The goal of The Message is to engage people in the reading process and help them understand what they read. He decided to strive for the spirit of the original manuscripts-to express the rhythm of the voices, the flavor of the idiomatic expressions, the subtle connotations of meaning that are often lost in English translations. Eugene Peterson recognized that the original sentence structure is very different from that of contemporary English. Others want to read a version that gives a close word-for-word correspondence between the original languages and English. Some people like to read the Bible in Elizabethan English. The Message strives to help readers hear the living Word of God-the Bible-in a way that engages and intrigues us right where we are. When we hear something over and over again in the same way, we can become so familiar with it that the text loses its impact. That's why NavPress felt the time was right for a new version. It is a version for our time-designed to be read by contemporary people in the same way as the original koin Greek and Hebrew manuscripts were savored by people thousands of years ago. That is what The Message seeks to accomplish for contemporary readers. There is a need in every generation to keep the language of the gospel message current, fresh, and understandable-the way it was for its very first readers. His primary goal was to capture the tone of the text and the original conversational feel of the Greek, in contemporary English. For more than two years, Peterson devoted all his efforts to The Message New Testament. As he shared his version of Galatians with them, they quit stirring their coffee and started catching Paul's passion and excitement as he wrote to a group of Christians whom he was guiding in the ways of Jesus Christ. So he began to bring into English the rhythms and idioms of the original ancient Greek-writing straight out of the Greek text without looking at other English translations. Peterson's parishioners simply weren't connecting with the real meaning of the words and the relevance of the New Testament for their own lives. 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 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. Writing straight from the original text, I began to attempt to bring into English the rhythms and idioms of the original language. Matthew 18:10īeware that you don’t mistreat and look down on children for their angels are in my heavenly Father’s presence always.Why was The Message written? 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. The little ones who are considered the least are great among you all.” 46. Whoever receives me also receives God who has sent me.
Luke 9:47-48īut Jesus, knowing how they reasoned, placed a child at His side saying, “Whoever uses my name and receives this child, receives me. Matthew 18:5Īny person who welcomes a little child to come to me is welcoming me. Then He took the children, held them in His arms and blessed them by placing His hands on them. Truly I tell all of you, if you do not receive the kingdom of God as a little child does, you will never enter His Heavenly Kingdom. When the disciples rebuke people for bringing their children to Jesus for His blessings, Jesus says, “Do not stop the little ones from coming to me for to them belongs all the riches and the kingdom of heaven.” 43. Those who are younger must accept the elder’s authority while dressing in humility as you interact with one another, for “God will give grace to a humble heart and oppose the proud heart.” 42.