NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER

Free gift, Black Friday deals and the Christmas book is out now!

Christmas Nativity Launched!

Today our new Christmas Nativity Books is out on general release. They make brilliant Christmas gifts and giveaways in churches.

The price goes like this:

Single copy: £8.99
5 copies: £29.99 (£6 each)
10 copies: £44.99 (£4.49 each) by using discount code FIFTYQUIDPLUS

Go to Shop

Please Review ★★★★★

Adding an Amazon review will hugely help us with our ranking, especially when it has just launched! Lots of you have either got the Nativity book through our Kickstarter or already have the Luke and Matthew Bible Comics, if so I’d love for you to add your review to Amazon. Please leave your review on the Kindle as this review will show up in all the marketplaces for the book too (click below).

Free Kindle edition of Matthew’s Gospel!

To celebrate the launch of the Christmas book, we are giving you an early Christmas present. Download the Kindle edition of Matthew’s Gospel in full now, for five days only. Again, please add a review as they are really valuable.

Offer ends: 25th November.

Black Friday Deal: 40% off!

Give the gift of the good news of the incarnation this year and get 40% off the Gospel of Matthew!

Discount Code: MATTFRIDAY23
Offer ends: Dec 15th

The Gospel of Matthew: Word for Word Bible Comic: NIV

Nativity Themed Blogs

I have created a number of blogs to answer questions like “Why is Luke’s genealogy for Jesus different to Matthew’s?”, “What year was Jesus born?” and more. Here is the link to them and more will follow soon, so keep an eye on our social feed.

TUE, OCT 31

Why does Jesus' Genealogy in Luke differ from Matthew?

The gospel writers of Luke and Matthew give us a genealogy for Jesus, but they are different. (Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38). For example, Matthew gives Joseph’s father as Jacob, while Luke records

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TUE, NOV 07

Which year was Jesus born in?

The Bible does not provide the exact day or even the exact year in which Jesus was born in Bethlehem. But a close examination of the chronological details of history narrows the possibilities to a

Read More

Prayer

Books on Amazon: The Book of Judges and Christmas Nativity still have issues with their ISBNs on Amazon. Please continue to pray the Amazon team sort this out.

Spanish editions: The Lord has opened a door in the Spanish books world but nothing is settled yet. Please continue to pray we can get the Spanish books into expert hands that will get them out to a wide Spanish audience.

Progress: Please pray I can continue to make good progress on the Book of Acts.

Did you miss these offers? If so subscribe to the newsletter to get this info email direct to you one a month

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Which year was Jesus born in?

The Bible does not provide the exact day or even the exact year in which Jesus was born in Bethlehem. But a close examination of the chronological details of history narrows the possibilities to a reasonable window of time.

The biblical details of Jesus’ birth are found in the Gospels. Matthew 2:1 states that Jesus was born during the days of Herod the king. Since Herod died in 4 BC, we have a parameter to work with. Further, after Joseph and Mary fled Bethlehem with Jesus, Herod ordered all the boys 2 years old and younger in that vicinity killed. This indicates that Jesus could have been as old as 2 before Herod’s death. This places the date of His birth between 6 and 4 BC

Luke 2:1-2 notes several other facts to ponder: “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria.” We know that Caesar Augustus reigned from 27 BC to AD 14.

Quirinius governed Syria during this same time period, with records of a census that included Judea in approximately 6 BC Some scholars debate whether this is the census mentioned by Luke, but it does appear to be the same event. Based on these historical details, the most likely time of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem is 6-5 BC.

Luke mentions another detail concerning our timeline: “Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age” (Luke 3:23). Jesus began His ministry during the time John the Baptist ministered in the wilderness, and John’s ministry started “in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas” (Luke 3:1-2).

The only time period that fits all of these facts is AD 27-29. If Jesus was “about thirty years of age” by AD 27, a birth sometime between 6 and 4 BC would fit the chronology. More specifically, Jesus would have been approximately 32 years old at the time He began His ministry (still “about thirty years of age”). - Article by GotQuestions.org

So why does the date of Christ's birth not fall exactly on the 0 BC/AD date?

The Anno Domini dating system we use today which marks "the year dot" was devised by Dionysius the Humble (c. 470 – 544 AD) an Eastern Roman monk based in Tomis (in present-day Romania). How he arrived at that number is unknown, but it is believed it may have been based on the text of the Septuagint and the myth that Jesus was born 5500 years after the world was created, tying his dates in with other known historical events. This system became dominant in western Europe only after it was used by the Venerable Bede (an English monk c. 673 – 735 AD) to date his famous historical treaties. Despite its minor inaccuracy, the dating of Jesus' birth by Dionysius is still pretty close considering the remoteness of 500+ years and being a continent away.

