A Primer on BibleProject: Seeing the Whole Story
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We’ve spent years in conversation with many hundreds of Christian thought leaders, asking them questions. Among these questions is this: What resources have made the biggest difference in your spiritual life? Their answers have been remarkably consistent. This is one of the ten most recommended.
The Bible can feel like a library dropped on your doorstep — sixty-six books, dozens of authors, centuries of history, and no obvious instructions for where to begin. For many readers, the experience is less like reading a story and more like wandering through an unfamiliar city without a map.
BibleProject exists to change that.
A Theologian and a Storyteller Walk Into a Room
In 2014, Tim Mackie and Jon Collins started making short animated videos about the Bible. Mackie, a theologian with a PhD in Hebrew Bible and a gift for making scholarship accessible, brought the depth. Collins, a filmmaker and creative entrepreneur, brought the craft. Together, they set out to do something deceptively simple: help people see the Bible as a single, interconnected story that leads to Jesus.
“Our goal,” Mackie has said, “is to help people see the Bible as a unified narrative that points to Jesus, and to do it in a way that’s engaging and accessible.”
The videos caught fire. What began as a small YouTube channel has grown into one of the most-watched sources of biblical education in the world, with hundreds of millions of views across platforms. The animations — vivid, carefully designed, and surprisingly dense with insight — have become a gateway for everyone from skeptics to seminarians.
“BibleProject is an incredible resource for anyone who wants to dive deeper into the Bible and understand its overarching story.”
Beyond the Videos
The animated explainers remain BibleProject’s signature offering — book overviews that trace each biblical text’s structure and themes, word studies that unpack ancient Hebrew and Greek concepts, and thematic videos that follow ideas like “holiness” or “the image of God” across the entire biblical narrative. But the project has grown far beyond YouTube.
There are reading plans designed to guide users through the whole Bible with study notes and companion videos. There are topical guides and long-form articles for those who want to go deeper. And there is the podcast — hours of unscripted conversation between Mackie and Collins, wrestling with questions of interpretation, theology, and what it means to read an ancient text well.
All of it is free. All of it is designed to serve the same end: helping readers see Scripture not as a collection of disconnected religious texts but as a carefully crafted story with an arc, a purpose, and a destination.
An Invitation to See Differently
Whether you are a lifelong student of Scripture or someone who has always felt intimidated by its complexity, BibleProject offers a rare gift: the chance to see the whole before you study the parts. It will not replace the slow, patient work of reading the text itself. But it may give you eyes to see what you have been missing — and the confidence to keep going.
BibleProject’s videos, podcasts, and reading plans are available for free at bibleproject.com and in their iOS and Android apps.