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| Pocket-Zippered Eco-Leather CEB with my rosary by artisan FloraYoonJewelry in Seoul, S.Korea via Etsy |
Thank you to my friend Owen for providing this reflective post about his journey to the CEB. The origins of this post go back to a recent post I did on the CEB Study Bible.
Inserting myself into
the conversation with David and Timothy, (and what I am going to say is all old
news for Tim as we've chatted loads) I am also very much in the space you
mention, David, regarding both the Common English Bible and your approach in purpose
with the bible.
Your list for going
forward/looking back later in life is spot on. I'm a few years off 60, well
away from the 80 years old you mention looking forward-to/back-from but, time
is moving faster even at my age and I can say with certainty that the things
you mention as important are those that matter most and yes, few of the other
things we may have once imagined as so vital to the Christian are of little
important.
Per translations,
variations, paraphrases et cetera and each in their many editions and
iterations; I've read all the major ones both sides of the Tiber. I've
read and studied them as a lay person, as an ordained minister, as a clergy-convert
to Catholicism, as a ''once-again-theology-student'' in a formal setting, and
finally as returned to "just" a lay person.
For all the study and
comparisons both in hallowed-halls and as lived-experience I am in a place
where I seek to expend precious energy actually living the Word, to the best of
my ability, enabled by grace overendless mop-head (a term of semi-endearment)
styled pouring over minutia, nit picking and parsing, proof-texting and proving
who is right or most right. God bless them for whom that is a helpful thing.
Really, God bless'em good. If any of that equates with being a better disciple
of Christ, a better fellow human, please have at it. It is no longer me if it
ever really was me. Not a few of my comments in the archive of this blog I
would presently find embarrassing were I to look them up - nothing bad per se, just
wow, did I once think that way? I did.
In the late 90s, then as
a Protestant minister, I was introduced to Eugene Peterson [EP] (regrettably
not in person) and to his then portions of the bible as they were rolled out.
It was beyond refreshing. Then in 2002 I bought my first complete The Message
Bible [MSG]. Bam. Wow. Alive. Real poetry. Talk about your
read-think-pray-live!
However, I was in
circles where for many the MSG was in disfavour and in as much taken up with
"the fear of man"---that people pleasing monster borne of valuing
myself via the eyes of others rather than investing in enough silence to hear
my own voice, an inner wisdom as well as to truly trust God in that inner
voice---because of nonsense like that, I put that wonderful MSG bible away.
Still later, having
taken the deep-dive risk of losing my livelihood in order to enter the Roman
Catholic Church, I strove and I do mean strove to be whatever I thought others
said was the best way to be Catholic. It was a genuine conversion quickly
coloured by the expectations and opinions of others. In some respects I had
merely changed silos and in regard to bible translations specifically I found
the "dialogue" over right and wrong, good and bad, worthy and dross
to be far more vitriolic. And once again I found EP and his MSG held in
question by those whom I sought to emulate in the name of being a good
Catholic. Sad, I know.
Later on still, with
much personal work done and say, with accepted vocational changes, I happened
on news of the release of The Message Catholic/Ecumenical [MSGCE] (I blame ;-)
Tim and his blog for that news) and I picked up a copy and wondered
why-the-blank I had let go of the MSG in those intervening years. Well, I knew
why, as I've just said, it as more that I in letting go the nonsense I was
amazed to have re-discovered such a helpful bible.
Personal growth,
becoming more genuinely open, seeking God again in my own terms and with false
affections fading, the timing was right. The MSG was a bible-balm.
Last year during Lent I
decided one of the things I would "give up" was the endless bible
translation version and edition comparison. The beginning of the end of premium
and of perfect bible was at hand. I immersed myself into just one bible,
reading only that one the whole of Lent. I chose the MSGCE. It was
transformative. So much so that Lent ended and I continued on in the
Message-only or very nearly only. Was I worried that it was a paraphrase? No. I
have decades of formal and informal training behind me and I got loads of
approved-translation NRSV in our Canadian liturgy and not unimportantly I was
coming to a more deeply holistic understanding of being Catholic. That change
has been, I pray, irreversible; what’s been seen cannot be unseen and never
more did that old hymn resonate, “no turning back”.
