This is the final part of a short series of interviews with people who have summarised the Bible on Twitter. Here I'm answering my own questions. I also interviewed:

• Jana Riess of #Twible
• Kent West of @140Bible
• Nathaniel Jones of @140Bible

Chris Juby finished his Bible Summary project in November 2013.

Firstly, what's your day job?

I'm director of worship at King's Church Durham, and a freelance web developer.

Why did you decide to summarise the Bible on Twitter?

I was looking for a way to pay more attention in daily Bible reading. I thought writing chapter summaries would help. Then I thought it would be fun to post the summaries to Twitter.

How would you describe your style?

As neutral as possible. I tried not to go beyond what was actually in the text. I wanted people to be able to hear the tone of the chapter in the summary. In fact I often ended up using direct quotes from the chapters. (That said, it's interesting to see what I've emphasised and what I've missed when I go back to the original chapters.)

Did you prepare the summaries in advance?

At first I read ahead quite a bit. With the earlier books it was tricky to know which characters and events needed an introduction. But as I got into my groove, and as my family life got busier after having a baby and then another, I tended to simply read and summarise one day at a time.

Did you ever miss a day?

No! I wasn't expecting to be so consistent when I started, but as I gained more followers I became determined not to miss a day. I ended up tweeting on holidays, Christmas Days, wedding anniversaries, and even on the days each of my sons were born. I owe a great deal to the patience and support of my wife!

Did you ever feel like giving up?

I don't think I ever seriously considered giving up, but I definitely had some miserable times. I think 2 Kings was the low. Repetitive and relentlessly depressing. And it seems I wasn't the only one who felt that way. That stretch was the only time that the project consistently lost Twitter followers.

Which was the hardest book, and why?

2 Kings, no question. People often find Leviticus the hardest, but I actually quite like it. 2 Kings is just endless records of terrible kings, and the finish line is no comfort because 1 and 2 Chronicles are more of the same.

Which was your favourite book, and why?

Wow, so many options! I really enjoyed all the Wisdom books. I've always had a soft spot for those anyway. I thought I would enjoy summarising the Gospels more than I did. I think Romans had the biggest impact on me. Trying to do justice to such rich chapters in so few characters forced me to get to grips with Paul's ideas in a much deeper way. I'm very pleased with my Romans summaries.

How has summarising the Bible affected your faith?

Summarising the Bible kept me in a rhythm of engagement with God through some pretty crazy years for me personally. I saw some huge new themes in Scripture as I read, and I was forced to properly wrestle with all my least favourite sections. I would be much worse off if I hadn't done it.

How much have you read the Bible since you finished?

It's been much harder than I thought! I decided not to just start back at the beginning, and I've actually struggled to find a new rhythm. I read the Bible in some form most days, but it was all too easy to drop the habit of starting every day with a whole chapter.

What's your next project?

I have several Bible Summary offshoots on the go. I'm partnering with Bible Gateway to retweet the whole project, and I'm working on two different book projects. Beyond Bible Summary, I'm recording an EP of worship songs that I've written, which I'm very excited about.

How can we get hold of your complete summary?

You can view the full archive for free at www.biblesummary.info and you can buy it for Kindle via Amazon.

This is part of a short series of interviews with people who have summarised the Bible on Twitter. I'll ask each person the same set of questions.

Kent West was another contributor to @140bible. I posted Nathaniel Jones' responses yesterday, which Kent was commenting on as he answered.

Why did you decide to summarise the Bible on Twitter?

As I recall it, Chris and Nathaniel started the project, and recruited me shortly thereafter.

Did you prepare the summaries in advance?

Oftentimes I'd read a chapter in preparation to summarize it, and would then start to read the next to see how it related, and discovered that the story was bigger than just the one chapter, so I'd have to read three, four, seven chapters to get the overall view, at which time I would then summarize each of the pieces in one sitting while the big story was fresh on my brain. Sometimes I would have already created a tweet for that initial chapter, only to realize I needed to scrap it and start over after realizing the next few chapters changed the significance of that initial chapter.

