The Message…

March 26, 2005 | 9:20 PM

I wanted to post an example of why I hate The Message, a paraphrase of the Scriptures by Eugene Peterson and his friends. Here’s the Lord’s Prayer, a la Eugene Peterson.

Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best–
as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.

Look, if you can’t take the Word in a normal NASB or NIV translation (or God forbid, you learn Greek and Hebrew and translate from its original language) and then explain it without The Message, you need to do some serious time reallocation. That book, and I do call it a book, not the Bible, is full of flippant and miserable paraphrase. Any deeper meaning or fuller meaning from the context is completely eradicated. This was my moment to rail against The Message. I now step off the soapbox.

Posted in Christianity