The Message

View other editions of The Message.

Does away with the scare-factor!!! - Rated
HI

I borrowed the Message from my Mum while she was in Australia for a month and I've been totally loathed to give it back. I've used it every day. It's so accessible and easy to read. I particularly found it useful for reading the Old Testament. It reads like a story and while I certainly wouldn't recommend it as an alternative to the original translation it does take away the "Scare-Factor" I always used to feel.

Where the original translation seems distant and irrelevant the Message brings the Bible alive and has given me a great overview that I will now take back to my study of the original text.

The characters become real and the story unfolds so that you can follow threads that run through a text which spans hundreds of years and link the old with the new testament without getting bogged down in the language, layout or jargon.

I'd definitely recommend this to any Christian contemplating buying it. It's definitely cheaper on Amazon than anywhere else I've seen it, (and no they didn't pay me to write that!).It is a lot of money, but for me it has been a good investment and a great aid for getting my head around the Bible.

Hope you find my review helpful

Gem

God speaks in many tongues - Rated
One of the lessons that we have to learn about spirituality is that god wants to communicate with all of us to bring us closer to him. The words of the Bible and the teaching it offers is our way of doing this. Whilst the Message may not be to everyones taste and is in some ways an interpretation than a direct translation it brings the message to us in uncluttered modern language that can be understood by all. It reminds me of history when the bible was translated from latin into different languages. It brings a new generation closer to the word and that can only be a good thing.

An inspiring new twist on the good old theme - Rated
There have been many recent efforts to put the Bible into contemporary language. In our varied Western cultures and our so-flexible English language, the translator will always have an impossible task, trying to get across the original sense with a single translation, yet read elegantly and simply.

Some don't try - they render the original (or a 17th century AV) idiom, often trying to translate the ancient language word-for-word and yet somehow get this to read well in modern English. They might, if we're lucky, give us some help to understand this. These can make 'worthy' translations, but they aren't rated well for being intelligible to ordinary folk. Others go too far with idiomatic paraphrase in addressing a particular sector of readership: think of the 'hip' testaments; or there's the 1000 word Simple English NT that jumped through hoops to 'avoid difficult words'!

Most modern translations steer a middle course, and for the past 35 years, all those I've seen have done it pretty well. A few are outstanding. The Living Bible and Good News Bible are the two popular versions which get quite colloquial. Both have been criticised for it, usually for missing important - to the critic - nuances. Well, of course! You can't have it all!

Eugene Peterson's 'The Message' New Testament is in the tradition of Weymouth, Moffat, Rieu and Phillips, aiming for an idiom that will be easier to understand than the more formal and especially the 'literal' translations, yet avoiding 'street language' that outdates faster than fresh fish. It first appeared in 1993 and, with help, he has expanded it steadily to finally see a full Bible this year.

It is colloquial, sometimes in the extreme, and uses a homely North American idiom which still feels comfortable in Britain and the Antipodes. What have ensured its steadily rising popularity, though, are Peterson's subtly 'right' turn of phrase, his terse yet apposite choice of words and, above all, his sheer poetry in many places. All of these are shown well in the earlier Psalms.

It isn't an even translation. Some parts are merely well-translated and without the spark of the best. However, I love it for the wonderful passages I keep finding when I look through a dozen versions for quotes to use in talks and prayer notes.

No translation can keep everyone happy and some reviews here show discontent in those who like their scripture smooth and erudite. Peterson is earthy, pungent and frequently poetic, but his scholarship is good (though imperfect as any mortal's). He hits my spot so often that I like to keep his translation near me, along with the AV, NIV and NLT for variety.Long live the people's translator!

Don't Call it a Translation! - Rated
Eugene Peterson seems to want to somehow defamiliarize the reader at any cost. It is not just a matter of transculturation, it is very often a clearly distorted meaning that he proposes, and even more often the wrong choice of register. There are lot of additions, clearly to give more vividness to the text, and many losses at notoriously difficult places. The author has strayed so much afield at places that the product cannot not be easily reconciled with the original. There are, however, sometimes quite good renderings.

The Message sounds as though the Bible had been written a couple of years ago in the United States or Canada, not in Judea under Roman occupation some 2000 years ago. It is not really a translation, it is more some sort of homiletical reworking and application to modern audiences and situations of the source text. The major drawback is represented by the (sometimes) gross distortion of meaning.

In Mt 5:39, for instance, Jesus just "proposes", in Ps. 23 God "serves a six-course dinner." The passage about oaths in Mt 5:33-37 reads like this: "And don't say anything you don't mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, 'I'll pray for you,' and never doing it, or saying, 'God be with you,' and not meaning it. You don't make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say 'yes' and 'no.' When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong."

Nonetheless, I guess that this sort of transposition will do no harm to anybody and probably be useful to many readers. Due to its defamiliarizing effect, it helps people to look at Scripture in a fresh way. The reader should not, however, take the meaning conveyed by the Message at face value but compare it with a real translation.

Message for the future - Rated
This book is beautifully written and God speaks powerfully through this translation. I recommend it to anyone who struggles to read/ understand the Bible every day.