I've decided to read the Christian-Greek Scriptures through again. (As opposed to my normal routine of reading Revelation over and over and over again.) I read a nice suggestion in the past to read-through using different Bible translations so on Friday at the book store I took some time to check out a couple versions. In particular I looked at a parallel Bible that contained two very popular versions of the Bible, the New International Version (NIV) as well as the "The Message" paraphrase. Since we are currently studying Galatians I read through it in both versions.
The Message Bible was incredibly loose in how it rendered things and was greatly coloured by the translators bias. For instance when Paul enumerates the works of the flesh in Galatians chapter 5, "The Message Bible" subsituted, "repetitive, loveless, cheap sex;" for fornication. Instead of reflecting the Spirit of God the Message Bible reflects the spirit of the world, the improper idea that sex outside of marriage is ok so long as the couple loves each other. Sadly The Message Bible is extremely popular today, especially among young people.
I settled on the NIV translation which seems to be pretty good although I don't like how God's name is removed from the Hebrew Scriptures. Right now I really looking forward to going through the scriptures again. Last night in Matthew I was just absolutely floored by the beauty of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. I was really encouraged by verses 10-12 of chapter 5.
"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
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