AUGUST NEWSLETTER

The summer has been punishingly hot, and for the last 2 weeks, our family has been suffering from COVID, which we are coming out of now. September to December is our primary bookselling season so we are really looking forward to getting The book of Ruth and Luke's Gospel onto the shelves worldwide!

The Book of Ruth NIV and NVI!

The newest edition to our NIV and NVI collection hits the shelves on September 6th! You can preorder your copy now on our website!

Breaking into the T-shirt game

We've recently added our first t-shirt items to the website! We have one with our logo and a brand new one with the design below!

UK SHOP: https://www.wordforwordbiblecomic.com/buy-uk
USA SHOP: https://anchormerchandising.com/word-for-word-bible-comics/
We plan to add new t-shirt designs regularly and you can "have your say" on the ones that come out by voting on polls on the Facebook group.

Go to the Facebook group now to vote on a limited edition t-shirt with a design from the Book of Ruth...

PS: If you are waiting for your Kickstarter exclusive t-shirt, they have recently all been ordered and should arrive at your door in the next few days. 🤞

Prayers 

We have a great opportunity to get our colouring books into a lot of prisons in the UK, but we are hitting a few hurdles. Please pray that we can find a way around these and make this happen, opening the door to get the Bible comics into the prison libraries.

In September we launch Ruth and then in October we launch Luke's Gospel into the USA in English and Spanish, please pray for lots of orders and customers discovering the Bible Comics.

JULY NEWSLETTER

The Gospel of Luke and all the new NIV Books of Ruth have arrived and been sent out and now it's time to think about the next instalment!

What is the next new book? 

We are currently weighing up options about what the next book that I will be illustrating will be. If you are a member of the Facebook Community you'll be able to vote in a poll with your opinions and help shape the next book! Join the FB group

Fulfilling the Gospel of Luke Kickstarter!

All the new books arrived on the 5th of July, and after much hard work from my wife Sian, 94% of the items are now in the post or already with backers (the other 6% are people who haven't filled in their shipping info)! The day before yesterday I sent out all the digital rewards so they are now with backers on the Kickstarter Update the email.

The Book of Ruth

In addition to the brand new Gospel of Luke, some backers also received the brand new version of the Book of Ruth featuring the NIV (or NVI) translation before it's release! This will be hitting the shops on September 1st!

Events

The Gathering!

It was great to see so many people there who've been supporting the project for so many years topping up their collections! I was super blessed as the table next to me was vacant so I spread out to fill 2 tables, meaning I could display the T-shirts, collector's editions and the art portfolio too. A special welcome to all of you who joined this newsletter there!

This year we are not doing a million summer events, I believe our next exhibition will be a comic con in autumn.

Prayers 

Thank you to everyone who prayed the books would not have misprints! During the proofing stage, we find several minor errors to get ironed out and I believe that was thanks to this intervention.

Thank also to those who have been praying the door for the books to get into the prisons would open, we believe there's been a big step forward with this recently so watch this space for more news!

Please continue to prayer for the comics to be licenced into other languages and to reach more people around the world with the Word of God.

June Newsletter

The Gospel of Luke is being finished as we speak. All the comic pages are drawn, the colours are being added to the last few pages and I'm about to create the appendix pages at the back of the book.

Kickstarter Backer Surveys are out!

Recently I sent out the backer surveys for the Kickstarter of Luke. You need to complete this in order to give us your address, t-shirt size and whether you'd like to be given a thankyou at the back of the book, so don't forget to do it for the 12% of you who have yet to! You will have received an email or you can go to the campaign page and fill it in there.

Events! 

Big Church Day Out!

We just returned from BCDO22, it was great fun to be out showing people the books again! On the night before the start, I walked by the main stage where Rend collective where sound-checking and practising so I got my own private show:

I also ran into Adam who won our Easter competition a few years ago to be drawn into the Gospel of Matthew. Here we are with his panel:

I also saw Caroline who is drawn into the Book of Joshua as a daughter of Zelophehad who supported the project in the early days, and Maaike our newest colourist over from the Netherlands!

The Gathering: Christian Vision for Men: 24-26 June

This weekend event is to encourage and build men in their faith! It's a really fun event and if you haven't booked in there are still spaces available. Come and see me in the exhibition area!

Praefectus Pontius Pilatus

I'm currently creating fact pages for the back of the Gospel of Luke about "PONTIVS PILATVS". Here's one fact from my page about Pilate: A number of coins were struck during Pilate's tenure that featured symbols that would offend the Jews, such as the “Lituus," a Wand for Divination, and the “Simpulum," a ladle used to make libations during Roman cultic sacrifices.
To see more posts like this come and join our FB community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wordforwordbiblecomiccommunity

Prayers 

Please pray the books of Luke and Ruth NIV are printed without errors and get to their destinations safe and that they go on to impact many lives across the USA, Canada, the UK and beyond!

MAY NEWSLETTER

The Gospel of Luke is being finished as we speak. All the comic pages are drawn, the colours are being added to the last few pages and I'm about to create the appendix pages at the back of the book.

