Would writing an alternate rendition of the Gospels be wrong?

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IlCajetan

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I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as I’ve been trying to write on my own a bit more to improve my overall English. Would writing a kind of rendition of the Gospels be wrong? For example, let’s say I take the wedding at Cana and I basically make it take place in the 1920s and instead of wine it’s champagne, and Mary and Jesus have a different name and overall it has the message of the Gospel, but it isn’t the Gospel. I think it would be interesting to see such a rendition but I also think it may be wrong to touch the Gospel like that. Obviously I wouldn’t be twisting the words, but I feel like it may make the Gospel look like a plain ol’ book, which it is not, it is the word of God.
 
A good idea, in my opinion. There are ways it could go wrong, for example, if it waters down the divinity of Jesus or makes a parody. Even so, I think there’s no harm in an author working out some plot lines and dialogue and seeing where it leads, while respecting the Gospel.
 
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I’d be hesitant to mess with the Holy Book. Galatians 1:8 and you don’t want to take the chance of misleading people.
 
JW’s already tried this. took out the Cross and added a torture stake in it’s place. oh and they also changed the part about Jesus being God. He is a god in that rewrite
 
I wouldn’t touch it. The Gospels are more than simply telling a story (about a wedding). There is a difference in wine and what it represents in the Gospels to, say, champagne. There are layers and layers of meaning and understanding. Just changing one word is huge.
 
Soubirous1 said:
JW’s already tried this. took out the Cross and added a torture stake in it’s place. oh and they also changed the part about Jesus being God. He is a god in that rewrite
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But the JWs intended that to replace the actual Gospels. They meant it literally. OP acknowledges that his would just be a story.

This doesn’t strike me as that different than what a lot of Christian writers have done. Look at CS Lewis and Tolkien, for example. They usually didn’t come right out and say it, but a lot of their stories are clearly adaptions from the Bible. CS Lewis basically beats you over the head to recognize that Aslan the lion represents Jesus.
 
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People are always picking up themes from the Bible and re-writing them.the Bible has so many stories, it’s actually a little difficult to avoid that 😉

Bishop Barron at least used to write about literature and themes and the Bible, so you might look into his books. I only know because I got one for a friend and read it 😳
 
The Cotton Patch Version already beat you to that idea.

And no, it’s not that good.

“Highball it to Mexico.” Matthew 2:13.
 
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IlCajetan said:
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as I’ve been trying to write on my own a bit more to improve my overall English. Would writing a kind of rendition of the Gospels be wrong? For example, let’s say I take the wedding at Cana and I basically make it take place in the 1920s and instead of wine it’s champagne, and Mary and Jesus have a different name and overall it has the message of the Gospel, but it isn’t the Gospel. I think it would be interesting to see such a rendition but I also think it may be wrong to touch the Gospel like that. Obviously I wouldn’t be twisting the words, but I feel like it may make the Gospel look like a plain ol’ book, which it is not, it is the word of God.
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Yes it’s fine.
 
We’ve already had all kinds of books and movies that did this. I seem to recall one movie that retold the story of Jesus’ birth and had Mary working at a gas station and Joseph driving a cab.

The world really doesn’t need more of this.

If you still want to do it, then as long as you’re not blasphemous I guess it’s okay…I just don’t see why it’s necessary though.
 
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RolandThompsonGunner said:
CS Lewis basically beats you over the head to recognize that Aslan the lion represents Jesus.
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Not “represents” but REALLY IS.

In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader he shows himself to the children as Lamb, and in another place Aslan mentions that “he is known in their world by another name”.
The reason for Lewis to show him as a lion (or rather very big lion) was a reference to Lion of Judah, a well known to us biblical messianic name of God. Also Aslan was a redeemer of Narnia — the animal world (where men were most of the time a rare occurrence), not our world, thus he had do have an animal form.

Also highly recommend C.S. Lewis’ Cosmic Trilogy, his vision of “Christian cosmos” with similar twist is truly amazing and heartwarming.
 
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My religion teacher in the eighth grade actually showed us Narnia and we had pick out out all the parts that were either references or representations of parts of the Bible. Quite smart.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
One reason I have avoided those books as an adult is that I don’t really want to envision Jesus Christ as a literal lion.
I find it a bit weird and creepy.
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You might like the Space Trilogy. I thought the first two were excellent; the third kinda lost the thread for me a bit. Still good, and it does prominently feature a bear…

But anyway, even if it’s not to everyone’s taste, I think we can safely say it’s not per se blasphemous.
 
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