This article is an extract from our new Christmas nativity graphic novel. Find it in our online store : https://www.wordforwordbiblecomic.com/buy

Why does Jesus' Genealogy in Luke differ from Matthew?

Matthew presents the genealogy from Abraham going forward to Jesus, while Luke traces the genealogy from Jesus all the way back to Adam and Eve. The recorded family trees diverge with King David's sons, Matthew tracing the royal line through Solomon, and Luke tracing the line through David’s other son, Nathan. The entire list from this point until Joseph consists of different people. But this doesn't solve why Joseph 'seems' to have two fathers, as no one has two biological fathers. However, one person does have zero biological fathers—Jesus.

It makes sense then that Luke, the doctor, would trace Jesus' bloodline through his only blood relative, his mother Mary (who we have established is also one of his primary sources). So the two lines are from Joseph (in Matthew) and Mary (in Luke).

Now, these two different genealogies are critical in another way, which concerns "The Blood Curse of King Jehoiachin". 600 years before the birth of Christ, God pronounced a curse on the last king of Judah, saying, “Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah” (Jeremiah 22:30).

In this curse, God bars any blood descendants of Jehoiachin from taking the throne. But who except a royal descendant could legitimately claim the throne? The problem is that the curse 'seems' to invalidate Jesus’ claim to be Messiah, as the Davidic Covenant promised that the Messiah, the “Son of David,” would reign forever on Jerusalem’s throne (1 Chronicles 17:11-14). It seemed God's promises were in a deadlock with God's own curse. An impossible situation.

However, in Jesus, this impossible contradiction was unlocked. Through Jesus' virgin birth, he possessed a direct, uncursed bloodline through Mary. She was of the clan of Judah and a direct descendant of King David through Nathan. So, Jesus possessed the biological heritage to claim the throne of David. But this alone does not bestow the legal right through Mary's blood, as she was not from the line of the last king.

However, in Joseph, Jesus gains the legal right to take the throne. Joseph is a direct descendant of Jehoiachin, but as Jesus is not his biological son, he does not carry the curse. The final piece to the puzzle then comes with an exception in the Torah that was made for the daughters of Zelophehad (Numbers 27: 1-11).

Zelophehad had no sons who could to inherit, so a provision was made for him. If his daughters married within their own tribe, their husband would become the legal heir of the estate and be legally the “son” of the father-of-the-bride. This law was then continued thereafter.

In Luke 3:23, the Koine Greek word used is the proper usage of the verb ἐνομίζω, which means “as reckoned by law.” So, from this term, we learn that Mary had no brothers and Joseph became "the son of Heli (the father of Mary) as reckoned by law" when they married, rendering Jesus the rightful heir to Joseph's inheritance.

This article is an extract from our new Christmas nativity graphic novel. Find it in our online store : https://www.wordforwordbiblecomic.com/buy

What prophecies did Jesus' birth fulfil?

Jesus fulfilled several prophecies when he was born. There are many Old Testament prophecies about Jesus Christ. Some scholars estimate the number of Messianic prophecies is in the hundreds. Several of these foretell Jesus’ birth and the circumstances of his early life. They are particularly fascinating, as no amount of effort from a false Messiah could engineer the fulfillment of these signs, which were already in writing hundreds of years earlier.

LOCATION: In Micah 5:2, the location of Jesus' birth is foretold. It was so well known before the event that when King Herod inquired of the chief priests and teachers of the law where the Messiah was to be born (Matt 2:4-6), they told him, “This is what the prophet has written: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’"

The fact that Jesus lived in Egypt for a time in his infancy was foreseen by Hosea, “Out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1b), as the Gospel writer points out in Matthew 2:14-15.

Matthew also tells us that Jesus fulfilled "what was spoken by the prophets, ‘He shall be called a Nazarene’” (Matthew 2:23). This is because the town's name, Nazareth, comes from the root word netzer, which means branch, and multiple prophets spoke of the Messiah as the “Branch” (Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5, 33:15; Zechariah 3:8, 6:12).

BLOODLINE: The expectation of the Messiah in the Scriptures also dictated that Jesus must be from the line of Adam (Genesis 3:14-15), Abraham (Genesis 12:3), Isaac (Genesis 26:4), Jacob (Genesis 28:14; Numbers 24:17), Judah (Genesis 49:8–12), Jesse (Isaiah 11:1), and David (2 Samuel 7:12-13; Isaiah 9:7, 40:3; Zechariah 12:10).

