# "Favorite" the Message renderings



## SRoper (Jun 2, 2007)

I'd love to hear your favorite the Message renderings. By "favorite" I mean passages that makes you roll your eyes, laugh, cry, throw the book across the room, what have you. I need a good sampling for something I am working on.

Here's one of mine:

Romans 9:21:
"Isn't it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans?"


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## Ravens (Jun 2, 2007)

That's an absolutely unbelievable rendering.


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## Ivan (Jun 2, 2007)

trevorjohnson said:


> Hey...there's no _dishonor _in beans!!
> 
> 
> ...They're good for the heart, didn't you hear?




Yeah....I heard something.


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## toddpedlar (Jun 2, 2007)

Ivan said:


> Yeah....I heard something.



Well, they are the musical fruit, dontcha know?


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## toddpedlar (Jun 2, 2007)

> 1 Cor 6:12-15:
> This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!



Gag me with a pitchfork! "What's next, Papa!?" Uff da!

"We go through exactly what Christ goes through". Did he really say that?

And finally, whenever I hear the phrase "good times", all I can think of is the theme song... so maybe that flavors my hearing of this 'rendering'.

"Good Times.
Any time you meet a payment. - Good Times.
Any time you need a friend. - Good Times.
Any time you’re out from under.
Not getting hassled, not getting hustled.
Keepin’ your head above water, 
Making a wave when you can.

Temporary lay offs. - Good Times.
Easy credit rip offs. - Good Times.
Scratchin’ and surviving. - Good Times.
Hangin in a chow line - Good Times.
Ain’t we lucky we got ‘em - Good Times."


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## fredtgreco (Jun 2, 2007)

Here is Psalm 1



> Psalm 1:1-6 How well God must like you-- you don't hang out at Sin Saloon, you don't slink along Dead-End Road, you don't go to Smart-Mouth College.
> 2 Instead you thrill to GOD's Word, you chew on Scripture day and night.
> 3 You're a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, Never dropping a leaf, always in blossom.
> 4 You're not at all like the wicked, who are mere windblown dust--
> ...


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## toddpedlar (Jun 2, 2007)

fredtgreco said:


> Psalm 1:1-6 How well God must like you-- you don't hang out at Sin Saloon, you don't slink along Dead-End Road, you don't go to Smart-Mouth College. 2 Instead you thrill to GOD's Word, you chew on Scripture day and night. 3 You're a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, Never dropping a leaf, always in blossom. 4 You're not at all like the wicked, who are mere windblown dust-- 5 Without defense in court, unfit company for innocent people. 6 GOD charts the road you take. The road they take is Skid Row.



Yes, that IS a winner... uff da. Was Peterson TRYING to make Holy Scripture sound so lame and cheesy? Does he really think people find this attractive? (yes, I know, it's scary - many do, including a local pastor I know)


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## bookslover (Jun 2, 2007)

Not only is "The Message" not a translation - it's barely a paraphrase! Peterson must have found some magic mushrooms...


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## fredtgreco (Jun 2, 2007)

You do raise an interesting point. I have found the TEV and even the Cotton Patch translation helpful as a commentary on the text.


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## etexas (Jun 2, 2007)

What's wrong with Smart Mouth College?


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## shackleton (Jun 2, 2007)

The Lord's Prayer Matthew 6:21

With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:

Our Father in heaven,

Reveal who you are.

10Set the world right;

Do what’s best—

as above, so below.


11*Keep us alive with three square meals.*

12Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.

13Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.

*You’re in charge!*

*You can do anything you want!*

You’re ablaze in beauty!

Yes. Yes. Yes. or Hurray, Hurray, Hurray (My rendition, that just seemed like it was a fitting ending)

John 1:1 is also good
The Word was first,

the Word present to God,

God present to the Word.

The Word was God,


2in readiness for God from day one.


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## Ivan (Jun 2, 2007)

shackleton said:


> The Lord's Prayer Matthew 6:21
> 
> With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:
> 
> ...



