I know some of you are fans of The Message and I do sometimes find its wording refreshing, but I also am rather wary of it as well. Mainly I’m leery of it because it was largely written by only one person — Eugene Paterson — rather than being a collaboration of several scholars, and, rather than aiming to translate things word for word, it tends to paraphrase the bible’s message.
Having heard a lot about the book A Purpose Driven Life, I checked it out of the library and opened to the first page where it had Ephesians 1:11&12 from The Message…
“It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ, …he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.”
This paraphrase seems to focus on the fact that God wants us to have “glorious” lives, which could mean almost anything. Some could wrongly interpret this to mean that God wants us to live lives filled with wondrous health, wealth and prosperity.
While I know there are things wrong with the NIV, it’s the only other version I have readily available and, some say, it seems to fall somewhere in between a word for word translation and paraphrase (see graphic below and this website link — http://www.ibs.org/bibles/translations/index.php). NIV translates Ephesians 1:11 this way…
“In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.”
While this is certainly not as easy to read, after digging into this text, it seems to almost communicate a different message — God selected us for HIS glory, not just for “glorious living”. That is an extremely important distinction.
It is these types of discrepancies that make me a little nervous when I see churches using The Message in their service and see Christian authors refer it to support their points. Is our desire to make the bible more palatable leading us into dangerous territory?
What do you think?
(image downloaded from http://www.ibs.org/bibles/translations/index.php)
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