Worthy News reports that a glossy magazine-style version of the Old Testament, featuring leading models photographed by the world's leading fashion photographers, will be unveiled later this year.
Claudia Schiffer and Markus Schenkenberg are the models expected to portray Eve and Adam in a project designed to attract young people who rarely read the Bible. Gustaf-Wilhelm Hellstedt, one of four Swedish entrepreneurs behind the idea, said: "Forget those old sketches in the Bible. Instead of a boring drawing of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we may well have a couple walking down a New York street, kissing."
Exactly who will be pictured in the new Illuminated Bible, which will retain the traditional King James text, is being kept under wraps by the group. It has revealed, however, that its list of fashion photographers rivals that of Vogue.
The venture has been greeted with shock in some quarters. David Phillips, the general secretary of the Church Society that promotes Christianity with the Church of England, said: "It sounds like a gimmick that is entirely unnecessary." The Bishop of Durham, the Rt. Rev. Michael Turnbull, cautiously welcomed the idea. Turnbull said: "Anything that enlivens people's interest in what a good read the Bible is, is good. But it needs doing with taste."