The One Year Bible TLB (2 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
In this wonderful day of many new translations and revisions, we can greet another new one with either dread or joy! Dread that “people will become confused” or joy that some will understand more perfectly what the Bible is talking about. We choose the way of joy! For each new presentation of God’s Word will find its circle, large or small, of those to whom it will minister strength and blessing.
This book, though arriving late on the current translation scene, has been under way for many years. It has undergone several major manuscript revisions and has been under the careful scrutiny of a team of Greek and Hebrew experts to check content, and of English critics for style. Their many suggestions have been largely followed, though none of those consulted feels entirely satisfied with the present result. This is therefore a tentative edition. Further suggestions as to both renderings and style will be gladly considered as future printings are called for.
A word should be said here about paraphrases. What are they? To paraphrase is to restate something in different words than the author used, normally with the goal of clarifying the meaning of what was originally communicated. This book is a paraphrase of the Old and New Testaments. Its purpose is to say as exactly as possible what the writers of the Scriptures meant, and to say it simply, expanding where necessary to promote a clear understanding for the modern reader.
The Bible writers often used idioms and patterns of thought that are hard for us to follow today. Frequently the thought sequence is fast-moving, leaving gaps for the reader to understand and fill in, or the thought jumps ahead or backs up to something said before (as one would do in conversation) without clearly stating the antecedent reference. Sometimes the result for us, with our present-day stress on careful sentence construction and sequential logic, is that we are left far behind.
Then, too, the writers often have compressed enormous thoughts into single technical words that are full of meaning, but need expansion and amplification if we are to be sure of understanding what the author meant to include in such words as “justification,” “righteousness,” “redemption,” “baptism for the dead,” “elect,” and “saints.” Such amplification is permitted in a paraphrase but exceeds the responsibilities of a strict translation.
There are dangers in paraphrases, as well as value. For whenever the author’s exact words are not translated from the original languages, there is a possibility that the translator, however honest, may be giving the English reader something that the original writer did not mean to say. This is because a paraphrase is guided not only by the translator’s skill in simplifying, but also by the clarity of his understanding of what the author meant and by his theology. For when the Greek or Hebrew is not clear, then the theology of the translator is his guide, along with his sense of logic, unless perchance the translation is allowed to stand without any clear meaning at all. The theological lodestar in this book has been a rigid evangelical position.
If this paraphrase helps to simplify the deep and often complex thoughts of the Word of God, and if it makes the Bible easier to understand and follow, deepening the Christian lives of its readers and making it easier for them to follow their Lord, then the book has achieved its goal.
KENNETH N. TAYLOR
Adapted from the preface to the
first edition of
Living Letters
JanuaryUse the links provided below to jump to the appropriate day of the month.
January 1
January 2
January 3
January 4
January 5
January 6
January 7
January 8
January 9
January 10
January 11
January 12
January 13
January 14
January 15
January 16
January 17
January 18
January 19
January 20
January 21
January 22
January 23
January 24
January 25
January 26
January 27
January 28
January 29
January 30
January 31
January 1When God began creating
*
the heavens and the earth,
2
the earth was
*
a shapeless, chaotic mass, with the Spirit of God brooding over the dark vapors.
3
Then God said, “Let there be light.” And light appeared.
4-5
And God was pleased with it and divided the light from the darkness. He called the light “daytime,” and the darkness “nighttime.” Together they formed the first day.
*
6
And God said, “Let the vapors separate
*
to form the sky above and the oceans below.”
7-8
So God made the sky, dividing the vapor above from the water below. This all happened on the second day.
*
9-10
Then God said, “Let the water beneath the sky be gathered into oceans so that the dry land will emerge.” And so it was. Then God named the dry land “earth,” and the water “seas.” And God was pleased.
11-12
And he said, “Let the earth burst forth with every sort of grass and seed-bearing plant, and fruit trees with seeds inside the fruit, so that these seeds will produce the kinds of plants and fruits they came from.” And so it was, and God was pleased.
