Quick, digital, easy to understand, pictorial: emoji really is a language made for the 21st century. It's the world's fastest-growing language and can be used everywhere from classic literature to movie blockbusters. Now there's a new emoji publication to enjoy (or turn your nose up at): The Emoji Bible.
Covering all 66 books, from Genesis to Revelation, the book has been about six months in the making, its anonymous author told The Guardian. A computer program was used to automatically translate 200 corresponding words into 80 emoji characters.
"I thought if we fast forwarded 100 years in the future, an emoji bible would exist," the writer (or illustrator) of the work says. "So I thought it'd be fun to try to make it... I wanted to make it similar to how you might text or tweet a Bible verse, by shrinking the total character count."
The Word of God, visualised
You'll have to cough up £2.49 (or $2.99 or AU$3.99) to get the whole of the good book but various snippets can be previewed via the official @BibleEmoji Twitter account. Apparently, the reception has been largely positive, the author says.
Whoever is behind the Emoji Bible ("scripture for millennials") is also welcoming feedback and suggestions to improve the work. At nearly 3,300 pages in length, it's likely to take a long while to read, even with the visual shortcuts.
Perhaps it could be a more effective way of engaging young people than trying to tempt them into church on a Sunday morning - the Emoji Bible author is certainly hoping so - but as yet there's been no official message of approval from the church.
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