Occasionally, I'd read a chapter and realize it continued the story from the day before, which day's tweet didn't quite relate to that story, and would then have to figure out how to word today's tweet in such a way as to re-steer the previous day's tweet into the story.

As a general rule, we'd email each other our prepared tweets, so that if anything seemed glaring we could suggest corrections. Seldom were corrections needed, but this method allowed us to know that someone had prepared the tweet for the day, and kept us all in the loop prior to the tweets going out.

Did you ever miss a day?

Sometimes it was human failure; there were a few times when I just missed a day. But we'd do two the next, to make up for it.

It really helped to have multiple people working on it. Although it was very rewarding, it was a chore to get a chapter tweeted every day.

Which was the hardest book, and why?

I honestly don't remember. I remember a few times when I was frustrated that a chapter had *so* much information that simply couldn't be fit into <140 characters (a few characters were "lost", of course, for providing the passage reference).

Which was your favourite, and why?

I don't recall having a favorite. I do recall being surprised a few times at what the text said, either because I didn't know that message was in there, or I thought the text said something different than what I discovered it to say, or occasionally because of the sheer shock value of the text (a pornographic chapter of Ezekiel comes to mind).

I think more than having a favorite book, I had a favorite experience: seeing a bigger story as it spans several chapters, a story which I had never seen before. I now better realize that our modern-day divisions into chapters and verses, although valuable in many ways, has done damage to our Biblical understandings.

What kind of responses have people have to your project?

We had a little write-up in the local news, which we had hoped would increase our readership considerably, but we never quite seemed to gain traction with any significant following.

Sometimes I would follow-up on Facebook (we had it set so that the tweets were echoed to our FB page) with further commentary on the chapters. I wanted to do that with many of the chapters, but I just couldn't keep up. I was hoping it would spur additional conversation on FB, but I don't recall it ever doing so.

I suspect the preparation of the tweets did far more for us three who prepared them than the reading of the summaries did for our followers.

I know that even amongst us, if I hadn't prepared the tweet, when I read the tweet by Nathaniel or Chris (or occasionally a guest-tweeter, like Chris' wife), I'd find that it didn't really resonate with me unless I had read the chapter myself. From the beginning, we encouraged our followers to compare our tweets with how they would summarize the chapter, but unless they actually read the chapters themselves, I suspect their reading of our tweets was little more than a taste of ice cream on a Spring day (as compared to us who had read the chapter, and who were thus getting the whole ice cream cone on a sweltering Summer day).

How has summarising the Bible affected your faith?

I think the biggest effect for me has been to realize the Bible probably doesn't say what you've thought all your life it says. When you read the Bible for what it actually says instead of to prove a point you've believed all your life, you get amazed at how we've sometimes twisted the Scriptures to make it say what it doesn't say, or to miss what it does say.

How much have you read the Bible since you finished?

Like Nathaniel, I find that I'm not reading it as much as I was. I have a "rule" to read at least one chapter a day, but since finishing the project, I find that I break that rule a lot, mostly because Life has gotten so full of other ... cruft.

I agree with Nathaniel, having the responsibility to get the tweets out every day really forced me to get into the text.

How can we get hold of your complete summary?

I've thought of a simple "Chapter a Day" booklet, like those coffee-table books that have a nice thought per day. A 3-year+ calendar might also be a good thing to put together, although I don't know how practical a 3-year+ calendar might be for most people.

This is part of a short series of interviews with people who have summarised the Bible on Twitter. I'll ask each person the same set of questions.

Nathaniel Jones was part of a three-man team summarising the Bible at @140bible.

Firstly, who are you and what's your day job?

