If you’ve spent any time in the corner of the internet where theology, visual art, and high-end publishing collide, you’ve probably heard the name Jon Collins. He’s the guy who co-founded The Bible Project. He’s basically the voice you hear explaining complex ancient Hebrew concepts while beautiful animations fly across your screen. But lately, people have been obsessing over a different side of his creative output: the Jon Collins black books.
They aren't what you'd expect.
When people hear "black books," they sometimes think of something secretive or maybe a series of journals hidden in a desk drawer. Honestly, it’s a lot more practical than that, though no less fascinating. These books represent a bridge between raw, messy human thought and the polished, world-class content that ends up reaching millions of people globally.
The Mystery of the Jon Collins Black Books Explained
So, what are we actually talking about here? To understand the Jon Collins black books, you have to understand how Jon processes information. He’s a visual architect. He doesn't just read a text; he maps it. He diagrams it. He breaks it down until the skeleton of the idea is visible.
The "black books" are essentially high-quality, often Moleskine or similar style notebooks where Jon does the heavy lifting for The Bible Project scripts. They are filled with dense, handwritten notes, structural diagrams, and logic flows. If you’ve seen the "Classroom" series or the deep-dive podcasts, you are looking at the digital evolution of what started in those physical pages.
They’re black. They’re minimalist. And they’re iconic to the fanbase because they represent the "behind the curtain" work of one of the most influential digital ministries in modern history.
It's about the process.
A lot of creators today jump straight to a keyboard. Jon doesn't. He leans into the tactile nature of pen and paper. There’s something about the friction of a pen on a page that slows the brain down enough to catch nuances in a 3,000-year-old poem that a blinking cursor just misses.
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Why the Analog Method Still Matters in a Digital World
In a 2026 landscape where AI generates half the scripts we read, the Jon Collins black books represent a pushback toward slow, intentional meditation. Think about it. When you’re trying to synthesize the Book of Romans or the concept of HESED into a five-minute video, you can't afford to be shallow.
Jon often talks about "meditation literature." That’s how the biblical authors wrote. They expected you to chew on the words. You're supposed to find links between the beginning and the end. Those black books are where Jon does that chewing. He’s looking for the "chiasms"—those symmetrical structures in ancient writing where the main point is buried right in the middle like a literary sandwich.
If you look at the sketches in these journals, it’s not just doodles. It’s engineering.
He’s mapping how a theme like "The City" or "The Priest" moves from a garden in Genesis to a new city in Revelation. Most people just see the finished animation. The real magic, though, is in the scratched-out sentences and the re-drawn arrows in those notebooks. It’s the grit before the gloss.
Is There a Way to Get Your Hands on Them?
This is the big question. Everyone wants to know if these are for sale.
Kinda.
While you can’t exactly walk into a Barnes & Noble and buy Jon’s personal diary (thankfully), the aesthetic and the methodology have heavily influenced the physical products The Bible Project puts out. If you’ve seen the Coffee Table Book or the Annotated Series, you’re seeing a curated, "pro-ified" version of the Jon Collins black books style.
- Large scale layouts.
- Heavy focus on structural diagrams.
- Minimalist aesthetic.
- Intellectual depth without the academic "stuffiness."
They’ve basically turned his internal processing method into a genre of literature. It’s a mix of an art book and a study guide. For some people, that’s exactly what they need. They don't want a dry commentary. They want to see how the gears turn.
The Cultural Impact of the Bible Project Aesthetic
It’s hard to overstate how much this specific "black book" vibe has changed religious media. Before Jon Collins and Tim Mackie (his long-time friend and scholar-in-residence), most religious publishing was... well, it was either really academic and boring or really "churchy" and dated.
Jon brought a Portland-based, design-forward sensibility to the table.
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That’s why the Jon Collins black books have such a cult following. They represent a specific intersection of faith and high-end design. It’s the "Apple-ification" of the Bible. It’s clean. It’s thoughtful. It doesn't scream at you.
