"You'd Be Surprised!"

Ever since 280 B.C., when 70 learned Jews of Alexandria translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek (the Septuagint), tinkering with the Holy Bible has been a prime occupation of scholars. The King James Version, most familiar to the English-speaking world (ordered by the late Queen Elizabeth's pious, witch-hunting successor), is a 17th-Century revision in the light of then available Greek and Hebrew texts. The Revised Version (1881, 1885) was meant to bring the Bible up to date; the Goodspeed-Smith "American" Bible of a few years ago did so even more thoroughly. Last week, in Chicago, Professor William Louis Bailey of Northwestern University revealed that he had a New Testament ready for publication, declared that he was the first sociologist to tackle Holy Writ from a sociologist's point of view.

A specialist in the study of cities (he believes that cities are organisms and obey laws of organic growth--TIME, Aug. 22), Dr. Bailey admits he is no theologian but insists that he is a linguist. He paraphrases the word "Gospel" (good news) as "You'd be surprised!" Dr. Bailey contends that the original "You'd be surprised!" were written as "news flashes" in slangy Hellenistic Greek and Aramaic, that they should be rendered today in journalese. Thus he translates "Good Samaritan" as "good sport," "wise virgins" as "smart girls," "laying up a treasure" as "making a pile," "repent" as "get wise to yourself," "Give us our daily bread" as "Give us good bread, fresh daily." Dr. Bailey's Gospels variously call miracles "the breaks," "doing wonders" and "indications."

Such phrases, released by Dr. Bailey to gauge public reaction to his translation--on which he has labored for 35 years--worked like a charm. They brought prompt denunciations. Said Chicago's Episcopal Bishop George Craig Stewart: "A fake translation, destroying the fragrance and beauty of the Bible." Dr. John Scott, retired Northwestern Greek scholar: "A parody." Dr. William Andrew Irwin, Chicago Old Testament professor: "There is no need to vulgarize the Bible."

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