Family Life

04.29.11 | Sarah Harnisch

   It's no secret by this point that this year is the 400th anniversary of the writing of the King James Bible. But Christians around the world are trying something that's never been done before to celebrate the big birthday: they want the entire Bible read in 400 seconds, simultaneously. You can do that when you have different people reading different passages, the Christian Post reports. 
The group YouVersion has challenged people to read the Bible during a six-minute-and-40-second time-frame collectively starting at 12 p.m. Eastern Time on May 2. “We were looking for a way we could celebrate the 400th anniversary, in a way we could engage people in the Bible,” Bobby Grunewald, innovation leader at Lifechurch.tv.
Since the YouVersion announced the project this month, about 700 people signed up to participate within the first two days. “To my understanding it’s the first time that something like this has ever happened in history and so people don’t just want to celebrate the history but be part of the making of history. We believe that at the rate that people are signing up, tens of thousands will sign up and participate.” The developers of YouVersion, one of the fastest growing Bible apps, are encouraging participants to also make videos and take pictures while reading an assigned portion of the KJV Bible and archive it for future generations. Earlier this year, in honor of the King James Bible Celebration, YouVersion and Zondervan gave away free digital copies of the NIV Bible for 400 hours, during which hundreds of thousands of people downloaded the NIV. If you want to check it out, go here.