When people really hear Scripture, it comes alive of their hearts and their imaginations. They can see Jesus and his disciples trudging the dusty road to Jerusalem, Peter receiving a vision of animals lowered in a sheet, or Paul in prison writing one other letter.
Scott Hayes, publishing director for Eastern European Mission (EEM), a ministry committed to giving the Bible away in formerly Soviet-controlled countries, believes Bible pictures can grab people and pull them into the reality of the text. He and graphic artist Fred Apps have produced 499 New Testament drawings—two for each chapter—as an example the entire book, from Matthew to Revelation. EEM is giving the pictures away under a Creative Commons license for anyone to make use of for ministry. CT asked him in regards to the vision for this New Testament art project.
Why illustrate the New Testament?
At EEM we have now this philosophy: “The Bible. We want everyone to get it.” Well, that’s actually a triple-meaning motto. We want them to get a physical copy. We want them to “get it,” to know it. But them we would like them to get “it,” meaning the last word indwelling of Christ.
We have meetings every year where we sit down with all of the individuals who distribute our Bibles—the boots on the sphere—and do a bit of little bit of planning, a bit of little bit of dreaming. Where do we’d like to go? What do we’d like to do? For years—4 of 5 years—the identical topic comes up every yr. We need something between the teenager Bible and the New Testament.
Image: Courtesy of Eastern European Mission
Matthew 7:9-10
And then I’ve been at meetings with other Bible publishers and so they have the identical discussion. It’s like, “What will we do for older teens and young adults?”
The idea with the illustrations is that they’ll go in a Bible and help pull people in, be easier to read, but still you may have the entire Bible.
My desire was to supply something that can encourage them to read and slow them down a bit of bit. I hope the illustrations might help people think more in regards to the New Testament.
I don’t think I’ve seen illustrations like this, not only capturing the narratives however the epistles too, two drawings for each chapter. Had you seen something like this before?
No. But after I was a young person there have been different popular memorization methods, and I took considered one of them and developed it for the whole New Testament. I had a picture for every chapter. You could ask me about any chapter after I was a young person, I could let you know from the pictures I remembered what the chapter was about. It was a memory-peg system.
Image: Courtesy of Eastern European Mission
Mark 7:35
That’s where it began for me. I’m also a Bible teacher. I’ve been a Bible teacher all my life and it’s a passion, together with helping people get the Bible. I’ve taught through all those passages multiple times, and after I teach I picture images in my head. I actually have an idea in my head.
One thing I like about images within the New Testament is even a traditional reader will do not forget that illustration on a page. They may not remember what chapter Jesus says to render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but they’ll remember a picture of a head on a coin. And you possibly can flip through quickly, you discover that you just find what you’re searching for.
You worked with an artist named Fred Apps, your ideas, his art. How did that process work?
I told him from the start I used to be interested by doing illustrations for each chapter of the New Testament. He’s like, “Wow. Okay.” He’d done things that big, in fact. He’s illustrated a variety of Bibles! Fred is a graphic artist, lives in London, and within the later a part of his profession, he sort of specialized in Bibles. He retired after which didn’t like retirement and went back to work and he’s done a variety of big projects for EEM. But in all that work, he’s never done something so comprehensive for the New Testament, like what I had in mind.
Image: Courtesy of Eastern European Mission
1 Corinthians 4:5
He said he’d be willing to do it, but he needed to have three eye surgeries. I wait a yr and a half. Then he said yes, and that was right in the beginning of COVID-19.
I wrote instructions for every image. I sent him an guide—279 pages. I read through the Bible, and for every chapter, I’d give you a picture; try to seek out some examples browsing the web, looking on Google Images; after which write a paragraph explaining the thought.
Then he would send me a pencil drawing and I’d say, “Wow, take a look at that.” Or sometimes I’d say it needed something.
How long did all this take?
He puts out work pretty quick. He said, altogether, it was half a yr’s work for him.
Are there plans to publish a Bible with these images? Right now they’re all available for download and also you’re sharing them with a Creative Commons license, but will we see illustrated New Testaments soon?
It’s just artwork in the meanwhile. We’ll see what they turn into! This is actually an experiment.
I need them for use. We used the Creative Commons license, so I’m hoping other people will include creative ideas that I’d never consider. At EEM, our specialty is printing Bibles and New Testaments. But it’s also giving them away—not selling them. So which means anything we produce, we’re at all times looking to present it away.
If you add all these pictures to a New Testament, it might add about 10 percent to the length. That’s not too bad. They’re line drawings, black and white, in order that they won’t cost more to print. Just some extra paper.
The earliest we at EEM would put something out is 2024. But I’m also talking to individuals who put out Bibles in German, French, and other languages; we’re perhaps going to release very low cost versions to sell on Amazon. There could possibly be an illustration Serbian New Testament soon.
I hope plenty of people will find uses for it and it helps more people get the Bible.
