What do you think of the message Bible...?

Neogaia777

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What do you think of the message Bible...?

I think it could be very useful in reaching young people, I like it, like in John 1 here:

1 The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God,
2 in readiness for God from day one.
3 Everything was created through him; nothing - not one thing! - came into being without him.
4What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by.
5 The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out.
6 There once was a man, his name John, sent by God
7 to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in.
8 John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.
9 The Life-Light was the real thing: Every person entering Life he brings into Light.
10 He was in the world, the world was there through him, and yet the world didn't even notice.
11 He came to his own people, but they didn't want him.
12 But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves.
13 These are the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten.
14 The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.
15 John pointed him out and called, "This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word."
16 We all live off his generous bounty, gift after gift after gift.
17 We got the basics from Moses, and then this exuberant giving and receiving, This endless knowing and understanding - all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.
18 No one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse. This one-of-a-kind God-Expression, who exists at the very heart of the Father, has made him plain as day. Thunder in the Desert
19 When Jews from Jerusalem sent a group of priests and officials to ask John who he was, he was completely honest.
20 He didn't evade the question. He told the plain truth: "I am not the Messiah."
21 They pressed him, "Who, then? Elijah?" "I am not." "The Prophet?" "No."
22 Exasperated, they said, "Who, then? We need an answer for those who sent us. Tell us something - anything! - about yourself."
23 "I'm thunder in the desert: 'Make the road straight for God!' I'm doing what the prophet Isaiah preached."
24 Those sent to question him were from the Pharisee party.
25 Now they had a question of their own: "If you're neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet, why do you baptize?"
26 John answered, "I only baptize using water. A person you don't recognize has taken his stand in your midst.
27 He comes after me, but he is not in second place to me. I'm not even worthy to hold his coat for him."
28 These conversations took place in Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing at the time.
29 The very next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and yelled out,
30 "Here he is, God's Passover Lamb! He forgives the sins of the world! This is the man I've been talking about, 'the One who comes after me but is really ahead of me.'
31 I knew nothing about who he was - only this: that my task has been to get Israel ready to recognize him as the God-Revealer. That is why I came here baptizing with water, giving you a good bath and scrubbing sins from your life so you can get a fresh start with God."
32 John clinched his witness with this: "I watched the Spirit, like a dove flying down out of the sky, making himself at home in him.
33 I repeat, I know nothing about him except this: The One who authorized me to baptize with water told me, 'The One on whom you see the Spirit come down and stay, this One will baptize with the Holy Spirit.'
34 That's exactly what I saw happen, and I'm telling you, there's no question about it: This is the Son of God."
35 The next day John was back at his post with two disciples, who were watching.
36 He looked up, saw Jesus walking nearby, and said, "Here he is, God's Passover Lamb."
37 The two disciples heard him and went after Jesus.
38Jesus looked over his shoulder and said to them, "What are you after?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means "Teacher"), "where are you staying?"
39 He replied, "Come along and see for yourself." They came, saw where he was living, and ended up staying with him for the day. It was late afternoon when this happened.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard John's witness and followed Jesus.
41 The first thing he did after finding where Jesus lived was find his own brother, Simon, telling him, "We've found the Messiah" (that is, "Christ").
42 He immediately led him to Jesus. Jesus took one look up and said, "You're John's son, Simon? From now on your name is Cephas" (or Peter, which means "Rock").
43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. When he got there, he ran across Philip and said, "Come, follow me."
44 (Philip's hometown was Bethsaida, the same as Andrew and Peter.)
45 Philip went and found Nathanael and told him, "We've found the One Moses wrote of in the Law, the One preached by the prophets. It's Jesus, Joseph's son, the one from Nazareth!"
46 Nathanael said, "Nazareth? You've got to be kidding." But Philip said, "Come, see for yourself."
47 When Jesus saw him coming he said, "There's a real Israelite, not a false bone in his body."
48Nathanael said, "Where did you get that idea? You don't know me." Jesus answered, "One day, long before Philip called you here, I saw you under the fig tree."
49 Nathanael exclaimed, "Rabbi! You are the Son of God, the King of Israel!"
50Jesus said, "You've become a believer simply because I say I saw you one day sitting under the fig tree? You haven't seen anything yet!
51 Before this is over you're going to see heaven open and God's angels descending to the Son of Man and ascending again."




Comments on this translation...?

God Bless!
 

amariselle

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I don't read "The Message", but I have heard a lot of cautionary claims regarding it. At best, I suppose it could be considered a paraphrase, but, honestly, I would hesitate to even call it that.

Out of the chapter you quoted, this stood out to me:

31 I knew nothing about who he was - only this: that my task has been to get Israel ready to recognize him as the God-Revealer. That is why I came here baptizing with water, giving you a good bath and scrubbing sins from your life so you can get a fresh start with God."

So, here are a couple concerns with the "translation" of this verse:

1. It is directly inferred that water baptism is necessary to wash away sins.

2. Apparently John the Baptist was "scrubbing sins" from people's lives (through water baptism) so that they could get "a fresh start with God."

However, the verse doesn't actually say that at all. Here is the verse from the King James:


"And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water."

