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The Brick Testament is a project created by Brendan Powell Smith in which Bible stories are illustrated using still photographs of dioramas constructed entirely out of Lego bricks.

The project began as a website in October 2001 that featured six stories from the book of Genesis, and is completely unaffiliated with the LEGO Company.^[1] There is also a Brick Testament book series.^[2]

Throughout stories are retold using passages from the Bible, with chapter and verse cited, the wording being a free adaptation that Smith says is based on a number of public domain Bible translations.^[3] Occasionally, mostly when images are being used to contrast with the underlying scripture, Smith dramatises the images with his own additional text. Such text is displayed in gray instead of the usual black.

Authorial commentary[link]

Smith's own commentary occasionally appears in illustrations and is displayed in gray text, and also as original titles for the stories themselves. For example, Smith presents a story titled, "Stephen Gets Stoned" which he bases on the New Testament book, the Acts of the Apostles, chapters 6-7. The scripture verse is cited directly beneath the illustration and commentary:

• Scripture: Acts 6:10 But they were unable to stand against the wisdom and spirit with which Stephen spoke.
• Illustration and commentary: A man is depicted holding a scroll in front of a crowd with a speech balloon saying: If you look at a few phrases here and there and completely ignore their original context, they totally predict Jesus! ^[4]

Based on a Rolling Stone article that is included as a link in the Brick Testament web site, Brendan Powell Smith is an atheist. ^[5]

Lego techniques[link]

The dioramas seen in The Brick Testament are created from Smith's personal Lego collection. The pieces come from hundreds of Lego sets dating from the 1960s to the present.

In the few instances where alterations are made to Lego elements, they are generally simple changes made with a hobby knife or permanent ink marker. An example alteration is God's hair: Smith made God's white hair by carving a white helmet piece (found on Peeron). The only completely non-Lego part of Smith's scenes is the background sky.^[6]

All of Smith's images are digital. Smith photographed early scenes with a Nikon Coolpix 950. He currently uses a Nikon Coolpix 4500. After photographing the scenes, he adds speech balloons and sometimes makes alterations using image editing software.

Media[link]

Website[link]

The Brick Testament website^[7] began in October 2001. It originally featured six stories from the book of Genesis. The site now contains over 400 illustrated stories, from both the Old and New Testaments, and over 4,500 images.^[8][9] It had an Alexa traffic rank of 53,191 in April 2007.^{[citation needed]} Each story is tagged if it contains nudity, sexual content, violence and/or cursing.^[9] The website has had over two million visitors.^[10]

Books[link]

Several hardcover Brick Testament books have been published, The Brick Testament: Stories from the Book of Genesis,^{[11] [12]} The Brick Testament: The Story of Christmas,^{[13] [14]}, The Brick Testament: The Ten Commandments.^[15], and The Brick Bible: A New Spin on the Old Testament.^[16] The US retailer Sam's Club withdrew The Brick Bible from sale in November 2011, "due to the complaints of a handful of people that it is vulgar and violent".^[17]

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

General[link]

• The Brick Testament
• The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith
• Alexa.com statistics

News articles[link]

• Challender, Mary (2005-03-24). "Lego toys convert to Bible stories". Des Moines Register. http://www.thebricktestament.com/press/des_moines_register_05_03_24.html. 
• Rubin, Daniel (11 December 2003). ""In the beginning" was a snap.". Philadelphia Inquirer. http://www.thebricktestament.com/press/philadelphia_inquirer_03_12_11.html. 
• Vo, Kim (2003-11-22). "The Bible, brick by brick: Genesis stories illustrated in Legos". San Jose Mercury News. http://www.thebricktestament.com/press/san_jose_mercury_news_03_11_22.html.