In 2017 ‘Bible in Brief’ got published.
In 2022 I am still discovering the benefits of my website.
Here’s the story.
PUTTING THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE
Normal practice is to write a book and then seek a publisher. I did it the other way round.
When I was vicar at All Saints, Hackbridge & Beddington Corner we had a visiting organist for weddings, a cheerful Roman Catholic Chris Day. He kept saying to me, “you ought to write . I listen to your sermons and they have got good ideas in them.” When I objected that I did not know a publisher who would accept them, he replied, “I will, I’m a publisher”. So we met up in a garden centre for coffee to discuss my project ‘The Bible in Brief’ His first question to me was , “You may think this is a strange question. What are your next two books going to be?” So I told him – (‘Discovering Psalms as Prayer’ and ‘The Book of Job for Public Performance’).
Chris’s company is ‘Filament Publishing’. It is not a traditional publishing house, not is it self- publishing, Chris is a partner-publisher. He does all the publishing tasks, but the author pays for the privilege. He is an incredible mentor. I owe him so much.
SORTING THE BASICS
In the parish I had produced a simple leaflet with selected chapters giving an overview of the Bible. I wanted to build on that, and make it really easy for people to understand what the Bible consists of, people who say,“I don’t read the Bible because it is too complicated.” So I had a different topic for each month and for each week, for example:
Month 1 Creation to Commandments. (Genesis & Exodus)
Week 1 Beginnings
Week 2 Abraham, Isaac, Jacob
Week 3 Joseph and the move to Egypt
Week 4 The Desert experience (Moses and Exodus)
The other monthly topics are: History of Israel and Judah; the Prophets; Law, Psalms and Wisdom; Jesus, Apostles and their Letters.
Each day I directed the reader to a chapter of the Bible, together with necessary information, like the dates of the events, and attached a question to help readers apply the passage to their own experience. For instance, for the first section (Genesis 1) the question is: ‘Is the universe good?’. For section 3, the story of Adam and Eve, the question is, ‘What attitudes do we have that spoil life?’
EXPANDING THE VISION
I wrote an introduction to each month’s readings. The prophets are particularly confusing because their books are not in chronological order. So I created a timeline for the Prophets, showing who was king when they spoke; and later another one for the New Testament showing what was happening in the Roman world during New Testament times.
I also wrote a a section at the end of each month quoting writings from other counties of the Ancient Middle East, including the Babylonian myth of creation, a poem about Baal, a prayer by King Nebuchadnezzar and quotes from rabbis at the time of Jesus. It puts the Bible into the context of the wider world it was written in. A lot of my writing I did in the National Art Library in the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum) – a blissful place in which to work.
Short articles at the end of the book aimed to help the reader answer questions like:
- What might we mean when we say the Bible is the word of God?
- what are chapters and verse and where did they come from?
- what have scientists have said about the Bible?
- Are there any decent films about it? Yes, especially on my website!
- 14 examples of different English translations from 990 and 1526 to 2018.
I still use it as a handy reference book. For instance, if I you can’t remember if Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 or 587 BCE, you can just open up a copy of ‘Bible in Brief’.
FROM BOOK TO WORKBOOK
So I ended up with a short, interesting and useful book. But Chris told me it was too small to be properly published. What to do?
So I made it a workbook. The left hand pages listed the chapters and questions for each day. The right hand pages were lined with space for the reader’s own comments on the questions. When I tried it myself, I was surprised how positive the experience was. It gave me a bit of a buzz actually to write something short in the book and so make it properly my own.
But it looked a bit bare, so at the bottom of each right hand page I included a verse from that week’s topic. So you’ve got a summary of the Bible in just 49 verses!
AFTER THE KARATE CLUB DINNER
The French say that a meal without wine is like a day without sunshine. I feel the same about illustrations. I love books which have simple drawings as illustrations. I particularly wanted archaeological-type drawings, such as the depiction of an Israelite king on an Assyrian pillar in the British Museum – the only one in the world! But how to find someone who could do it? That’s where my wife’s karate club came in handy.
I had been to a karate club dinner with my wife and stepson and was driving back with an extra passenger in the back, a young man called Daniel. He was studying art at Epsom and I overheard him say, “I really like doing fine line drawing.” My ears pricked up and I asked him if he would do some for me. He said, yes, once his exams were finished. He completed 27 drawings and three maps, excellently done. I was his first commission! As an example, here is what Abraham and Sarah would have looked like, from an Egyptian tomb painting of desert nomads.
PHONE A FRIEND
A book is only as good as its front cover. Fortunately become friends with a local house church leader, Nat Gillett, who was a professional graphic designer. I asked him to design the cover of the book, and then to design the website and he did a fantastic job. He designed the covers of all seven of my books – check them out on the home page of bibleinbrief.org. The actual book was designed by the supremely talented Clare; the website was created with all its bells and whistles by the unbelievably helpful Emma; both members of Chris Day’s external team.
WHAT A WEBSITE!
To my shame, after populating my website with all sorts of interesting stuff, I’ve only recently started to use it properly, and discovered how good it is! Here’s some of what’s on it:
Blogs: 33 blogs on the Bible and others on Bible-related issues. There are blogs covering much of the Bible. Plus 33 newsletters about ‘My Writing Life”. The most recent three blogs are posted on the home page.
Videos: There are nine brilliant short animated films about Old Testament characters. It is a Welsh/Russian co-production shown on BBC2 in 1997. Superb script, with different animation techniques used. The one on Moses won the ‘Outstanding Achievement in Animation’ award at Primetime Emmy. You must watch that. It’s streets ahead of Spielberg’s ‘Prince of Egypt’.
Read and Discuss: This is where you can use ‘Bible in Brief’ without buying the book! You simply open up the day you want, get redirected to the Bible passage of the day, and then you can put your own comments on the website to enlighten the world. I have just started using it with my I-phone and really enjoy it. Mind you, you have to subscribe to the site and receive my blogs twice a month if you want to load up your own comments. But I don’t think that is too bad!
Resources: All sorts stuff here:
- downloadable leaflets giving a suggested pattern of daily use of Psalms;
- musical interludes for performances of the ‘Book of Job’;
- videos and handouts for use with ‘Five Steps to Faith’.
- photo gallery of Jerusalem to accompany ‘A Week of Prayer in Jerusalem’;
- glossary of Jewish names and expressions as used in ‘Jesus the Troublemaker’.
Wishing you many happy hours surfing!