When Billy Hughey was a teenager, he began a mission to make scripture more accessible to the layperson. He developed a color coded bible, known as the Rainbow Bible and it has grown in popularity since its publication in 1986. The bible is also available in Spanish and in Catholic, King James and Student versions. There is a software version too, which works by searching for a keyword or topic. An Indonesian edition has also been published and there are Internet versions in Chinese and Portuguese.
The bible is used by the clergy, students and Sunday school teachers as well as members of the public. It is a resource that can be used for people from all age groups and beliefs. The Rainbow Bible is sub divided into twelve different subjects, indicated by the different colors. All 66 books are themed in this way and there is a cross referencing section and 75 color maps that feature places described in the text. The themes are God, Discipleship, Love, Faith, Sin, Satan, Salvation, Family, Witnessing, Commandments, History and Prophecy.
Twelve subjects were chosen because there are twelve tribes of Israel and twelve apostles. There is information that gives historical background to the text and a list of the most popular verses. Quotations are color coded too and there is a table of biblical weights and measures.
The colors and the order in which the subjects appear were selected very carefully. All the colors and sequencing has significance in meaning. The first subject in the Rainbow Bible is God because God is considered as the highest and Satan is the sixth subject because of the numerical meaning of 666 that is given to the devil. The number 7 represents holiness and so it was selected for Salvation. There are Ten Commandments and so they fall into the tenth theme. Purple is the traditional color relating to God and the clergy, blue represents salvation because it is the color of heaven and silver signifies the experience brought by history.
The bible can be confusing when it comes to interpretation and teaching the meaning of the text to others. There is arcane language and unfamiliar customs and the various books were written during different time periods from various points of view. The Rainbow Bible is an attempt to divide up the bible into more digestible sections and provide the reader with easily identifiable themes.
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