Editorials The Salt Lake Tribune Thursday Oct 20th 49 Established April 15, 1871. Issued every morning by The Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co., Salt Lake City, Utah Bible Week Being Observed in America By Churchmen and Historians National Bible week began Monday and will continue through Sunday, Oct. 23. Other days are devoted to the Book of Books, but this is a period in which exponents of the Scriptures endeavor to counteract atheism, skepticism, communism and other ideologies that deny the teachings of the Old and New Testaments. It is believed by many students of human nature and observers of modern trends that the insidious spread of heresy and heterodoxy in certain groups and governments is responsible for the increase of crime and delinquency that are sending more youngsters to penal institutions than to colleges and universities. And when a government, having power of life and death over 200,000,000 people, closes their houses of worship, tortures their priests and preachers, indoctrinates their children with the virus of hatred and mutual distrust, the evil has apparently gone beyond the reach of reason or the call of moral suasion. Confronted, by an army of automatons devoid of mercy and manhood, seeking power and plunder, burning Bibles, decrying Deity and condoning crime, the inhabitants of earth who believe in a Supreme Being, regardless of the race or religion with which they are identified, whether they are taught from the Talmud, the Koran or the Bible, in obedience to the law of self preservation, must be on their guard. In this republic, in all nations where the Christian religion is accepted, taught and freely commended, this is a period in which to read, quote, study and interpret its lessons and its sacred chronicles of the human race from the beginning of recorded time. Translated from manuscripts left by the priests, prophets and potentates of ancient Israel; selected from an assortment of archives to preserve harmony and sequence; approved by rulers and religionists of the twelfth century, there has been a 4ot of controversy over the meaning of texts and the consistency of leaders whose acts and achievements constitute a large portion of the Old Testament. Prior to the birth of Christ, whose sermons and sayings, whose code and conduct form the foundation of Christianity, the Jews of the Mediterranean coast lands had wandered and settled in many sections of the known earth. Preserved manuscripts were not easy to assemble and the 72 scholars who translated Hebrew writings into Greek had a tedious task to perform. In the fourth century these records were again translated into the Vulgate, or Latin, script. It was not until 1604 that an authorized revision was called the King James version. Within recent years other interpretations have been offered and accepted by many denominations. In 1946 a Council of Religious Education, comprising members of 40 prominent Protestant organizations, presented the American public a translation of the New Testament differing in form and content with the compilation approved by King James. But with all these verbal changes and modernized phrasing the substance is the same, the records are not confused, the lessons are as useful as ever. This is clarifying rather than confusing and the Bible has never ceased to be the best seller among all the books published in the United States of America. The Bible is more than a book of solace or inspiration for church members or missionaries. It has an unrivaled value as a chronicle of events otherwise lost or forgotten. It has a definite place in the literature of today, not only on account of the quaint expressions of other ages and environments, but because each contributor wrote with startling brevity, leaving the present day reader to supply implications by useful exercise of his own imagination. As the Book Behind America, the Bible had a direct influence on the discovery, the colonization, the independence and the leadership of this republic.