Nothing at all about "scrubbing away sins". Scripture is clear only the blood of Jesus "washes away sin".

This is very important because it calls into question how one's sins are cleansed or washed away, how one is forgiven.

As I said, I've heard a lot of warnings. If someone wanted to read "The Message" and asked me for advice, I'd tell them to be very careful and compare what it says to true and accurate translations.
 
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MyGivenNameIsKeith

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It isn't the bible. It's like a paraphrase commentary poem bible made for easy reading for people who don't want to read the bible. While it's useful to convey ideas at times, like made popular in the book the purpose driven life, it is always better to use God's word, as it is more reliable.
 
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Neogaia777

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It's an attempt at more of a thought for thought translation, rather than word for word so much, the reason I thought it was kind of cool, is because of the particular audience it might be useful for or in reaching...

I admit I don't think it should perhaps be on the same level as other Bibles, but, I do think it is kinda cool...

But, maybe, not really considered a Bible, like for example, I would not quote from it, but might use it if it seems to shed some light on particular other ways of putting it, in other translations that I already know, then I might us it to help comment on certain scriptures from other Bibles... But, I would only quote, for the most part from other translations...

God Bless!
 
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Radagast

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It's an attempt at more of a thought for thought translation, rather than word for word so much, the reason I thought it was kind of cool, is because of the particular audience it might be useful for or in reaching...

It varies from a loose translation to a paraphrase to a sermon. In parts, it is very good. In other parts, he completely mangles the text.

Eugene Peterson's motivation is expressed in this quote: “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.'”

How well he achieved this goal is debated. There is a good analysis of The Message here.
 
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Neogaia777

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It varies from a loose translation to a paraphrase to a sermon. In parts, it is very good. In other parts, he completely mangles the text.

Eugene Peterson's motivation is expressed in this quote: “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.'”

How well he achieved this goal is debated. There is a good analysis of The Message here.
It like it's trying to speak to children, for sure, and I probably will not agree with all of it either, but, I like to look at and into multiple different translations of how it says basically the same thing, to find the commonality, cause I think there is a deeper truth in that...

But, anyway,

God Bless!
 
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gordonhooker

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Would you post Luke 17:37 here for us? Thanks.
It should be telling people in the future to look for - the dead body of Jesus.

I can do that for you...

Luke 17:37 ¶ Trying to take all this in, the disciples said, “Master, where?” ¶ He told them, “Watch for the circling of the vultures. They’ll spot the corpse first. The action will begin around my dead body.”
 
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gordonhooker

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"the corpse" is not talking about the body of Jesus Christ

Some Lukan scholars believe it is a metaphor for Jesus - it was never meant to be taken literally metaphor and imagery is used a lot to get the story across that is one of the reasons Jesus spoke in parables much of the time throughout the Gospel accounts. Here is an extract from the Word Biblical NT Commentary.


Word Biblical NT author: John Nolland

Luke 17:37 Matthew’s equivalent to v 37 comes immediately after his equivalent to v 24, and this is generally considered to be the positioning in the shared tradition. The introductory question looks like a Lukan formulation (despite the historic present) designed to assist with his relocation of the maxim to the climactic position in his unit. The small wording differences are likely to be Luke’s. The disciples’ question is most easily understood to be asking where the people of vv 34–35 [vol. 35B, p. 863] were to be taken. Luke’s climax is graphic, but obscure. Though the image is rather gruesome, in the present setting it is likely to represent the gathering to the Son of Man of those to be delivered (see 21:28; cf v 27): they will be gathered to him like eagles/vultures to the prey upon which they will feast (there are many other suggestions about the meaning of this imagery, which I will not take the trouble to list here). For this, Luke may have been more comfortable with σῶμα, “body,” than with the πτῶμα, “corpse,” which is found in Matthew (though σῶμα is often enough used of a corpse in Hellenistic Greek and is so used by Luke [23:52, 55; 24:3, 23; Acts 9:40]). ἀετός is normally “eagle,” but because in the Matthew parallel (24:28) the corpse represents food for the birds (cf Job 39:30 LXX), the reference in this maxim is more likely to be to vultures.
 
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gordonhooker

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This is how things will be way off after Jesus Christ already ascended to heaven as others watched. He does not have a dead body as to Him for people to watch for.

No worries I will leave you with it...
 
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It's an attempt at more of a thought for thought translation, rather than word for word so much, the reason I thought it was kind of cool, is because of the particular audience it might be useful for or in reaching...

I admit I don't think it should perhaps be on the same level as other Bibles, but, I do think it is kinda cool...

But, maybe, not really considered a Bible, like for example, I would not quote from it, but might use it if it seems to shed some light on particular other ways of putting it, in other translations that I already know, then I might us it to help comment on certain scriptures from other Bibles... But, I would only quote, for the most part from other translations...

God Bless!

I don't see your post as a new Bible, but rather, simple statements, based on your understanding of Scripture.

I would disagree with this freestanding point;

4 - What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by.

God IS LIFE - without beginning.

God created vessels - and imparts His Life into the vessels.

Thereafter - yes, the individual vessels, have their own life (ie, called blood), come into existence; via Gods Thought, Word, Power.

God Bless,
SBC
 
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