France's Hip-Hop Bible: Just in time for Christmas, a new French translation of the Bible has appeared presenting ancient scriptures sacred to both Christianity and Judaism in styles as modern as rap music lyrics or minimalist poetry.
OK, that's different.
I wonder if they'll do an English translation. Can you just imagine the hissyfit the fundies here would have? "You have proFANED the sacred word of the King James Bible! We shall SMITE any who would purchase or even pretend to look at this vile thing!" (They should take a course in the history of the assembly of the Bible. Most illuminating. For example, when deciding what should be considered part of the Bible, both Catholics and Protestants kept trying to figure out some way to exclude the Pauline epistles, because the considered opinion was that Paul was a raving loon. Unfortunately, considered opinion was also that he was truly a divinely inspired raving loon, in the most literal sense, and historically very important, so they stayed in.)
The style of the new text is rather ... spare, to be sure. And the new version of the beginning of the book of John turns poetic incomprehensibility into utter gibberish. But still ... can you just imagine rappers going out and rapping the Bible? Not the usual guns and bitches and all that crap, but the Bible? Wouldn't that just spike a few people's guns?
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
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12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!