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Kenneth N. Taylor, The Living Bible, Paraphrased. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1971. The New Testament was published in 1967.

This version is Kenneth Taylor’s interpretive paraphrase of the Bible.

Taylor (1917-2005) was a Baptist layman employed by Moody Press, the publishing house of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Although he had some theological training (at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary) he was not proficient in Hebrew and Greek. He used English versions as the basis of his paraphrase. The preface of the New Testament published in 1967 states that the paraphrase is based upon the American Standard Version (1901), and this agrees with Taylor’s statement in a 1973 interview ¹ that the ASV was in front of him as he worked on the paraphrase. The 1967 preface does not mention that Taylor is the author of the version; it mentions only a “Paraphrase Revision Committee,” but the members of this committee are not named. The preface of the complete Living Bible (1971) states that the work “has undergone several major manuscript revisions and has been under the careful scrutiny of a team of Greek and Hebrew experts to check content, and of English critics for style. Their many suggestions have been largely followed, though none of those consulted feels entirely satisfied with the present result.” The names of those comprising the advisory “team of Greek and Hebrew experts” are not given, nor are the names of those who served on the 1971 Revision Committee. Presumably the committee consisted of Taylor and members of his editorial staff at Tyndale House Publishers, who at one stage in their work solicited comments from people whom they regarded as experts in the original languages.

Taylor created this paraphrase as a help for those who wanted to read the Bible to children without having to stop and explain many things. In a 1979 interview published in Christianity Today he explained that the version began in the context of his efforts to explain the biblical text to his own children during family devotions:

The children were one of the chief inspirations for producing the Living Bible. Our family devotions were tough going because of the difficulty we had understanding the King James Version, which we were then using, or the Revised Standard Version, which we used later. All too often I would ask questions to be sure the children understood, and they would shrug their shoulders—they didn’t know what the passage was talking about. So I would explain it. I would paraphrase it for them and give them the thought. It suddenly occurred to me one afternoon that I should write out the reading for that evening thought by thought, rather than doing it on the spot during our devotional time. So I did, and read the chapter to the family that evening with exciting results—they knew the answers to all the questions I asked! ²

Living scripture. Download or Read online Living Scripture full HQ books. Available in PDF, ePub and Kindle. We cannot guarantee that Living Scripture book is available. Click Get Book button to download or read books, you can choose FREE Trial service. Join over 650.000 happy Readers and READ as many books as you like (Personal use). The Living Bible is a paraphrase of the Old and New Testaments. Its purpose is to say as exactly as possible what the writers of the Scriptures meant, and to say it simply, expanding where necessary for a clear understanding by the modern reader. Text Size:9.500. The Living Bible is a compilation of the Scripture paraphrases previously published by Tyndale House Publishers under the following titles: Living Letters, 1962; Living Prophecies, 1965; Living Gospels, 1966; Living Psalms and Proverbs, 1967; Living Lessons of Life and Love, 1968; Living Books of Moses, 1969; Living History of Israel, 1970. Seraphim; Four Living Creatures Isa 6:1-2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had 6 wings Isa 6:6-7 one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal Rev 4:6-8 around the throne, were 4 living creatureshaving 6 wings Rev 4:9-11 the living creatures give gloryto Him who sits on the throne. The Bible text used in the NLT Study Bible is the New Living translation, second edition. The NLt was first published in 1996, and it quickly became one of the most popular English translations.

He also produced other books for children, such as Devotions for the Children’s hour, The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, and Junior Devotions for Campers.

Tyndale House Publishers was founded by Taylor for the purpose of publishing his paraphrase, beginning with the Epistles as Living Letters in 1962. In the following year the evangelist Billy Graham offered Taylor’s paraphrase as a television premium on broadcasts of his popular “Crusades,” and this brought the book into prominence. Taylor proceeded to paraphrase the entire New Testament (published in 1967), and then the Old Testament (1971). Many thousands of copies were distributed at Graham’s crusades, and it became a widely used Bible, marketed as a version for adults. The 1967 preface boasted that three million copies of Living Letters and Living Gospels had been printed, and advised that “this book should be in every Christian household .. each member of the family needs this paraphrase.”

The growing popularity of the Living Bible was one of many signs of the dumbing-down of American English that took place during the twentieth century. The trend was noticed by linguists as early as 1931, when Edward Sapir observed that the technology of mass communication has led to “the insidious cheapening of literary and artistic values due to the foreseen and economically advantageous ‘widening of the appeal.’ All [linguistic] effects which demand a certain intimacy of understanding tend to become difficult and are therefore avoided.” ³ The rate of decline excellerated during the 1960’s and 70’s. Recently the Princeton Review educational testing service measured one indicator of this historical decline by comparing the vocabulary used by Richard Nixon and John Kennedy in their televised debate of 1960 with the vocabulary used by Bill Clinton and George Bush in their 1992 debate. Their study found that the level of vocabulary in the presidential debates had slipped from a tenth-grade reading level in 1960 to a sixth-grade level in 1992. (Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas had debated at an eleventh-grade level in 1858.) ⁴ Taylor’s method and its “exciting results” involved the dumbing-down of the Biblical text to a grade-school level, and this was in keeping with the linguistic and educational trends of the time.

It should be noted that Taylor’s paraphrase came along after the publication of several other Bible versions designed for those who were unable to understand the King James Version. Taylor himself had arranged for Moody Press to publish a reprint of Charles Williams’ New Testament in the Language of the People in 1949. In the same year the Basic Bible was published, followed by the Revised Standard Version (1952) and the Berkeley Version in Modern English (1959). And other versions (including the New International Version of 1973) were published during the years that the Living Bible was being promoted by Billy Graham. Taylor’s paraphrase should be compared to these other twentieth-century versions, not to the version of King James.

The dust-jacket of the first edition of the Living New Testament (1967) asserts that “Scholars .. have paid tribute to its accuracy,” and that it “has been carefully checked by New Testament scholars whose ability transcends precise translation—they also are able to accurately evaluate thought-by-thought paraphrasing.” But again, we are unable to determine what basis these claims may have.

Despite its great popularity (Tyndale House reports that by 1997 its sales of the Living Bible had exceeded 40 million copies), and despite the claims made by the publisher in its advertisements, very few scholars have given any encouragement to its use, and most have either ignored it or have strictly warned against it. ