Translator of The Living Bible Dies

Ken Taylor, the translator of the popular paraphrase, The Living Bible, died on Friday at the age of 88. In addition to being the translator of The Living Bible, Taylor founded Tyndale House Publishers as an outlet for his paraphrases. Tyndale House has emerged as one of the leading Christian publishing firms and was the home for the Left Behind Series.

The Living Bible was first published in its completed form in 1971. Taylor had first experimented with paraphrasing the Bible for children to make the text of the King James Version more understandable for kids. He then decided to take on the task of paraphrasing the entire Bible to make a more readable version for adults, a process that resulted in The Living Bible.

As a child, when I first started reading the Bible, I found the King James Version too difficult to understand. So my mother loaned me her Living Bible, which I still have and refer to on occasion. It was this Bible that first ignited in me a passion for the Word of God as I could read and understand what I was reading since it was written in modern language and not with archaic 17th century wording.

In light of the passing of Mr. Taylor, I thought it would be helpful to point out the difference between paraphrases and translations, because a lot of people in our churches do not seem to understand the difference. To them, a Bible is a Bible is a Bible. But, there are differences.

A translation is an attempt to convert (as close as possible) the original Bible text (Hebrew and Greek) word-for-word or concept-for-concept. Some translations seek to emphasize the word-for-word conversion, but these can be somewhat difficult to read at times because you can never truly convert one language to another on a word-for-word basis. Others seek to ensure that the main concepts are faithfully converted while maintaining readibility. Arguably, the most popular translation of all time has been the King James Version, which is a very good translation. Recent translations that are very popular include the New International Version, the New King James Version, the New Living Translation.

A paraphrase is an attempt to reword the original concepts of the Bible into modern language with the goal being readibility and not direct conversion. In other words, a paraphrase is when the translator rewords a passage of scripture in his words to explain to the readers what the original author said. Paraphrases transmit the concepts of the Bible, then, but are not word-for-word what was said in the original languages. As such, they may slightly change the meaning of some passages. The most popular paraphrase in history has been Taylor's The Living Bible, but a recent paraphrase by Eugene Peterson, The Message, is currently being used by lots of people.

The take-home message to remember when looking at Bibles is that good translations should be considered word-for-word (or as close as possible) to what the original author wrote and that paraphrases are modern renderings and rewordings of the text. A lot of people, especially clergy and scholars, disdain the use of paraphrases because they are not direct translations from the original languages. Rick Warren's book, The Purpose Driven Life, has taken a lot of heat from some because of his extensive use of paraphrases instead of translations.

So, what should you use? I would suggest you use what you are comfortable with. If you like the readibility of the paraphrases, such as The Living Bible or The Message, use them. But use them knowing what they are and that they are not word-for-word translations. If you prefer Bibles that more accurately reflect what the original author wrote in the original languages, then use a good translation. My best suggestion is to use a combination of both translations and paraphrases in order to get the best idea of what God is saying through a particular piece of Scripture. When I am preparing a sermon or a Bible study, I usually check at least two translations (sometimes more) to compare wording and glance at the paraphrase, The Message, just to see how Peterson rendered the concept. I feel that this gives me the best reading of a particular passage and allows me to both remain true to the original as well as translate God's word to a modern audience.