Knox vs. The Message: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6

This might be fun.  I am going to do a comparison of one of the Sunday readings from the lectionary, using the Knox Bible and The Message.  If you think this might be of some interest (or at least amusing) let me know.  While done in different ways, I think both Knox and Peterson desired to make the Bible more accessible to the average reader.  Let's see if they were successful.  


Knox Bible:
There is no need, brethren, to write to you about the times and the seasons of all this;  you are keeping it clearly in mind, without being told, that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.  It is just when men are saying, All quiet, all safe, that doom will fall upon them suddenly, like the pangs that come to a woman in travail, and there will be no escape from it.  Whereas you, brethren, are not living in the darkness, for the day to take you by surprise, like a thief;  no, you are all born to the light, born to the day; we do not belong to the night and its darkness.  We must not sleep on, then, like the rest of the world, we must watch and keep sober.


The Message:

I don’t think, friends, that I need to deal with the question of when all this is going to happen. You know as well as I that the day of the Master’s coming can’t be posted on our calendars. He won’t call ahead and make an appointment any more than a burglar would. About the time everybody’s walking around complacently, congratulating each other—“We’ve sure got it made! Now we can take it easy!”—suddenly everything will fall apart. It’s going to come as suddenly and inescapably as birth pangs to a pregnant woman.  But friends, you’re not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You’re sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart.