It may be the word of God, but that hasn't spared it from regular man-made tinkering(1). From 15th-century printers to 20th-century modernists, every age has sought to adapt the Bible.

So now, for the era of restless consumers and fickle(2) attention spans(3), a British publication distills(4) the original into a form you could read at one sitting. Instead of 780,000 words and 1,200 chapters, there are just 20,000 words in fewer than 60 pages.

Not surprisingly, the "100-Minute Bible" is generating robust(5) debate in Britain, where even Shakespeare(6) is no longer immune to(7) a culture of abbreviation(8).

Proponents(9) say it is a gateway to the classic, a crash(10) course in Christianity that will provide a useful tool to reach out to the curious, the lapsed(11), and the ignorant.

But opponents fulminate(12) against such pithiness(13), muttering about the callous(14) disregard for Biblical virtues such as perseverance(15), dedication(16), and deferred gratification(17). There is, after all, no beatitude that reads: "Blessed are the editors, for they shall make stuff shorter to read."

One contributor to a BBC discussion website grumbled(18): "What's next? Downloading sermons(19) from iTunes?"

For those behind the project, such criticism misses the point. Publisher Len Budd says that he is struck by how little the average Briton knows about the Christian culture that has underpinned(20) society for centuries. Barely 10 percent of the 40-odd million Britons who cite their faith as Christian regularly attend church. Of those who do, he says, many will have but a hazy sense of biblical chronology(21).

He devised the project two years ago, and enlisted the help of a retired Anglican priest and headmaster, the Rev.(22) Michael Hinton.

The idea was to reproduce the 66 books into 50 400-word chunks, each taking about two minutes to read. The thin tome(23), shaped like an envelope and not much heavier than one, should take less than two hours to skip through.

"It's for the man in the street," says Budd. "If he's able to answer a pub quiz(24) question about the Bible afterwards, then good. If he goes on to read the whole thing, even better. And if someone comes to faith as a result of it, even better still."

也许仍然是上帝的教导，但却经过了人类不一般的简化。从十五世纪的印刷者一直到二十世纪的现代人，几乎每一代人都试图改编圣经。
 

因此，为了适应现代消费者忙碌的生活和短暂的精力集中时长，一家英国出版社把圣经原文精简成一口气就可以读完的版本。原文共有1200章，780000字，而精简后的版本只有20000字，不到60页。

毫无疑问，这种 “100分钟圣经”在英国引发了激烈的争论。在英国，即便莎士比亚也没能逃开文化快餐化的厄运。

支持者们说这种精简圣经是古典原著的入门手册、是基督教的速成课。 对于那些对基督教感到好奇的、精神迷失的和无知的人们，这无疑是一种有效快速的学习工具。

但是反对者则严厉驳斥了这种简化，抱怨简化版泯灭了圣经原有的意图，例如圣经要求人们要能够百折不挠、有奉献精神和延迟的满足。反对者们毫无感激之情地祝福道：“祝福编辑们，因为他们简化了原文以便阅读。”

一个人投稿给英国广播公司论坛抱怨说：“接下来要干吗？从iTunes上下载布道？”

做出这项举措的人们却不是这样想的。出版人兰·巴德说他发现英国人普遍对基督教文化知之甚少，他很受打击，因为基督教文化曾经支持整个社会长达数个世纪。四千零几万声称自己信仰基督教的人中仅有百分之十的人按时去教堂。他说，按时去教堂的人中，很多虽然知道圣经的年表，但对它的印象十分朦胧。

他从两年前开始思考这项计划，并请求英国国教的退休牧师兼校长迈克尔·林顿帮忙。

最初的想法是把66本书压缩成50个400字的版块，每一块用两分钟就可以读完。这本薄薄的小册子形状和信封差不多，重量也没比信封多多少，大约不到两个小时就可浏览完毕。

巴德说：“它是为了街上的人设计的。如果他阅读之后能够回答酒吧问题竞赛中有关圣经的问题，那就很不错。如果他阅读之后希望看看完整版，那就更好了。如果他从此就开始信仰天主，那就再好不过了。”