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.'"
I'm sorry, 'old hat?'. Since when was the Bible over used and worn out like an old hat?
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.
In the Introduction to The Message Peterson clearly states that he did not intend to write a watered down version of the bible. I'm sorry, but that's what it is!!
A Note by John MacArthur
Let me just give you a little hint. If you ever hear a preacher say, “We need to bring the Bible into modern time?” Translators think they need to do that, tamper with the text. “You don’t want to give people antiquated, old expositional messages. Got to be updated. We have got to bring the Bible into modern times.”
That is exactly opposite what you should do. You never want to bring the Bible into modern times. You want to take people back into ancient times. When you teach the Word of God you want to recreate the setting so the person is there, so the Bible comes through with its divine message in its original context. Anything less is robbing Scripture, snatching verses here and there to make them mean whatever they want. If you are going to retain the true meaning of the Scripture you have to go back into the original context.
And let me tell you something about the Bible. The meaning of the Scripture is the
Scripture. Did you get that? That is not circular reasoning. The meaning of the Scripture is the Scripture. If you don’t get the meaning right you don’t have God’s Word. You may own a Bible. You don’t have God’s Word until you know what it means by what it says. And the meaning is in understanding the context.
Apostasy Alert!!!
Did you know?
- The Message removed homosexuality in the text. (you know, because we don't want to offend homosexuals?)
- The Message is sexual orientation and gender friendly. (it's good for everything then, eh?)
- The Message says that Jesus calls himself "the Human One" instead of "Son of Man" (you know, because it might offend women?)
- The Message calls the darkness, "the shadow" (you know, because it might offend dark coloured people?)
Like they say, "NO MSG!"
Please, if you own this book (I can't even call it the Bible), I am saying this for the sake of your salvation, THROW IT OUT and BURN IT!
Visit http://justinpeters.org/The_Message%5B1%5D.pdf for a brief outline of The Message.
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