How to Read the Bible (Tim Mackie and Jon Collins, The Bible Project)

This is not a normal episode. There's two guests, not one. Tim Mackie and Jon Collins, and they're the founders of the BibleProject, a YouTube channel with more than half a billion views. It is entirely devoted to teaching people how to read just one book. I think that book happens to be the most influential book in the history of western civilization. The beginning of this interview is about how they make these videos. They're so good, how they're researched, how they're written, how they're animated. Then we got into the deeper stuff, and I think you're going to like it whether you're religious or not. Questions like, how should you read the Bible? And what can we learn about all the different writing styles in scripture? Stories, songs, poetry, proverbs, parables, all those things.

00:00:00 Intro
00:00:45 How Do You Write a Bible Story?
00:07:48 Visuals That Unlock Creative Ideas
00:09:37 The Illusion of Knowing vs. Trust
00:14:53 Making Videos About Divine Mystery
00:19:48 The Visual Parallelism of Scripture
00:25:31 What Makes an Ideal Bible Reader?
00:31:42 When the Bible Finally "Clicked"
00:35:46 The Tree of Knowing Good and Bad
00:39:56 Why Words Have Power in Scripture
00:43:50 How Metaphor Shapes Everything We Understand
00:49:53 The Bible as Window and Mirror
00:53:40 Paul's Frustrating Writing Style
00:58:34 Who Are the Bible's Most Compelling Authors?
01:04:35 Writing Scripts That Feel Like Conversation
01:09:22 Are Humans Actually Co-Creators with God?
01:12:11 How the Bible Transformed English Language
01:18:18 Comparing the Four Gospel Writers
01:25:55 Speaking Bible Is Like Rearranging Lego Blocks

Hey! I’m David Perell and I’m a writer, teacher, and podcaster. I believe writing online is one of the biggest opportunities in the world today. For the first time in human history, everybody can freely share their ideas with a global audience. I seek to help as many people publish their writing online as possible.

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