THE BIBLE

Southland Times, Issue 18965, 13 June 1923, Page 5

THE BIBLE

A POPULAR VERSION. DUTCH-AMERICAN’S ENTERPRISE. (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright). (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, June 12 (Received June 12, 10.15 p.m.) Hendrik Willem Van Loon, a DutchAmerican professor, lecturer and author, who is translating the Bible into popular form, boding down 1.500,000 words of the revised version to the size of an average novel, has arrived in England to finish the work at Cambridge. He is writing the book for America but thinks he can do better work in England than in the United States, where style might be corrupted by newspapers and motion picture sub-titles. An example of van Loon’s style is a description of Christ’s agony on the Cross:—“By the last supreme effort He regained consciousness, and He uttered a prayer. He asked that his enemies be forgiven for what they had done to Him. when he whispered, ‘lt is all over and He died.’ ” Describing the trial of Jesus, van Loon avers that it had been overlooked that if Pilate had acquitted Jesus, it would have meant his dismissal without pension. The writer also represents the soldier who gave Jesus vinegar on the Cross, as a kindly Roman soldier who gave Him “narcotic to deaden pain his His lacerated hands and feet.”