Eat This Book, Part 3

Last evening, we concluded our group discussion of Eat This Book by Eugene Peterson. This section of the book is called "The Company of Translators," and in it , he talks about how and why he translated the Bible into The Message. He gives an interesting overview of the history of translation and describes how archeological discoveries at Oxyrhynhus in Egypt and Ugarit in Syria infused fresh blood into Bible translation. He says at the end,

"I am very conscious that I am in the vast company of translators - teachers in classrooms, pastors in pulpits, parents around the supper table, writers in languages all over the world, baptised Christians in workplaces and social gatherings past imagining - all of us at this same work, collaborating in translating the word of God, reading and then living this text, and then getting these Scriptures into whatever language is spoken on the street on which we live."

This book gave me an even greater appreciation of The Message and a better understanding of why I like it so much.