The Bible Society in Australia has taken the bold step of translating the entire Bible into txt-talk which mobile-savvy believers can disseminate via SMS in 31,173 bite-sized verses.

Bible Society in Australia spokesman, Michael Chant, enthused: "The old days when the Bible was only available within a sombre black cover with a cross on it are long gone."

The Society's scripture director, George Rodriguez - whose son Michael spent six weeks knocking the dusty tome into youth-friendly form - told AFP: "It's a logical step. Our aim at the Bible Society is to get the Bible out there among the people and this is a very effective way of doing it."

You can download yer 7.7Mb txt Bible here and thereafter spread the word of the Lord in 150-character snippets. Traditionalists need not, however, fear that the original text is in any way diminished (except in word length) by the SMS process. The Bible Society in Australia blurb promises that the "true meaning and order of words [is] retained" and the whole thing is "100% faithful to original".

Gr8. As it says in the Holy Scriptures: "4 God so luvd da world [that he provided Australians with the messaging tools by which they might disseminate His word electronically]". Or something like that. ®