OpenAI recently released DALL·E 2, an AI that takes written text and turns it into an image. A project I’ve been working on takes stories from Genesis and Luke, feeds them to the AI, and creates images out of the text. For example:
“No sign will be given this generation except the sign of Jonah” (Luke 11:29–32). This image doesn’t literally reflect Jesus’ words here (he doesn’t mean a giant whale), but in my opinion it captures the intent of his saying, that that signs that he’s the Messiah are as obvious to anyone willing to hear as a whale landing on a city.
See all 828 AI-generated Bible images in this project. Below is a selection of my favorites, followed by a longer description of my methodology. Hover over any of the images to see the prompt that generated it.
Noah getting drunk in his vineyard (Gen 9:20–21). You don’t see this story illustrated often.Descendants of Noah (Gen 10). A Chihuly-inspired glass sculpture of a family tree.Melchizedek presents bread and wine to Abram (Gen 14:18–24). Pointilism in the style of Seurat.Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24–25). In the style of Hieronymous Bosch.Jacob and Esau wrestle in the womb (Gen 25:19–26). Another part of the story you don’t often see illustrated.Rachel and Leah arguing over mandrakes (Gen 30:14–15). Don’t remember this story? I didn’t either. But the tiny sculpture conveys the bitterness and pettiness of Rachel and Leah.Jacob and the spotted lambs (Gen 30:25–43). I imagine that this image is of Laban, who looks down to realize that all the sheep are spotted. The pointilistic style reinforces that theme.Jacob and Laban build stone pillars (Gen 31:45–54). This image depicts Jacob and Laban after they’ve built two stone pillars of friendship. I think it’s funny how it looks like one of them is pushing the other off, reflecting that maybe erecting these pillars hasn’t resolved everything between them.The descendants of Esau (Gen 36). Another family tree, this one supposedly in the style of Rothko but is much more representational than his work usually is. The AI does a surprisingly great job at artistic family trees.Joseph’s brothers sell him (Gen 37:28). This photorealistic image reflects the rare time when the AI gave me exactly what I wanted. Here I imagine that Reuben is holding the fragments of Joseph’s robe while he watches the merchants carry Joseph away.People come to Egypt for food (Gen 41:56–57). A Great Depression-style breadline in Egypt because of the famine in Joseph’s time.The silver cup (Gen 44:12). Joseph hides his silver cup in the grain sack of one of his brothers.The plague of frogs (Exod 8:1–15). In the style of a 1990s Saturday-morning cartoon, this image doesn’t exactly convey the story, but it sure is fun.The death of Jezebel (2Kgs 9:30–33). The man wearing the high heel in the background, as though he stole it from Jezebel, sells this image for me.Birth of Christ (Luke 2:6–7). In the style of a 16-bit video game.“The ax is at the root of the tree” (Luke 3:9). A huge sculpture that captures the message.The people of Nazareth pursue Jesus to a cliff (Luke 4:28–30). I’m not sure why there’s a sheep–possibly because the prompt asks for an image in the style of Beatrix Potter.Jesus calls his first disciples (Luke 5:1–11). A 3D render from the perspective of the fish.“First take the plank out of your eye” (Luke 6:41–42). Or, in this case, “First take the eye out of your plank.”“For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke 6:45)The house built on the sand (Luke 6:49)A lamp on a stand (Luke 8:16). I could never persuade the AI to create a light under a bowl, only shining on it in various ways.Jesus calms the storm (Luke 8:22–25)The Transfiguration (Luke 9:26–36). I feel like this photo captures how someone might create a hilltop installation to reflect Jesus’ transfiguration.“Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Luke 9:58). This fox looks adorably resentful.“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (Luke 10:2). If the workers are few, the American solution is to industrialize the process.“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?” (Luke 11:11). In the style of Grandma Moses.“The eye is the lamp of the body” (Luke 11:33–36)“Do not worry about how you will defend yourselves” (Luke 12:11–12)The fall of the tower of Siloam (Luke 13:4). Jesus briefly alludes to this event, and this memorial, in the style of Maya Lin, captures the feeling of a contemporary memorial. Each line represents a victim of the collapse (though the AI only generated 14 lines, not 18).“It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches” (Luke 13:19). Here we have tiny birds nesting in a mustard plant.