Clear Word Bible:exceptional, but...
As a piece of literature, the Clear World is probably the best English Bible published this century. And what makes this noteworthy for Seventh-day Adventists, is that it is translated by a Seventh-day Adventist.
It has been about 100 years (when "Desire of Ages" and "Ministry of Healing" were release) since the denomination published any major work written this well.
The quality of The Clear Word was demonstrated to me when I lent my copy of it to a University student for two weeks. When he returned it, he went back to reading his own Bibles. He later told me, "After reading The Clear Word, reading any other translation is like reading a text book."
Exceptional printing
Not only is The Clear Word incredibly well written, the layout of its typesetting is also exceptionally good. A century ago Richard Moulton, the father of modern literary study of the Bible said,
"The Bible is the worse printed book in the world."
It has taken 100 years and an Adventist publishing house to at last print the Bible in a way that is extremely pleasing to the eye.
The simple secret of the layout has been to print the verse numbers in bold type. Those small sections of bold visually break up what would otherwise be a page of unattractive typeface. This makes the page more appealing to the eye. It makes a person feel more like reading it. And this increases the amount of Bible reading people do.
Indeed, if all Bibles had been written and printed as well as The Clear Word, far more of the world today would be Christian.
What is The Clear Word like? It is a paraphrase, rather than a translation. However, the sections of it which are paraphrases are particularly perceptive. Those sections are far less interpretive and with far less personal opinion than virtually any other paraphrase.
A major handicap
With all of these advantages, why isn't The Clear Word the world's largest selling English translation? Why do so few Christian bookshops sell it? Why do so few Christians know it exists? And why hasn't it single-handledly transformed its Adventist publisher into one of the world's largest Christian publishers?
The reason is that it has a major handicap -- a very major handicap.
Its handicap is not that it is published by a denomination about which other Christians have unfair prejudices. Its handicap is not that its publisher is so small, or that its publisher has no established distribution to most Christian bookshops.
It's handicap is that The Clear Word says more than the Bible itself says.
The Clear Word's title page calls itself "an expanded paraphrase." And it is this "expanded" nature which is its biggest hurdle to brilliant international sales success.
The Clear Word is the Bible plus. And that plus is a very big minus. There is no way when reading it to know which portions of it are the Bible, and which portions have been added by the author.
In the sample chapter below, an incredible 25% of the words in The Clear Word are not found in the original language.
Check it for yourself here in story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32).
The left-hand column below has the story from The Clear Word's third edition. The right-hand column has the same Clear Word passage with the extra wording removed. (It also has a few words added which were not translated from the original Greek.)
The gaps in the right-hand column make it obvious just how much has been added.
Read one of the columns below in a devotional frame of mind. It is a long quote, so you may be tempted to skip it and continue reading this article after scrolling past the passage. Yet by reading it, you may find it draws you more to God than reading the same passage in any other translation.
Mullistava uutuus!
Onko kyseessä totuuden marssi?Vai?
As a piece of literature, the Clear World is probably the best English Bible published this century. And what makes this noteworthy for Seventh-day Adventists, is that it is translated by a Seventh-day Adventist.
It has been about 100 years (when "Desire of Ages" and "Ministry of Healing" were release) since the denomination published any major work written this well.
The quality of The Clear Word was demonstrated to me when I lent my copy of it to a University student for two weeks. When he returned it, he went back to reading his own Bibles. He later told me, "After reading The Clear Word, reading any other translation is like reading a text book."
Exceptional printing
Not only is The Clear Word incredibly well written, the layout of its typesetting is also exceptionally good. A century ago Richard Moulton, the father of modern literary study of the Bible said,
"The Bible is the worse printed book in the world."
It has taken 100 years and an Adventist publishing house to at last print the Bible in a way that is extremely pleasing to the eye.
The simple secret of the layout has been to print the verse numbers in bold type. Those small sections of bold visually break up what would otherwise be a page of unattractive typeface. This makes the page more appealing to the eye. It makes a person feel more like reading it. And this increases the amount of Bible reading people do.
Indeed, if all Bibles had been written and printed as well as The Clear Word, far more of the world today would be Christian.
What is The Clear Word like? It is a paraphrase, rather than a translation. However, the sections of it which are paraphrases are particularly perceptive. Those sections are far less interpretive and with far less personal opinion than virtually any other paraphrase.
A major handicap
With all of these advantages, why isn't The Clear Word the world's largest selling English translation? Why do so few Christian bookshops sell it? Why do so few Christians know it exists? And why hasn't it single-handledly transformed its Adventist publisher into one of the world's largest Christian publishers?
The reason is that it has a major handicap -- a very major handicap.
Its handicap is not that it is published by a denomination about which other Christians have unfair prejudices. Its handicap is not that its publisher is so small, or that its publisher has no established distribution to most Christian bookshops.
It's handicap is that The Clear Word says more than the Bible itself says.
The Clear Word's title page calls itself "an expanded paraphrase." And it is this "expanded" nature which is its biggest hurdle to brilliant international sales success.
The Clear Word is the Bible plus. And that plus is a very big minus. There is no way when reading it to know which portions of it are the Bible, and which portions have been added by the author.
In the sample chapter below, an incredible 25% of the words in The Clear Word are not found in the original language.
Check it for yourself here in story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32).
The left-hand column below has the story from The Clear Word's third edition. The right-hand column has the same Clear Word passage with the extra wording removed. (It also has a few words added which were not translated from the original Greek.)
The gaps in the right-hand column make it obvious just how much has been added.
Read one of the columns below in a devotional frame of mind. It is a long quote, so you may be tempted to skip it and continue reading this article after scrolling past the passage. Yet by reading it, you may find it draws you more to God than reading the same passage in any other translation.
Mullistava uutuus!
Onko kyseessä totuuden marssi?Vai?
Vastaukset 5
Vanhimmat
http://keskustelu.suomi24.fi/show.fcgi?category=1000000000000003&conference=1500000000000013&posting=22000000011149715#22000000011149715
Aloitusviestistä selviää koko asia melko hyvin.
Ei kaipaa puolustuspuheita.
Tehty mikä tehty ja kertoo tekijöistään.
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tekijästä. Teos on yhden miehen tekele.
Timo Flink
1.joh.4:20 Jos joku sanoo: "Minä rakastan Jumalaa", mutta vihaa veljeänsä, niin hän on valhettelija. Sillä joka ei rakasta veljeänsä, jonka hän on nähnyt, se ei voi rakastaa Jumalaa, jota hän ei ole nähnyt.
Ja koko kirkko kustantaa ja myy tuotetta?
Yhden harhaoppiako?
Kaikki ovat yhdessä kantamassa samaa sanomaa eri keinoin!