Christianity in a nutshell: Britain's '100-Minute Bible'

The response to the "100-Minute Bible" has been overwhelming. Budd says he sold 4,000 copies the morning after its Sept. 21 launch. "I thought it would be a little cottage industry, but we have been totally overwhelmed," he says.

Adapting the Bible for a modern readership is not new, though this may be the most succinct effort yet. Several notable versions have sought to reproduce the book or parts of it in a reader-friendly form, such as Eugene Peterson's "The Message" and the "Reader's Digest Bible." There has even been a "Bible in Cockney," while another British project to be published next month renders the entire scripture in 700 limerick verses.

Peter Wallis, an ordained priest behind the limerick Bible, rejects criticism that these modern treatments are frivolous.

"An awful lot of people have got a Bible and it sits unopened by their bedside for years on end," he says. "Some of the Bibles around are paraphrases anyway, and unless you are a scholar in ancient Hebrew or Greek, I don't see the difference between this version ... and the others out there."

But Simon Barrow, codirector of Ekklesia, a London-based theological think tank, says that while new versions may find new markets, there is no substitute for time spent with the original.

He says one problem with the "100-Minute Bible," for example, is that it "flattens out the literary variety" of the Bible - its poetry, prophecy, history, law, parables, polemics, and letters - into, simply, prose.

"An example of where it can go wrong is in saying, 'God created the world in six days,' as if the whole story of Genesis was some literal statement," he says. "This could merely feed those who see the Bible as an oracle and don't see the poetry and parable there."

"If it gets people to read and think, that's good," he adds, "but we also need to say 'if you are going to understand this thing, you'll have to spend some time with it.' "

In the beginning God created heaven and earth over a period of six days. First he created light and darkness; then the vault of the heavens, separating the water above from the water below; then the dry land and all that grows in it. On the fourth day God created the sun, the moon and the stars; on the fifth the creatures of the sea and sky; and on the sixth those of the land, including humankind. On the seventh day God rested.

God made the first man, Adam, from the dust, and breathed life into him. He placed him in the beautiful and fertile garden of Eden, forbidding him to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil which grew there. Because he thought man should not be alone, he created the first woman from Adam's rib; Adam named her Eve. Eve was tempted by the serpent, the most cunning of creatures; she took fruit from the forbidden tree, ate some herself and gave some to her husband. As a punishment, God expelled them both from the garden; he condemned men to arduous toil, and women to pain in childbearing and to submission to their husbands.

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