Review: Eugene H Peterson's THE MESSAGE

1st April 2007, hej

This Article: (6 Pages)

1. Review: Peterson's THE MESSAGE... Overview
2. Does The Message paraphrase... translation pass the Bible's own test?
3. PASSAGE 1 Exodus 20:1-3
4. PASSAGE 2 Psalm 88:1-3
5. PASSAGE 3 Revelation 13:8
6. Review Conclusions: Peterson's THE... MESSAGE

6) Review Conclusions: Peterson's THE MESSAGE

Three randomly selected verses from the beginning, middle and end of the Bible show that PTM:

Omits parphrasing Hebrew words that contain important concepts for understanding God

Omits reference to words containing important emotional content and poetic devices, substituting a concept not in the Hebrew words

Adds a common saying that neither fits the logic of his own paraphrase or the Greek text.

In two of the passages changes tense and in one changes the word order,

These were randomly selected samples, more samples would be needed to confirm that this pattern of adding and deleting concepts is consistent, however, for a Bible student the extent of variation from the concepts of the orginal texts is of concern.

In deleting and adding concepts not in any of the meanings attached to the words of the accepted original texts PTM fails the Bible's own test, and therefore, those who use it and think of it as 'The Bible' may be in danger of condemnation

PTM is an amusing commentry on the Bible for people well versed in the nuances of image rich English sayings, truisms and cliches.

It is too far from the accepted texts to be called 'The Bible'. Therefore it should not be regarded as the Word of God, but merely a commentry

This point is underlined by PTM itself, in the choice of the words it deletes. Below is a word for word translation of Luke 4:4 (Compare Nestle)

And answered to him Jesus, saying, It is written, That not on bread only shall-live the man, but on every word of God.

PTM version reads:

Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “it takes more than bread to live”. The Message.

Peterson's The Message® leaves the reader with the puzzling question, 'what then does it take to live?'. The answer to that question was deleted. Adding that the quote comes from Deuteronomy does not help the reader, as finding this quote in the PTM paraphrase of Deuteronomy is difficult.

In the PTM paraphrase of Deuteronomy it says