Have your say: Pages on in the back of the book. 

I placed this poll in the Facebook community today. I'd love you to take a look and make your own suggestions on what topics you'd like to see covered:

Upcoming Events! 

Here are a couple of events we will be exhibiting at next month!

Big Church Day Out! 3rd & 4th June

This two day event is like a Christian music festival, this year featuring Matt Redman and Rend Collective among many others. If you are going to the event please come and see us in the "Big Church Expo" marquee.

The Gathering: Christian Vision for Men: 24-26 June

This weekend event is to encourage and build men in their faith! It's a really fun event and if you haven't booked in there are still spaces available. Come and see me in the exhibition area!

Prayer

Growing pains: As a business, we are now beginning to outgrow our current capacity to store the books, to manage all the various suppliers and capacity to deal with the marketing required for each tile and initiate. This is a good thing, but we are looking at options and solutions to level up. Please pray the Lord provides the right avenue for us to go down to keep growing.

APRIL NEWSLETTER

APRIL NEWSLETTER

This last month has been all about getting my head down and finishing the last pages. Trying not to get drawn into other things like marketing and admin.

Blogs 

I've recently written several blogs about some elements of the biblical research which I found particularly interesting. The middle one is about an exciting new discovery of a tiny lead tablet found at Mount Ebal. It was discovered by the Associates of Biblical Research and Dr Scott Spripling lead the team. By coincidence Dr Scott also recently gave the Bible Comic his endorsement:

Here are three of the best blogs:

• GOSPEL CONTRADICTION? "O JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM" WHO WAS RIGHT?

• LEAD CURSE TABLET SUPPORTS BIBLE'S OWN TIMELINE

• PROPHESY ABOUT JESUS FROM THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON

Progress

The 8 note pages at the back are not yet created but all the colouring has been done besides the final 7 pages yet to be drawn.

The Gospel of Mark Reviews

The Gospel of Mark NIV and NVI editions launched last month and we've had several great blog reviews for the Gospel of Mark recently, here are a few examples

• https://feedingonjesus.com/2022/03/30/a-different-kind-of-post-check-this-out

• https://adonaishalom.com/index.php/2022/02/18/review-gospel-of-mark-word-for-word-bible-comic-niv

• https://www.thisverticallife.com/post/the-gospel-of-mark-word-for-word-bible-comic-a-review

Prayer

Growing Pains: We are slowly growing as a company and that means our stock is outgrowing our space and the admin is outgrowing our current capacity. Technically these are good signs but please pray we can manage the growth well and make the right choices as we try to manage it.

Prisons: We are still very keen to get the Bible comics into prisons and we sense things might be moving in the right direction. Please pray for the Lord to remove any blockages or spiritual opposition to getting the Bible to those inside for the sake of redemption.

Prophesy about Jesus from The Wisdom of Solomon

In Luke 10:23-24 Jesus says…

Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” NIV

When I was looking for specific Kings who had prophesied about Jesus I looked at Solomon…

Aside from allusions in his Psalms, Proverbs and other writings I discovered one which was very powerful but unknown to me as it is from a Deuterocanonical book: The Wisdom of Solomon.

This book is considered canonical by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox, but are considered non-canonical by Jews and Protestants. Most significantly it is believed to have been scribed in the first century BC in Alexandria, possibly from older manuscripts (although, its authenticity has its detractors). So while it may not have been written by Solomon himself it is likely it was written before Christ’s birth.

In any case, I found it very interesting to read. Why not check it out and come to your own conclusions…

Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,

because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;

he reproaches us for sins against the law,

and accuses us of sins against our training.

He professes to have knowledge of God,

and calls himself a child of the Lord.

He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;

the very sight of him is a burden to us,

because his manner of life is unlike that of others,

and his ways are strange.

We are considered by him as something base,

and he avoids our ways as unclean;

he calls the last end of the righteous happy,

and boasts that God is his father.

Let us see if his words are true,

and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;

for if the righteous man is God’s son, he will help him,

and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.

Let us test him with insult and torture,

that we may find out how gentle he is,

and make trial of his forbearance.

Let us condemn him to a shameful death,

for, according to what he says, he will be protected.

— Wisdom 2:12–20 (RSVCE)

Lead Curse Tablet discovered at Mount Ebal supports the Bible's own internal timeline

One enormous discovery

Last night Archeologist (and friend of the Word for Word Bible Comic- see below) Dr Scott Stripling and the Associates of Biblical Research team announced a new discovery. A tiny lead tablet (2cm x 2cm) found at mount Ebal in Israel in 2020 has recently been scanned using cutting edge tomographic technology (similar to a medical CT scan) to reveal the words inscribed on the inside of the folded lead artefact.

What they discovered was not only the earliest example of proto Hebrew text by over 200 years but it features a curse and was found at Mount Ebal the mountain where the curses of Deuteronomy were to be read!

“When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses.” (Deuteronomy 11:29 NIV).

