100-Minute Bible

[kmaherali]

100-Minute Bible caters to 'harried'
Half the book is a condensation of the four Gospels

Jonathan Petre
The Telegraph


September 22, 2005



CREDIT: Michael Stephens, Associated Press
Rev. Michael Hinton holds the 100-Minute Bible outside Canterbury Cathedral on Wednesday.






In the beginning was the Word. But the Word went on a bit, so a new version of the Bible has been produced for readers with short attention spans.

The 100-minute Bible, aimed at the "hurried and harried" generation, was launched at Canterbury Cathedral on Wednesday by its author, the Rev. Michael Hinton.

While the original takes about a week of solid reading to finish, the abbreviated version can be read from cover to cover in under two hours, said Hinton.

While all the familiar Old Testament stories are there, from Genesis to Exodus, out have gone the genealogy and the law books. Also missing is the Song of Songs, and only two psalms have survived.

The four Gospels of the New Testament have been rewritten as a single narrative in contemporary language.

"We have concentrated on Jesus and the chronology of His ministry, because He is the central figure in the Bible," said Hinton, a former headmaster of Sevenoaks School in Kent.

"Half the book is given over by the Gospels. Then we wanted to keep a lot of the stories that have entered into the common consciousness, such as Noah's Ark, Jonah and so on.

"The poetry has been sacrificed for the sake of clarity, so it is accessible to everyone from the age of 10 upwards."

It took the 78-year-old retired clergyman more than two years to cut down the 66 books of the Bible into a 20,000-word version that could be read in one hour and 40 minutes.

"It has been a labour of love," he said. "We hope it will appeal to those who are searching for faith, but also to committed Christians who want to refresh their memory about the Bible but say they are too busy to read the whole thing."

More than 11,000 copies of the 100-Minute Bible, which is approximately the size of a notebook, have been printed. They cost about $6.50 each.

© The Calgary Herald 2005