November 4, 2002
Translator of 'The Message'
hopes to spark interest in Bible
___By Cecile Holmes
___Religion News Service
___WASHINGTON (RNS)--In the Bible, the ancient prophets and patriarchs bargained with God, argued with God, got angry with God. Their connection to the Almighty was first a conversation and eventually a relationship. The byproduct of both was dynamic faith.
___"The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language," a new 2,200-page version of the Christian Scriptures by writer and poet Eugene Peterson, is designed to spark the same sort of relationship between Christians and God. Translated directly from the ancient Hebrew and Greek texts into contemporary language, it is a reader's Bible. Neither verse numbers nor the sort of formal language characteristic of most Scripture translations are used.
EUGENE PETERSON
___Earlier segments in Peterson's work proved so popular that NavPress ordered an initial press run of 500,000 for "The Message."
___So far, 349,870 copies have been sold, while 363,000 total orders have been made. The initial print of 500,000 was the largest first print run ever done for a Bible from R.R. Donnelly, the primary publisher of Bibles since 1864. The new Bible's forerunner, Peterson's New Testament, sold 2.5 million copies. Other "Message" spinoffs and precursors, such as "The Message" of Christmas, have sold 4.5 million.
___The author says the translation itself is a byproduct of anger, dating to when he was pastor of a small suburban parish in Baltimore in the early 1960s. The city was in tumult and his congregants were so worried that they became obsessed with safety.
___"People started buying guns and security systems and double-locking doors," Peterson recalled. "I was appalled that these Christian people were suddenly reverting to their basic lowest survival instinct."
___So Peterson began a Sunday School class, then preached a sermon series on the New Testament book of Galatians, famous for its egalitarian approach to the life of faith.
___"It was just awful," he said of the class' first meetings. "They'd fill up their coffee cups and stir in sugar and cream and look at their cups and they weren't getting it. It was just really bad. I went home after the third week and said to my wife that I was going to teach them Greek. If they could read it in Greek, they would get it, they'd understand what a revolutionary text it is and couldn't just keep living in their ruts. She agreed that would empty out the class fast."
___Instead of forcing Greek on the class, Peterson used his knowledge of biblical languages to translate Galatians into the contemporary idiom. His work breathed life into the ancient message of the Apostle Paul, who wrote the letter in words initially spoken and written in the style of the working class.
___"Paul had this wild syntax with vigor and startling images he would fly into when he was excited," Peterson said. "I wanted them to get that."
___ His strategy worked. Soon when he'd clean up after the class, he'd find cups of cold coffee, so neglected their owners had forgotten to add sugar and cream.
___Peterson's version of Galatians eventually was published by InterVarsity Press. Soon an editor at NavPress called, urging him to translate the whole New Testament. Peterson demurred, citing pastoral duties. The conversation continued for years, with Peterson always refusing, stipulating pastoral duties were his first obligation.
___After 29 years, Peterson left the pastorate and wanted to write.
___"I didn't know how I'd make a living," he said. "I more or less thought I'd go back to our family home in Montana. Then NavPress called again and I suddenly realized I could do it, I had the time."
___True to its creator's intent, "The Message," strives to impart the honesty, dynamism and realism Peterson finds in the Bible. "Translating 'The Message' came out of my 35 years of pastoral work," Peterson wrote in an introductory letter. "I was an American pastor in small-town suburbia. I was finding that the most difficult place in American culture to do something biblical was suburbia. The suburban mind assumes its values and standards are Christian.
___"And I was trying to bring this radical gospel world of earthiness, deliverance, sin and salvation into the language of these people. Language is where it starts."
___He proves his point with "The Message." The words are moving, fast-paced and eerily contemporary. In Genesis, God creates human beings, making "male and female" and "godlike." After blessing them, God urges them: "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge."
___In the famous 23rd Psalm, the writer praises the divine: "Your beauty and love chase after me, every day of my life. I'm back home in the house of God for the rest of my life."
___And in Chapter 55 of Isaiah, the prophet rebukes and cautions: "Why do you spend your money on junk food, your hard-earned cash on cotton candy? Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best, fill yourself with only the finest. Pay attention, come close now, listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words."
___The style and substance of Peterson's work have won favor in diverse quarters.
___Though he wrote "The Message," a team of qualified exegetical consultants carefully reviewed it to be certain it offered a genuine communication of the original Hebrew and Greek texts.
___Well-known Christian writer Richard Foster said it gives a "fresh and authentic voice to the Scripture." Recording artist Rebecca St. James claims to read it daily.
___"It's fresh, challenging, at times shocking," she said. "It makes you want to jump up to your feet and take action."
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