New Translation of the Bible
The World’s Most Translated Book
The Bible is the world’s most translated book – there are currently more than 530 different language versions of the full bible, with certain sections of the text translated into thousands more languages. That means that at least 5 billion people have access to the full text in their native language, and almost the whole population can read some part of it in their mother tongue. But the latest version to be released is one for the kids. It has been translated into emojis, i.e. the symbols used to replace actual words in text messages, wherein God is a smiley face with a halo.
Sunglassess-Smiley-Face Emoji (With Halo!)
The author, known only as a sunglasses-smiley-face emoji, claims that the aim of this novel translation was to attract new readers and make the text more approachable by breaking down its density. The original concept stemmed from the idea of tweeting Bible verses. On Twitter, users only have 140 characters per ‘tweet’, so have to be succinct in their messages. The author of the emoji Bible hoped to condense verses to appeal to the younger generation – those used to receiving bite-size information and with a preference for image-based communications.
Although all 66 books have been translated for the new version, the majority of the original English words are still present, while emojis are used for key words such as ‘book’, ‘peace’ and ‘earth’. The use of emojis hopes to provide a fun way to share the gospel; all 66 books of the King James Version of the Bible are filled with emoji characters and internet slang.
The 3,300-page modern updated translation is available to buy now on iTunes and is only compatible with Apple platforms, although various snippets are available on the @BibleEmoji Twitter account.
