Emoji Bible for millennials: Online project offers 21st-century take on Christian centerpiece
One of the world’s oldest religious texts has just been revamped for the 21st century in order to attract atheist-minded millennials. The modern translation of the Bible includes emojis and popular internet slang. It is now available on iTunes.
The “Bible Emoji: Scripture 4 Millenials” was released on Sunday. It consists of all 66 books of the King James Version and is 3,282 pages long. The description says: “Great and fun way to share the gospel.”
📖 of Luke 2:14
— Bible Emoji (@BibleEmoji) June 1, 2016
Glory 2 😇 in the highest, & on 🌎 peace, good will toward men. https://t.co/1VmZkqUxiP
📖 of Genesis: 01:006:020 (1/2)
— Bible Emoji (@BibleEmoji) January 24, 2016
Of 🐔🐔 after their kind, & of 🐮🐮 after their kind, of every creeping thing of the 🌎 after his kind,
The author of the work remains anonymous, identifying only as the cool-dude-with-sunglasses emoji.
For anyone who thinks the Bible is archaic: https://t.co/Y0pUcfJeg6
— Faith in Public Life (@TheRealFPL) May 31, 2016
“I thought if we fast forwarded 100 years in the future, an emoji bible would exist,” the project’s creator told Guardian Australia. “So I thought it’d be fun to try to make it… I wanted to make it similar to how you might text or tweet a bible verse, by shrinking the total character count.”
The Bible... translated w/ Emojis! pic.twitter.com/3OsT7Nr8iD
— Bible Emoji (@BibleEmoji) May 29, 2016
The author created a program that linked 200 words with corresponding emojis in the text. The whole process reportedly took about six months to complete.
🙌 featured on @ProductHunt today! Translate ur fave Bible verses to emoji-Bible-verses! Thx 4 all support! 🙏🎉🙏🎉 pic.twitter.com/D6BIkLatAj
— Bible Emoji (@BibleEmoji) March 30, 2016
😇 = God ✌😊 https://t.co/G8FKsGWvde
— Bible Emoji (@BibleEmoji) April 3, 2016
Some of the most popular emojis include God, angels, the universe, earth, and prayer hands.
Most of the public response has been enthusiastic.
@biblesociety@BibleEmoji@mlle_elle that is SO COOL! I should tell my sister; she loves emojis! Thanks guys!
— palindromes_and_pi (@palindromes_pi) May 31, 2016
@BibleEmoji I'm good with it!! It's a great way to concentrate on the word of God! https://t.co/LSzsgM1iXz
— LAG2015 (@LAG20157069) May 31, 2016
@BibleEmoji this is brilliant everyone I know, is loving it! should definitely be on some best seller lists one with pope emojis next time?
— Theresa (@theresalalaland) May 31, 2016
Some have taken offense, however, implying that the reason a large portion of millennials have chosen to walk away from religion has nothing to do with a lack of emojis in the Bible.
Millennials are generally classified as being born between 1980 and 2000, and the current mean age of a millennial is 26.
A high percentage of the generation is known to identify as atheist or agnostic. The latest Pew Research Center report from May of 2015 said that US millennials have a “much lower levels of religious affiliation, including less connection with Christian churches, than older generations.”
Oh. I'm sure this will work. The reason millennials don't like religion is because it wasn't written in emoji. Right https://t.co/iNDzcqMmQ9
— Fluent (@FluentsWorld) May 30, 2016
Strikes me as patronizing: 'Emoji Bible' Seeks to Appeal to Millennials https://t.co/qHFwXHaybJ via @christianhlines
— Sheryl Johansen (@SherylJohansen) May 26, 2016
Someone made a Bible with emoji which I also will not read https://t.co/cSRFO5NVD6
— Doug Elfman (@VegasAnonymous) May 31, 2016
Meanwhile, some millennials are disappointed that their generation is being associated with emojis and acronyms.
