Innovative application helps to study Tanach

“The Bible is the strongest brand in the world,” he said. “There are more than 1.8 billion people who read the Bible each week.” Sela is chairman of the Council for Promoting the Israeli Heritage Values, the organization developing the app.

One highlighted feature of the app allows for users to tap on the name of a specific location, which brings up information capsules, including contemporary pictures taken at the location, contemporary happenings in the area and explanations that aid in further reading of the Tanach. “We took the amazing and wonderful content of the Bible and made it accessible in an innovative and pioneering way that adapts it to the technological age that we now live in,” Sela said.

The app is still being developed, but users can receive capsules every few days via email as they get added to the collection. The process of creating these information capsules began with volunteer researchers scanning in the chapters of all 24 books of the Tanach. Chapters were then broken down into four subjects: places, customs, objects and events.Currently, an extensive effort is being made to locate all 1,100 of the places mentioned in the Tanach.

Professional teams are sent to take photographs of the sites or of objects, customs and events also mentioned in the Tanach.Following the completion of the first set group of information capsules, the project was launched online for free.

“We estimate that it will take us another five to six years to complete this enormous project,” Sela said. “But knowing the importance of this mission encourages us to continue working on this unique biblical experience. ”The text is in Hebrew, but the organization hopes to translate the information into English and other languages.

Celia Jean