13
This all occurred on the third day.
*
14-15
Then God said, “Let bright lights appear in the sky to give light to the earth and to identify the day and the night; they shall bring about the seasons on the earth, and mark the days and years.” And so it was.
16
For God had made two huge lights, the sun and moon, to shine down upon the earth—the larger one, the sun, to preside over the day and the smaller one, the moon, to preside through the night; he had also made the stars.
17
And God set them in the sky to light the earth,
18
and to preside over the day and night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God was pleased.
19
This all happened on the fourth day.
*
20
Then God said, “Let the waters teem with fish and other life, and let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.”
21-22
So God created great sea animals, and every sort of fish and every kind of bird. And God looked at them with pleasure, and blessed them all. “Multiply and stock the oceans,” he told them, and to the birds he said, “Let your numbers increase. Fill the earth!”
23
That ended the fifth day.
*
24
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth every kind of animal—cattle and reptiles and wildlife of every kind.” And so it was.
25
God made all sorts of wild animals and cattle and reptiles. And God was pleased with what he had done.
26
Then God said, “Let us make a man
*
—someone like ourselves, to be the master of all life upon the earth and in the skies and in the seas.”
27
So God made man like his Maker.
Like God did God make man;
Man and maid did he make them.
28
And God blessed them and told them, “Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; you are masters of the fish and birds and all the animals.
29
And look! I have given you the seed-bearing plants throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food.
30
And I’ve given all the grass and plants to the animals and birds for their food.”
31
Then God looked over all that he had made, and it was excellent in every way. This ended the sixth day.
*
2:
1
Now at last the heavens and earth were successfully completed, with all that they contained.
2
So on the seventh day, having finished his task, God ceased from this work he had been doing,
3
and God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he ceased this work of creation.
4
Here is a summary of the events in the creation of the heavens and earth when the Lord God made them.
5
There were no plants or grain sprouting up across the earth at first, for the Lord God hadn’t sent any rain; nor was there anyone to farm the soil.
6
(However, water welled up from the ground at certain places and flowed across the land.)
7
The time came when the Lord God formed a man’s body from the dust of the ground
*
and breathed into it the breath of life. And man became a living person.
8
Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, to the east, and placed in the garden the man he had formed.
9
The Lord God planted all sorts of beautiful trees there in the garden, trees producing the choicest of fruit. At the center of the garden he placed the Tree of Life, and also the Tree of Conscience, giving knowledge of Good and Bad.
10
A river from the land of Eden flowed through the garden to water it; afterwards the river divided into four branches.
11-12
One of these was named the Pishon; it winds across the entire length of the land of Havilah,
*
where nuggets of pure gold are found, also beautiful bdellium and even lapis lazuli.
13
The second branch is called the Gihon, crossing the entire length of the land of Cush.
14
The third branch is the Tigris, which flows to the east of the city of Asher. And the fourth is the Euphrates.
15
The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden as its gardener, to tend and care for it.
16-17
But the Lord God gave the man this warning: “You may eat any fruit in the garden except fruit from the Tree of Conscience—for its fruit will open your eyes to make you aware of right and wrong, good and bad. If you eat its fruit, you will be doomed to die.”
18
And the Lord God said, “It isn’t good for man to be alone; I will make a companion for him, a helper suited to his needs.”
19-20
So the Lord God formed from the soil every kind of animal and bird, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever he called them, that was their name. But still there was no proper helper for the man.
21
Then the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and took one of his ribs and closed up the place from which he had removed it,
22
and made the rib into a woman, and brought her to the man.
23
“This is it!” Adam exclaimed. “She is part of my own bone and flesh! Her name is ‘woman’ because she was taken out of a man.”
24
This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife in such a way that the two become one person.
*
25
Now although the man and his wife were both naked, neither of them was embarrassed or ashamed.
These are the ancestors of Jesus Christ, a descendant of King David and of Abraham:
2
Abraham was the father of Isaac; Isaac was the father of Jacob; Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.
