An Editor’s Prayer for World Press Freedom Day

Last week, World Press Freedom Day was observed to draw attention to threats to journalists around the world. A report on press freedom looked at 180 countries and territories and the crises affecting media freedom, the safety of journalists, and freedom of expression.

On the same day, I came across a Scripture passage that I’d never heard before and which seemed appropriate for World Press Freedom Day, if only because of the passionate and precise way it describes the often-painful process of editing.

Early on in the section the author includes a Compiler’s Preface (2 Mc 2:24) which outlines his goal of rendering in a mere 15 chapters a five-volume work by Jason of Cyrene. We don’t know the length of the original work, which is long lost, but boiling down five volumes into about 20 pages is not something many editors would want to tackle today, let alone 2,000 years ago. 

Not only was the author/editor a master condenser, but he seems to have had an exceptional amount of humility for an editor, ending with an Epilogue and Apology for any inadequacies in his work. (Perhaps foreshadowing Pascal’s famous quote, “I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”)

Some modern editors may also appreciate that before the author signs off with the efficient tagline “Let this, then, be the end,” he indicates that a “delightful and pleasing drink” will soon be his reward.

Here then is the Compiler’s Preface from the Second Book of Maccabees, a worthy passage that demonstrates Old Testament writers knew a thing or two about the often-arduous process of editing. 

For in view of the flood of data, and the difficulties encountered, given such abundant material, by those who wish to plunge into accounts of the history, we have aimed to please those who prefer simply to read, to make it easy for the studious who wish to commit things to memory, and to be helpful to all.

For us who have undertaken the labour of making this digest, the task, far from being easy, is one of sweat and of sleepless nights.

Just so, the preparation of a festive banquet is no light matter for one who seeks to give enjoyment to others. Similarly, to win the gratitude of many we will gladly endure this labour, leaving the responsibility for exact details to the historian, and confining our efforts to presenting only a summary outline.

As the architect of a new house must pay attention to the whole structure, while the one who undertakes the decoration and the frescoes has to be concerned only with what is needed for ornamentation, so I think it is with us.

To enter into questions and examine them from all sides and to be busy about details is the task of the historian; but one who is making an adaptation should be allowed to aim at brevity of expression and to forgo complete treatment of the matter.

Here, then, let us begin our account without adding to what has already been said; it would be silly to lengthen the preface to the history and then cut short the history itself.

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@paulschratz

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