And God said: let's have some light, mate
by Linda Morris
Sydney Morning Herald
July 13, 2006 |
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To read extracts, Click here (Word document)
Read Bible Society NSW Press Release |
THERE was this sheila who came across a snake-in-the-grass with all the cunning of a con man. The snake asked her why she didn't just grab lunch off the tree in her garden.
God, she said, had told her she'd be dead meat if her fruit salad came from that tree, but the snake told her she wouldn't die. So she took a good squiz and then a bite and passed the fruit on to her bloke. Right then and there, they'd realised what they'd done and felt starkers.
So begins the Biblical account of the fall of mankind retold using "strine", or Australian vernacular.
The first instalment of Kel Richards's Aussie Bible was a runaway bestseller, selling 100,000 copies since its August 2003 release.The second instalment gives the "Aussie" treatment to the Book of Genesis, Proverbs, the Gospel of John and John's first letter, translating the stories of Adam and Eve and the beginning of time using well-worn, laconic Australian vernacular.
As Richards, wordsmith, journalist and committed Christian, puts it, God was tinkering around in his workshop when "out of the blue, God knocked up the whole bang lot".
Then there was Joseph, the stockman, who got from his dad this "lairy coat - lots of colour and no taste" - that made his brothers "dead jealous".
Richards said the Bible was written in the language of the marketplace and it was appropriate to use "conversational barbecue English".
He takes fewer liberties with the retelling of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, because the "jokes are not there". But "strine" does enable him to tell the serious story at the heart of Christian faith in an informal and accessible way.
"The Aussie language is a rich dialect; it's not just an informal language, it's a language of the heart," he said.
Daniel Willis, chief executive officer of the Bible Society of NSW, said the Australian version had introduced the Bible to a wider audience and had proven popular with hospital and prison chaplains who offered it as an introduction to the original text.
Richards believes the book has been useful in introducing Christianity to the unchurched. "Conversion is a process and probably [the Aussie Bible] plays a raising-awareness role rather than a closing-the-deal role."
Pics: Top: Kel Richards with his latest - 'More Aussie Bible'; Kel Richards and Bible Society NSW CEO, Daniel Willis - 'cooking up a storm'; Daniel Willis, Kel Richards and Martin Johnson, Communications Manager, Bible Society NSW.
All pics by Ramon Williams.
