The Brick Testament
Encyclopedia
The Brick Testament is a project created by Brendan Powell Smith in which Bible
stories are illustrated using still photographs of dioramas constructed entirely out of Lego
bricks. The project began as a website
in October 2001 that featured six stories from the book of Genesis, and is completely unaffiliated with the LEGO Company. There is also a Brick Testament book series.
Throughout stories are retold using passages from the Bible, with chapter and verse cited, the wording being a free adaptation that Smith says is based on a number of public domain Bible translations. Occasionally, mostly when images are being used to contrast with the underlying scripture, Smith dramatises the images with his own additional text. Such text is displayed in gray instead of the usual black.
Gets Stoned" which he bases on the New Testament
book, the Acts of the Apostles
, chapters 6-7. The scripture verse is cited directly beneath the illustration and commentary:
Based on a Rolling Stone article that is included as a link in the Brick Testament web site, Brendan Powell Smith is an atheist.
collection. The pieces come from hundreds of Lego sets dating from the 1960s to the present.
In the few instances where alterations are made to Lego elements, they are generally simple changes made with a hobby knife or permanent ink marker. An example alteration is God's hair: Smith made God's white hair by carving a white helmet piece (found on Peeron). The only completely non-Lego part of Smith's scenes is the background sky.
All of Smith's images are digital. Smith photographed early scenes with a Nikon Coolpix 950. He currently uses a Nikon Coolpix 4500. After photographing the scenes, he adds speech balloon
s and sometimes makes alterations using image editing software.
and New
Testaments, and over 4,500 images. It had an Alexa
traffic rank of 53,191 in April 2007. Each story is tagged if it contains nudity, sexual content, violence and/or cursing.
Brick Testament books have been published, The Brick Testament: Stories from the Book of Genesis, The Brick Testament: The Story of Christmas, , The Brick Testament: The Ten Commandments., and The Brick Bible: A New Spin on the Old Testament. The US retailer Sam's Club
withdrew The Brick Bible from sale in November 2011, "due to the complaints of a handful of people that it is vulgar and violent".
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
stories are illustrated using still photographs of dioramas constructed entirely out of Lego
Lego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
bricks. The project began as a website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
in October 2001 that featured six stories from the book of Genesis, and is completely unaffiliated with the LEGO Company. There is also a Brick Testament book series.
Throughout stories are retold using passages from the Bible, with chapter and verse cited, the wording being a free adaptation that Smith says is based on a number of public domain Bible translations. Occasionally, mostly when images are being used to contrast with the underlying scripture, Smith dramatises the images with his own additional text. Such text is displayed in gray instead of the usual black.
Authorial commentary
Smith's own commentary occasionally appears in illustrations and is displayed in gray text, and also as original titles for the stories themselves. For example, Smith presents a story titled, "StephenSaint Stephen
Saint Stephen The Protomartyr , the protomartyr of Christianity, is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Churches....
Gets Stoned" which he bases on the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
book, the Acts of the Apostles
Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...
, chapters 6-7. The scripture verse is cited directly beneath the illustration and commentary:
- Scripture: Acts 6:10 But they were unable to stand against the wisdom and spirit with which StephenSaint StephenSaint Stephen The Protomartyr , the protomartyr of Christianity, is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Churches....
spoke. - Illustration and commentary: A man is depicted holding a scroll in front of a crowd with a speech balloon saying: If you look at a few phrases here and there and completely ignore their original context, they totally predict Jesus!
Based on a Rolling Stone article that is included as a link in the Brick Testament web site, Brendan Powell Smith is an atheist.
Lego techniques
The dioramas seen in The Brick Testament are created from Smith's personal LegoLego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
collection. The pieces come from hundreds of Lego sets dating from the 1960s to the present.
In the few instances where alterations are made to Lego elements, they are generally simple changes made with a hobby knife or permanent ink marker. An example alteration is God's hair: Smith made God's white hair by carving a white helmet piece (found on Peeron). The only completely non-Lego part of Smith's scenes is the background sky.
All of Smith's images are digital. Smith photographed early scenes with a Nikon Coolpix 950. He currently uses a Nikon Coolpix 4500. After photographing the scenes, he adds speech balloon
Speech balloon
Speech balloons are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comic strips and cartoons to allow words to be understood as representing the speech or thoughts of a given character in the comic...
s and sometimes makes alterations using image editing software.
Website
The Brick Testament website began in October 2001. It originally featured six stories from the book of Genesis. The site now contains over 400 illustrated stories, from both the OldOld Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
and New
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
Testaments, and over 4,500 images. It had an Alexa
Alexa Internet
Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is known for its toolbar and Web site. Once installed, the toolbar collects data on browsing behavior which is transmitted to the Web site where it is stored and analyzed and is the basis for the company's Web traffic...
traffic rank of 53,191 in April 2007. Each story is tagged if it contains nudity, sexual content, violence and/or cursing.
Books
Several hardcoverHardcover
A hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...
Brick Testament books have been published, The Brick Testament: Stories from the Book of Genesis, The Brick Testament: The Story of Christmas, , The Brick Testament: The Ten Commandments., and The Brick Bible: A New Spin on the Old Testament. The US retailer Sam's Club
Sam's Club
Sam's Club is a chain of membership-only retail warehouse clubs owned and operated by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., founded in 1983 and named after Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. , the Sam's Club chain serves more than 47 million U.S. members...
withdrew The Brick Bible from sale in November 2011, "due to the complaints of a handful of people that it is vulgar and violent".