From the PREFACE to the Reader's Digest Bible
As practiced by the Digest, condensation is basically different from other methods of reducing the length of a text, such as abridgement. Condensation concerns itself with every individual word of the text, every phrase, sentence, paragraph, and chapter, as well as the larger portion or blocks of text, in relation both to the immediate context and to the whole. At the same time infinite care is taken to leave the essential fabric intact. By contrast, abridgement merely eliminates whole books or sizable sections of books, or brings together selected passages.
Though it is the inspired word of God, the Bible is still a written document—actually a library of many books—employing the language of mortals. Like all things mortal, language, too, is subject to change. Forms of literary expression, habits of thought, structure of language, preferences in vocabulary have altered considerably over the centuries. The device of repetition—in word, thought, and incident—and the multiplying of words for rhetorical effect were practices favored in ancient times. Today they tend to confuse and exhaust the readers attention. …
In this condensed version the Biblical text has been reduced by an overall figure of some forty percent, The Old Testament, with its greater variety in form and language, understandably offered larger scope than the New Testament for reduction. It has been shortened by approximately one half, different book permitting different percentages of reduction. The New Testament, much sparer in form and language, was brought down by about one quarter.