Raising Lazarus!

The latest Bible story to be illustrated is 'The raising of Lazarus', (John ch11).
The story includes 8 pictures, and is available either as a Powerpoint,
or in A3 Poster format.
In picture 3, you can see the actual town of Bethany in the background. I used an early engraving for reference.

Indications are that Mary, Martha and Lazarus were reasonably wealthy. For instance, we read that Lazarus was buried in a tomb. Most burials at that time were in 'Shaft' graves, which were 6' deep x 20" wide. Tombs were reserved for the wealthy.
We also read in ch-12 how Mary used very costly oil of spikenard, (worth 300 denarii), to anoint the feet of Jesus.

Picture 5 shows Martha telling Mary that the Lord wanted to see her. This story is taking place during the 'Shiv-ah' period, (the Jewish week long period of grief and mourning for close relatives). Mary is in the 'house of mourning'. Those who have gathered to pay their respects, and comfort the two sisters are seated either on the ground or on low stools, as was the custom. The normal chairs being upturned.

Those present have torn their clothes on the right side. The left side, (over the heart), being reserved for the loss of a parent.

In pictures 7 and 8 you can see the freshly whitened tomb of Lazarus.
Edersheim tells us that a mixture of chalk and water was used to whiten sepulchers. This process had to be repeated over time, as rain water would wash the chalk away.
In picture 8, the chalky mixture can be clearly seen on the clothes and hands of those who moved the stone. (see picture).

The story of Lazarus brings our total Bible picture count to 664!

Posts on other Bible stories
Blind Bartimaeus
The Rich Young Rular
Zacchaeus
Crucifixion part 1
Crucifixion part 2
On the road to Emmaus
The Nativity
Woman taken in Adultery

Writing in the sand!

The latest Bible picture story to be added is the 'Woman caught in the act of adultery' (John 8). If you need pictures of this story, click here. The story takes place in one of the sandy floored courts adjoining the main Temple. I presume that the flooring was sand, as the Lord Jesus stooped down to write in it, and what He wrote could clearly be read by those who stood around. According to Jewish law, it was unlawful to write even two letters on the sabbath day, but it was acceptable to write in dust! (shabbat 7:2, 12:5)

There's been lots of speculation as to what the Lord Jesus wrote in the sand that day. Some suggest that it was a list of sins, others suggest that it was a list of the names of those stood around. I often wonder if it was something like, "This is a list of the sins committed by......", and then He stopped writing and waited for someone to cast the first stone.... no one dared! For whatever reason, the Bible does not record what was actually written.

In picture 2 the pharisees are pointing with the finger of their left hand, (The hand with the phylactery strapped to it!) emphasizing their confidence that the full weight of the Law supported their accusations. In fact, the Law stated that both the woman, and the man should be stoned, but where was the man?

In picture 3 you can see the accusers starting to leave, beginning with the eldest first. The older we get, the more honest we should become about our sinfulness before God.

This story contains 5 pictures and brings the total picture count to 656!

Posts on other Bible stories
Blind Bartimaeus
The Rich Young Rular
Zacchaeus
Crucifixion part 1
Crucifixion part 2
On the road to Emmaus
The Nativity
Raising Lazarus

Bible pictures on the net!

Searching for Bible pictures on the internet can be very frustrating!
When you search Google for 'Bible pictures', it's possible to get to page 80, and still not find what you're looking for! In fact, by the time you get to page 80, you won't find anything biblical at all!

Google is apparently working on 'new search technology' that will only show 'very relevant' web pages that match the search term used. in other words, when you search for 'Bible pictures', you will get a list of sites that actually have Bible pictures! Isn't that what's supposed to happen? Anyway, for those of you who can't wait for Googles new technology to arrive, and for those of you who still haven't found 'The Bible picture website', read on!

Older collections
There are a few sites out there that do contain Bible pictures. These can range from nineteenth century engravings by Gustave Dore, to Flash-cards produced in the sixties! Good as these pictures are, it's very difficult to hold the attention of todays 'Cartoon Network' loving children, (whose attention span has been reduced to two seconds), with black & white engravings by Gustave Dore!
The Bible picture website produces 'new artwork' with todays kids in mind.

