The Brick Testament

.Fact|date=September 2008 There is also a Brick Testament book series.Fact|date=September 2008

The project uses Lego as an art medium. Smith asserts that the project adheres to the scripture of the Christian bible. [ [http://www.thebricktestament.com/faq/index.html Brick Testament FAQ] ] All stories are retold using passages from the Bible, with chapter and verse cited. Smith has updated most of the stories with his own wording which is based on a number of public domain Bible translations. [Smith has stated the rationale for updated wording of TBT is to avoid copyright issues.] Smith also introduces his own written commentary in the illustrations, where characters are sometimes portrayed as saying or thinking words that are not direct quotes from Smith's own wording of the Bible. Such text is displayed in gray instead of the usual black.

The website and book series have been released for use to religious groups [ [http://www.thebricktestament.com/churches/map_of_churches.jpgmap showing a sampling of 200 churches and religious groups that sought and received permission to use Brick Testament illustrations between August 2006 and March 2007] ] and to those who do not profess religious belief.Fact|date=September 2008

Techniques

The dioramas seen in The Brick Testament are created from Smith's personal Lego collection. The pieces come from hundreds of Lego sets dating from the 1960s to the present.

In the few instances where alterations are made to Lego elements, they are generally simple changes made with a hobby knife or permanent ink marker. An example alteration is God's hair: Smith made God's white hair by carving a white [http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/193a helmet piece] , presumably because he could not locate the rare [http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=stacey_love&itemID=10353197&rID=-2 male white hair] piece. The only completely non-Lego part of Smith's scenes is the background sky, which is generally a piece of posterboard with blue sky printed on it.Fact|date=September 2008

All of Smith's images are digital. Smith photographed early scenes with a Nikon Coolpix 950. He currently uses a Nikon Coolpix 4500. After photographing the scenes, he adds speech balloons and sometimes makes alterations using image editing programs such as Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop.Fact|date=September 2008

Commentary

Smith's own commentary appears in illustrations and is displayed in gray text, and also as original titles for the stories themselves. For example, Smith presents the story titled, "Stephen Gets Stoned" which he bases on the book of Acts. The scripture verse is cited directly beneath the illustration and commentary:

* Scripture: "Acts 6:10" But they were unable to stand against the wisdom and spirit with which Stephen spoke.
* Illustration and commentary: A man is depicted holding a scroll in front of a crowd with a speech balloon saying: "If you look at a few phrases here and there and completely ignore their original context, they totally predict Jesus!" [ [http://www.thebricktestament.com/acts_of_the_apostles/stephen_gets_stoned/ac06_10.html Excerpt from "Stephen Gets Stoned"] ]

Website

The Brick Testament website [ [http://www.thebricktestament.com/ The Brick Testament website] ] began in October 2001. It originally featured six stories from the book of Genesis. The site now contains nearly 200 illustrated stories from both the Old and New Testaments.Fact|date=September 2008 It had an Alexa traffic rank of 53,191 in April 2007.Fact|date=September 2008 Each story is tagged if it contains nudity, sexual content, violence and/or cursing.Fact|date=September 2008

Books

Several hardcover Brick Testament books have been published, "The Brick Testament: Stories from the Book of Genesis", [2003, Quirk Books, ISBN 1-931686-45-9] ["Das 1. Buch L." (German version, ISBN 3-7254-1336-3), "レゴで遊ぶ天地創造ものがたり" (Japanese version, ISBN 4-576-04235-1), "레고로 만나는 창세기: 하나님 처음 지으신 세상" (Korean version, ISBN 89-91290-10-8)] "The Brick Testament: The Story of Christmas", [2004, Quirk Books, ISBN 1-59474-012-7] ["레고로 만나는 예수 탄생: 크리스마스 이야기" (Korean version, ISBN 89-91290-11-6)] and "The Brick Testament: The Ten Commandments". [2005, Quirk Books, ISBN 1-59474-044-5]

Notes and references

External links

General

* [http://www.thebricktestament.com/ The Brick Testament]
* [http://www.thereverend.com/ The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith]
* [http://www.alexa.com/data/details/?url=thebricktestament.com Alexa.com statistics]

News articles

* cite news
url = http://www.thebricktestament.com/press/des_moines_register_05_03_24.html
author = Challender, Mary
date = 2005-03-24
title = Lego toys convert to Bible stories
publisher = Des Moines Register
* cite news
url = http://www.thebricktestament.com/press/philadelphia_inquirer_03_12_11.html
author = Rubin, Daniel
date = 11 December 2003
title = "In the beginning" was a snap.
publisher = Philadelphia Inquirer
* cite news
url = http://www.thebricktestament.com/press/san_jose_mercury_news_03_11_22.html
author = Vo, Kim
date = 2003-11-22
title = The Bible, brick by brick: Genesis stories illustrated in Legos
publisher = San Jose Mercury News