Never a True Christian

Son of a Bitch!
It's the Word of God.

You already know that the Bible you read is a translation.   There is not one word of English in the actual Bible.   And there's nobody named Jesus, or Moses, or Abraham, or Mary.   Those are Anglicized forms of the actual names.

And of course, there are often several different ways of translating an expression that was written down 3000 years ago in Hebrew.   Some of the translational problems are really sticky; there's at least one whole book written about this.


The Living Bible isn't actually a translation of the original languages, and doesn't claim to be.   The author (Kenneth Taylor) calls it a paraphrase.

It was published in portions.   Living Letters (containing the New Testament epistles) was published in 1963, followed by The Living New Testament.   These were followed by The Living Bible, which contained all 66 books, in 1971.

The Living Bible was wildly popular with Christians.   Billy Graham used to hand out copies at his rallies; if you "went forward" to get saved in 1971, part of the "literature package" that he handed you included The Living Bible.

What Rev. Graham didn't know was how this version translated (well, paraphrased) I Samuel 20:30.

It should be noted that this unique translation/paraphrase of this passage was "corrected" in later editions.   You'll need to get a first edition of The Living Bible to see this "colorful language."


                               
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