Posted on June 10, 2016

What’s All the Buzz About the Bible in Emoji?

Posted on June 10, 2016 by .BIBLE Registry Categories: Online Presence, Social Media

During the past couple of weeks, quite a bit of chatter has circulated around social media and the internet, even around the world, about a new translation of the Bible adapted from the KJV (King James Version) and Emoji.

Emoji is not actually a language, although its symbols are pictographs that communicate a wide variety of things. According to Wikipedia, emoji are “ideograms and smileys used in electronic messages and Web pages. The characters, which are used much like ASCII emoticons or kaomoji, exist in various genres, including facial expressions, common objects, places and types of weather, and animals.” As of the Unicode 8.0 update, there are 879 code points, or emoji characters.

Now you’re going to find these 2 words, Bible and emoji, coming together in the same sentence because of an eBook titled, Bible Emoji: Scripture 4 Millenials, first published on May 29, 2016, and available in the iBooks store for $2.99 USD.

Its description says it’s the “first ever Bible translation w/ emojis” and verses are posted as tweets at @BibleEmoji on Twitter, with a Bible Emoji Translator at bibleemoji.com.

Let’s bring you up to speed on the latest buzz circulating about the Bible Emoji, and it’s also known as “Emoji Bible,” here’s a chronological timeline of the articles that were posted on mainstream media and online channels:

5/25/16

Hallelujah! Emoji Bible brings Christianity into the digital age by Kitty Knowles (The Memo)

Looking for a new Bible translation? How about Emoji Scripture… by Carey Lodge (Christian Today)

New Emoji Bible Translation for Millennial Generation by Dee Sharp (The Inquisitr)

5/26/16

An Emoji Bible Translation Is Now a Reality (Relevant Magazine)

Will This Bible Translation Bring Millennials Back to Church? by Jessilyn Justice (Charisma News)

:-D MILLENNIALS REJOICE! New emoji Bible translation is coming! by Kenya Sinclair (Catholic Online)

A Bible Made With Emojis Is Now An Actual Thing by Carol Kuruvilla (The Huffington Post)

5/29/16

New Emoji Bible Attempts To Make Christianity ‘More Approachable’ As Millennials Leave Church by Julia Glum (International Business Times)

5/30/16

Emoji Bible and some words of wisdom by Beth Stolicker (Mission News Network)

Bible Emoji translates scripture into pictures for Millennials by Nicole Lyn Pesce (New York Daily Times)

The Emoji Bible has arrived ... and God has yet to declare it OK: One of the most widely translated works in history has been given a 21st-century update with millennials in mind by Elle Hunt (The Guardian, Australia)

The translator told Guardian Australia that he or she preferred to remain anonymous, identifying only as the cool-dude-with-sunglasses emoji:

“I thought if we fast forwarded 100 years in the future, an emoji bible would exist, 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… I started tweeting the verses out and it was sort of like a public proofread.”

The project used a program of the translator’s own creation that linked 80 emoji with 200 corresponding words, and took about six months.

There’s Now a Bible Written With Emojis by Carli Velocci (Gizmodo)

Finally, Someone Translated the Bible into Emojis by Lauren Evans (Jezebel)

The bible has been translated into emojis: Because millenials. by Joseph Volpe (Engadget)

5/31/16

Emoji Bible makes God a smiley face with a halo by Lauren Markoe (Religion News Service)

The bible now translated into emoji for the millennials by PC Tech Magazine

Bible translated into emojis in new way to spread the word of God (Fox 17 TV)

6/01/16

Bible translated into emojis: Project geared toward appealing to ‘millennials’ (KHBS-TV Arkansas)

6/02/16

Someone Translated the Bible into Emoji for Millennials by Helen Donahue (Vice)

Emoji Bible Translates Scriptures Into Smileys by Liam Stack (The New York Times)

New Emoji Bible Translates Scripture For Millennials by Shelby Carpenter (Forbes)

Can you read the Bible in emoji? by Julie Zauzmer (The Washington Post)

The Bible’s latest translation: emoji — An e-version of the Bible, titled “Bible Emoji: Scripture 4 Millennials,” translates words into emoji. By Claritza Jimenez (The Washington Post)

6/03/16

New Emoji Bible Recalls Age-Old Translation Debate: Popular Christian symbols rank among the most confusing. by Kate Shellnutt (Christianity Today)

New emojis coming; man translates Bible into emoji (KMOV-TV)

A Good Thing about That Emoji Bible by Kristin Swenson (The Huffington Post)

6/04/16

OMG! This emoji Bible is like so totally awesome smile by Will Pavia (The Times)

6/05/16

The Gospel According to Emoji :( With the release of an emoji Bible, we have officially reached peak millennial. However, it’s far from the most controversial translation. by Candida Moss (The Daily Beast)

Let There Be Emoji…the New Bible Emoji App: Bible Emojis is an app that translates the books of the bible into colorful emoji. by Samara Lynn (Black Enterprise)

6/06/16

The Bible in emojis? Terrific idea, sloppy execution by Jana Riess (Religion News Service)

6/09/16

The Emoji Bible, Reviewed: Looking at a new app as text, art project, and cultural phenomenon by Emma Green (The Atlantic)

Many news outlets smelled the blood of the Millennial, and they went after it. After all, the tagline on the digital book is “Scripture 4 Millenials” (misspelling allegedly purposeful). “OMG! The bible’s newest translation is in emoji,” said Fox News, in a headline representative of the genre. There’s a quiz. There’s a video. Many wrote about it using emoji themselves, freed by their subject from the conventions of prose. It’s an internet phenomenon, parsed in a thoroughly internet way.

6/17/16

The Bible Has Now Been Translated Into Emoji by Patty Knap (National Catholic Register)

6/21/16

Get the Good News sans words, with the Emoji Bible by Pooiee (Techly)

6/29/16

Emoji bible: legit or not legit by Beth Stolicker (Mission Network News)

6/30/16

Emoji Bible: It’s curious and fun, but it doesn’t make God’s Word come alive, says Biblica’s Carl Moeller - by Hazel Torres (Christian Today)

This Bible Emoji has traversed many countries around the world, too. Here’s a sample of articles mentioning Bible Emoji in other languages beyond English:

At the time of this post, there’s 95 articles linked at Google News’ Full Coverage for Bible Emoji. Yes, we expect more discussions about the Bible and emoji to come.