Over the past several months we have been hard at work improving unfoldingWord® Open Bible Stories! This work has come to a culmination in a newly revised version 8!
Highlights
- Brand new Study Resources! See details below.
- A new integrated PDF for the Translation Notes and associated resources
- Even more simplified English that’s easier for translators
- Several reference and wording corrections
- A few image updates for clarity and consistency
You can also see the specific release notes at Releases - en_obs - Door43 Content Service.
Where to Find It
The English version of unfoldingWord® Open Bible Stories is always available from the main openbiblestories.org website. You can find it listed under “en (English)” on the Library page.
We’ve released the plain text edition as well as the accompanying PDF, DOCX, ODT, ePub, and preview page. We are working on updating the audio and video files to match the changes. We’ll post them as soon as we have them ready.
Updating
If you would like to update an existing translation of Open Bible Stories, see the instructions in the README file here.
Study Resources
We also want to share two brand new resources with you, Study Notes and Study Questions, each of which follow along with the 50 stories.
Study Notes
unfoldingWord® Open Bible Stories Study Notes provides readers of the unfoldingWord® Open Bible Stories with additional information to expand the content of the stories, and to facilitate understanding of the issues and themes presented in them. The notes include historical, cultural, and linguistic information, as well as biblical background and major theological themes. These notes will help both readers and students of the stories to gain a fuller understanding of the bibical truths that the stories present.
Study Questions
unfoldingWord® Open Bible Stories Study Questions provides questions to guide the study of the unfoldingWord® Open Bible Stories by individuals or groups. These questions point out issues and themes in the stories that merit further reflection and consideration. Individuals can use them to gain more insight into the contents of each story, or they can be used with groups of learners to facilitate observation and discussion about the teaching of the stories.
Putting It All Together
Another major feature, as indicated above, is the linkages between OBS and the associated translation and study resources. When you use OBS, you have access to associated world class resources that can help you understand the messages in the stories.
Here is a chart of how the resources link together (more notes about this here):
Using translationStudio will expose these connections to provide helpful information for translators. The Study resources can be accessed by the accompanying PDFs or check them out in our translationCore Study Prototype.
Download OBS Study PDF
Download OBS Translation Helps PDF
Whether your church or group is young or old, you’ll find plenty in OBS and the helps resources to help you on your journey toward full spiritual maturity in Jesus Christ. If you’ve only been using the stories, you should certainly give the Study Notes and Study Questions a try!
As always, it is our sincere prayer that God would use this visual overview of His Word to bless, strengthen, and encourage you.