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Why was The Message written? The best answer to that question comes from Eugene Peterson himself: ""While I was teaching a class on Galatians, I began to realize that the adults in my class weren't feeling the vitality and directness that I sensed as I read and studied the New Testament in its original Greek. Writing straight from the original text, I began to attempt to bring into English the rhythms and idioms of the original language. I knew that the early readers of the New Testament were captured and engaged by these writings and I wanted my congregation to be impacted in the same way. I hoped to bring the New Testament to life for two different types of people: those who hadn't read the Bible because it seemed too distant and irrelevant and those who had read the Bible so much that it had become 'old hat.'""
Peterson's parishioners simply weren't connecting with the real meaning of the words and the relevance of the New Testament for their own lives. So he began to bring into English the rhythms and idioms of the original ancient Greek—writing straight out of the Greek text without looking at other English translations. As he shared his version of Galatians with them, they quit stirring their coffee and started catching Paul's passion and excitement as he wrote to a group of Christians whom he was guiding in the ways of Jesus Christ. For more than two years, Peterson devoted all his efforts to The Message New Testament. His primary goal was to capture the tone of the text and the original conversational feel of the Greek, in contemporary English.
Language changes. New words are formed. Old words take on new meaning. There is a need in every generation to keep the language of the gospel message current, fresh, and understandable—the way it was for its very first readers. That is what The Message seeks to accomplish for contemporary readers. It is a version for our time—designed to be read by contemporary people in the same way as the original koin Greek and Hebrew manuscripts were savored by people thousands of years ago.
That's why NavPress felt the time was right for a new version. When we hear something over and over again in the same way, we can become so familiar with it that the text loses its impact. The Message strives to help readers hear the living Word of God—the Bible—in a way that engages and intrigues us right where we are.
Some people like to read the Bible in Elizabethan English. Others want to read a version that gives a close word-for-word correspondence between the original languages and English. Eugene Peterson recognized that the original sentence structure is very different from that of contemporary English. He decided to strive for the spirit of the original manuscripts—to express the rhythm of the voices, the flavor of the idiomatic expressions, the subtle connotations of meaning that are often lost in English translations.
The goal of The Message is to engage people in the reading process and help them understand what they read. This is not a study Bible, but rather ""a reading Bible."" The verse numbers, which are not in the original documents, have been left out of the print version to facilitate easy and enjoyable reading. The original books of the Bible were not written in formal language. The Message tries to recapture the Word in the words we use today.
