Bible redesign raises more than $1M on Kickstarter

Bible redesign raises more than $1M on Kickstarter

(Vimeo)


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SANTA CRUZ — A man’s effort to redesign the Bible has raised more than $1 million on Kickstarter.

Adam Lewis Green said he was motivated by a desire to make reading the Bible a literary experience, without additions like verse numbers and notes. The Bibliotheca project breaks the Bible into four volumes — “The Five Books of Moses and the Former Prophets,” “The Latter Prophets,” “The Writings” and “The New Testament.”

“Today, our contemporary Bibles are ubiquitously dense, numerical and encyclopedic in format; very different from how we experience other classic and foundational literature, and completely foreign to how the original authors conceived of their work,” Green wrote on the Kickstarter page.

“By separating the text into several volumes, and by applying classic and elegant typography, Bibliotheca is meant to provide a fresh alternative to the reader who wants to enjoy the biblical library anew, as great literary art.”


Bibliotheca is meant to provide a fresh alternative to the reader who wants to enjoy the biblical library anew, as great literary art.

–Adam Green


Over 10,000 people have backed the project on Kickstarter so far, raising more than $1 million. Supporters can pre-order the books through the Kickstarter campaign with an estimated delivery date in December.

In addition to splitting the Bible into separate volumes, Green is changing some of the text by replacing words like “thee” and “thou” with “you.” Other words like “begot” and “harkened” will be left unchanged.

He will mostly be using the American Standard Version of the Bible, with the occasional use of syntax from Young’s Literal Translation for clarity. He said he chose the ASV because it is his favorite and he thinks the syntax is close to the original languages the Bible was written in.

The name of God will be represented by the Hebrew “YHWH” in small capital letters.

“It is my opinion that using "The LORD" in place of the name of God creates an impersonal barrier between the character of God and the reader that does not exist in the earliest manuscripts, and was not intended to exist by the original authors,” he wrote.

“As a simple example, there is an obvious disparity in the two statements, ‘I, the king, care for you,’ and ‘I, George, care for you.’ Even if George is the king, it is significant if he has chosen to use his personal name when speaking to you rather than his honorific title.”

With the success of Bibliotheca’s current Kickstarter campaign, Green said he might pursue Bible sets in additional translations and languages.

Related links

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Natalie Crofts

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast