"The Gist" - A brand new bible translation

Just read a guardian article http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/22/bible-twitter-makeover

that put me on to some great bible twitterers. @biblesummary, @FakeBible and

@janariess (Twible).

Biblesummary is summarising the bible one tweet per chapter per day. So far it has got to Gen 15 (a little ahead of where I am in my bible blog http://marcusbible.blogspot.com/).

Gen15: The Lord promised Abram an heir and many descendants. Abram believed. He was told that they would be enslaved but would then return.

Gen14: The kings went to war and took Lot captive. Abram rescued Lot. Melchizedek blessed Abram and Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Gen13: Abram journeyed with his nephew Lot. Their servants argued, so Lot went to Sodom, Abram to Canaan. The LORD promised Abram the land.

Gen12: God told Abram, "Go. I will make you a great nation. You will be a blessing." In Egypt Abram lied about Sarai and Pharaoh was cursed.

Gen11: They began building a great tower for themselves, but the Lord confused their language. Shem's line included Abram who married Sarai.

Gen10: Japheth's line lived in the coastlands; Ham's included Nimrod and the Canaanites; Shem's lived in the East. These formed the nations.

Gen9: God blessed Noah and set the rainbow as a sign that he would never flood the earth again. Noah got drunk and cursed Ham's son Canaan.

Gen8: The flood abated. Noah sent out a raven and two doves. When the earth was dry God called them all out of the ark. Noah built an altar.

Gen7: Noah and his family went into the ark with two of each creature. It rained for forty days and forty nights and the earth was covered.

Gen6: Humankind corrupted the earth with evil. God decided to destroy them. He told Noah to build an ark to be saved from the flood.

Gen5: Adam's line was: Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech and Noah. Noah's sons were Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Gen4: Eve's sons made offerings to God. Only Abel's was acceptable, so Cain killed him. Abel's blood cried out and God sent Cain away.

Gen3: The serpent deceived the woman; she and Adam ate from the tree. The earth became cursed, and God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden.

Gen2: God formed a man and gave him the garden in Eden, except for the tree of knowledge. Adam was alone so God made a woman as his partner.

Gen1: God created the heavens, the earth and everything that lives. He made humankind in his image, and gave them charge over the earth.

FakeBible are doing each verse as a tweet in an informal twitter style:

  

Ex10:29 "Okay, you won't ever s-see me again," said Moses. And it was true, except for in a lifetime of Pharaoh's nightmares.

Ex10:28 "GET OUT OF MY SIGHT! IF YOU SEE ME AGAIN I'LL FLIPPIN' KILL YOU!" It was a strange threat to make after the plague of darkness.

Ex10:27 Pharaoh: "FFS! DO YOU THINK I'M AN IDIOT? YOU DON'T WANT THREE DAYS, YOU WANT TO GO AND NEVER COME BACK!" What a hard-hearted bigot.

Ex10:25-26 Moses: "We all have to make sac-sacrifices! I.e., sacrifice our cattle. To G-God. B-better take ALL the cattle, just in c-case."

 

Ex10:24 Pharaoh summoned Moses. "Go. Take your women and children. But leave your cattle as collateral. Fair? Fair. Good talk."

Twible paraphrased the whole of the Book of Leviticus in one tweet: "Don't eat this. Don't screw that. Don't touch this. Don't DO that. Thus saith the Lord.". Actually it usually does a couple of tweets per chapter and a couple of tweets per day.

1 Kgs 22: Great Jehoshaphat! Kings of S & N join forces to fight Syrians. 1 Kgs ends on happy note of unity & peace. Won’t last.

1 Kgs 22: Great Jehoshaphat! Kings of S & N join forces to fight Syrians. 1 Kgs

1 Kgs 21: Queen Jezebel uses eminent domain to seize Naboth’s vineyard; has the guy stoned. (Don’t worry. She’ll soon be Pupperoni.) 

1 Kgs 21: Queen Jezebel uses eminent domain to seize Naboth’s vineyard; has the guy stoned. (Don’t worry. She’ll soon be Pupperoni.)

1 Kgs 20: Gleeful Syrians threaten to take Israel’s gold, wives, & kids. Like a country music song! Isr trounces em . . . this time.

1 Kgs 19: Elij crashes from theo high; now in deep funk sans Celexa. Wants to die, but G won’t hear of it. Bakes him a cake instead. 

1 Kgs 19: Elij crashes from theo high; now in deep funk sans Celexa. Wants to die, but G won’t hear of it. Bakes him a cake instead.

1 Kgs 18: Theology throwdown; Elij dares 850 pagan prophets to duel. Elij: “Ha! Is that all you’ve got? LMAO @ your girly-man gods.” 

 

If you didn't like "the message" then you'll not get along with these "versions" but I think they are a great resource. I view the bible as inspired at all levels, from an individual word to "the gist". If that wasn't the case then at what point does a translation stop being a helpful bible? The English versions we have are already a long way from reading the original manuscripts in their original language. Missing the gist can be as bad as missing the detail. Those that emphasise the importance of each word would be quick no doubt to emphasise context, and context is just another word for the gist. So we have had "the message", now it's time for a new groundbreaking  bible version called "The Gist". I'm actually quite serious. The book would contain several versions of the bible at different levels of detail. In recognition that a summary necessarily needs to be done from a particular perspective with certain presuppositions and aims in mind (just like any bible translation) each level would be done in a number of "takes". Anyone want to be the new Eugene Peterson?