the Bible is a literary masterpiece and offers divine insight for our modern world. We focus on the overarching themes in the Bible as well as the literary design of each book. Our commitment is to show others the Bible in its historical context. In doing so, we hope to inspire many to pick up this fascinating book and engage with its wisdom.
Beyond bringing understanding to various elements of the Bible, we aim to inspire the future generations to become familiar with the Bible through technology, creativity, and visual storytelling. The Bible Project studio is a team composed of illustrators, animators, designers, and administrators who are committed to seeing the good that can come from a clear, concise, visual understanding of the Bible.
We have a variety of series that range in content, purpose, style, and length.
How to Read the Bible: This series is like a visual exploration of hermeneutics. This series aims to equip anyone who wants to read the Bible with tools to see the understanding each literary style brings to the whole of the Bible.
Theme: This is our flagship series. These take a core idea — introduced at the beginning of the biblical story — and follow its development as it weaves throughout the entire story of the Bible. Some of these themes include holiness, the law, justice, and exile.
Read Scripture: This series has over sixty-five videos, and it continues to grow. It provides overviews for every single book of the Bible to help our audience read these books for themselves. We highlight the literary design of each book as well as some of the book’s main ideas.
Book: Our book videos are similar in function to Read Scripture, but they’re fully animated and go into a little more detail for each book. These videos allow us to see the wide wisdom and beauty of the individual books of the Bible.
Word Study: These videos trace a key word from its original understanding in the time of the author and relate its meaning to our modern world.
As we grow and develop, more ideas come to mind and are added to our ongoing list of topics to explore. It’s always an adventure to see where the project will go next!
Who uses The Bible Project?
Because The Bible Project aims to help people everywhere see how the Bible leads to Jesus, you can find our resources being used anywhere from small groups to seminaries.
Churches: The church is a place where people are introduced to the relational God found in the Bible. We are honored that our resources have allowed church congregations to understand the unity of the biblical narrative better. Our videos are played during Sunday gatherings and in different ministry settings. It is an exciting journey seeing churches put our resources to use!
Schools: All around the world, schools incorporate our videos into their curriculums. It’s awesome to see how educators of children all the way through post-grads have shared our videos to bring a greater grasp of the Bible.
Small Groups: Our videos are also used in less formal settings! People gather together with friends, family, and colleagues to talk about the Bible. We’ve found that our videos have become a fun resource for these kinds of get-togethers.
Personal Study and Devotion: All around the world, our audience uses our videos on a regular basis to grow and learn more about this fascinating book we call the Bible!
Our Mission
Ultimately, we desire to help others understand the Bible in an approachable, engaging, fun, and transformative way. We invite everyone to embark on this journey of discovering the wisdom of the ancient writings visually. We believe it will help us see in new and creative ways this unified literary work of art that points to Jesus. Find out more at thebibleproject.com!
Amber Dillon is our Office Administrator and helps support the Bible Project team. She loves working with and for people, and her goal is to make everyone’s day a little brighter. Amber received her BTh here in Portland and is a firm believer that the Pacific Northwest’s rain has its charm — even though it rains a majority of the time!