Well, another dilemma has come my way. It seems that in England a minister there has created a new edition of the Bible, which he calls his “100 Minute Bible” as it can be read in l00 minutes, as opposed to the “regular” Bible, which, according to the news story requires at least a week of solid reading to read through. While the last paragraph of the story reminds readers of recent innovations such as the “teen” magazine format Bibles that also contain dating and beauty advice and other secular information, I am not sure this work is in the same category.
Truthfully, I have a hard time calling it a Bible at all. I know we print New Testaments all the time, and they are not the “whole” Bible, and we even have copies that are just one book, like John, or just the Psalms and Proverbs, for certain things, but to date, I have never known of a “version” that actually edits out portions of the individual texts themselves that does not in the end distort the text to resemble nothing at all like the Scriptures they started out as. In fact, the editor/”author” said “he had found it painful to edit out the Book of Ruth, which was one of his favourite sections of the Bible, and he was also aware that the personality of St Paul had been diluted. ‘But other than that there is nothing I deeply regret leaving out, given the constraints.’” The problem is that every genealogy was left out, as well as all the “law” books, Song of Solomon, Proverbs, and all but two of the Psalms. And to boot, they took the four Gospels and rewrote them as one story.
So, we have a harmony of the Gospels, and eradication of the Old Testament foundation for the Gospel, as well as the dilution of Paul’s writing as well. While many people may not know the Bible, somehow I don’t think this is the answer. First of all, it doesn’t have to take a week to read the entire Bible, and second, I am certain that it is difficult if not impossible to maintain the integrity of the Bible after such severe editing.
While I object to “Revolve” and other “magazine” style Bibles that include such things as dating and beauty tips for clear and valid reasons, I must say, at least they are still printing the actual Bible. If you want to just give someone a New Testament, then that is great. But to edit the text in whatever way you see fit to make it short and “readable” I think crosses the line in a serious and reprehensible way. I may not criticize the publishers of Revolve and other types of Bibles for tarnishing the Gospel and the very ministry of Christ as they did not change it but merely add around the fringes issues and items which merely distract and draw away the focus from where it belongs, I must criticize the publication/creation of a text like this “100 Minute Bible”. In fact, it cannot be a Bible at all, for it is closer to the “Bible” created by the heretic Marcion than anything that would be acceptable in conservative churches today.
The “author”/editor rightly recognizes that Jesus is the central figure of the Bible, but by removing the beginning of His work as recorded in the Bible, especially in the Law and other places, like the Psalms, you end up with an inaccurate picture of Jesus. While absolute agreement on theology can never be required for salvation, there are certain issues you do not change, and the understanding of who Christ is cannot avoid being changed when you edit as they have in this new “version”.
Hopefully this will serve as a reminder of our need to proclaim the Gospel, once for all delivered to the saints, just as it was delivered, without error, to avoid the troubles that these human revisions such as the “100 Minute Bible” will cause. This is yet another opportunity to get out there and tell people what we actually do believe, in a positive fashion. If we just focus on informing them of the truth of Christ from Genesis to Revelation, in the end, there will be no need for a “Cliff’s Notes” version of the Bible, because people will not be willing to compromise on this. But this will only happen if we make clear the need to for the truth, for the entire story, for the right story. It is said that the US Treasury folks study real bills to better find counterfeits, not studying all the counterfeits to find others like them. While I know this can be misused, it seems this is another case when the real, complete Bible is the one we must study, to know the real Jesus, to better be prepared to know what is true and what isn’t, instead of a “counterfeit” version.
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