Any guesses as to how long it would take to read the bible, cover to cover? Too long for the average busy sinner, I'll wager.
Is it happy coincidence, or another example God's well documented forward-planning skills, that the good book is broken down into chapter and verse, or "SMS sized chunks" as I like to think of them?
The SMS bible would send a verse each day direct to the subscriber's mobile phone.
Possibly, there could be a £1/$1 plus-your-nomal-text-rate charge to raise charity funds, a bit like a telephonic collection plate.
* NB I found a service online where you can specifically request a topic-related bible quote [link], but nothing that promises to keep hammering hope The Word on a daily basis.-- Fishrat, Sep 25 2003 Bible requests http://in.mobile.ya...com/bible/tour.html [Fishrat, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Readers Digest Bible Editorial http://www.kenander...eader_s_digest.htmlHow they condensed the bible [Dagwood, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] 4 God so luvd da world [warning: audio] http://www.biblesociety.com.au/smsbible/If I understand this correctly, this is an SMS broadcast tool for bible verses, not necessarily a complete translation. But it *does* do the cutesy SMS thing. (Requires Windows 95 or better.) [jutta, Oct 08 2005] Aussies publish SMS bible http://www.theregis...05/10/07/sms_bible/ [Ehrm, Oct 09 2005] // Any guesses as to how long it would take to read the bible, cover to cover? //
15 days the first time, about two months the second (I was busier).
People actually do this, you know. You oughta try it sometime.-- waugsqueke, Sep 25 2003 [waugs] That's not a guess, it's an answer. That's cheating. You've gone and spoilt the game now. Seriously though, I'm advocating choice, not replacement.-- Fishrat, Sep 25 2003 Readers Digest made a condenced version but Ive never read that one. I have done a read the Bible in a year plan before though. Now I only read mine on Sundays. I have it on CD and It's set up in 15 day playlists. Oddly enough, I've only been through it twice this year.-- Dagwood, Sep 25 2003 [dagwood] how did the condensed version work? thinner pages? smaller type? did they, erm, miss bits out? MayB ritn in SMS txt styl?-- Fishrat, Sep 25 2003 They left the stuff that people know alone (The Ten Commandments, The Lord's Prayer) and reworded all the rest. (See Link for details)-- Dagwood, Sep 25 2003 Thanks [dagwood]. Here's a more radical antipodean revision [link]. For all of these attempts at making The Bible more accessible, I still think a daily text from SMS bible would be a reminder to *live* God's word as well as reading it.-- Fishrat, Sep 25 2003 pls see my profile page for sth similar. Didn't want to take up space on your idea. Alternative: could be a 'word of the day' subscript at the end of internet emails like yahoo, maybe alleluia.com or something - so instead of advertising the chat page or the classifieds, could direct mail recipient to today's Bon Mot du Bible.-- badgers, Sep 25 2003 pretty much what Burns said. I keep thinking how bored you would be with all that begatting every night.
took me years to finish the bible (twice) as I did it chapter by chapter every night.-- po, Sep 25 2003 Wow. I had never heard of so many bible readers in my life. I'm agnostic, that might be why, but seriously, I think I know only one person who's read the whole bible, and he is a priest.
However (I don't mean to hurt anybody's "sensitive" perspectives/beliefs with the following comment), for the "average busy sinner" like me, as described by [fishrat], the bible is just a famous bestseller, an unexplored and obsolete text, and NOT a "holy" item. I think this idea could help others become interested on reading the bible more often and, who knows, maybe change their minds about religion.-- Pericles, Sep 25 2003 You'd need a special Bible version of SMS. BSMS. using G for God, J for you-know-who, b for begat (hence "be" would have to be changed to avoid a conflict) -- it's a linguist's dream. SMS would diverge into both religious and secular branches.-- phundug, Sep 25 2003 "For God so loved the world" and "Do unto others" would be a fine message on the phone but the Bible is mostly a context book. If you take too little of a chunk in some places it can cause problems, for instance; Proverbs 26:4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself. Proverbs 26:5 Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes. Two contradictory verses right next to each other. If you're phone said the first one you may not be able to use the HB that day. Or the second one would make you a show off. When you get the whole picture though, you realize that it means dont get yourself into a situation where you will need to answer a fool.-- Dagwood, Sep 25 2003 I wouldn't pay a dollar, even to charity, for that.-- Dagwood, Sep 25 2003 [Mr Burns] I'm sure there's something written in the bible along the lines of: thou shalt not be so damn illiterate-monkey-ist. However, I withdraw the text-speak bit. It was sht.-- Fishrat, Sep 25 2003 Ultra condensed version : God good smite infamy salt be good.-- Detly, Sep 25 2003 I think you'd really have to condense it. I've just downloaded the King James version from Gutenburg. Excluding the Gutenburg header, it is 4,456,448 bytes. A text message can be 168 characters long I think. So even sending the whole bible in 168 byte chunks would require 26,527 messages. At 10p a go that's over two and a half thousand quid. Of course sending it in 168 char chunks would be really difficult to read - you wouldn't want it broken up in the middle of verses, so the actual number of messages required could well be 40,000. I'll stick to stealing Gideons from hotel rooms when necessary .-- Gordon Comstock, Sep 26 2003 Burns 4:21 - (Obscured by gravy stain.)-- Detly, Sep 28 2003 Burns 4:22 – Hole burnt in passage due to focused sunlight through stained glass window.-- Shz, Sep 29 2003 1st G made heaven&earth earth=0 &dark Spirt mv H2O God"Lite!" :-) <>dark Lt=Day dk=Nite AM&PM=day1-- BunsenHoneydew, Apr 10 2004 Baked. See link.-- Ehrm, Oct 09 2005 Baked now ... congratulations [fishrat], always good to have a halfbaked idea come to reality.-- jonthegeologist, Oct 09 2005 It's been a good week, as channel 4 seem to have kinda baked my NASA Idol idea too. Sadly I'm *still* waiting for someone to bake Fuzzy Felt Business Cards, but you can't have everything!-- Fishrat, Nov 18 2005 random, halfbakery