Bible Stories in 3D Photography

Bible Stories in 3D Photography

Bible Stories in 3D Photography

Imagine yourself living hundreds of years ago, or one-thousand to two-thousand years ago, during a time when today’s technology did not exist. Living outside of the Holy Land, you would hear of stories, myths, and legends passed down from generation to generation as it was the only method to “document” and share what others have witnessed before us. During such times, it was a world without cameras, with the only pictures being of oil paintings or stone carvings. Fortunately, for thousands of years, we have had carpenters, like Joseph the Carpenter. The skills of those carpenters have been passed down from generation to generation and still exist today.

The most special quality of those carpenters is their ability to make handmade olive wood carvings that tell stories about the life of Jesus Christ. By doing this, they were able to transform narrative stories into 3 dimensions, stories that can be seen! Today, we use cameras to show and share stories, but the Christian carpenters of the Holy Land were not only our ancestors, but our photographers of the past. They transformed stories from the Bible into 3 dimensional photographs that exist today. These carvings are photographs of the past that can be brought into our own homes, from the Christian carpenters in the Holy Land, whose ancestors included Joseph the carpenter himself.

This month we celebrate World Photography Day, but the ability to create pictures in 3 dimensions that can be touched or understood is a Holy Land skill of the past. Imagine a world full of holograms, where a picture can be seen in 3 dimensions. This world existed since the time of Jesus Christ through olive wood carvings. Let us celebrate the skills of those carpenters, and thank the Lord for allowing the Holy Land to have and maintain such skills through its faithful community to preach about the word of God – about the Bible.

The only olivewood carpenters in the world that transform the Bible into 3-dimensional pictures are the carpenters of the Holy Land, the descendants of the Christians who have met, saw and praised Jesus face to face! If you’re interested in such carvings, they are available in our gift shop – the Star Bazaar, which can be accessed on https://starbazaar.bethbc.edu/.

By Yousef Qumsieh, former staff of BethBC