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Flannelgraphs. Pictographs. Biblegraphs.

I remember when I was younger, before I knew how to write, despite my lack of comprehension of letters and words, I still had stories within me. So what did I do? I wrote with pictures. I’m sure I have some papers buried deep in a box somewhere, but it basically looked like this:

It basically looked like that, except subtract the words. And though there can be confusion about syntax and grammar, for the most part, you can understand a pictograph story. This is how ancient cultures communicated, like the Egyptians with hieroglyphics or Native American civilizations. It’s simple and, for the most part, it works.

I came across a Bible the other day at Half Price Bookstore– it was called The Visual Bible and as I flipped through it, I saw various charts and graphs that explained information simply and imaginatively. But I couldn’t help but wonder: Could you do that with the whole Bible?

I have a couple of ideas connected to this– my ZOIIE art project (still very hush hush) and Flanneled Graphs (not Flannel Graphs, which are used for Bible Stories, but Flanneled Graphs which use Flannel to convey information!). But for now, let’s try this out. Here is the ESV translation of John 1:1-18 written out with pictographs. You can tell the nouns and the verbs, the subjects and the objects, though I admit sometimes words like “for” and “about” are hard to convey. I feel I did a good job, but I’d like you to be the judge!  What do you think? If you can access my Facebook page (or through email), write out a verse or some verses according to the graphs– then compare it to the original!  Was it the same? What made the difference? Was it simply a grammar mistake or did it completely go against the Scriptural truths? Like I said in my post on Absorbians, no image can fully describe God— but we can try our best to use images, words, pictures, stories to describe the indescribable, simply by the grace of God.  So, take some time and explore these BIBLEGRAPHS!