The first Bible that I ever read was the Revised Standard Version. I know that I used some King James after that. In fact, much of my Scripture memory exists in my head in the King James. When the New International Version [NIV] came out, I switched over. It was a true translation, but was written in more modern language. All of our pew Bibles at WCC are NIV. It is the version that we read from on Sunday morning.
I may be having a slow conversion. I tend to convert slowly. I have heard of the Bible called "the Message." I assumed that it was just another paraphrase, that is, some person's interpretation of the Biblical text. A translation is more reliable and comes directly from the original Greek and Hebrew. A paraphrase, like "the Living Bible" is the result of one person reading the NIV or the KJV and just putting it into their own words.
A few months ago, I head the Bishop quote the Message. That started my brain to thinking. If is it acceptable to the Bishop, it may be ok.
I have been reading the Message version lately. It is very inspirational and exciting. Here is what Bible Gateway says about the message:
Why was The Message written? The best answer to that question comes from Eugene Peterson himself: "While I was teaching a class on Galatians, I began to realize that the adults in my class weren't feeling the vitality and directness that I sensed as I read and studied the New Testament in its original Greek. Writing straight from the original text, I began to attempt to bring into English the rhythms and idioms of the original language. I knew that the early readers of the New Testament were captured and engaged by these writings and I wanted my congregation to be impacted in the same way. I hoped to bring the New Testament to life for two different types of people: those who hadn't read the Bible because it seemed too distant and irrelevant and those who had read the Bible so much that it had become 'old hat.'"
You can read more about the Message at http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/?action=getVersionInfo&vid=65
If you don't want to run out and buy a Message Bible, you can of course read it online at http://www.biblegateway.com/
If you have not been reading the Scriptures lately, you may be invigorated by picking up the Message. I hope to have it available soon in our bookstore. Pastors or anyone out their in the blogosphere who know more about this or have an opinion, good or bad, are encouraged to post a comment.
It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.
1 comment:
We have been reading from The Message in our Contemporary Believers class on Sunday morning for quite awhile now. It has made a big difference for me, because now I "get it" when I read passages - it makes more sense to me than ever before. I have handed it to my teenagers and they "get it", too.... it's in their language, so to speak. I have been reading from mine for so long now I just assumed everyone had it and was reading from it!
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