Reading-thinking-praying-living
the MSG was the best bible-experience I'd had to date with most genuine impact
in my life; that’s 37 years of bible, reading, praying, preaching, teaching,
attempts at living fully.
Unsurprisingly, I had no
desire to move away from EP's MSGCE. I was invited to twice give a
continuous-live-no-breaks-reading of the Gospel of Mark from the MSGCE in our
parish. It was very favourably received.
So, right, I had no
interest in getting another bible, another translation. Then, serendipity
happened and along came the Common English Bible. Like this: I was listening to a recent
podcast of a sermon by a local former-denominational-peer-minister acquaintance
of mine as I was interested in the inner-city work his folks are engaged in
and, what was that? That was the sound of a familiar passage in a translation I
could identify and, as noted, I know pretty much all of them, pretty well. I
replayed the portion of the podcast and wrote the words down, then plugged them
into Google Search and ta-da!, there those words were on biblegateway.com as some
bible version I did not know at all. I read on, then on and on and then went
looking for a good used copy on-line.
I did not think anything
would move me from the MSGCE as my primary bible. But the CEB has done so
(sorrEy, Tim!). Granted, the MSG is the only bible that has made me laugh out
loud or hoot with enjoyment/surprise and I do still love it so. Meanwhile, the
CEB has become my bible of prayer, of daily reading and reflection and when I
choose so, of study. It is quickly becoming the one that comes to mind during
the day in relation to this or that happening or thought. So yes, my primary
translation is the CEB with the MSG as a beloved companion.
It's like the CEB found
me rather than the other way round. (As an aside, EP himself discourages one
from reading his MSG as ones primary bible.)
Per the CEB:
- I appreciate its
scholarship which is up to date and while no translation is wholly unaffected
this one resonates.
- I appreciate its broad
ecumenical translator base (more Catholics than the now Catholic-lauded ESV
et.al except perhaps the originally all-Catholic JB-family (?) ) and the
inclusion of a greater proportion of woman in that mix (indeed, one third among
the Catholics ).
- I appreciate that it
is a wholly new translation, not a redo or a redo of a redo despite the claims
of late of publishers of many a translation I need not name for readers of this
blog.
- I highly value a
number of perhaps at first jarring translation choices it makes. One reflection
and with the publishers intentions considered these choices ring true and are
refreshing as Christianity grows. (Yes, I am purposefully choosing to not note
those citations because, as noted above, I'm no longer interested in debate and
any reader here can or has found plenteous opinion expounding posts
elsewhere.)
- I appreciate the CEB's
conversational tone without its becoming colloquial and without the loss
including classic-Judeo-Christian-historic connections and terms (a thing the
good EP often avoids in the MSG. I understand his reasoning and have missed
those helpful connections so for me, here is another plus in the CEB).
- I value the CEBs
non-sectarian tone both in the translation itself and in the notes of the Study
edition.
It's readiness to make
certain bold yet informed choices while still incorporating classic
Christian-theological terms all in a manner that is eminently readable and
listen-able is, I think, remarkable.
It surprised me how
quickly I made the choice to read the CEB as primary (now, CEB plural as I
confess have the hardback study with full Catholic and Eastern church
"apocryphal" books and the pocket-zipper, though Protestant canon
only). Tim jokingly predicted that outcome. Haven't bothered myself with
comparing the CEB 2011 with later iterations. Was tempted to pine as of old once
I knew there were those changes and even wrote the publisher to inquire after a
comparison list but then ended up just as happy to have received no reply
because for me, why loose the gained-ground of embracing a read-to-live what is
to hand approach (I mean, really, how far off can the changes and corrections
be)? As it now turns out (see comments in the originating post) both
editions I have are the most recent iterations of the translation). Good
enough, very-good enough.
Once upon a time, a
long, long time, I wanted the right bible, the right perfect bible, the right
perfect premium bible. To use words such as obsession and addiction in that
context are not a stretch. And now?
Read-to-really-live.
That's how I see it. If that's this or that translation for you (the 'royal
you' here :) ) please, please read-think-pray and live fully. Please, just go
live it. But wait, is this or that translation officially approved? Please do
read Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum.
Well, didn't this
comment become that post!
Thus endeth the Lesson.
Or, perhaps, so Life begins.
