The idea of translating the Bible into simple contemporary language is “scandalous,” Drora Halevy, the ministry’s National Supervisor for Bible Studies, told Haaretz. The booklets present the text in “skimpy slang” that cheapens the Bible, she added. “It’s a purely marketing initiative intended for the below-average; it’s a disaster,” says Professor Yaira Amit, a Bible instruction expert.

What’s this about? Ha’aretz reports

The Education Ministry is to ban Bible aid booklets that help elementary and junior high school students by “translating” the text into simple Hebrew. Private publishers defend the booklets by arguing that biblical Hebrew is a foreign tongue to young Israelis. Teaching experts lambast the booklets, warning that children will skip reading the Bible and opt for the simplified version. This will not only deteriorate Bible studies but also impact the Hebrew language, which is based on the Bible, they say.

This is precisely the same reason why modern ‘translations’ are so often detestable. To apply Yaira Amit’s sentence above to them, they are “purely [a] marketing initiative intended for the below-average; it’s a disaster“.

The Israelis recognize the peril of ‘dumbing down’ in connection with biblical literacy. Yet while they are facing the issue head on, American publishers are dumping out dumbed down versions of the Bible in droves, beginning with the ‘Living Bible’ and most recently manifested in the ‘Chronological Study Bible’ to name just two of the more egregious examples. Better Bibles aren’t produced with an eye to the masses. Better Bibles are produced with an eye to the experts.