Frequently Asked Questions

From The Open Bible Project

Contents

End Users Questions

What is The Open Bible Project?

The Open Bible Project is a non-profit, collaborative project among Preterist scholars aimed at creating a Preterist study-Bible. The work for the project is done mostly by volunteer editors, contributors and publishers. This is mostly an "online" project and the goal is to ultimately create a print Bible called "The Open Bible" which will allow Christians to study the topic of Covenant Eschatology in a comprehensive way.

Why a Covenant Eschatology Study Bible?

The most popular eschatological position today, known as Dispensationalism, was popularized through the introduction of the Scofield Reference Bible. We are hoping that a Preterist study Bible would have a similar effect today. Preterism is a self-evident, biblically-supported position, therefore a study-bible would be a natural evolution for the movement and it would offer a full picture to every day Christians in regards to the study of the historical, cultural and literal context of prophecy.

What is a "Wiki" and why use it for this project?

Wiki is a special server-side software that allows any user to freely edit and create web pages. Since the goal of the Open Bible Project is to be "open" using the same software used by Wikipedia makes sense and allows all users to be an important part of this project. To learn more about what Wikipedia is and how it works, please go to http://wikipedia.org.

Where can I see how this project works?

You can take a look at Matthew 24 as an example of how the editing process works. Since Matthew 24 is one of the most edited passages, it will serve as a good example of how changes improve on each other and how the quality of comments and notes improves over time. Feel free to click on the edit tab located at the top of the page and add your own notes, modify existing notes, or fix spelling errors. Please try to accompany your edits with a short summary for the benefit of other users.

Is there an easy way to keep track of changes?

Yes indeed. You can view the changes made by others on the Special:Recentchanges page. You can use the comparison tool included to compare the original page with the new. Differences will be highlighted in red. You can also use an RSS reader (or RSS aggregator) to subscribe to our Atom or RSS feeds to see the latest changes dynamically. This allows you to see the changes on a cell phone or mobile device without having to browse to the website all the time. The RSS and Atom feeds are updated dynamically so changes are visible immediately upon taking effect. For a list of RSS aggregators go the Wikipedia list of news aggregators and download one that is suitable for your environment. For example, you can view the lates changes made on the Open Bible Project on:

Why should I create an account?

We encourage all users to create a permanent account here on the Open Bible Project website. Edits and changes made by registered users are a lot easier to track and credit, and for long term participation, most users would find it easier to interact, post, and carry out discussions if they have an account. So please click on the create an account link located in the upper right hand corner to create an account and login as a user, or go to the Special:Userlogin page.

What if someone else keeps changing an article to something I disagree with?

When two or more users get into an edit war there are several avenues to resolve the dispute. We recommend using the discussion tab located at the top of each article. This will allow contributors to talk about their changes and disagreements. If this doesn't resolve the edit war, ultimately a moderator may step in and either make final changes, or lock the article permanently so no further edits are possible.

What's with the Geneva Bible comments and footnotes?

In order to set a baseline for the project and perhaps save time, we are using the 1599 Geneva Study Bible as a starting point for our comments and notes. The Geneva Bible, while still a futurist work, had some clear preteristic tendencies. It is also a public domain work, which does not require licensing. This allows us to get a great jump-start on the project and save a lot of time and effort. Volunteers can feel free to modify the Geneva Bible content as they wish in order to reach a point where the project is satisfactory. Don't forget to include the superscript entries in the verse with the notes. These can be inserted in the verse with the command sup example: superscript.

As a side note, there are several resources on the Internet that offer content regarding the Geneva Bible:

  • A NKJV/KJV Bible with Geneva notes is available at Crosswalk.com free of charge and as a public domain work, however for some reason, some footnotes and comments are missing from this website.
  • The 1587 Geneva Bible is available online at StudyLight.org with no comments and footnotes. This text is also copyrighted.
  • A full version of the 1599 Geneva Bible with comments and notes is also available at Reformedreader.org.
  • Steve from the Geneva Bible Project is rebuilding the 1560/1599 Geneva Bible with its original footnotes. We are not sure whether or not he is willing to share his notes and comments with volunteers and contributors to the Open Bible Project.

What English translation are you using?

