The Bible is rich in stories, narratives, and wisdom. But lets face it, it can be intimidating to read at times. With so much history within 66 books, it makes sense. There is an overabundance of places, names, lineages, tribes, wars, kings, and kingdoms that can make anyones head spin. We have not even begun with the poetic books such as Psalms or the symbolism found in Revelations. For someone to read all 66 books for the very first time, it can be a daunting task. That is 20 minutes a day to finish it all in a year. Even then, the reader is still confused trying to interpret everything they read.
There have been several ways to remedy this challenge over the past few decades. As I have mentioned before, the Bible has translations and formats in almost every medium imaginable. There is likely no end in sight either. Manuscripts is yet another alternative form of reading the Bible. It takes a very clean and simple approach. What started out as a $12,000 Kickstarter project in October 2017 has led to an overwhelming support. With over 600 backers, this project more than doubled its goal to over $28,000 to see this project come to life. Giancarlo Ospina is the co-founder of this project.
To be clear, there is no change in the words or translation of these Gospel books. Manuscripts went with the New American Standard Bible (NASB) translation. Their strategy is to make the Bible a more accessible pleasant reading experience. They accomplish this through smaller separate books. The books display large legible text with single columns. There is also the removal of verse numbers and footnotes. The words of Jesus are in red letters with separate paragraph breaks. This is to present the emphasis of His words and teachings.
So what are The Gospels? Well as the name suggests, these are the first four books of the New Testament Bible. They are the recorded eye witness accounts of Jesus from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each have their own written perspective as they write about what they saw of Jesus. They testify about his birth, life, teachings, crucifixion, and resurrection.
Their format delivers on their claim. It's style makes the reading experience a far less daunting and rigorous task. At 5.5 inches in height and 3.75 inches wide, these books provides an easy, portable, and viable option to an e-reader or phone. Despite its size and format, readers cannot expect less text to read. What readers can expect is the text to be easier on their eyes. The way the text is presented makes all the difference. A more clean and less busy layout helps readers to be more engaged with less distractions.
As a Kickstarter project, Manuscripts is only available through their online store. Most bookstores do not carry it at the moment.
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