Editors of the Reader’s Digest are nearing the completion of a major book-condensation project: the entire Bible. Publication date is September 1982, but so far, Digest editors are saying little about it.
Jack Walsh, who is overseeing the Bible project, did say that work on it was being done under the direction of “one of the world’s most respected Bible scholars, Dr. Bruce Metzger of Princeton Theological Seminary.” (He is a New Testament scholar, chairman of the RSV Bible Committee, author of numerous commentaries, and historical and literary studies.)
Walsh said Reader’s Digest editors who had professional knowledge of condensing procedure were “specifically trained to work on Bible text.” After that everything was reviewed by Metzger.
“In fact,” said Walsh, “he was in on it from the beginning. The initial discussions on each book took place with him. The work, as it proceeded, was reviewed by him. He had the sole right of final approval.” Attempts to reach Metzger about the work have been unsuccessful.
Walsh said that though the condensing technique developed by Digest editors for the Bible was basically the same one used for other books, there were some differences. “We had to adapt it to some extent because of the nature of the Bible,” he said. As an example, he said editors will change a word or phrase to clarify or shorten it. In working with the Bible, however, unlike other books, “we could not use any words that came from our editors. We used only words that actually appeared in the RSV, preferably in the same book we were working on.” By contrast, in condensing ordinary literature, he said, it was proper with the author’s permission in bring in words that would fit in context.
Walsh said work on the new Bible was painstakingly cautious. “We began our preliminary studies five years ago,” he said. “The actual condensation has occupied seven editors for three years.”
Walsh explained why Reader’s Digest undertook this project. “The original full-length Bible is very long and tends to be obscure in many places,” he said. It is not easy to read the full, original Bible in any version. Other Bibles made to simplify the text are always either full-text versions or simple abridgments.
“Of course, these have their own purposes to serve,” he said. “But the Digest Bible offers the whole Bible, reduced by 40 percent. This is possible through the special technique of condensation which we have developed, and we are the only ones in the world, really, who practice it.
“It does not cut out whole blocks of text, but is instead a line-by-line cutting process. True condensation never interferes with the essential substance of a text.”
Walsh said all 66 books of the Bible would be present in the Digest Bible, “arranged in their familiar basic sequence. Every incident, every personality, every teaching of substance is preserved along with the true essence and flavor of the original language.”
Although the new Bible would be about 800 pages long (the full RSV is 1,087), some of it would contain introductory matter. Walsh said, “You must understand that in talking about page length, the whole thing depends very much on how large your type is, or how small it is. In this case, what we’re trying to use is very readable type in a single column.”
Condensed Bibles may be new for the Reader’s Digest, but they are not for other publishers. The Dartmouth Bible, Oxford Shorter Bible, Random House Short Bible, Scribner’s Shorter Bible, and the Thomas Jefferson Bible are just a few other abbreviated versions.
Random House editors explained their rationale for a Short Bible back in 1925: “A cultivated woman once remarked that she had always supposed the Bible was to look up references in. It is too true that many people actually know no other use for it. Its size, variety, and obscurity bewilder them. They need a bridge to carry them over these gulfs to the understanding of it.
“That is why so many shortened Bibles have made their appearance of late years,” they continued. “They are not meant as substitutes for the Bible but as introductions to it.”
Problems may arise with any of these short Bibles, however. According to Walter Elwell, a theology professor at Wheaton College Graduate School, a danger of condensing in contrast to direct translation is that a verse that may have a variety of meanings retains that ambiguity in the translation process, but loses it in condensing. “Condensing,” he said, “boils the verse down to a single meaning, forcing the editors to choose one meaning while abandoning the others.”
Thus the condenser’s own theological bias may become a factor. The Thomas Jefferson Bible is one example of that in its elimination of miracles and all references to Christ’s deity because Jefferson found them unbelievable.
Another danger connected with condensed Bibles is that they might become more than study tools or devotional aids. “Condensations are crutches,” said Elwell. “Purists don’t like crutches of any kind. But used in the right way they are valuable—in the wrong way, just plain wrong.”
He said condensing Scripture was not a process reserved to editors. “We do it all the time,” he said, “every time we summarize a passage in the Bible in a sermon or lesson.”
In order to protect themselves and their project from any misunderstanding, Reader’s Digest editors have issued a short statement designed to answer any questions: “Reader’s Digest will publish a condensed version of the Bible, using the Revised Standard Version, in September 1982.… Our version is not intended in any way to replace the full original text, but is offered as a supplementary aid in approaching Scripture. The essential fabric of the text and its familiar sound has not been altered in any way. The full spiritual message has not in any way been diminished. The overall percentage of reduction is about 40 percent. It is our hope that many people who have been hindered from reading the Bible because of its length and complexity will find the Reader’s Digest condensation a warm invitation at last to become intimately acquainted with the greatest book mankind has ever had.”
Even though no advance copies or sample pages have slipped through the fingers of wary Reader’s Digest editors, the leader of the New York chapter of Moral Majority lost little time in branding it “a hellish plan.… It’s censoring God,” he said. National Moral Majority officials refused to take a position, but spokesman Cal Thomas said from headquarters in Lynchburg, Virginia, that it was “silly” to negate the condensed Bible before seeing it.
Cardinal Cody Firmly Denies Allegations
Chicago’s John Cardinal Cody was hanging tough in his refusal to answer a local newspaper’s sweeping charges against him and his long-time friend, Helen Dolan Wilson, who is 74.
The Chicago Sun-Times stunned the city last month with suggestions that Cody, 73 and ailing, enriched Wilson by channeling church money to her through two ecclesiastical bank accounts to which only Cody had access. The 2.4-million-member Chicago archdiocese is the world’s largest outside of Rome.
The major revelations by the newspaper include these:
• A federal grand jury is investigating whether Cody illegally diverted as much as $1 million to enrich Wilson.
• The grand jury subpoenaed Cody’s personal banking records, as well as those of the archdiocese, dating back to the mid-sixties. Cody has refused to turn over those records.
• Cody provided the money for a fashionable vacation home for Wilson in Boca Raton, Florida.
• Wilson, who divorced her husband in 1939, is known as Cody’s cousin, but they are not geneologically related. She is his closest confidant.
• Wilson was paid a secret salary by the Chicago archdiocese for six years. Although she made no more than $11,500 yearly, she stayed in a luxury, downtown high-rise apartment.
• Although Cody said Wilson’s husband left her “well-fixed,” he in fact left her no money when he died in 1969. Her accumulated wealth over the last 15 years is some $1 million. She worked for a small salary under Cody when he was chancellor of the Saint Louis archdiocese, but retired in 1969 on a $l,500-a-year pension.
The Chicago archdiocese quickly called the charges “erroneous and tragically painful.” Cody’s lawyer stated that Cody “is answerable to Rome and to God, not the Sun-Times.”
Wilson responded by calling the charges false. She said her wealth amounts to $250,000, and that only $21,000 was from Cody, which was in the form of a loan for the Florida house. Her lawyer said all her money came from insurance policies and home sales. Said Wilson: “They make me seem like a tramp … I never thought this type of persecution could continue in this enlightened age.”
A government investigation of a churchman of Cody’s rank is believed unprecedented in U.S. history.
