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To: baldie
1 Corinthians 7:8-7 KJV: "I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn."

New: "If you know you have strong needs, get yourself a partner. Better than being frustrated."

If this were not intended as Gospel, it would be hilarious...what was the point of this exercise?

11 posted on 06/24/2004 7:15:23 AM PDT by Dutchgirl (The God who made us, made us free...)
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To: Dutchgirl
A 'new age' internet bookstore called "O Books" a dealer in the usual fried brain interests in Astrology and Numerology posted a review of As Good As New. It's included below.

As Good As New
AUTHOR: John Henson is a retired Baptist minister who has been the translation co-ordinator on behalf of ONE for Christian Exploration for the last twelve years. ONE is a network of radical Christians and over twenty organisations in the UK. In different ways they work to renew the Church from within, believing that all denominations should make more rapid progress towards unity and a more urgent response to contemporary issues. This translation is unique in being a community translation in which anyone interested in the work, not just members of the ONE community, have been welcomed to contribute. Contributions have come from all across the spectrum, from fundamentalists to liberals, all denominations, and hundreds of people have been involved. The criteria for inclusion has been understanding the aims of the translation, which is clarity for the ordinary person.

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I did a Google on Henson, and got this jewel:

On 14 November 2003, the Baptist Standard, a Southern Baptist Convention website, included this brief note in their "On the Move" file: "John Henson has resigned as pastor of First Church in Brownwood."

I'm willing to bet two-bits this is about the time the Southern Baptist Convention got wind of Henson's heresy. Seems they run a tight ship. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Review

A radical and readable new translation

Despite the fact that our shelves are sagging beneath the weight of all the scriptures that have appeared in the last forty years or so, we still await a version that strikes us as a genuinely contemporary version. Life and language move so quickly that it is a matter of running to stay in the same spot, and translators of the scriptures are characterised by care and caution rather than by the need to keep pace. Move on new must, however, if we believe the scriptures have abiding value for every age and culture as a unique record of humankind's adventure with God.

What usually passes for a paraphrase rather than a translation indicates the degree of venturesomeness in elucidating the meaning. An attempt at word for word translations produces not clarity but ambiguity. According to the gospels, the genius of Jesus lay in his ability to put into language that could be grasped by ordinary people things that the scribes obscured by their sophistication or pedantry. This new translation takes the bull by the horns in providing a translation of the early Christian scriptures in the idiom of today.

It also follow the principle of cultural translation, where for instance "demon possession" becomes what it is as understood as today, "mental illness." It follows "contextual translation," following the sense over longer sections. It is also "inclusive," following the principles which Jesus adopted in relation to his culture. It is women, gay and sinner friendly. Other radical departures reflect the need to demythologise in order to translate adequately into our own culture. For instance "Kingdom of God" thus becomes "God's New World."

Perhaps the most controversial departure from all other translations is a return to the selection of books which were held in the highest esteem by the early Church in the first two centuries. So, for instance, Revelation is out, the Gospel of Thomas is in.

In reading this translation we come closer to the impact the scriptures had on the people of the time than before.

Endorsements

From the Foreword by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
"What would Christianity look like, what would Christian language sound like, if we really tried to screen out the stale, the technical, the unconsciously exclusive words and policies, and to hear for the first time what the Christian Scriptures were saying? John Henson has devoted much of his life to wrestling with this challenge, and has for many people made those scriptures speak as never before-indeed, as for the first time. Patiently and boldly, he has teased out implications, gone back to roots, linguistic and theological, and re-imagined the process in which a genuinely new language was brought to birth by those who had listened to Jesus because they knew they were in a genuinely new world.

John's presentation of the Christian gospel is of extraordinary power simply because it is so close to the prose and poetry of ordinary life. Instead of being taken into a specialised religious frame of reference-as happens with the most conscientious of formal modern translations-and being given a gospel addressed to specialised concerns-as happens with even the most careful of modern "devotional" books-we have here a vehicle for thinking and worshipping that is fully earthed, reconisably about our humanity. I hope that this book will help the secret to be shared, and to spread in epidemic profusion through religious and irreligious alike."

‘John Henson has the exciting capacity to awaken fresh interest in material that seems familiar. He is never dull, sometimes provocative and occasionally inspirational. I recommend his work to anyone who enjoys an unpredictable reading of Scripture.’ - John Rackley, President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain.

‘I found this a literally shocking read. It made me think, it made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me angry and it made me joyful. It made me feel like an early Christian hearing these texts for the first time. John Henson and the ONE Community have made the Bible accessible and alive so that a new generation may hear the news and experience it as good.’ Elizabeth Stuart, Professor of Christian Theology, King Alfred's College, Winchester, and Bishop of the Open Episcopal Church.

‘Nowadays we have a generation that has never read the Bible and knows nothing about Christ. This translation bridges the gap by really putting it in the language of today's street population and making it attractive to them. I wish it every blessing and success.’ Derek Rawcliffe

21 posted on 06/24/2004 9:54:49 AM PDT by Robert Drobot (God, family, country. All else is meaningless.)
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