´¯`•. November 28, 2002

THE LIVING ~~BIBLE~~ PARAPHRASE
(it’s town day – no time to post)

According to my Bible Comparison Guide (Zondervan Publishing), The Living Bible was written by Kenneth Taylor and is “A very popular, readable parphrase of the Bible; at times quite interpretive. It was originally intended for personal devotional use only.”

First of all, let’s define what a paraphrase is (according to Webster’s New Word Dictionary). A paraphrase is “a rewording of the meaning of something spoken or written.” It’s taking somethng and restating it another way. It’s not a translation – which is rewording something literally… it’s rewording the meaning.

On a Bible translation site, this was the definition that separated ‘translating’ from ‘paraphrasing’, and I think it’s the easiest way I’ve seen to explain it yet: “In paraphrasing, the most liberal translation philosophy, the paraphraser often translates from one English version to another, with little or no attention to the original Greek or Hebrew.”

Now I guess I have to start with a question: If they aren’t paying attention to what was written by the men chosen by God to reveal His word… how can they be sure they’re stating God’s Word? Maybe I’m just blonde, but it sure doesn’t seem like it’s gonna be accurate if you’re pulling it out of your rear-hiney.

The one thing I’ve really noticed is that paraphrasing doesn’t just change the wording to be clearer (that’s done in the different translations), but paraphrasing tends to alter the original message. Would you like to see some of this using the Living ‘Bible’? (I’ll compare to King James, since it’s the oldest available and closest to the original Greek/Hebrew.)

KJV (Num. 25:11) “Phine-has…hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel.”
TLB “Phinehas has turned away my anger for he was as angry as I.” (Who could ever be as angry as God?)

KJV (1 Sam. 20:30) “Thou son of a perverse rebellious woman.”
TLB “You son of a b___.”

KJV (1 Kings 18:27) “Cry aloud: for He is a God: either He is talking or He is pursuing.”
TLB “Perhaps he is talking to someone or else is out sitting on the toilet.”

KJV (Zech. 2:8) “He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye.”
TLB “For he who harms you sticks his finger in Jehovah’s eye.”

KJV (Zech. 13:6) “And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”
TLB “And if someone asks then, what are these scars on your chest and your back, you will say, I got into a brawl at the home of a friend.” (The note at the bottom of this page of the Living Bible is as follows: “That this is not a passage referring to Christ is clear from the context. This is a false prophet who is lying about the reasons for his scars.” Where did Dr. Taylor got his authority for this?)

KJV (John 1:17) “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
TLB “For Moses gave us only the law with its rigid demands and merciless justice while Jesus Christ brought us loving forgiveness as well.” (All through the Old Testament you will find the love and mercy and grace of God demonstrated.)

KJV (John 2:4) “Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.”
TLB “I can’t help you now, He said, It isn’t yet my time for miracles.” (His hour was Calvary, and if it wasn’t his time for miracles, he wouldn’t have immediately set about turning water to wine.)

KJV (John 13:26) “Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.”
TLB “He told me it is the one I honour by giving the bread dipped in the sauce.” (Was the Lord Jesus honoring Judas here?)

KJV (Rom. 5:1) “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:..”
TLB “So now since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith in His promises we can have real peace with Him because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.” (There is a vast difference between “we have peace with God” and “we can have real peace with Him”. It takes away the promise!)

KJV (Rev. 6:17) “For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”
TLB “Because the great day of their anger is come and who can survive it?” (Praytell… who are they and what about God’s anger at the end?)

Wow – quite a difference, huh? It’s pretty incredible to think about… and I only chose a few of the ones on the comparison chart (The thing is LONG!!!). That’s altering God’s word… and that’s not good. It almost cheapens it for me. Toilets and SoB’s??? You’ve got to be kidding!! Where’s the majesty of God’s word? And how can that be justified? I’m sure some things are made clearer, but at the cost of reverence and honor and – in the cases above – truth as passed on by the chosen writers of God!

I’m not sharing this to cause division. I don’t need to – in case you haven’t noticed, there’s enough division without my help. ((grins!)) I simply had the same questions as others – there are three dozen translations/paraphrases out there… why? And what’s the difference? The one reason I have for showing the difference and the problems is because God’s word is of the utmost importance, and I can’t not speak up when it is tampered with. You know me. Truth comes first. And I’m not thinking paraphrasing hits too close to truth. ((Shakes head in amazement))