When you see a picture of Jon in the studio with one of those notebooks open, it signals to the audience that the work being done is rigorous. It’s not just "feelings." It’s research. It’s a visual testimony to the fact that someone spent ten hours staring at a single paragraph of text so you don't have to (unless you want to).
What People Get Wrong About Jon’s Role
A common misconception is that Jon is "just the host."
People think Tim Mackie does the thinking and Jon does the talking. That’s a total misunderstanding of how the Jon Collins black books function. Jon is the "architect of the experience." He’s the one who asks the "dumb" questions that are actually the smartest questions in the room. He forces the scholarship into a shape that a normal human being can actually understand.
The notebooks are where that translation happens.
He takes the complex, often inaccessible language of the academy and filters it through his own curiosity. If he can't map it in his book, it’s not ready for the video. That’s a high bar for clarity. It’s a filter. If the logic doesn't hold up under a pen, it won't hold up under a camera.
The Influence on Modern Note-Taking Trends
Interestingly, the popularity of the Jon Collins black books has coincided with a massive resurgence in "analog systems" like Bullet Journaling or the "Zettelkasten" method. People are tired of screens. We spend eight hours a day on Slack and Zoom; the last thing we want to do is study something deep on a screen too.
Jon’s use of physical notebooks has inspired a lot of students and creatives to go back to paper.
There’s a specific psychological benefit here. Studies—real ones, like those from Princeton and UCLA—show that handwriting notes leads to better retention and conceptual understanding than typing. When Jon is scribbling in those black books, he’s literally wiring his brain to understand the material better. It’s a slow-burn process.
How to Apply the "Black Book" Method to Your Own Life
You don't need to be a biblical scholar to use this approach. Whether you're a project manager, a software dev, or a stay-at-home parent, the "black book" philosophy is about externalizing your brain.
- Get a high-quality physical notebook. Don't go cheap. If the paper feels good, you’ll want to use it. The tactile experience matters more than you think.
- Stop writing in straight lines. Use the whole page. Draw boxes around ideas. Connect them with literal lines. If two thoughts are related, show that relationship visually.
- Embrace the mess. The Jon Collins black books aren't perfect from page one. They are a "working out" of ideas. You have to give yourself permission to be wrong on paper so you can be right in practice.
- Use different "weights." Jon often uses different pens or markers to signify different levels of importance. Use bold for big themes and fine lines for the "nitty-gritty" details.
The Future of These Collections
Will we ever see a full "facsimile edition" of the Jon Collins black books?
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Probably not in their rawest form. Most of that stuff is likely too personal or too disorganized for a general audience. However, the influence is already permanent. You see it in the way the Bible Project’s "Classroom" notes are structured. You see it in their "Scripture Journals."
The legacy of the black books isn't the paper itself. It’s the permission it gave a whole generation of people to engage with ancient texts using their eyes, their hands, and their analytical minds all at once. It turned "Bible study" into "Bible design."
It’s about making the invisible visible.
In a world that feels increasingly fragmented, there is something deeply grounding about a guy, a pen, and a black book trying to make sense of the world’s most complicated stories. It reminds us that understanding takes time. It reminds us that the best ideas aren't found; they are built.
If you're looking to upgrade your own study habits, looking into the "visual storytelling" philosophy Jon advocates is a great place to start. Don't just read. Map. Don't just listen. Sketch. You might find that the "black book" method changes not just how you see the Bible, but how you see every complex problem in your life.
Next Steps for Deepening Your Research
To truly integrate the methodology seen in the Jon Collins black books, start by watching the "Behind the Scenes" content on the Bible Project’s YouTube channel or their "Classroom" series. Pay specific attention to the whiteboard sessions. Those are the most direct translations of Jon’s notebook style into a public format. If you want the physical experience, look for the Bible Project Coffee Table Book, which serves as the most comprehensive collection of the visual structures Jon and his team have developed over the last decade. It’s basically the "final draft" of those legendary black notebooks.