“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear” (Luke 14:35). This work captures the urgency of the statement, in my opinion.The parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:4–7). A sculpture in the style of Picasso.“You cannot serve both God and money” (Luke 16:13). Here the money becomes personified as a false god.“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you” (Luke 17:6)“A camel through the eye of a needle” (Luke 18:25). The camel is eyeing the needle and deciding that it can’t fit through.Jesus drives out the moneychangers (Luke 19:45–46). I feel like one of the moneychangers is dressed like a luchador for some reason.“God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Luke 20:38). This image conveys more the sentiment than the content of the passage.The widow’s mite (Luke 21:1–4). This piece, in the style of Georgia O’Keeffe, offers an interpretation of the widow that captures her emotions as she’s donating (possibly her last) two coins to the Temple treasury.Judas agrees to betray Jesus (Luke 22:1–6). I like that he’s dressed in silver coins.The Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:39–46). Here Jesus is having a vision of what he’s about to endure.Jesus’ crucifixion (Luke 23:26–43)The road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13–35)Opening of the abyss (Rev 9:1–2)
Background
DALL·E 2 is a text-to-image generator that takes a text prompt (“Realistic oil painting of a cat”) and generates a set of four images that it thinks matches that prompt. DALL·E doesn’t render human faces well, and sometimes it goes completely off-track in its suggestions, but its quality often astonished me.
OpenAI has another AI, GPT-3, that I used to generate many of the ideas for DALL·E prompts. I wanted to explore DALL·E using a wide variety of styles and artists, and I have limitations and biases when it comes to my knowledge of art history. GPT-3 cast a wider net of styles and artists than I would’ve come up with on my own (although GPT-3 loves Rembrandt and Banksy and mentioned them in many completions). Each GPT-3 completion costs around half a cent, and each text prompt to DALL·E generated an average of 1.3 usable images, bringing the all-in cost per image to around $0.12, or around $99 total for this project. (I generated most of these images during DALL·E’s free preview, however.)
The GPT-3 prompts I used evolved over time, but this one is emblematic:
Suggest 5 unique concept ideas for a work of visual art inspired by Luke 14:7-11 (do not pick the place of honor) in the Bible. Include art direction and a specific medium and artist to emulate. Include artists from a variety of eras, styles, and media. Try for an unusual perspective. Title, year, medium. Description.
And here’s what GPT-3 suggests:
“Turning the Tables,” a sculptural installation in which upside-down tables are suspended from the ceiling, representing how Jesus turned the power dynamic upside-down when he said that the last shall be first and the first shall be last. Inspired by Mexican artist Diego Rivera.
“Remember the Poor,” a series of paintings or drawings depicting the poor and needy from around the world, as a reminder that Jesus said we should always remember the poor. Inspired by the work of 19th century French painter Jean-Francois Millet.
“The Banquet,” a painting or series of paintings depicting a large banquet table spread with food, similar to the one described in the story of the great banquet in Luke 14, to emphasize the importance of hospitality. Inspired by Dutch painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
“The Place of Honor,” a painting or sculpture that shows a solitary figure in the place of honor at a banquet table, to represent how Jesus said that the one who takes the place of honor will be the last. Inspired by Chinese painter Zhang Daqian.
“The Outcast,” a painting or sculpture of a figure who is excluded from the banquet, to represent how Jesus said that those who are last will be first. Inspired by Nigerian-born British artist Yinka Shonibare.
I thought #1 was especially interesting as a concept, though I couldn’t persuade DALL·E to produce something good with it. Diego Rivera, further, is a painter rather than a sculptor, so the suggestion wouldn’t work as-is. These ideas often served as a starting place for the prompt I ultimately entered into DALL·E.
I appreciate the irony that I, as a human, am the least-creative part of this whole process; I’m largely copy-pasting content between AIs and then selecting the best output while the AI does most of the lateral thinking.
