Sponsored read to mark 60 years of New English Bible
IN THE beginning was the word, and the Forest Parish Church was full of them at the weekend in a 12-hour sponsored Bible read.
The church was celebrating the 60th anniversary of the publication of the New English Bible New Testament.
Ten years ago, the social committee of the church did a 24-hour bible read, and the committee wanted to do another one, but without getting up in the middle of the night, so they settled on 12 hours.
The Rev. Claire Claxton said it was a more manageable challenge.
‘When we decided to do this I looked up to see how long it should take to read the New Testament and I found out it would take about 17 hours and the whole Bible takes about 70 hours, so we just thought we’d start at the beginning and see where we get up to by 7pm.’
The readings were arranged in 15 minute slots, so there were 48 slots in total, and around 30 people were taking part.
They started at the beginning with the Gospel According to St. Matthew, and at 2.30pm they had already reached John.
When it was first published in 1961, it allowed people of the 20th century to read the accounts of Jesus in everyday English in the same way that the people of the second century read them in everyday Greek.
New idiom and rhythm were added to the old text.
Mrs Claxton said it was an amazing book that stayed relevant to the modern age.
‘I don’t think everyone necessarily appreciates how relevant it is, there is so much to say to us in our own situation, Jesus told stories that are timeless, he often spoke in parables and they can be interpreted in lots of different ways, but also they really are applicable to today’s society as well.’
The star turn of the day came from Bailiff Richard McMahon, who read a couple of chapters from the Gospel According to St. John.
He said it was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate.
‘It was about some of the work Jesus was doing travelling around during his lifetime, and in particular there was a nice touch where it talks about sitting in judgement, which I thought was quite appropriate for me.
‘And the language of the New English Bible is very much about it being accessible to more people who wouldn’t necessarily be as familiar with some of the more formal language in previous versions.’