- 1 Chronicles 1
- 1 Chronicles 2
- 1 Chronicles 3
- 1 Chronicles 4
- 1 Chronicles 5
- 1 Chronicles 6
- 1 Chronicles 7
- 1 Chronicles 8
- 1 Chronicles 9
- 1 Chronicles 10
- 2 Chronicles 1
- 2 Chronicles 2
- 2 Chronicles 3
- 2 Chronicles 4
- 2 Chronicles 5
- 2 Chronicles 6
- 2 Chronicles 7
- 2 Chronicles 8
- 2 Chronicles 9
- 2 Chronicles 10
- 2 Chronicles 11
- 2 Chronicles 12
- Deuteronomy 1
- Deuteronomy 2
- Deuteronomy 3
- Deuteronomy 4
- Deuteronomy 5
- Deuteronomy 6
- Deuteronomy 7
- Deuteronomy 8
- Deuteronomy 9
- Deuteronomy 10
- Deuteronomy 11
- Deuteronomy 12
- Ezekiel 1
- Ezekiel 2
- Ezekiel 3
- Ezekiel 4
- Ezekiel 5
- Ezekiel 6
- Ezekiel 7
- Ezekiel 8
- Ezekiel 9
- Ezekiel 10
- Ezekiel 11
- Ezekiel 12
- Ezekiel 13
- Ezekiel 14
- Ezekiel 15
- Ezekiel 16
- Genesis 1
- Genesis 2
- Genesis 3
- Genesis 4
- Genesis 5
- Genesis 6
- Genesis 7
- Genesis 8
- Genesis 9
- Genesis 10
- Genesis 11
- Genesis 12
- Genesis 13
- Genesis 14
- Genesis 15
- Genesis 16
- Genesis 17
- Isaiah 1
- Isaiah 2
- Isaiah 3
- Isaiah 4
- Isaiah 5
- Isaiah 6
- Isaiah 7
- Isaiah 8
- Isaiah 9
- Isaiah 10
- Isaiah 11
- Isaiah 12
- Isaiah 13
- Isaiah 14
- Isaiah 15
- Isaiah 16
- Isaiah 17
- Isaiah 18
- Isaiah 19
- Isaiah 20
- Isaiah 21
- Isaiah 22
- Jeremiah 1
- Jeremiah 2
- Jeremiah 3
- Jeremiah 4
- Jeremiah 5
- Jeremiah 6
- Jeremiah 7
- Jeremiah 8
- Jeremiah 9
- Jeremiah 10
- Jeremiah 11
- Jeremiah 12
- Jeremiah 13
- Jeremiah 14
- Jeremiah 15
- Jeremiah 16
- Jeremiah 17
- Jeremiah 18
- Psalm 1
- Psalm 2
- Psalm 3
- Psalm 4
- Psalm 5
- Psalm 6
- Psalm 7
- Psalm 8
- Psalm 9
- Psalm 10
- Psalm 11
- Psalm 12
- Psalm 13
- Psalm 14
- Psalm 15
- Psalm 16
- Psalm 17
- Psalm 18
- Psalm 19
- Psalm 20
- Psalm 21
- Psalm 22
- Psalm 23
- Psalm 24
- Psalm 25
- Psalm 26
- Psalm 27
- Psalm 28
- Psalm 29
- Psalm 30
- Psalm 31
- Psalm 32
- Psalm 33
- Psalm 34
- Psalm 35
- Psalm 36
- Psalm 37
- Psalm 38
- Psalm 39
- Psalm 40
- Psalm 41
- Psalm 42
- Psalm 43
- Psalm 44
- Psalm 45
- Psalm 46
- Psalm 47
- Psalm 48
- Psalm 49
- Psalm 50
- Psalm 51
- Psalm 52
- Psalm 53
- Psalm 54
- Psalm 55
- Psalm 56
- Psalm 57
- Psalm 58
- Psalm 59
- Psalm 60
- Psalm 61
- Psalm 62
- Psalm 63
- Psalm 64
- Psalm 65
- Psalm 66
- Psalm 67
- Psalm 68
- Psalm 69
- Psalm 70
- Psalm 71
- Psalm 72
- Psalm 73
- Psalm 74
- Psalm 75
- Psalm 76
- Psalm 77
- Psalm 78
- Psalm 79
- Psalm 80
- Psalm 81
- Psalm 82
- Psalm 83
- Psalm 84
- Psalm 85
- Psalm 86
- Psalm 87
- Psalm 88
- Psalm 89
- Psalm 90
- Psalm 91
- Psalm 92
- Psalm 93
- Psalm 94
- Psalm 95
- Psalm 96
- Psalm 97
- Psalm 98
- Psalm 99
- Psalm 100
- Psalm 101
- Psalm 102
- Psalm 103
- Psalm 104
- Psalm 105
- Psalm 106
- Psalm 107
- Psalm 108
- Psalm 109
- Psalm 110
- Psalm 111
- Psalm 112
- Psalm 113
- Psalm 114
- Psalm 115
- Psalm 116
- Psalm 117
- Psalm 118
- Psalm 119
- Psalm 120
- Psalm 121
- Psalm 122
- Psalm 123
- Psalm 124
- Psalm 125
- Psalm 126
- Psalm 127
- Psalm 128
- Psalm 129
- Psalm 130
- Psalm 131
- Psalm 132
- Psalm 133
- Psalm 134
- Psalm 135
- Psalm 136
- Psalm 137
- Psalm 138
- Psalm 139
- Psalm 140
- Psalm 141
- Psalm 142
- Psalm 143
- Psalm 144
- Psalm 145
- Psalm 146
- Psalm 147
- Psalm 148
- Psalm 149
- Psalm 150