I want to stress that the author of The Message, Eugene Peterson, is highly respected. I hear only good things about him from those who know him. He produced The Message out of a desire to help the Bible come alive for readers. So this post is not meant to attack him, but rather to express my concern that The Message should not be used as if it were a translation. Most Christians will have some difficulty recognizing when meaning is being added or subtracted, and so I hesitate to recommend it. The Message may be helpful as a supplement for careful readers of Scripture who compare it to standard translations and are aware of how often it adds meaning and loses meaning.
My friend Ken Berding wrote a recent blog post explaining his concerns about using The Message. As he pointed out, people often treat it as a Bible translation, when it is actually a very loose paraphrase. One of Ken’s observations is that The Message routinely adds meaning to or subtracts meaning from the original Greek and Hebrew text.
While doing detailed work in the Greek New Testament and in several English translations, I have repeatedly found this to be true. For the past several months, I have been working with a team of scholars on a Bible app (Wave Parallel Bible) that links the words in the original Greek and Hebrew to their equivalent words and phrases in nine major Bible translations, including The Message.[1] I often am unable to link certain portions of The Message to anything in the Greek text, which means that meaning was added. At other times, ideas found in the Greek text cannot be linked to anything in The Message, which means that meaning has been lost. I have had no problems linking any other translation to the Greek text, including “dynamic” translations[2] such as the NIV and NLT.
Here are five places where The Message either adds to or loses significant meaning from the Greek text of the New Testament. I find other examples on a daily basis as I work on this project.
Ephesians 2:2
| Greek Text | “Literal” Translation | The Message |
| ἐν αἷς ποτε περιεπατήσατε κατὰ τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, κατὰ τὸν ἄρχοντα τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ ἀέρος, τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ νῦν ἐνεργοῦντος ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς τῆς ἀπειθείας· | in which you once walked, according to the way of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the children of disobedience. | It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. |
Meaning lost: Paul tells us that before we were saved by grace (Eph 2:8-9), our conduct followed the pattern of our world and of Satan, the evil power that rules the world. The Message loses the idea of an evil demonic power in these verses.
Matthew 3:7
| Greek Text | “Literal” Translation | The Message |
| γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν, τίς ὑπέδειξεν ὑμῖν φυγεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς μελλούσης ὀργῆς; | You brood of vipers, who directed you to flee from the coming wrath? | Brood of snakes! What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to make any difference? |
Meaning lost: In Matt 3:7, John the Baptist challenges the sincerity of the Pharisees in requesting baptism and warns that they face God’s wrath. The Message communicates their lack of sincerity, but it loses the message of God’s coming wrath.
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