Continuity
Many sites boast 'large collections' of Bible pictures which are usually scans taken from old Bible story books, children's Bibles or very old paintings.
Again these are very good, but there's a problem with continuity, as most of the stories are made up from pictures done by several artists, which means that the main character, whether it be Moses or Jesus, can change several times during one story! The Bible picture website uses one artist per story!

Private collections
Many children's workers know an amateur or semi professional artist who produces Bible pictures for them. Some of these collections are starting to appear on the web. The only problem here is that because the artist, more often than not, has produced the pictures as a favor, or at very low cost. they tend not to have the time to do the proper research required for each story. When I was a professional illustrator producing Bible pictures in my spare time, I had the same problem.

I've added a list of all the Bible picture resource sites that I can find on the web. It's at the bottom of the right hand column. If I find any more, I'll add them too!

Related posts:
Need Bible pictures?
How to use our Bible pictures
Can you help?

Feeding the 5,000

For those of you who think that the 'picture counter' on the right has been stuck on 641, It's not!
It's just that I've been illustrating the 'feeding of the 5,000' in John ch 6, and it's taken longer than usual.

If you need pictures of the 'Feeding of the 5,000 story', click here.

To start with, I wanted to get the scenery reasonably accurate, so I started by looking at maps and photos of the area as well as studying old paintings and wood engravings that were actually done in the Holy land.
The supposed area where this event took place is known today as the 'Golan Heights'

In picture one, you are looking from the high ground, westward across the sea of Galilee. On the opposite shore, some 5 miles away, you can see Capernaum, where the Lord Jesus travelled to the following day.
In pictures three, and four, you are looking northwest, and the River Jordan can be seen in the distance, close to where it flows into the Sea of Galilee near Bethsaida.
If you look at a contoured map of the area, you will see that the slopes rise gently from the Sea of Galilee at this point. This was a large area of grassland, (v10) making it ideal for grazing.

I have drawn both sheep and lambs amongst the crowds, as this was at the time of 'Passover', so there would have been lambs in abundance. In picture four, I show a small child sat with a lamb at her side, like a pet. This is a reminder of how jewish families at 'Passover' were to take the lamb into their home, on the 10th of Nisan, 4 days before it was sacrificed. I'm sure that any children in the family would have grown attached to the lamb during this time, making the eventual slaughter of the animal that much more painful! A stark reminder to them of both the consequences of sin, and how their ancestors were saved only by the shedding of the blood of an innocent lamb!

When I was drawing the crowds of people, I started to think about the logistics of how the food would have been distributed. There could well have been over 10,000 people present as the 5,000 mentioned didn't include the women and children.
Whenever there are plates of biscuits to be given out at our church following a family service, you can guarantee that all the volunteers for the job are the children! I would imagine that children were the same then. So in picture four, I show, alongside the disciples, eager children distributing the baskets of bread and fish.

For more about the Sea of Galilee, click here.

Pictures of the Nativity

If you are looking for pictures of the 'Nativity', click on one of the links below:

New pictures of the Nativity: Part one.
New pictures of the Nativity: Part two.
Christmas Jigsaw Powerpoint.
Wisemen powerpoint.
Nativity powerpoint.
Nativity in 3D powerpoint.

As I write this post it's early December, so I thought I'd add a post with a Christmas theme! below are a few interesting facts and thoughts about the 'Christmas story' that might be helpful to all you Bible illustrators, or maybe those preparing a Christmas sermon.

Why Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh?
Gold was a royal gift given to kings, or in this case the 'King of Kings'.
Frankincense was used by priests, reminding us that the Lord Jesus was to become our 'Great High Priest'. Like Melchisedic, He was to be both a Priest and king.
Myrrh was an embalming spice used in the burial of the dead, reminding us that Jesus came for a purpose, to die as a 'sacrificial lamb' for the sins of the world.

