A GIFT OF BIBLES

"HAT WE NEED ... is a fresh look at the Bible and how we use it. I'm looking for a donor so that I can afford to give everyone I confirm a smart copy of the Bible, in a good, modern version". That was the request I made in the homily at the Ebbsfleet Festival of Faith this last May and I am delighted to say that a donor has come forward with a substantial gift. I can now supply the newly-confirmed with their own copy of the Bible and have started to do so. One of the tasks of the newly-appointed Ebbsfleet Mission Assistant is to keep the supply of bibles going.

I had to scratch my head about what version of the Bible to provide. I think the Bible of the future will be the New Revised Standard Version, which experts say is a very accurate translation but which takes the liberty of using inclusive language where this is not so in the original Hebrew and Greek. Inclusive language seems friendlier, no doubt, but sometimes disguises rather than translates what the Bible actually says. We look forward to an update which puts some of this right and prizes accuracy over fashion and political correctness. We need the full flavour of bible times not a sanitized account.

Meanwhile we still have the Revised Standard Version - the most successful English translation since 1611. Our donor was brought up on it and so was I: it was used daringly - and I daresay illegally - for Cathedral Evensong when I was a child in the late 1950s. It stays close to the Authorised Version in tone but is easier to understand. A new, Second Catholic edition of the Revised Standard Version was published by Ignatius Press in 2002. This was based on the original Catholic edition, prepared by the Catholic Biblical Association of great Britain, but has been slightly up-dated. It is this version which we are supplying and very handsome it is too with an icon of Christ and the emblems of the four evangelists on the front cover. It is particularly good to have the extra books of the Old Testament, the books which were written first in Greek and have been called 'the Apocrypha'. They have been long part of our lectionary though, unfortunately, the Church of England has very recently taken to always providing an alternative when a reading from one of these books is prescribed.

Every version is something of a compromise: even the Hebrew and Greek originals have variant readings. There are many modern versions which translate so flexibly and imaginatively that they are more free paraphrases than close translations and there is a whole argument about that, whether or not such paraphrasing gets us closer or not to what was originally meant. The important thing is that these bibles of ours get used properly and I have commissioned a short and very readable leaflet to give out to all the newly-confirmed making a few suggestions as to how to use what is the most valuable gift in the world.

Many thanks and God's blessing to our donor, whose gift will keep us afloat for the first year at least. Other contributions to the Bible Fund are now sought - large and small. Mark the envelope 'Bible Fund' and make out the cheque to 'the Bishop of Ebbsfleet's Mission Fund'. It is the young - and those young in the Faith - who will profit from it and greatly enrich our life together on pilgrimage as People of the Book.

May God bless you as you study his Holy Word.

+ Andrew Ebbsfleet



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