Tweeting the Bible

Chris Juby, from Durham, is condensing one Bible chapter per day into less than 140 characters - the maximum allowed for a single entry on social networking website Twitter.

With the Bible containing 1,189 chapters, the project will take the 30-year-old more than three years to complete, with his last entry due on November 8, 2013.

Mr Juby began with Genesis chapter one on Sunday, August 8, reaching Genesis chapter five on Thursday, and his Twitter account, titled Bible Summary, has already attracted 72 followers.

Mr Juby said: "It’s my normal habit to ready a chapter of the Bible each morning and I always read through from Genesis to Revelation.

"As I was coming to the end last time, I thought I needed a way of focusing my mind a little bit more on what I was reading.

"I thought a summary would be a good way of doing this and I already use Twitter, so I thought I’d share my summaries."

Mr Juby’s Twitter Bible follows publication of versions such as the 100-minute Bible, the SMS text message Bible and the Geordie Bible.

He said: "I’m really excited about the project.

"The Bible underpins so much of our culture. People like Shakespeare and Dickens made casual references to what we would now regard as obscure passages of scripture.

"But people - even Christians - don’t tend to read the whole Bible. It’s perhaps regarded as a bit of an oddball thing to do.

"I hope in doing the summary, it will inspire people to read the Bible for themselves. My summaries are no substitute for the real thing."

Mr Juby’s tweet of Genesis chapter one reads: "God created the heavens, the earth and everything that lives. He made humankind in his image, and gave them charge over the earth."

Mr Juby, of Neville Terrace, Durham, is director of worship at King’s Church, Durham. He also tweets about his life and music.

His Twitter Bible Summary can be found at: twitter.com/biblesummary An archive of his tweets can be found at: biblesummary.info