Mary
Most modern scholars agree that Mary was only around 14 years old when she gave birth to the Lord Jesus. This would have made her around 47 years old at the time of the crucifixion. Both the 'Jesus of Nazareth' series, and the new film, 'The Nativity Story' , correctly show Mary as a young teen.

Swaddling clothes
This was an eastern custom whereby a baby was bound with long strips of cloth, in the same manner as an Egyptian mummy! The arms and legs of a baby bound in this way were quite rigid!
Strips of cloth were also wrapped across the babies chin and forehead, so that only his face could be seen.

We three kings?
Actually, the wise men were not kings, and there were probably more than three of them!
Some experts believe they were of Persian origin.The wise men were members of the 'Magi' which was an ancient religious order that worshiped the elements, (fire, water, air etc). It is possible that the wise men attributed deity to the star which they were following. If this is true, this would not be the first time that God used a lifeless object of worship to point men back to Himself! I'm thinking of the image of Dagon that fell prostrate before the Ark of the Lord. (1st Samuel ch5).

Bethlehem star
I once read an article in the 'Readers Digest' by the famous Astronomer Patrick Moore, concerning 'The Star of Bethlehem'. He studied each Bible verse that mentioned the star, and compared them with the very latest information we have about the stars, to see if the behavior of this star could be explained.
The interesting thing was that even though there are only a few verses that mention the star, these few verses showed that this star behaved like no other!
He concluded the article with the words, " The Star of Bethlehem remains a mystery!"

Related posts:
New pictures of the Nativity
Nazareth or Egypt?
Drawing Angels

Need Bible pictures?

Don't forget to check out the 'Bible picture site'
We now have a new domain name 'www.biblepicturewebsite.com'. This will be the web address of our 'new U.S. site' based in Philadelphia. This site will be in U.S. dollars and should provide an even better service to all our customers in the U.S. At the moment this address will connect to the main 'Visual Impact Resources' site, until the new site is complete.

We have already completed over 100 stories from the Old and New Testaments! They include over 640 pictures so far.
Each picture is hand drawn with brush and ink and digitally rendered.
All our picture sets are available as immediate downloads, for when you need those Bible pictures quickly!
Alternatively, you can order each picture set in A3 poster form. For those of you who are outside the U.K. A3 is 420mm x 297mm or 11 1/2x16 1/2 inches. The posters can be mounted onto a flipchart pad or laminated and used as flashcards.

We also have a range of 'Amazing 3D Bible pictures' available as Powerpoints or posters, for use with 3D glasses! Why not buy all the kids in your Sunday school/kids club a 3D viewer from 'here'. Then download a 'Bible story in Amazing 3D' from our 3D PowerPoints!
Our childrens 3D Bible storybooks make great Christmas presents too. There are 4 titles, and each book comes with a free 3D viewer!


Related posts:
How to use our Bible pictures
Bible pictures on the net!
Can you help?

Noah's Ark?

We all know what Noah's Ark looked like, don't we?
It was a big wooden boat with a big house on top! .......Wasn't it?

We've all gotten so used to seeing images of Noah's Ark in children's Bibles, (with all the animals waving through the leaded glass windows to Noah, who is busy watering all the hanging baskets of flowers), that we seldom question if those images actually resembled the ark at all!

The nearest Ark I've seen, (to the Biblical description),appeared in John Cross's book, 'The Stranger on the road to Emmaus'. It was basically, a long black box floating on the water! I know it's not as pretty as the traditional version, but our job's not about illustrating fairy tales!

Remember that the Ark was probably black in color as it was coated in pitch! When you look at the actual dimensions, (I built a small scale model in wood), It's surprisingly long and slim! In-fact, in black, it almost looks futuristic! Remember also that the Ark was HUGE! To see some models of Noah's Ark, click here.

So if we know what the ark looked like, why do we keep going back to the fairy tale version? Well, tradition is hard to break! I think that's the problem. Tradition! (It's the fault of Bible artists, yet again!)
So, full marks to all the artists like Nestor Redondo and others, who spent the time to research the subject, and had the guts to draw what they saw!