OMG! The bible's newest translation is in emoji

The 👑 James version of the Bible just got an emoji makeover😊

The Bible is the most translated book in the world, but the latest translation is an attempt to appeal to the millennial faithful. A group of devout Christians has created an app (what else?) that translates the King James Version (KJV) into emoticons and emoji.

“Scripture for Millennials” is available on Apple’s App Store and the creators say that they created the translation program to draw new readers to the word of God, according to ChristianHeadlines.com.

“What's amazing about emojis, and what's made them so successful, is that they're language-agnostic – they allow you to convey an idea to anyone, regardless of what language they speak," one of the creators, who is known only as the "sunglasses smiley emoji," said to the religious news site.

"A major goal of this whole process was to take a book that I think is very non-approachable to lay readers and try to make it more approachable by removing a lot of its density."

The creator of the app also told the New York Daily News what sparked the idea to create an emoji Bible.

“I think if we were to fast-forward 100 years, an ‘emoji’ Bible of some kind would exist, so I thought, ‘Why not try and make it?’” the writer told the newspaper via instant message. “The Bible more than any other book has a really rich history of translation. I think that's one of the beautiful things about emojis, and I think one of the goals of using them was to point out, in the Bible, God's love is for everyone, not select people.”

Users can also go to bibleemoji.com where they can put in a passage from the good book and get an instant translation for the mobile phone set.

The authors of the new translation say that about 10 to 15 percent of the translation is in emoticon speak while the remainder is in boring, old alphabet characters.

"The Bible has a lot of old language, there's a lot of nuance involved in translating it – a lot of the time, you need to think beyond 1-to-1 fit," the authors said.

"There's a lot of trial and error, and a lot of rereading. But it's all worth the goal of making the Bible a little more approachable, to inject some levity, and to get people to look at it, with no particular agenda beyond that."