Product Description

The Message
Designed to read like a letter from God, The Message presents Scripture the way it originally appeared, as a naturally flowing narrative. Using only the original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts, The Message’s creator, Eugene Peterson, began by setting the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs in contemporary English, free of distracting verse numbers and stiff, formal language. The result has been a warm, highly readable paraphrase that reveals the richly personal nature of God’s Word. The Old Testament followed, and the complete Message Bible was released in 2002. Used in both public preaching and private devotions, The Message has captured the hearts of millions of readers, enriching their understanding of Scripture and deepening their faith.

The New International Version (NIV)
The New International Version (NIV) is today’s most read, most trusted English Bible translation. Since its release in 1973, the NIV has sold over 160 million copies. The goal of the NIV translation team was to produce a contemporary translation whose accuracy, clarity and literary quality would make it ideal for public and private reading, teaching, preaching, memorizing and liturgical use. Today the NIV is accepted by more denominations than any other translation and is supported by a library of reference resources unmatched by any other translation.

The most read, most trusted translation and bestselling paraphrase together in one volume
• The NIV and The Message side by side
• Instant comparison deepens your grasp of Scripture
• Double-column format

If your translation of choice is the New International Version (NIV)

and if you appreciate The Message for the freshness and clarity it brings to your reading of the Bible

then you’ll love The Message/NIV Parallel Bible.

Setting The Message and the NIV together for the first time ever, this Bible allows you to instantly compare Eugene Peterson’s bestselling paraphrase and today’s most read, most trusted modern translation.

NIV/The Message Parallel Bible features:

• The clarity, accuracy and trustworthiness of the NIV. A careful union of word-for-word and thought-for-thought translational approaches, the NIV is today’s foremost modern translation, used by scholars, pastors, students and Bible readers across the world.
• The story-like flow and penetrating insights of The Message. Emphasizing a narrative reading of the Bible, The Message is treasured by countless Christians for the way its contemporary language illuminates ageless truths.
• Double-column format.
• Ribbon marker (leather edition only).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #240290 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 2176 pages

From the Back Cover
The Message Designed to read like a letter from God, The Message presents Scripture the way it originally appeared, as a naturally flowing narrative. Using only the original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts, The Message’s creator, Eugene Peterson, began by setting the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs in contemporary English, free of distracting verse numbers and stiff, formal language. The result has been a warm, highly readable paraphrase that reveals the richly personal nature of God’s Word. The Old Testament followed, and the complete Message Bible was released in 2002. Used in both public preaching and private devotions, The Message has captured the hearts of millions of readers, enriching their understanding of Scripture and deepening their faith.

The New International Version (NIV) The New International Version (NIV) is today’s most read, most trusted English Bible translation. Since its release in 1973, the NIV has sold over 160 million copies. The goal of the NIV translation team was to produce a contemporary translation whose accuracy, clarity and literary quality would make it ideal for public and private reading, teaching, preaching, memorizing and liturgical use. Today the NIV is accepted by more denominations than any other translation and is supported by a library of reference resources unmatched by any other translation.

The most read, most trusted translation and bestselling paraphrase together in one volume • The NIV and The Message side by side • Instant comparison deepens your grasp of Scripture • Double-column format

If your translation of choice is the New International Version (NIV)

and if you appreciate The Message for the freshness and clarity it brings to your reading of the Bible

then you’ll love The Message/NIV Parallel Bible.

Setting The Message and the NIV together for the first time ever, this Bible allows you to instantly compare Eugene Peterson’s bestselling paraphrase and today’s most read, most trusted modern translation.

NIV/The Message Parallel Bible features:

• The clarity, accuracy and trustworthiness of the NIV. A careful union of word-for-word and thought-for-thought translational approaches, the NIV is today’s foremost modern translation, used by scholars, pastors, students and Bible readers across the world. • The story-like flow and penetrating insights of The Message. Emphasizing a narrative reading of the Bible, The Message is treasured by countless Christians for the way its contemporary language illuminates ageless truths. • Double-column format. • Ribbon marker (leather edition only).

Customer Reviews

Multiple Translations Are Helpful - The Message is a Great Start
First About Translations and Pitting One Against Another:

I took Greek for several years and can make my way through some of the simpler parts of the New Testament with lots of trips to my reference books, but I'm actually a fan of multiple translations, and believe that we English speakers are so gifted/blessed/lucky to have so many good translations and paraphrases of the Bible in English.

When you get to a difficult passage and you don't read the original language, reading as many translations as possible helps you to understand the many multiple possible readings and meanings in the original. It is as close as most mono-lingual people will come to actually reading the original text.

With that said, The Message is a great paraphrase for people who are not fans of reading or whose vocabularies and understandings of texts are limited. It is also great for people like me who have read the whole Bible several times in the KJV, the NKJV, the RSV, the NRSV, the NASB, the ESV, etc. etc. who have memorized large sections of the Book and who have come so accustomed to some of the passages that the urgency and power of the core text sometimes gets lost. The new angles that Petersen introduces helps people like me return to the power of a first encounter with a very interesting and wonder-filled book in ways that might not otherwise be possible.

What the Message doesn't do well is capture the power of the poetry in the books of wisdom, in some of the prophets, and in parts of the gospels and in some of the letters of Paul (and, perhaps, in the book of Hebrews). I think that Petersen's version of the Psalms are particularly weak in this area.

But again, his version, set beside the KJV, the RSV, the ESV, the NRSV, and the NIV will allow each of the translations and paraphrases to complement each other and help readers increase their appreaciation and understanding. I think there is value in that. So this parallel version is a great opportunity to start the process of comparative understanding that we might call the discovery of inspiration.

There really is no reason to fight about it, unless we are one of the few people who can read the Greek and the Hebrew fluently, we'll all have to settle for someone elses 'version' and we will all benefit from the experience of reapproaching the text from several different angles.

A Good Version to Have
This parallel version of both Bibles is helpful. The NIV side has chapter and verse notation while The Message side does not. The Message version is very easy to read and understand. I like having them side by side because I can easily compare how one relates to the other. Reading The Message has helped me understand the meaning of some verses that have been tricky in the past.
However, it can be bit easy to get confused with which side you are reading when you turn the page and then you have to back track to get in the correct spot. The pages are very thin and it can be visually distracting to see backwards letters through the page.

You Must realize the Message's purpose
For the bad reviewers here - the purpose of the Message is to get people reading the Bible who normally would not. It is not intended to be a stand alone Bible, or a Bible for intense study - although The Message is a great companion translation to study with. I find that it makes me think about a passage in more depth instead of assuming I already know what it means.
Also, for the reviewer who believes we should learn English better and use the KJV and RSV - who's English? That of King James in the 17th century or the English we actually speak today? If you want to seriously study the Bible you should learn Greek and Hebrew - the languages that the Bible was originally written in. That's what Eugene Peterson did, and anyone who takes issue with his translation should not simply compare The Message to other English translations, but compare the message with the Greek and Hebrew Bible.
The Message is getting people into the Bible more than before - and that is good.