If you browse the Open Bible Project, you will notice that while the study notes and comments are from the Geneva Bible, the Bible text itself is not. Because of licensing and copyright restrains, the Open Bible Project chose The World English Bible translation. The WEB is a modern English translation based on the American Standard Version of the Bible, first published 1901, the Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensa Old Testament, and the Greek Majority Text New Testament. If you have questions about the World English Bible, you can read the WEB Frequently Asked Questions here.

Who is sponsoring/running this project?

The Open Bible Project is the brainchild of PlanetPreterist and is sponsored by PlanetPreterist and its founders. A group of scholars, editors, volunteers and contributors continually submit, read, analyze and finalize materials submitted to the project by others. This is an "open" project where anyone can participate if they want to see a Preterist study-Bible become a reality soon.

Are you accepting donations for this project?

You are welcome to donate money through the PlanetPreterist.com online bookstore, however volunteer work for the project is just as much appreciated.

Who can contribute materials?

Anyone can contribute materials to the Open Bible Project. We encourage all Preterist to contribute commentaries, ideas and notes to better the final product. We even encourage willing critics to submit notes and comments that they deem interesting and worthy of submission. Editors will sift through the material and organize it in a format that is better suited for publishing.

I am not a Preterist. Can I contribute?

Of course! We will not turn you down regardless of your eschatology, or denomination. However, keep in mind that whatever content you submit or change will be eventually modified to fit the goal of the project, which is ultimately to create a Preterist study-Bible. As a side note, we ask that submissions be concise, accurate and to the point. We are not asking for lenghty essays and articles to be submitted in defense of Preterism or in defense of certain controversial aspects of Christianity.

What is considered controversial?

The project will attempt to stay away from critical controversial issues and avoid arguments such as the literal existence of Satan, creationism, old and young earth, calvinism, arminianism, universalism, etc. The goal of the project is not to attempt to explain all things to all people, nor explain all things away. The goal is simply to create a framework in which a Covenant Eschatology study Bible can be developed.

Are you translating the Bible from scratch?

The Open Bible Project is not a translation project and we are not planning on creating a "Preterist translation" of the scriptures. We feel that a new translation would in fact undermine the Preterist movement and have a negative effect in the end. We believe that there are many English translations available out there that can be used for this project. Currently, we are using the World English Bible translation as the foundation for the project.

What languages are you working in?

Because of limited number of volunteers and funds, we are currently working on only creating a study-Bible in English. We are hoping that in the near future we will be able to branch out into other languages where the truth of fulfilled-prophecy is needed.

Will you be paying me if I submit commentaries and studies to the project?

All materials submitted to The Open Bible Project become the property of the project and part of the pool of materials used to create the Open Bible. Unfortunately, all work is performed by volunteers and PlanetPreterist will not be able to reimburse anyone for their work and materials submitted for the project. We are hoping that all users will see the benefits of a Covenant Eschatology study Bible on the shelves of every Christian bookstore in English speaking countries.

Is the material contained in the Open Bible Project copyrighted?

While open in its goals and scope, the Open Bible Project is a copyrighted work under The CCP License (Creative Commons License), mostly because we want to maintain a Preterist flavor and because we do not wish to turn over the hard work of our volunteers to a third party for profit. Therefore you may not reproduce articles, comments or notes in whole or in part for commercial purposes without the express permission of PlanetPreterist.com and/or The Open Bible Project. If you are interested in using our content, you may do so under the terms of the The CCP License presented on this site. Using content without permission or outside the terms of our CCP license is strictly prohibited by U.S. and international law and can result in severe civil and criminal penalties.

Editors and Volunteers Questions

Who/What is an editor?

An editor is someone who wants to, and has a few more responsibilities than anonymous or regular users:

  • participate with comments, notes and updates on a regular basis
  • has rights to edit articles that are read-only
  • has rights to edit articles that are locked and finished
  • can create templates, new pages and rollback changes easier
  • can ban users and IP addresses for abuse and vandalism

How can I become an editor?

If you have the will and dedication to become an editor, please e-mail your request to 'webmaster at openbibleproject.org'.

Is there a starting point for the project?