The fact that his mother would be a virgin was prophesied in Isaiah 7:14a: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son..."

In that same verse, Isaiah reveals that this virgin's son will not only be a ruler but the incarnation of God: "...and will call him Immanuel.” Immanuel means "God with us". In Isaiah 9:6, the prophet states even more clearly: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” This is confirmed by Zechariah, who says: “'Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,’ declares the LORD” (Zechariah 2:10).

As we saw in the previous article, the Messiah had to also have both a legal and blood claim to the throne of David, restricting the number of people who could fulfill these bloodline conditions to just one candidate.

TIME PERIOD: Around AD 6–7, Emperor Tiberius removed Herod Archelaus from his throne and instigated direct rule of Rome through a prefect in Israel. As a result, the ius gladii (right of the sword), which gave legal authority to execute someone for a capital offense, was taken away from the Jewish Sanhedrin (Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin, folio 24), a circumstance that caused the rabbis and elders of the day to cover their heads with ashes and their bodies with sackcloth in mourning, believing that the Torah, the word of God, had failed!

This was because in Genesis 49:10, Jacob blesses his sons and prophesies, "The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come, and the obedience of the nations shall be his." The scepter and ruler's staff are idioms for Judah's right to apply and enforce Mosaic law, including capital punishment. This was a right that was not even lost during the whole Babylonian captivity and which was promised to be retained until the Messiah, "he to whom it belongs,” should come.

While the scepter had indeed been removed from Judah, unbeknownst to the people of the Sanhedrin, their Messiah had come about ten years earlier in the little town of Bethlehem!

This prophesy from the time of the patriarchs gives a limiting time factor: The loss of the “Scepter” would happen before the Messiah came. There are other Old Testament verses which predict that the Messiah will be consumed with zeal for the Lord's House (Psalm 69:7–12). So the temple had to be standing for this to be fulfilled. In AD 70, the Jewish Temple was destroyed and it has not been restored since (yet). So a candidate to be the Messiah had to have lived in time between AD 6 and AD 70.

CONCLUSION: From the Old Testament prophets who look forward to the coming of the Messiah, we can see that a candidate must be born in Bethlehem, live in Egypt, be called a Nazarene, be born to a virgin, be descended from Abraham and David and take up his station between AD 6 and AD 70. These are extremely specific criteria for a Messiah, but not only does Jesus fulfil all of these prophecies with his birth, he indeed grows up to take on the mantle and show himself to be "God with us" and "living among us.".

*This article is an extract from our new Christmas nativity graphic novel. Find it in our online store : https://www.wordforwordbiblecomic.com/buy*

OCTOBER NEWSLETTER

News about how to preorder your Christmas books, a Kickstarter update and more this month.

Frankfurt Bookfair 2023

While I won’t be there myself, our agents will be in Frankfurt licencing the rights to produce our comic in other languages to foreign publishers. I’ve sent over samplers and leaflets and bought an ad in the show preview, so I’m really hoping we’ll get some new publishers on board to recreate the Bible comic in their languages! Frankfurter Buchmesse Oct 18th-22nd.

Preorder Christmas Books

In November our new Christmas Nativity Books are out on general release. They will make brilliant Christmas gifts and giveaways in churches. On our UK online shop, I’ve set them up so that if you want to buy bundles of these books. The price goes like this:

Single copy: £8.99
5 copies: £29.99 (£6 each)
10 copies: £44.99 (£4.49 each) by using discount code FIFTYQUIDPLUS

(We can’t do bundle deals in the US/Canada store as it’s through our distributor, so if you’d like a big bundle please check out via the UK store and we’ll get them to you).

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Kickstarter Update

All the Kickstarter bundles* went into the post last Monday, so most of you should have received yours by now (unless you are very far away or have slow mail).

Please can I encourage all of you to post about it on your social media feed, photos of your parcels or your thoughts about the book, and be sure to tag @wordforwordbiblecomic

If you are waiting for a T-shirt, all the UK ones are printed but the printer mistakenly sent them to me instead of directly to you, so they will be with you shortly.

(* All except anyone who did not fill in their Backkit survey with their address and shipping payment.)

Please could you add a review?

Book reviews on sites like Amazon, Barnes and Noble and ChristianBooks really help convince people to buy a copy. They also increase the book’s ranking in searches so it is doubly helpful. If you like the books and you’ve got a few minutes to add a quick recommendation or even just hit 5 stars, it would be a massive blessing!

(You’re unable to review the Christmas Nativity on Amazon yet, but I’d love everyone to add a review to it when it’s released. I’ll include it in the email on November 7th).

