The Message | MSG
The Message was written by Eugene Petersen to address the needs of Christians who struggled to understand and connect with the language of the Bible. His New Testament rendition was published in 1993 and in 2002, NavPress published his complete version of The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language. Petersen’s aim was to bring the text alive to the modern reader.
Readers enjoy the Message for its vivid imagery and language and strong devotional quality. The Message, however, has often been criticized as lacking textual accuracy. It follows the original Hebrew and Greek very loosely and in places omits and/or overemphasizes portions of the text, exposing the author’s theological perspective. But it is important to remember that Petersen’s aim was not to create a scholarly work but to stir up readers of the Bible and capture their attention.
Because the Message is a paraphrase of the Bible rather than a translation it would not be suitable for in-depth theological and word studies.
What does it sound like?
John 3:16-17 This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.
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Jesus-on-the-street translations of Scripture have been produced for centuries, including the Latin Vulgate and, perhaps, the English King-James-Authorized version.
This is a great reading translation, especially for extended narrative. I personally enjoy turning to The Message for “refreshing” a passage in my own mind after doing word studies and reading commentaries on more literal translations for personal study or Sunday school teaching preparation. For explaining the Scripture in 21st-century English, you’d be hard-pressed to find something clearer.
Not the place to go for word study into the cultural, literal meanings of the Hebrew or Greek originals, though. I respect the translator’s (or publisher’s) sense, when first producing this translation, to exclude verse numbers from the text, as many passages cannot clearly be divided verse-by-verse to align with other translations.
Not a study Bible, to be sure, but well-worth using for other purposes.