3
Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (Tamar was their mother); Perez was the father of Hezron; Hezron was the father of Aram;
4
Aram was the father of Amminadab; Amminadab was the father of Nahshon; Nahshon was the father of Salmon;
5
Salmon was the father of Boaz (Rahab was his mother); Boaz was the father of Obed (Ruth was his mother); Obed was the father of Jesse;
6
Jesse was the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon (his mother was the widow of Uriah);
7
Solomon was the father of Rehoboam; Rehoboam was the father of Abijah; Abijah was the father of Asa;
8
Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat; Jehoshaphat was the father of Jehoram; Jehoram was the father of Uzziah;
9
Uzziah was the father of Jotham; Jotham was the father of Ahaz; Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah;
10
Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh; Manasseh was the father of Amos; Amos was the father of Josiah;
11
Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers (born at the time of the exile to Babylon).
12
After the exile: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel; Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel;
13
Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud; Abiud was the father of Eliakim; Eliakim was the father of Azor;
14
Azor was the father of Zadok; Zadok was the father of Achim; Achim was the father of Eliud;
15
Eliud was the father of Eleazar; Eleazar was the father of Matthan; Matthan was the father of Jacob;
16
Jacob was the father of Joseph (who was the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ the Messiah).
17
These are fourteen
*
of the generations from Abraham to King David; and fourteen from King David’s time to the exile; and fourteen from the exile to Christ.
18
These are the facts concerning the birth of Jesus Christ: His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But while she was still a virgin she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
19
Then Joseph, her fiancé,
*
being a man of stern principle, decided to break the engagement but to do it quietly, as he didn’t want to publicly disgrace her.
20
As he lay awake
*
considering this, he fell into a dream, and saw an angel standing beside him. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “don’t hesitate to take Mary as your wife! For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit.
21
And she will have a Son, and you shall name him Jesus (meaning ‘Savior’), for he will save his people from their sins.
22
This will fulfill God’s message through his prophets—
23
‘Listen! The virgin shall conceive a child!
She shall give birth to a Son, and he shall be called “Emmanuel” (meaning “God is with us”).’”
24
When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel commanded and brought Mary home to be his wife,
25
but she remained a virgin until her Son was born; and Joseph named him “Jesus.”
2:
1
Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem, in Judea, during the reign of King Herod.
At about that time some astrologers from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking,
2
“Where is the newborn King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in far-off eastern lands and have come to worship him.”
3
King Herod was deeply disturbed by their question, and all Jerusalem was filled with rumors.
*
4
He called a meeting of the Jewish religious leaders.
“Did the prophets tell us where the Messiah would be born?” he asked.
5
“Yes, in Bethlehem,” they said, “for this is what the prophet Micah
*
wrote:
6
‘O little town of Bethlehem, you are not just an unimportant Judean village, for a Governor shall rise from you to rule my people Israel.’”
7
Then Herod sent a private message to the astrologers, asking them to come to see him; at this meeting he found out from them the exact time when they first saw the star. Then he told them,
8
“Go to Bethlehem and search for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him too!”
9
After this interview the astrologers started out again. And look! The star appeared to them again, standing over Bethlehem.
*
10
Their joy knew no bounds!
11
Entering the house where the baby and Mary, his mother, were, they threw themselves down before him, worshiping. Then they opened their presents and gave him gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
12
But when they returned to their own land, they didn’t go through Jerusalem to report to Herod, for God had warned them in a dream to go home another way.
Oh, the joys of those who do not follow evil men’s advice, who do not hang around with sinners, scoffing at the things of God.
2
But they delight in doing everything God wants them to, and day and night are always meditating on his laws and thinking about ways to follow him more closely.
3
They are like trees along a riverbank bearing luscious fruit each season without fail. Their leaves shall never wither, and all they do shall prosper.
4
But for sinners, what a different story! They blow away like chaff before the wind.
5
They are not safe on Judgment Day; they shall not stand among the godly.
6
For the Lord watches over all the plans and paths of godly men, but the paths of the godless lead to doom.