The Modern Secular Version (MSV) of the Bible

What is it?

The MSV is a living, growing project that will summarize, interpret, and comment on the entire King James Version of the Bible. It will use modern, concise language in the place of archaic terms, phrases, and euphemisms.

This series will focus on the useful models and patterns contained in the Bible and ignore or gloss over the supernatural, superstitious, or religious claims.

All content is open to future edits and elaborations

Readers are encouraged to submit their research and ideas for consideration to be included. [contact (at) veraxio (dot) com]

Anyone whose work is accepted will be given full credit on Veraxio and can either have their website or social media profile linked.

Some sections will be handled in detail

Lenses of disciplines such as evolutionary theory, psychology, biology, and economics will be applied to the analysis.

Other sections will be heavily summarized

Passages containing hundreds or thousands of words (such as dietary laws and genealogies) will be condensed into a single sentence or paragraph of interpretation and commentary.

Why Care?

The Bible is the greatest selling book ever (~5,000,000,000 copies) and sections of it have been translated into over 3,000 languages.

It is both Lindy and antifragile in the terminology of Nassim Taleb. The original sections were written ~3,000 years ago from an oral tradition that is much older. It survived and was improved by the fall of many great civilizations. You can learn what works from the successful and what doesn’t from those who fail.

The Bible is not a single book but a collection of many small works. Its components were written and compiled by Hebrews spanning thousands of years. These people were blessed and cursed to live on the Mediterranean Sea in the middle of much larger and more powerful civilizations.

Over the thousands of years the it was written and compiled, the Hebrews were conquered or under the control of at least 6 great civilizations:

  1. Egyptians
  2. Assyrians
  3. Babylonians
  4. Persians
  5. Macedonian Greeks
  6. Romans

The most insightful lessons and stories of these civilizations found their way into the content of the Bible; it’s a greatest hits collection full of cultural diffusion.

Who is it for?

The MSV is designed for anyone who:

  • is interested in understanding the underlying themes and messages within one of the most influential works in human history
  • doesn’t have the time or interest to read and reread the original from cover to cover
  • struggles with the archaic language and turns of phrase in the original version
  • has an aversion to the sections containing supernatural claims and superstition