The 140Bible Project was hatched at Abilene Christian University by 3 of us in the Technology Support department. Chris Rhodes, Kent West and myself, Nathaniel Jones, decided to commit to starting and completing the project. Two of us, Chris and I, moved away from Abilene during the 3 year project. Chris is now pursuing a medical degree in Fort Worth. I am working in Baylor University Law school's IT department.

Why did you decide to summarise the Bible on Twitter?

We were discussing the various Twitter ideas people were trying in 2010 such as condensing the Declaration of Independence into a single tweet. Chris and I decided we should do the Bible one chapter at a time. We quickly recruited Kent to join us. 

How would you describe your style? 

We each have a bit of a different "voice" that would probably be obvious if one looked closely. I tended to shy away from abbreviating names I'd rather say "Joseph" rather than "Joe." Kent was always the best at finding ways to shorten everything to make as much as possible of the chapter fit. We wrote individually and usually did very minimal editing of each other's tweets. 

Did you prepare the summaries in advance?

It varied again by person. Chris and I were more likely to write one a day while Kent preferred to do several chapters at a time. We used gremln.com to queue and send the tweets on schedule. 

Did you ever miss a day?

We did miss days either due to miscommunication or software failure. To get back on-track we would release multiple tweets in one day. I've not actually checked, but I think we finished within a day or 2 of our scheduled end date. I'll also say that having you and others doing similar projects served to motivate me. I wanted us to be the first to finish.

Which was the hardest book, and why?

I'd say Psalms and Proverbs were the most difficult. Poetry is extremely difficult to summarize for obvious reasons. We usually just tried to get a few main points and then called it good. 

Which was your favourite, and why?

I'm not sure I had a favorite. I think I enjoyed the Old Testament history books the best. There is so much in them but since they are telling a story, it's much easier to condense the main points. 

What kind of responses have people have to your project?

Most people have been encouraging. I think most people had no idea what to make of it. My main hope was that we would make God's story a little more accessible and encourage people to look deeper into God's word. 

How has summarising the Bible affected your faith?

This 3 year process certainly helped me better understand the Bible and showed God's plan more plainly 

How much have you read the Bible since you finished?

To tell the truth, I've actually not read as much as I did during the project. It's always been a struggle to make time for it. Doing the project forced me to read even if I didn't feel I had time. I felt a heavy burden to keep the project on schedule and knew that if I let up I'd have a hard time getting going again.

What's your next project?

At this point I'm still enjoying not putting out a daily tweet. Doing something like this everyday can be very difficult. I was fortunate to have a team working with me. My hat's off to the person who does it solo. [Thanks!]

How can we get hold of your complete summary?

We are still in planning stages on how to make it available. We have considered making a Bible study/class curriculum or perhaps something for Bible bowl study. I'd be interested to hear what ideas your readers might have.

Thanks for inviting us to respond. If your readers want to get an example of our product, check out facebook.com/140bible or @140bible When we have any news, we'll use Twitter and Facebook.

This is the first in a short series of interviews with people who have summarised the Bible on Twitter. I'll ask each person the same set of questions.

Jana Riess began her #Twible project in October 2009 and finished six months ago.

Firstly, what's your day job?

For most of the time I was tweeting the Bible I worked as an editor at a publishing house, but now I am freelancing full-time. Most of my clients are religion publishers or authors who are writing religion books.

Why did you decide to summarise the Bible on Twitter?

I had tried several times to read the Bible straight through from cover to cover, with no success. I generally gave up around Leviticus. So one reason was just to see if I could make it all the way through the text if I read it out loud, as it were, in community, and if I made it funny. Another reason was that I’d been impressed by the creative ways other people were using Twitter, sometimes to teach a class or to write a novel.

How would you describe your style?

I think you Brits would call it “cheeky.” My sense of humor has been influenced by Buffy, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, Dr. Who and The Onion, if that gives you a sense of the tone. So The Twible is primarily entertainment, looking at the lighter side of the Bible. If people are also learning, and going back to the original source, that’s fantastic.

