If you go to biblegateway.com you will see that there is just a ton of different translations of the bible. While reading Sacred Parenting I found a reference to Micah 6:8. The author was focused on the phrase “love grace” in that passage. My main Bible, English Standard Version, says “love kindness.”
Whenever I run into this or I’m having a hard time understanding something in the Bible I’ll pick up the Message. It’s a modern “translation” of the bible by a pastor named Eugene Peterson. I put quotes around translation because Peterson tries more to get the message across than an actual word for word translation. The Message says,” be compassionate and loyal in your love.”
Feeling befuddled I went to the King James Version. The old red bible Steve gave me. Obviously it was the translation the author of Sacred Parenting was reading.
This blog started out as just a funny post about the fact that I’m carrying three bibles around with me now. When I was with Larry last week I had them all with me. I’m often sitting up in bed as Kay and I are going to sleep referring to all three of them. I just find it really funny that I was an atheist Buddhist and now I have three bibles stacked beside my bed.
As I write this though I feel a non-Christian will be asking why there are so many differences between translations. During my devout atheist days I was all about the apparent mistakes in the Bible. God creates light on the first day and the sun on the third day. How does that work? All I can say is that when I read the Bible through I found its message amazingly consistent. CS Lewis viewed the Bible as a blueprint for humanities relationship with God. A blueprint is a representation of a building. It is not the building. As an Architect I can tell you that the best set of drawings will never be a perfect representation of a building.
I invite everyone to read the Bible through. I’d suggest the Victory Reading Plan and the NIV or English Standard versions of the Bible. If you do not believe after that at least you can say you read the thing. That’s why I did it.
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