{"id":41401,"date":"2015-05-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/readers-digest-condensed-version-of-bible\/"},"modified":"2015-05-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T00:00:00","slug":"readers-digest-condensed-version-of-bible","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/readers-digest-condensed-version-of-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"Reader&#8217;s Digest Condensed Version of the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 1982, Reader&#39;s Digest published a condensed version of the world&#39;s most widely-read book&mdash;the Bible. The project, led by John E. Walsh, took seven editors three years to complete. In a 2015 obituary for Walsh, <em class=\"citation\">The New York Times<\/em> reported,<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>In all its incarnations, the Bible may well have been the world&#39;s best-selling book, but not necessarily the best read. The original Revised Standard Version was 1,400 pages; the [Reader&#39;s Digest version], about 800. In the beginning, there were 850,000 words. Three years later, John E. Walsh and his team of editors had condensed the Bible by 40 percent, to 510,000.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The abridged version &hellip; did not skimp on any of the Ten Commandments and considered favorites like the 23rd Psalm and the Lord&#39;s Prayer to be sacrosanct. But in the end, it boiled down the Old Testament by 50 percent and the New Testament by 25 percent. None of Jesus&#39; words were changed, but about 10 percent were deleted.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>In 1982 Mr. Walsh asserted, &quot;Our Bible is still the Word of God, but it&#39;s easier to get into and stay with and appreciate.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p><em>Possible Preaching Angles: This story shows that we may also be living with a &quot;condensed version&quot; of God&#39;s Word. In particular, we&#39;ve most likely deleted the portions we find offensive or inconvenient. Unfortunately, a selective Bible leads to selective obedience.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3485,3487,3777,3778,4754,4893,5043,5045,5046,5291],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-41401","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-bible","tax_ctp_tags-bible-reading","tax_ctp_tags-devotional-life","tax_ctp_tags-devotions","tax_ctp_tags-quiet-time","tax_ctp_tags-scripture","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-discipline","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-food","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-formation","tax_ctp_tags-word-of-god"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Reader&#039;s Digest Condensed Version of the Bible - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/readers-digest-condensed-version-of-bible\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reader&#039;s Digest Condensed Version of the Bible - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 1982, Reader&#039;s Digest published a condensed version of the world&#039;s most widely-read book&mdash;the Bible. 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