The fulfilment of Moses command in Deut 11:29 comes in the time of Joshua (Josh 8:34:35 WEB below)

The actual words on the lead tablet read:

Cursed, cursed, cursed - cursed by the God YHW.
You will die cursed.
Cursed you will surely die.
Cursed by YHW – cursed, cursed, cursed.

There are huge implications, as Dr Scott Stripling puts it…

“This is earlier than many sceptics believe the Bible existed, making this the earliest appearance of the word YHWH in Israel and it was found at a covenant site. The implications are enormous and will reverberate for many years to come.”

The full 1-hour presentation is linked in this video.

Moses commanded the children of Israel to build an altar on Mount Ebal (Joshua 8:30-31a WEB below), which is where the artefact was discovered.

One of the enormous implications

Dating the Exodus and the Conquest

Much of the announcement has revolved around the proof that the Bible could have be written as contemporary with the events as it states. This is a big deal to rebut sceptical scholars who say the Bible was all created in the Persian era, but as I (probably like yourself) was already convinced of this fact, I found the more interesting element how the discovery supports the dating of the Conquest and the Exodus to be in line with what the Bible itself states.

There is a lot of confusion around the dating of the Exodus, and while there are a range of views there are two major camps. The first support the view that the Exodus was in the time of Ramses II around 1200 BC, which seems to be based on the fact the Israelites were enslaved to build a city called “Ramses” and it is a traditional view. However, when you scratch the surface the proponents of this view seem to state things like “Exodus myth include the documented movements of small groups of Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples into and out of Egypt during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties,”(Meyers 2005, pp. 8–10.) and “Scholarly estimates for how many people could have been involved in such an exodus range from a few hundred to a few thousand people.” (Faust 2015, p. 476.) My own research on this view finds little to support it besides the city name which could be independently called Ramses which means “Begotten of Ra”, or more likely, it is an anachronistic naming for a place later renamed after the Pharoah.

The second camp is based on the Bible’s own stated timeline. A key verse is:

In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord. 1 Kings 6:1 NIV

We have a strong chronology placing the building of Solomons temple to between 1020 and 950 BCE giving us an Exodus date of 1500- 1450 BC, as well as all the other dates and durations within the Bible which can be harmonised to indicate an Exodus date within this range. Therefore I believe that this view is the one in line with a high view of Scripture. The puzzle over who exactly was Pharoah in Egypt during the Exodus is down to the inconsistencies of the Egyptian timeline, not the Biblical one, but that’s another story. (If you want to see the most wonderfully constructed detailed timeline for Biblical harmonisation, look up the work of Dr Floyd Jones.)

Conclusion

The point is, this lead tablet from ~1400-1300 BC with a curse found on Mount Ebal, written in paleo-Hebrew with the name God gave to Moses blows the more liberal view out of the water.

I’m praying this piece of evidence discovered by Dr Stripling and the team will cut through many sceptics’ rejection of the Bible and convince them to read and trust its words more closely.

———

Dr Scott Stripling recently gave The Word for Word Bible Comic a great endorsement:

Read the ABR Blog here : https://biblearchaeology.org/current-events-list/4896-abr-researchers-discover-the-oldest-known-proto-hebrew-inscription-ever-found

If you’d like to buy your own copy of the Book of Joshua: Word for Word Bible Comic click the icon below:

MARCH NEWSLETTER: KICKSTARTER ENDS

Kickstarter successfully funded

The Kickstarter campaign went really well hitting the minimum goal in the first week and climbing to hit the first and second stretch goals, ending on £21,427

The Gospel of Mark Launches Today! 

Today is also the launch of the Gospel of Mark featuring the NIV translation in English and the NVI in Spanish worldwide! You'll be able to find it in shops across the USA, Canada and UK as well as online.

Can you help?

What would be amazingly helpful is if you add a review to the Amazon listing based on your experience of reading the original version as this edition is the same except for the translation.

UK

• https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gospel-Mark-Bible-Comic-Translation/dp/191429906X

• https://www.amazon.co.uk/El-Evangelio-Marcos-Biblia-Comic-Traduccion/dp/1914299078

USA

• https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Mark-Bible-Comic-Translation/dp/191429906X

• https://www.amazon.com/El-Evangelio-Marcos-Biblia-Comic-Traduccion/dp/1914299078

Superfan list 

In order to help me make an impact and reach a larger audience in this modern age, I need the help of a truly committed fanbase. If you really love the work and mission of the Word for Word Bible Comic and want to be instrumental in helping it reach more people with God's word, please sign up to our Superfan email list! While there will likely be Superfan exclusive benefits down the road, I'm looking for people willing to serve in a small way by adding reviews online, liking and commenting on social media posts and generally getting more involved with all that we are doing.

Become a superfan

Prayer

Kickstarter: The final week is an exciting time as people jump in at the last minute. Please pray for lots of new backers to discover the project and for us to be well provisioned for the year ahead :)

Prisons: We are still very keen to get the Bible comics into prisons and we sense things might be moving in the right direction. Please pray for the Lord to remove any blockages or spiritual opposition to getting the Bible to those inside for the sake of redemption.

Inverviews and videos this month