Lately I’ve been enjoying reading the Good News Translation of the Bible. I appreciate how they translate the Scriptures into Plain English — the kinds of words and sentences we use every day. This has not only helped me enjoy reading the Bible, it’s helped me read more of the Bible, follow the writer’s train of thought better and see things that I knew were there, but the meaning hadn’t really hit me before.

But the GNT isn’t always as “vernacular” as I’d like. Sometimes there are places where they use vocabulary that we just don’t use regularly. In other places, it seems like it flows too easily. The sentences are constructed so “easily readable” that it’s too easy to blaze by all the content instead of speeding up and slowing down as the writer’s train moves from station to station.

Writing The Millennial Translation

And so I decided to try my hand at writing a thought-for-thought translation. By no means do I think I’m the best person for the job, but I don’t know of any other effort underway and, even if it doesn’t turn out very well, it’ll be a good exercise.

The first step is to really get a handle on what the author is trying to say — the original intent — as well as the way in which the author’s trying to say it. Where is the author’s emphasis in the sentence and paragraph? What exactly are the connections between thoughts? As you probably know, I’m no Greek scholar. But perhaps this is a benefit. Instead of trusting my own ability with the Greek, I can stand on the shoulders of the top authors in the field. I can lean on Rosscup’s Commentaries for Biblical Expositors to find the top detailed exegetical commentaries on the book at hand, as well as on A.T. Robertson’s Word Studies (he’s regarded by many as the leading authority on New Testament Greek grammar).

So I began with this passage I’m teaching, the conclusion of Peter’s Second Letter, with the help of the resources mentioned above (specifically D. Edmond Hiebert’s exegetical commentary, #5 on Rosscup’s list — thanks, Timber!). Let me know what you think! (I’ll discuss some of the particular choices and some of the questions I had in a follow-up post).

2 Peter 3:14-18

Because of all this, dear loved ones, since you can’t wait for all these things, throw yourselves into being pure and without a trace of sin when you stand before Him – and at peace. See our Master’s patience as an opportunity for more people to be saved, just like our dear brother Paul, in line with the wisdom given him, wrote you.

He writes with the same wisdom in all his letters when he writes about these things, some of which are tough to understand. The untrained and unstable twist these, just like the rest of the Scriptures, to their own ruin.

You then, loved ones – knowing this in advance – constantly guard yourselves for fear that, being swept away with the deceptive influence of deviants, you fall from your own stability. Instead, keep growing in grace and in the understanding of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ. May all worship go to Him, both now and until eternity’s day. Amen.