There is no clearly defined starting point. All the Bible text (World English Bible) is already presented, with the Geneva Bible commentaries attached to each verse. This serves as a nice starting point for volunteers to add, modify and digest the vast amoung of information presented. Feel free to add and modify content in any book of the bible, starting with any verse. It seems clear that key Preterist passages such as Matthew 24, Luke 21, etc will accumulate much more content than other passages. We have decided that creating a "schedule" would impede the development of the content, therefore we encourage everyone to work at his or her own pace.

How do I edit change or modify a page?

The Bible is organized by chapters, and each chapter has its own dedicated page. In order to edit the notes under a certain verse, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Main Page and click on the section you want to edit, such as The Old Testament, or the New Testament.
  2. Click on the name of the Bible book you want to edit (such as Matthew).
  3. Click on the chapter you want to edit (such as Matthew Chapter 24).
  4. Once the chapter is listed, click on the edit tab at the top of the page.
  5. Make your changes under each verse. Make sure you preface each note with an asterisk (*)
  6. Click on the Show Preview button to preview your changes, or click on the Save page button to save your pages.

A few important things to remember when editing:

  • Do NOT post copyrighted material or material taken without the owner's permission! If you do this you will get banned from the project.
  • If you want to test, or learn how to edit, do not use articles that are in production. If you want to learn how to edit a page, use the Sandbox where changes can be made without affecting production articles.
  • Do not post extraneous or extremely long notes. This is a study Bible, not a place to post exegetical essays and endless articles.

What approach should we take with adding/changing content?

We are taking a verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter approach for now. We do not want this to turn into a word-study Bible, but we do want to provide general information about each Bible book, and then approach each chapter with study comments and notes that would appear either as margin notes or footnotes in the final Open Bible.

Why are the Geneva Bible Notes missing from some Bible books

Unfortunately, because of the non-standard format, the Geneva Bible Notes have to be imported into the project by hand, so this is a very time consuming process. If you want to help, feel free to use the public-domain Geneva Bible Notes from CrossWalk.com or [1] and copy them into the Open Bible Project. This has to be done verse-by-verse and each individual Geneva Note has to be indended accordingly by the use of an asterisk along with the appropriate letter.

How are disagreements handled?

In rare cases of disagreements, all editors/contributors will vote on how a comment or note should be worded or presented to readers. If voting still does not resolve the disagreement, then the Open Bible board will also decide by vote how/what to handle the incident.

Should we be using a certain standard for Bible books abbreviations?

Yes, we are encouraging everyone to use the Chicago Manual of Style abbreviations for the books of the Bible. This will ensure that we are all using the same standard for references and it will also make the General Editor's life much easier in the end.

Is there an agreed-upon way to format the content pages?

We generally suggest adopting the already-presented layout, that being having a page dedicate to each book of the Bible, whith all chapters linked to individual pages, and separating each Bible verse by a carriage return. We also suggest using an asterix (*) to preface each comment. An asterix at the beginning of a blank line will indent each sentence, note or comment under a verse, making it easier to read and identify on a page. We also suggest highlighting each chapter and verse numbers using bold (for example 3:4 should be 3:4) in order to also identify each reference easier.

The use of tables and html links and other html code should be avoided if possible.

I don't know how to use Wiki codes. How can I learn?

Learning how to format text using Wikitext codes can be a bit of a challenge, however it is extremely easy to learn. First, please read the Editing Help Page on Wikipedia's website. The help page will help you better understand how the Wiki works, and how text can be formatted using the "Wikitext" which is simply a way to format text using certain characters. For example, in order to emphasize a word, you can put two apostrophes on each side of the word in question like this:

''emphasize''

To learn how to use Wikitext, we have created a Sandbox where you can freely play and learn how to use the Wiki. Please do not edit or change production pages for testing or learning how to edit.

How do we handle cases of vandalism and abuse from anonymous users?

If necessary, we will ban IP addresses and/or networks, and start requiring user registration for editing. Sysop-level users like the editors and members of the board will have the ability to also lock pages, ban users in order to protect the welfare of the project. If you need help with these functions, please read the Special:Specialpages.


Does any one individual stand to make a profit from this project?

Most of the money funding this project comes from one or a handful of individual donors and users of Planet Preterist. Should the Open Bible materialize into a tangible and marketable Bible, the plan is to use all profits and subsequent revenues to grow the project into other languages and/or translations of the Bible. No particular individual will be profiting from this enterprise, nor is this project to be a "for profit" enterprise.

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