Using this blog you can easily link to all my titles on various platforms. https://wordforwordbiblecomic.squarespace.com/blog/reviews-really-help

Prayer

Books on Amazon: The Book of Judges still has an issue with the ISBN on Amazon, although the Christmas one seems to be fixed. Please pray the Amazon team sort this out.

Spanish editions: The Lord has opened a door in the Spanish books world but nothing is settled yet. Please pray we can get the Spanish books into expert hands that will get them out to a wide Spanish audience.

Progress: Please pray I can continue to make good progress on the Book of Acts. Summer was a bit disrupted with one thing and another and now it’s time to get lots of pages finished.

If you’d like to support the project on a regular basis from just $1 a month. Head to www.patreon.com/WordforWordBibleComic

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September Newsletter

We’ve got a sale on the Book of Joshua, news on our Summer events, Kickstarter updates and more this month.

Sale: The Book of Joshua W.E.B.

We’d previously sold out of the original Joshua books that had the World English translation inside, but the other day I discovered a couple of boxes while we were doing a full inventory check. I’ve added them for sale on the website and 20 copies have already sold! If you preferred the W.E.B. translation don’t miss this chance to get one of the last copies.

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New Book of Judges

The new version of The Book of Judges is out now! This new edition features the NIV translation but also even more pages, going from 128pp to 176pp, with the panels made bigger and brighter! You can buy it now.

Go to Shop

Events

We had a great time at the Commission Festival with our family of churches. Welcome to those who have joined the mailing list there.

I also just got back from Christian Resources Together. Where I had a surprise bookstall! I’ve had a table at CRT in previous years but didn’t reserve one this time, however, when I got here I DID have a table waiting for me. Surprise! Luckily I had a sample copy of 6 books, two boxes of others and a bunch of leaflets so it seems God wanted me to have a stall after all. Above is the image of the impromptu stand with a scrounged tablecloth and order forms.

I also met Lou Fellingham. We had a great chat and she's now got a couple of comics for herself and her kids. It was great to have her and Nathan lead worship there.

Kickstarter Update

All the books and extras are here. We are just waiting for the last dozen or so people to complete their survey, the packaging material to arrive and for the weather to cool down and we will get these out to you in the post. Those in the UK might even get them before the end of this month, God willing.

NOTE: Some of you got notifications from BackerKit and asked if they were legit. Yes, Backerkit is who we are using to collect your addresses and take payment for the shipping costs this year.

Can we reach 100 patrons?

We recently had a few more patrons and now it's getting very close to 100. It would be so great to get there.

You can support it from just £1 a month, receiving exclusive access to pages before they are published and at higher tiers, you can get videos about the research and history drawn into every page. Even £1 a month would be amazing as it really adds up and every new patron increases our ranking on the searches which really helps.

Below are some examples, and here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/WordforWordBibleComic

Prayer

Books on Amazon: On Amazon Judges and the Christmas Book have an issue with the ISBN. We’ve been trying to fix it for months and it’s still a problem. Please pray the Amazon team sort this out.

Spanish editions: Please continue to pray for a door to open for a distributor for our Spanish editions.

Opportunities: After CRT I have a lot of great opportunities and new potential partnerships and/or people to work with. Please pray God has his hand on this and makes the right things happen.

Ps: Thank you for praying for the printing to be without error, it all went smoothly this time.

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AUGUST NEWSLETTER

We’ve got news on the new edition of Judges, events, Kickstarter updates and more this month.

New Book of Judges

In September, we will be officially releasing the new version of The Book of Judges. This new edition features the NIV translation but also even more pages, going from 128pp to 176pp, with the panels made bigger and brighter! You can preorder it now.

Learn more

Events

Youthscape Satellites: I've recently returned for 5 days at a Youth event for 5,000 young people. As it was a long event I even set up a workstation at the stand so that I could keep drawing at quieter times and as people were browsing. Plus I got this photo with kids TV presenter Gemma Hunt. I'm hoping some of these connections with youth leaders in the UK will help get these comics more and more into the hands of young people.

Commission Festival: At the end of this month I’ll have a stand at this event for 4 days. I hope I’ll see many of you there! We’ve got a number of new books since the last one in 2019!

Kickstarter Update

The digital version of this book has recently been sent out to all Kickstarter Backers! Check your KS update for the link :)

We have also just sent out the first backer surveys via BackerKit, if you haven’t got it today you’ll receive it in the next couple of days. You’ll need to add your address and settle your shipping costs if you are due to receive physical rewards. This includes the opportunity to add on further upgrades too.

Prayer

Books in libraries: Please pray we can find a way to get the books into libraries across the world and especially USA and the UK.

