There are numerous translations of the Bible available in bookstores and on the Internet. Paraphrased versions of the Scriptures are popular. Paraphrase versions are more commentaries than translations and are what the translator “thinks” is being said in a certain passage. “A ‘Dynamic Equivalent’ attempts to use the original language as a guide in translating, and then ‘elaborates’ to enhance understanding. A ‘Word-for-Word’ translation attempts to add the fewest number of additional words to the translation and generally place the added words in italics. A “Paraphrase” simply attempts to put the meaning of the text into modern day English, sometimes with little regard to the actual context of the original passage, which can be a very dangerous concept.” What Do the Scriptures Say? Mike Scott, minister Mt Vernon church of Christ, Prescott, AZ, www.scripturessay.org.
No Bible translator or any particular translation was ever inspired by God. The Old Testament is translated from Hebrew Texts. The New Testament is translated from Greek manuscripts The Living Bible was translated by one; man, Kenneth Taylor and for a while was a number one best selling paraphrase version. This is one man’s rendition of what he thinks God’s word says. A reference of Premillennialism is seen in the paraphrase of Isaiah 2:3 where it says “’Come,’ everyone will say, ‘let us go up the mountain of the Lord, to the Temple of the God of Israel; there he will teach us his laws, and we will obey them.’ For in those days the world will be ruled from Jerusalem,” while the Word of God in KJV says, “And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”
Quoting from a preface as adapted from the preface to the first edition of Living Letters, it reads: “There are dangers in paraphrases, as well as values. For whenever the author’s exact words are not translated from the original languages, there is a possibility that the translator, however honest, may be giving the English reader something that the original writer did not mean to say. … a paraphrase is guided not only by the translator’s skill in simplifying but also by the clarity of his understanding of what the author meant and by his theology.”
A couple of other examples follow:
Mark 1:4 – “This messenger was John the Baptist. He lived in the wilderness and taught that all should be baptized as a public announcement of their decision to turn their backs on sin, so that God could forgive them.”
[KJV] “John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.”
1 Peter 3:21 – “(That, by the way, is what baptism pictures for us: In baptism we show that we have been saved from death and doom by the resurrection of Christ; not because our bodies are washed clean by the water, but because in being baptized we are turning to God and asking him to cleanse our hearts from sin.)”
[KJV] – The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah.” Isaiah 55:8
