The Bible as Bestseller

No need to wait for reviews. The book was a runaway bestseller the moment it appeared. The New English Bible, product of 13 years of cooperative scholarship in Britain (TIME, Jan. 13), was put on sale from England to New Zealand last week, and a print order of 1,275,000 copies was obviously not going to be enough. In New York, dealers' reorders have already accounted for a fifth printing.

Reviewers hastened to assess the new Bible's contributions to religion and literature. Even on the 78th anniversary of the death of Karl Marx, the London Daily Worker gave the new Bible serious attention--and found it wanting. "The beauty and power, the earthy 17th century prose, have been replaced by merely competent writing which ranges in character from that of a report in the Times to that of advertising copy." That Which Slept. Presumably more interested than the Daily Worker in a clear, understandable Bible, scholars and clerics in the U.S. and Britain generally sounded more favorable. The new version, wrote Poet Laureate John Masefield, "cannot fail to move the living world. The work, greatly planned, has been manfully done. That which slept has been awakened." There was almost unanimous praise for much of the swift, modern prose, for the clear insights of such passages as Christ's gentle rebuke to his mother at Cana, in John 2:4: "'Your concern, mother, is not mine,' " and for Christ's " reply 'Are in you the Mark King 15:2, of the when Jews?' Pilate " asks, and he answers: "'The words are yours.'"* Writing in the Guardian, Middleton's Bishop Wickham concluded that "the old er text now encourages laziness of belief. The new one compels reaction just because the meanings stand proud." In the U.S., the Yale Divinity School's Dr. H. Richard Niebuhr, professor of Christian Ethics and Theology, greeted the new Bible with enthusiasm. "It is written in a beautiful, contemporary style; it has a dignity of its own." Added Princeton's Dr. Franklin W. Young: "The new translation brings us close to the colloquial style which predominates in the original Greek text." Some striking examples of colloquialism: "he began to feel the pinch" (Luke 15:14); "Remember: sparse sowing, sparse reaping" (II Corinthians 9:6); "I never sponged upon you . . ." (II Corinthians 12:13).* Pearls to Pigs. Other critics were not quite so charitable. British Theologian Dr.

Hugh Schonfield complained that the new Bible is "too gentlemanly . . . The translators have been so well brought up that their good manners are often in evidence.

The Angel Gabriel makes his annunciation to a 'girl' instead of a 'Virgin.' The 'sinners' with whom Jesus dines become 'bad characters.' " Some reviewers asked what the new Bible translators thought they were achieving with " 'Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.' " Unhappily, other critics noted that " 'neither cast ye your pearls before swine' " had become: " 'do not feed your pearls to pigs.' " They cringed to read the jingle: "'If your right eye leads you astray, tear it out and fling it away.' " The angriest attacks were aimed at the new Bible's version of the Lord's Prayer, which begins strongly (almost word for word as in the King James Version) and tails off into banality: "And do not bring us to the test, but save us from the evil one." Though J. Carter Swain, executive director of the National Council of Churches' department of the Bible, found much to admire, he was bothered by the native British idiom, which has a false ring to American ears (" 'God speaks true' may be the Queen's English, but it is not Uncle Sam's"). Even more, Swain was puzzled by the deletion of the word Christ from the Gospels. The name, he reported, occurs only in John 20:31: "Once it is rendered Christ and once God's Anointed.

The other 45 times it is rendered 'The Messiah.' " Other critics were startled by the new Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:5-6): " 'How blest are those of a gentle spirit; they shall have the earth for their possession. How blest are those who hunger and thirst to see right prevail; they shall be satisfied.' " The argument is sure to continue--at least until the next translation appears.

For the New English Bible, the big question was posed by Harvard Professor of Divinity Amos Wilder. The fresh translation is extremely readable, said Dr. Wilder, "but how much will the church use it?"

* The King James Version of John 2:4: "Woman, what have I to do with thee?"; Mark 15:2: "And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answering said unto him, Thou sayest it." * The King James Version of Luke 15:14, "He began to be in want"; 11 Corinthians 9:6, "But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly"; 11 Corinthians 12:13, "I myself was not burdensome to you. . ."

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