My sister has been quoting from “The Message” lately. It is s bible translated by a man named Eugene H. Peterson. I prefer the NAB bible and to look at explanation of passages written in the bible. Does anyone have any opinion on this bible?
There’s a lot of things that separate “The Message” from something that’s more of an…actual…translation.
First, it’s a Bible translation by just one guy. That’s very unusual, especially in this day and age. Normally, you’ll have dozens of people working on each other’s work and groups of people that meet regularly over the course of several years just to discuss the different ways that interpreter bias might be affecting their work. They’ll usually acknowledge that any one person will have bias of some sort, but if there’s different kinds of people providing checks and balances against each other, it can mostly be cancelled out. The Message is just one guy, though. He’s pretty good with ancient languages, but it’s impossible for just one man to match the expertise of dozens of people who all have different strengths that they can bring to bear. Ie., maybe one translator will be particularly good with Hebrew poetry, and that’s his main focus. Another translator will be particularly good with Pauline epistles. That’s his strength, and he mostly works on that. Peterson’s pretty good, but it’s just impossible for one man to be extremely strong in every single kind of translation category.
Second, it’s an extreme paraphrase. It’s not even “thought for thought.” It goes well beyond that, and Peterson sometimes modernizes phrases in extremely obvious ways. It is very ancient text, so I think that kind of thing breaks up the flow.
Third, Peterson intended to come at this project much differently from a normal translation. Most translations will try to make sure every word (or at least every thought) is transferred from the original manuscript to the English copy of the Bible. Peterson felt that something was lost in this process, though. He’s well-versed in both ancient Greek and ancient Hebrew to the point where he’s pretty much fluent and can (as much as is possible) approximate what it was like for someone to read the Bible in the original language. Especially from a poetic standpoint, Peterson felt that some of that “feel” was lost. That’s why he decided to make “The Message”- it’s not even close to being word for word, but he tried to make it less “wooden” and more poetic. Free-flowing. Organic.
It’s Peterson’s attempt at allowing an English speaker to experience the Bible in the same way that Peterson does as someone who’s well-versed in ancient languages, and to a lesser extent, the people who origianlly read and heard these things. That was his intent, anyway.
As far as the Psalms go (and other passages that are particularly poetic), Peterson actually does a really good job. You don’t ever want to use The Message for serious Bible study, and you’ll want to find a better translation if you want to have a good idea of what the Bible actually says, but the poetic parts of The Message are worth taking a look at. That’s Peterson’s strong point, and I think he largely accomplishes his stated goal in those portions of Scripture. Other than that, though, the translation as a whole is less reliable than I’d like and I don’t necessarily think it’s the right move for him to try and make the
entire Bible more poetic in its flow.
I have a copy of it because it was given to me as a gift, but I wouldn’t buy one and I don’t make regular use of it. I certainly don’t depend on it by any stretch of the imagination. There are certain parts that are enjoyable to read, though, and they’re worth taking a look at every once in awhile.
Anyway, that is my opinion on The Message.
