Is It Okay to Paraphrase The Bible?
You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still ahead, Dave and Tom resume their weekly in-depth study of the doctrine of salvation, please stay tuned.
CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
In this regular feature, Dave and Tom address questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here is this week’s question: “Dear Dave and TA: I know you both detest The Message Bible, written by Eugene Peterson, and I agree, but I wonder about pastors and teachers who paraphrase the scriptures in their preaching and teaching. Aren’t they also in danger of committing the sin of adding to or taking away from the Word of God?
Tom:
Well, what do you think, Dave? I’ve heard you preach, and sometimes you paraphrase the scriptures. And by the way, the person accused us of detesting The Message Bible, written by Eugene Peterson. I would say that’s a little soft, I would go a way beyond detesting. I think it’s a, well we used the term blasting, I think it’s blasphemy.
Dave:
It’s an abomination. Well, people who ask questions like this…I guess the best thing we can do is teach them to think. Because if you thought about this for a minute… there’s a big difference. When a preacher is preaching from the Word of God, and that’s biblical, expounding the Scriptures, he is not saying, This is the Bible. Eugene Peterson literally said that this was a version of the Bible. That’s false, but then a person looks to that as t he Bible. Now, nobody is expected to look to my, or your, or some preacher’s explanation of a Scripture. Well, that’s not the Bible, we are exegeting the Scripture, but you have the Scripture to go back to.
Tom:
Yeah, so you could be a Berean, you could say, Wait a minute, Dave, time out here, you have deviated from the Word of God in your explanation.
Dave:
Absolutely.
Tom:
But that’s the responsibility of everyone who listens to preaching and teaching.
Dave:
But you can’t do that with The Message, because it claims to be the Word of God.
Tom:
Dave, something like 4,000 times we have throughout the Bible; “…Thus saith the Lord…or the Word of the Lord came to me.” The best you could say with this is, thus saith Eugene Peterson, or you know, supposedly he’s hearing from God, but I don’t buy it, I don’t believe it. Dave, also, let me go over some verses that the Word of God has to say about what Eugene Peterson is doing here, and then we’ll give our audience, if they are not familiar with The Message, we’ll give them some examples. Proverbs 30:6: “Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” Okay. Deuteronomy 4:1-2: “Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” Another Deuteronomy 12:32: “What thing so ever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” And of course we know from Revelation 22:18-19: “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” The point being is God is serious about His Word. He doesn’t want it messed with; He doesn’t want it tampered with.
Dave:
Absolutely.
Tom:
Now, have you got any examples of Eugene’s basically disobeying the verses that I have read?
Dave:
Well, he changes them. He takes what God said and shoves it to one side and puts his own words in there. I gave you some examples, or one example, but how about John 3:17? That says, in the Bible, that what he came for was, God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Well, what does The Message say? He came to help to put the world right again. Now that sounds like political or social action.
Tom:
It is, and that’s Eugene Peterson is all about by the way, this is his agenda.
Dave:
And that’s why Rick Warren loves this translation.
Tom:
And used it more than other version in The Purpose-Driven Life.
Dave:
Tom, one of my favorite verses Paul prays for the Ephesians in Ephesians 1. He says: “That you might know what is the hope of His calling.” Well, what is the hope of His calling? Well, Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:10: “The God of all grace who has called us unto his eternal glory.” Wow! When we see Him we will be like Him. What does The Message say? He will have you put together and standing on your feet. What? He’s lowered from heaven to this earth, he literally trashes God’s Word and puts his own in their place as though he is improving the Bible!
Tom:
Right. Dave, one more example. The rationale behind this in paraphrases is, Well, so it becomes more understandable. Now, you tell me, this is John 1:1.
Dave:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.”
Tom:
Okay, now according to Peterson he’s going to make it more understandable. This is what he writes: “The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word, the Word was God in readiness for God from day one.”
What is that?
Dave:
He really garbled it, confused it.
Tom:
Okay.