One of the world’s most translated books has been translated into yet another language. And this time, it’s specifically for millennials.
Millennials — meet the Bible Emoji.
This latest translation, subtitled “Scripture 4 Millennials” and totaling just under 3,300 pages, replaces commonly used words in the King James Version with Unicode-approved emojis, which would be familiar to all texting millennials. In addition to the emojis, the translation also replaces much of the wording with internet “lingo” — “&” for “and,” “w/o” for “without,” and “y” for “why,” to name a few. The translator estimates that around 15 percent of the original text was replaced with modern language.
The Bible Emoji’s translator opts to remain anonymous, identifying only as “the-cool-dude-with-the-sunglasses” emoji: ? . “I thought if we fast forwarded 100 years in the future, an emoji bible would exist,” said ?. “So I thought it’d be fun to try to make it.”
In order to produce the Bible Emoji, ? used the engine, Lingo Jam, to create a program that automatically translated all 66 books. The translator chose about 80 emojis and substituted them in for common words, such as God, Heaven, love, and world.
The first verse, Genesis 1:1, reads, “In the beginning ? created the ✨ & the ?.” The translator began tweeting out verses or passages, asking for suggestions, and received a largely positive reaction, though they were some criticisms and negative responses. “It was like a public proofread,” the translator told The Huffington Post. “I’d tweet out the rough draft, get feedback from the Twitter community, then revise my program.” ? estimates that it took about six months to complete the project.
Bible Emoji is available on iTunes for the U.S., selling for $2.99.
This release was interestingly timed, considering a decline in religious affiliations among millennials. The Pew Research Center noted this decline in May 2015, finding “much lower levels of religious affiliation, including less connection with Christian churches, than older generations.” The translator hopes that the Bible Emoji will encourage millennials from different backgrounds to reengage with Scripture.
“I think we should worry more about spreading ✌ [peace] & ❤ [love] & less about what church affiliation we’re doing it under,” said ?.