Spanish editions: One of our options for Spanish distribution is off the table, but now we will move to another really promising opportunity. Please pray we can establish this partnership to get the Spanish books out into the world.

Printing: We are currently printing the Song of Songs and more Nativity books, it’s always a nerve-racking time as we think about errors, misprints or books getting damaged. Please pray all goes smoothly.

If you’d like to support the project on a regular basis from just $1 a month. Head to www.patreon.com/WordforWordBibleComic

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July Newsletter: Discounts, new Book of Judges and more

We’ve got news on the new edition of Judges, discounts, blogs and more this month

New Judges with more pages!

In September, we will be officially releasing the new version of The Book of Judges. This new edition features the NIV translation but also even more pages! Now, I know what you’re thinking but we didn’t add anything to the biblical text, we spread the existing panels over more pages making it so the pages are not so cramped and the illustrations are larger, we also lightened up the images as our first edition was very dark.

In this example below, the top left page is the original page, which becomes three pages in the new edition including two new panels and verse reference numbers in the corners.

If you can’t wait until September you can preorder it via the UK online shop and pay postage to your location and you’ll receive it before the official release. (Note: Kickstarter Backers of Song of Songs who added Judges will get this new version)

Go to Shop

The new Judges graphic novel was showcased at the American Library Association Convention of over 10,000 librarians last month and this month will be at the Christian Product Expo in Kentucky.

Discount!

If you are ordering books direct from us (via the UK online shop), you can now get a discount when you spend £50+ you’ll get 25% off! Just enter the discount code FIFTYQUIDPLUS at checkout. Includes books, t-shirts and digital items!

(T&Cs: Offer works on direct purchases from the UK, not available on US and Canada domestic delivery which is handled by our distributors).

Patreon Hangout

On Saturday 15th July, we’ll have one of our Patreon Hangouts, a Zoom call between myself, some of the team and our patrons will be there to chat, answer questions and connect. The talk will likely be around the new title The Book of Acts which has started production but won’t be Kickstarted until next year. To get the inside scoop, see pages before anyone else and join us at the hangout, become a patron today:

Go to Patreon Page

The Gathering

We had a great time at the Gathering in June despite nearly melting in the sun. I did some sword training and we saw dozens of men make a first-time commitment or recommitment to Christ on the weekend. Welcome those that joined the newsletter at the event.

Blogs

I wrote a couple of blogs on the research I’ve been doing recently, I showed the top one to Dr. Mark Woolmer (our history consultant and history lecturer) and he said he’d have given me a First for the essay if it had been submitted in his class which made me happy

In this blog, I explore the question of whether the Golden Calf of Exodus was likely a statue of an Apis Bull?

https://www.wordforwordbiblecomic.com/blog/was-the-golden-calf-an-apis-bull

In this blog, I ask if Moses was tall.

https://www.wordforwordbiblecomic.com/blog/wasmosestall

Kickstarter Update

The creation of the Song of Songs is complete and the digital copies will be sent out to you very soon. They've had their first round of proofreading and corrections are being added. Once the second round of proofreading is complete will be sending it out, before the end of this month.

They'll also be heading to the printers in the next month or so in good time for delivery to backers by the end of November (or before). They will be released in shops in March 2024.

Prayer

Books in libraries: As you saw above our book was featured at the ALA con. Please pray with us that libraries really discover the benefits of the Word for Word Bible Comic and decide to stock them all across the USA.

Spanish editions: We have some potential leads to getting distribution of our Spanish editions in Latin America and Europe. Please pray we can get these books into the hands of Spanish speakers very soon!

Technical issue: We have had some trouble with the ISBN registration on Amazon and other places for the new books. Some progress has been made since last time but please pray this is miraculously sorted out very soon so it does not hamper sales.

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Christmas Nativity Launched!

Please Review ★★★★★

Free Kindle edition of Matthew’s Gospel!

Black Friday Deal: 40% off!

Nativity Themed Blogs

Why does Jesus' Genealogy in Luke differ from Matthew?

Which year was Jesus born in?

Prayer

More of our Blogs on similar topics:

More of our Blogs on similar topics:

More of our Blogs on similar topics:

Frankfurt Bookfair 2023

Preorder Christmas Books

Kickstarter Update

Please could you add a review?

Prayer

Sale: The Book of Joshua W.E.B.

New Book of Judges

Events

Kickstarter Update

Can we reach 100 patrons?

Prayer

New Book of Judges

Events

Kickstarter Update

Prayer

New Judges with more pages!

Discount!

Patreon Hangout

The Gathering

Blogs

Kickstarter Update

Prayer