The sad truth is that some of the modern translations being published today cannot rightly call themselves the Holy Bible. There is nothing holy about these popular Bible versions which purport to be faithful in their translation of the original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts, and yet are nothing more than veiled commentaries from liberal theologians who have not only “dumbed-down” the biblical text for public consumption, but have interjected their bias into their textual renderings. Among these newer versions, God’s word has been twisted to include everything from New Age mysticism, humanistic psychology, pro-gay sentiment, and even denial of the major tenets of the Gospel. Surely, Tyndale would be scandalized by these perversions of Holy Writ.

While Tyndale truly desired to see the Bible mass-produced in the familiar tongue of the people, it certainly cannot be said that he advocated publishing careless Bible versions at the expense of God’s plain and precious truths. From the very beginning Tyndale was wise enough to realize that the impact of the Bible for commoners would only come if God’s word was preserved in its strictest and most literal form. In the preface of his 1530 translation of the Pentateuch, Tyndale was adamant that “it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue, that they might see the process, order, and meaning of the text.”

Some of the modern Bible translations, however, have ignored the godly judgment of Tyndale and have clouded that vital “process, order, and meaning of the text” as found in the original languages of God’s word. In fact, the more recent crop of Bible translations aren’t really translations at all, but are paraphrases that have abandoned a more formal, “word-for-word” translation for an imprecise technique that conveys the basic “gist” of a verse in modern lingo. Though some evangelical leaders like Rick Warren covet these paraphrases for presenting God’s revelation in “new, fresh ways,” these Bibles are often nothing more than watered-down offerings for a fickle, undiscerning public who fail to realize that they have sometimes replaced God’s unchangeable truth with a falsehood.

Though The Sacred Sandwich does not advocate a “King James Version only” position, we definitely encourage Christians to study with one of the more “formal equivalent” translations of the Bible that are the most faithful to a word-for-word rendering of God's precious truth. (We realize, of course, that translating Greek into English cannot be done literally word-for-word or it would be too difficult to read.) Problems arise, however, with the use of Bible paraphrases that have mishandled God's word by including lengthy insertions or omissions to make it more readable or culturally appealing. In some cases these paraphrases are used to convey a misleading interpretation of the verse based on the theological bias of the translators. Proverbs 30:6 clearly warns us, “Do not add to His words lest He reprove you, and you be proved a liar.”

The bottom line: We should be very thankful for our modern availability of God's word in various languages and translations. Yet we should always be wary of this latest trend to produce Bibles where precision and context is being abandoned for the appeal of postmodern sentiments and cultural relevance. For your discernment, we offer the following critiques of some of these latest Bible paraphrases. If possible, we also encourage you to purchase a solid, more "formal equivalent" translation of Scripture and do your own comparison to see the subtle shifts in meaning that take place in many modern paraphrased versions. (Our first recommendation: the New American Standard Bible.)