Some have said that the phrase "as above, so below" is a problem.....see it's origin here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_Above,_So_Below


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## Davidius (Jun 2, 2007)

Here's mine:



Psalm 23 said:


> 4 Even when the way goes through
> Death Valley,
> I'm not afraid
> when you walk at my side.
> ...


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## Calvibaptist (Jun 3, 2007)

My favorite happens to be from Psalm 100.

On your feet now—applaud God! Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourselves into his presence.

3 Know this: God is God, and God, God.
He made us; we didn't make him.
We're his people, his well-tended sheep.

4 *Enter with the password: "Thank you!"*
Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
Thank him. Worship him.

5 For God is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love,
loyal always and ever.

That "password" for entry thing is about the most ridiculous rendering I have ever heard. Perhaps Peterson forgot that his paraphrase is supposed to make it easier for people to understand the Bible, not easier for them to laugh at it.


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## Devin (Jun 3, 2007)

Proverbs 26:14 

Just as a door turns on its hinges,
so a lazybones turns back over in bed. 


Lazybones = cute
Sluggard = Bad

Also, the ending of Romans 1 seems a bit off:

And it's not as if they don't know better. They know perfectly well they're spitting in God's face. And they don't care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!

(Nothing about deserving death)


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## bwsmith (Jun 3, 2007)

SRoper said:


> I'd love to hear your favorite the Message renderings. By "favorite" I mean passages that makes you roll your eyes, laugh, cry, throw the book across the room, what have you. I need a good sampling for something I am working on.
> 
> Here's one of mine:
> 
> ...



I love the work that Dr. Eugene Peterson has done -- I respect his academic credentials, and his passion to present truth to all people. The context of 9:21 (20-33) helps those of us who have not the erudition of many who treat Dr. Peterson with contempt. Or, did I misread the point of your post? 

Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn't talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, "Why did you shape me like this?" Isn't it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn't that all right? Either or both happens to Jews, but it also happens to the other people.​


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## bwsmith (Jun 3, 2007)

trevorjohnson said:


> Of course, only the Message gives us the use of the word Turds in Scripture:
> 
> 27 But the Rabshakeh said, "We weren't sent with a private message to your master and you; this is public—a message to everyone within earshot. After all, they're involved in this as well as you; if you don't come to terms, *they'll be eating their own turds and drinking their own pee right along with you." *
> 
> ---------------------II Kings 18



The NASB is just as plain: II Kings 18:27
But Rabshakeh said to them, "Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?"


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## Michael (Jun 3, 2007)

The Lord's Prayer:

Our Father in heaven, 
Reveal who you are. 
Set the world right; 
Do what's best— as above, so below. 
Keep us alive with three square meals. 
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. 
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. 
You're in charge! 
You can do anything you want! 
You're ablaze in beauty! 
Yes. Yes. Yes.


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## Michael (Jun 3, 2007)

FYI: The Message is the work of Dr. Eugene H. Peterson. Here's a tibit of his bio from wikipedia...



> Eugene Peterson was educated at Seattle Pacific University, New York Theological Seminary, and Johns Hopkins University. In 1962, Peterson was a founding pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland, where he served for 29 years before retiring. He was Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia until recently retiring. He now lives in Montana.


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## edb19 (Jun 3, 2007)

Ezekiel16 said:


> The Lord's Prayer:
> 
> Our Father in heaven,
> Reveal who you are.
> ...



I've never read The Message. All I can say is that's just sad.


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## etexas (Jun 3, 2007)

edb19 said:


> I've never read The Message. All I can say is that's just sad.


It is sad. And all I have is my BS from Smart Mouth College.


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## bwsmith (Jun 3, 2007)

Ezekiel16 said:


> The Lord's Prayer:
> 
> Our Father in heaven,
> Reveal who you are.
> ...


Ssimply stated description of positions, petitions, and privileges. It's amazing how unassuming language can either horrify our sensibilities, or humble our pride. 
Thank you for posting this – and Dr. Peterson's bio -- Navigators has some info on him, and here is a link to another article by him:
http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=1195


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