Losing Faith In The Bibliotheca Project

Chance M.·
Culture

Update: 11/7/16

The project has been completed. You can watch Bibliotheca’s latest video update below. The books will ship “Fall 2016.”

Bibliotheca: Finished from Bibliotheca on Vimeo.

From the start, I loved the idea of Bibliotheca. A Bible without chapter and verse divisions; free of distractions that weren’t present in the early manuscripts. It’s just a great idea.

I thought it was so intriguing that I sent the project $25 to secure a New Testament bibliotheca. Little did I know that I would not see a return on that tiny investment for going on two years now. Even though $25 is small and insignificant, it bothers me that I haven’t got what I was promised yet.

The initial round of fundraising for the Bibliotheca project started in June of 2014. The project was quickly funded far beyond its goal. With so many donations pouring in, you’d think that the project’s creator, Adam Lewis Greene, would be able to produce the simple product quickly. That has not been the case.

It’s now February of 2016 and still, no one has received their Bibliotheca yet. It’s now getting to the point where the whole situation is a bit ridiculous. The original ship date was supposed to be sometime before Christmas of 2014. So obviously, the Bibliotheca team is bad at estimating production times.

Backers of the project have received sporadic update emails from Greene, but nothing more. He’s claimed that he’s searching for just the right paper, or the perfect printing company, but all he’s really saying is he wants more time. If you’re a backer of the project, you shouldn’t be expecting your Bible any time soon.

The last public message from Greene was in December where he posted an update to the Kickstarter page. I haven’t received an email update from him or the project since the end of September. I wonder if the finished product will be worth the wait, it’s hard to imagine that it will be.

The new ship date is “second quarter” 2016. Based on the project’s history, it’s doubtful that they’ll be able to deliver the product by then.

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Bibliotheca Kickstarter from Good. Honest. on Vimeo.

 

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Chance M.
Founder

Founder of Oatboat. Huge fan of Hazy IPAs, Cycling, Chipotle, and Good Music.

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  1. Well, Chance, despite the frustration I hope you gave him a chance, ultimately, because the project just finished: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/530877925/bibliotheca/posts/1726911

    In the grand scheme of things, whether it was worth it or not will lie only in the end product. In 30, 40, or 50 years from now, if it is still remembered and used, few will know how long it took or the difficulties involved. But I will try not to be glib since I wasn’t one of the backers. I will tell you though that, though I didn’t donate money toward it I had to wait a decade for the Patterns of Evidence documentary to come out: https://www.amazon.com/Patterns-Evidence-Kevin-Sorbo-narrator/dp/B00Z9HS7TU . And I remember – as perhaps few do – early clips (which thankfully I downloaded then, since they are non-existent on the internet anymore) which were released that never made it into the video, and even remember it being called “The Exodus Conspiracy” originally. He interviewed Benjamin Netanyahu, several archaeologists, scholars, apologists, and others, but year after year it never materialized. We maybe got one update a year if that (it went dark for 1.5 years at one point).

    The filmmaker realized his approach to investigating the Exodus was skewed and he had to completely reinvent the project after spending years on it, and take it in a new direction. But TEN years! So I can understand the frustration of waiting. But I literally gave up hope on that project after three or four years. I was actually shocked when it came out.

    I don’t think that 2 years for a Bible project, especially since (if I understood the May update correctly) a panel of scholars was assembled from some prominent seminaries to provide an updated translation from the ASV. And did I read the May 2015 update correctly that it includes the Apocrypha? I’m not sure, but it certainly sounds like a major undertaking which one would expect to take time. Most new Bible translations take at least that long. Anyway, sorry for your frustration but I think the guy deserves a chance and a little mercy.

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  2. Sorry for the incomplete thought above. I meant to say that I don’t think that 2 years for a Bible project is that long, all things considered. If it didn’t involve a new translation I would agree that it should have come out sooner though. There is a verseless ASV which was released in 2011 which you can google for that I own. It is nice for an ASV, though you must deal with its 19th century English, though it is massive and unwieldy.

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    1. Josh,

      I understand that any Bible project takes time, especially retranslations (which Bibliotheca is not). I don’t consider modernizing some of the old english vocabulary to be an actual retranslation, maybe I’m wrong. Also, the more well funded a project, the faster it should be completed. And Bibliotheca was of course very well funded.

      But what bothered me is not that I didn’t get instant gratification from my tiny donation, it was the fact that Adam kept setting unrealistic delivery dates. I expect when someone in charge of a project like this sets an estimated delivery date, that the product will be delivered by then or at least somewhere in the neighborhood. In Bibliotheca’s case, the product is (supposedly) going to be delivered 2 years after the original delivery estimate. That’s not even close.

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