that we are using the capabilities of the digital Bible to maximum effectiveness. We still need to
delve much more deeply into how the digital revolution is influencing our digital generation
students in how they actually interpret the Bible.
In the past few decades there have been several efforts to take advantage of the new digital
technology and apply it to the Bible and, correspondingly, to its interpretation. The first rather
primitive (non-digital) attempts merely narrated the entire Bible on to audio-cassette tapes with
one narrator. There was little room for the interpretation of individual Bible passages with this
approach, only in the emphasis of the narrator and his modulation of particular words, phrases
and sentences. This single narrator attempt was quickly upgraded to multiple-voice narration on
cassette (later digital CD) done to the accompaniment of an entire vocal cast and orchestra with
appropriate sound effects. Here there was more room for influencing the interpretation of
particular Bible passages depending on the type of background music used, its loudness or
softness, etc. Then, in 1979, Campus Crusade for Christ produced the highly successful Jesus
film (on video, later DVD) that put the actual words of the Gospel of Luke in digital form. Here
there was much more room for the interpretation of the various events in Luke in terms of casting
(who can forget the blue-eyed Jesus?), directing, and even how the individual Lukan pericopes
were acted out. But the Jesus film was only a foretaste of the hermeneutical possibilities opened
up by the digital world of the computer.
The year 1989 marked the first significant attempt to use the tools of the digital revolution and
apply them to the Bible when the American Bible Society established what it called the
"NewMedia Project" in its Translations Department. Placing the Project under the auspices of the
Translation Department was significant. Why? Because, according to Richard M. Harley, what
the ABS was attempting to produce were not merely audio or video dramatizations of the biblical
text, but rather to attempt, using the latest digital technology,
In short, the multimedia translation aspired from the outset to be genuine
translation, not adaptation. The now well-known concept of functional or
lexicon definitions. I can do a complex search for a specific word in combination with other words--throughout the entire text of
the Bible in less than a second. And the incredible time-saving advantages go on and on. However, there is a subtle danger here:
that these computer-enhanced Bible study methods will make us better interpreters. More efficient and speedy Bible study
methods will not necessarily make for better Bible interpreters or interpretation!
them rustle as I turned to the particular passage I was studying. I had a tactile relationship with the text. This tactile relationship
helped me to somehow connect with the biblical text in a way that was far more personal or intimate than what I now have
staring at various open windows on the computer screen. This text was Gods Word in written form, the pages were bound in an
impressive leather cover, the pages gilt-edged in gold. There was something "authoritative" about the Bible before its words
were even read. I realize that Bible covers and gilt-edged pages are just packaging--but as all advertisers know, packaging is
everything. Now, however, the Bible has been reduced to words on a screen. No tactile intimacy between me and the text. No
feeling of the computer monitor in my hands or the rustle of electrons as the text is displayed on the screen. And while I have
gained in the speed and accuracy of my Bible study in byte form I have also lost an intimacy with the text that I had when I
formerly studied it in book form. Intimacy has been sacrificed for convenience and efficiency. Not everyone who has changed to
computer-aided Bible study will feel the loss of intimacy as I do. I believe I feel as did the master storyteller when oral story was
replaced by hand-written scroll, or the scribe when hand-written scroll was replaced by mass produced books: something is lost.