Cash for the Bible

The most popular verse of the Bible in Wellesley, Mass, is John 11:35. The reason became obvious this week when 266 boys and girls lined up to collect their cash prizes for memorizing Bible verses. John 11:35 is only two words--"Jesus wept"--and as good for a dollar as Esther 8:9, the longest.*

Wellesley's windfall came from the first of a series of contests set up by the late Grace Knight Babson, wife of Statistician Roger Babson. When she died two years ago, her will set aside $100,000 for 100 years, the fund's income earmarked as reward money for Wellesley children under 16, who "shall have an opportunity to exhibit their memory retention of scriptural verses either from the Old or New Testament." The rules: candidates must attend some religious school, must memorize 20 verses to qualify, after which each verse memorized earns $1--up to $100. Among this week's winners are 154 Roman Catholics, 109 Protestants and one Jew.

Some of Wellesley's ministers doubt the value of such financially motivated learning, but Congregationalist Babson, 84, dismisses their scruples. "Everything else is on salary or commission basis, including the preachers' salaries," he says.

"Let's see what's going to happen." One of the things that may happen is forecast in the Douay translation of Ecclesiastes 5:10--"Where there are great riches, there are also many to eat them." Under the Babson trust, an annual income of about $7,000 is to take care of the prizes. This year the prizes amount to $17,042 instead of the $7,000 allotted for them. To keep the fund from shrinking too fast, Roger Babson promised to put up more money.

*Esther 8:9, containing 90 words, details the size and variety of the Persian empire.

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