Here are a few examples:

• Genesis 17: Abram now Abraham. G was clearly not thinking ahead about the Twitter character count. Name longer; foreskin snipped. A tradeoff.
• Ecclesiastes 3: To everything (turn, turn, turn) there is a season (turn, turn, turn). Except for orange plaid. There is absolutely NO season for that.
• Jeremiah 47: G says the day has come to annihilate all Philistines. This is fair punishment for never learning to appreciate opera.
• Luke 2: “Ma’am, the rooms are full at Bethlehem Inn, but there’s a rustic barn out back that is quite charming. And the hay is complimentary.”

Did you prepare the summaries in advance?

Yes, to varying degrees. In the beginning I was so well organized that I was working at least two months ahead of my schedule for tweeting. Toward the end there it was more like two weeks ahead.

Did you ever miss a day?

I missed a couple of days here and there by accident when I had prepared a tweet but failed to upload it properly using the automatic social media platform I’d chosen (first YouSendIt, now HootSuite).

And at one point in late 2012 I had to take a hiatus for several months, when my mom became very ill and then passed away. My heart was broken. So it took me longer than I had planned.

Did you ever feel like giving up?

Oh yes. Several times. Especially toward the beginning—Leviticus again!—when there weren’t many people following the project alongside me, I often wondered what craziness had resulted in my deciding to do this. But gradually more people began to hear about the project, which helped, and tell their friends. And as I settled into a pattern of research that I found very stimulating, tweeting the Bible just became a regular part of my own life, intellectually and spiritually. I learned a ton of things about the Bible that I didn’t know.

Which was the hardest book, and why?

Well, the most violent sections of the Bible, such as Joshua, Judges, Numbers, Nahum, and the Psalms of imprecation, were tough to tweet with a lighthearted sensibility. But sometimes we can use humor to reveal the things that are dark and disturbing, to bring them into the open, so I tried to do that.

Weirdly, though, the hardest book to tweet was my all-time favorite book of the Bible: the Psalms. I love the Psalms, so I was looking forward to writing about them. But what I enjoy most about them—the gorgeous poetry—was awfully hard to convey in just 140 characters, and it also turns out that there’s a lot of repetition in the Psalter.

Which was your favourite book, and why?

Oddly, my favorite book to tweet was Job, which is often regarded as one of the saddest parts of the Bible. But unlike almost any other book in the Bible, it has a narrative arc focused on a single person’s experience, which makes it much easier to help the reader track the story.

As well, the themes of Job are so timeless and resonant for anyone who has ever been in pain, anyone who has ever wondered where God might be hiding in the midst of our struggles. I was working through Job while a family member was in the hospital, and I found its relentless questions comforting, because they were my questions too.

How has summarising the Bible affected your faith?

I have so much more admiration for the people of the Bible than I did before—not because they were heroes, but precisely because they were not. So many sins, so much tragedy—yet God managed to use these people to do His work in the world. I wonder sometimes if the reason we often wrongly place the biblical figures on a pedestal is that we suspect that if we emphasized their human frailty, we’d realize that we have no excuse not to partner with God in challenging ways ourselves. And most of us really don’t want to take that risk of upending our lives for God. It’s much easier to imagine that the biblical characters were saints, wholly Other.

How much have you read the Bible since you finished?

A lot, actually, because I had to revise everything and add sidebars to get the project to work as a cohesive book. But now that the Twible book has just released, I’m afraid I’m sliding back into the more haphazard ways I had of reading the Bible before 2009. I need to be more disciplined.

What's your next project?

I’m working on a devotional now, a companion volume to Flunking Sainthood called Flunking Sainthood Every Day. It’s filled with great quotes from some of my favorite spirituality writers, like Madeleine L’Engle, Kathleen Norris, Thomas Merton, Richard Foster, and others.

How can we get hold of your complete summary?

The book released on November 8 and can be purchased at Amazon in the US and the UK. Here is a link.