The message in The Message

A new reader (and new friend!) recently gave Zinovy's Journey a generous 5-star review on Amazon, but in her
review she expressed concern that the Bible passages I quoted in the book were from a paraphrase, not a translation. She felt the gospel message would have been more powerful if it had been in a contemporary translation.
She was right to point out that The Message, by Eugene Peterson, is not a literal translation. Eugene Peterson did not take each word of the original language and translate it literally into an English word. Rather The Message is considered more of a "dynamic" rendering, which takes the overall meaning of a passage, in its context, and translates the whole idea into contemporary English.
Cynthia's point is well taken. It's good to read all translations of the Bible critically, checking for accuracy and watching for any doctrinal bias the translator might be influenced by. I use several different translations in my personal Bible study, and compare verses in their context. I've done that for over 50 years now, so I know many of the passages in the Bible pretty well. If I felt a particular rendering didn't sit right with the original translated message, alarm bells would go off in my brain.

Eugene Peterson's paraphrase has the opposite effect when I read it. Instead of alarm bells, the message in Eric's little red book sets off melodic bells in my heart! Peterson has a way of communicating clearly and accurately to contemporary English speakers what carefully transcribed translations tell us the documents say. The freshness of his rendering brings the message alive to me as I read it. That's why I chose to quote from that version of the Bible in the novel.
If you're interested in doing a comparative study of one of the biblical passages quoted in Zinovy's Journey, check out the scene that begins on page 427 (in the hard copy). Compare the passage in that scene from the first chapter of John in The Message with your favorite translation. See what you think of its accuracy.

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son. Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.

John 1:14 in The Message

For further reading on the topic of Bible paraphrases and translations, check out Tyndale's information on The Difference between Literal and Dynamic Translations of the Bible.