Exploring the Bible Videos
I’m thrilled to announce the beta version of my latest project: Exploring the Bible videos. The site is a growing collection of short text-based videos about the Bible, frequently focusing on translation issues.
The first three videos (also available on YouTube) are:
- John 3:16 – What does “God so loved the world” really mean?
- Quiz: Do you speak KJV?
- Thou Shalt Not Covet – Why “covet” is a mistranslation in the Ten Commandments.
Longer than a soundbite and (much) shorter than a lecture, each video presents a single idea in two or three minutes.
These first three videos mirror blog posts I’ve written (here, here, and here).
My hope is that these videos will be an effective way of discussing the text of the Bible, because the medium of video makes it possible to display the text as I talk about it.
Please let me know what you think.
I’ll also be grateful if you can ask a few friends or colleagues to take a look — particularly if they don’t follow this blog — so I can get a sense of what these videos are like for people who encounter the material for the first time.
I no longer actively write this blog, but you can find me at Ancient Wisdom, Modern Lives
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Bible Bible translation covet John 3:16 King James Bible King James Version KJV Ten Commandments translation
17 Responses
Excellent! Short, clear and to the point.
Thanks!
Appreciate all the work in the videos.
Enhances the message. You use it effectively so that it is better teaching device that mere text.
Intro is attractive but needs to be cut by 2/3’s to get to the teaching more quickly.
Thanks, Mike.
I went back and forth on the length of the intro.
If you’re on the site, you can take advantage of an unadvertised feature and right-click the videos to skip most of the intro and get right to the point. (That feature still doesn’t work perfectly, though. I wanted it to jump to the bells and the spinning logo, but it starts the video abruptly just a bit before that.)
[…] this quiz from Joel Hoffman and find […]
Great stuff, Joel!
Apparently I speak KJV fine, as (knowing the examples came from the KJV) I got all right. However, that won’t persuade me to return to using it, I stopped about 50 years ago and see no reason to return đ
Good stuff, Doc. Where do you find the time?!
[…] Resources for Biblical Studies, while Joel Hoffman alerted us to his latest project, a series of Exploring the Bible Videos. Meanwhile, Tom Verenna asked, “Can the Bible Be […]
BTW Joel, I just watched the “covet” one and I love the clean look and neat graphics of these videos, any chance of a post exposing your trade secrets and telling us how you do them?
Thanks for your kind words.
The software is actually my own. It’s built around three components: A typesetting engine that creates each frame; a description language, which describes how the text moves/changes over time; and software for turning the frames and audio tracks into a movie. As with most projects, I would do it differently if I had known when I started it what I know now, but I’m mostly happy with how it turned out.
Right now it’s too messy to release as a public software package, but if I have time I’d like to make at least parts of it more widely available.
[…] Joel Hoffman explains the Greek grammar of John 3:16. […]
Wow! Now I am even more mind-blown. No wonder they look so good đ
[…] Joel Hoffman has prepared a video in which he explains the Greek behind John 3:16. This video is part of Joelâs project, Exploring the Bible videos series. […]
[…] Joel Hoffman has prepared a video in which he explains the Greek behind John 3:16. This video is part of Joelâs project, Exploring the Bible videos series. […]
[…] >Joel Hoffman has prepared a video to test your knowledge of the King James Bible. Before you watch the video, do the following: […]
[…] Joel Hoffman has prepared a video in which he explains the Hebrew behind Exodus 20:17. This video is part of Joelâs project, Exploring the Bible videos series. […]