Easy-Listening Bible : Gospel: New Testament rewritten for reading aloud in version intended to sound like people talk.

NEW YORK â€”  The American Bible Society, which in its 175-year history has distributed more Bibles than the world’s current population, came out this week with a new one. It’s made for easy listening.

It sounds different in one way, yet familiar in another. The wording is new, but it has the familiar tone of ordinary conversation.

“It’s the way people talk,� said the Rev. Barclay M. Newman, a Bible scholar who headed the translation team for the new Contemporary English Version of the New Testament.

“The simple fact is that more people hear the Bible read than read it for themselves,� he added in an interview. “My concern from the beginning was to produce a text that would be readily understood when heard.�

For example, here are comparative opening lines in Matthew 6:

The widely used Revised Standard Version--�Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them. . . . Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do.�

The new CEV--�When you do good deeds, don’t try to show off. . . . When you give to the poor, don’t blow a loud horn. That’s what showoffs do. . . .�

Or consider these renderings from Romans 5:1:

RSV--�Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.�

CEV--�By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God. Christ has also introduced us to God’s kindness on which we stand.�

The new translation, done mainly by a four-member team in consultation with about 100 other Protestant and Roman Catholic scholars, was issued as the society marked its 175th anniversary.

President Bush, in a message for the society’s recent annual meeting, said it “has helped to spread the Word of God to people throughout the nation and the world.

“In doing so, you have brought them inspiration and enlightenment.�

Founded in 1816, the American Bible Society has distributed 5.8 billion Bibles, Testaments and Scripture portions, more than the world’s current population of 5.3 billion.

Its mandate, clear of denominational differences, is to circulate Bibles “without doctrinal note or comment, and without profit.�

Last year alone, 259 million copies were distributed, 91 million of them in this country in half a dozen different English translations and in 80 other languages, mainly for immigrants and those preserving ancestral tongues.

Early officers included Elias Boudinot, former president of the Continental Congress; former President John Quincy Adams; John Jay, the nation’s first chief justice, and Francis Scott Key, author of “The Star-Spangled Banner.�

The present chief executive officer is the Rev. Bryant M. Kirkland, minister emeritus of Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.

He cites the society’s recent production of special Scripture portions to strengthen young people against peer pressure, to encourage recovery from alcohol and drug abuse, and to comfort prisoners and AIDS victims.

The society provided 100,000 camouflage-covered Bibles to U.S. troops serving in the Persian Gulf and recently issued a video of Scripture in sign language for the deaf.

A main achievement, after six years of work, is completion of the new CEV translation of the New Testament, sometimes alternately titled the “Bible for Today’s Family.�

The project originally was to provide a version for young people. But it developed into a broader effort to make the wording more understandable for anyone listening. Translators spent long hours reading the work aloud.

“We aimed at a natural sentence structure for easy aural comprehension, without complications for the hearer,� Newman said.

Newman, a Southern Baptist of Springfield, Mo., said the translators were guided by two objectives--readability and reliability. He said the latter purpose--being faithful to the original meaning--is “fearsome.�

“In dealing with the Word of God, you do it with genuine fear and trembling,� he said.

A complete CEV Bible, including the Old Testament, is expected to be ready in 1996.

The society, controlled by an interdenominational board of managers, has an annual budget of $48.6 million, most of it from contributions and investment income.

Its Bibles are distributed at cost or for free, with income from that source amounting to only $7.5 million. More than 60,000 volunteers around the country aid in the work.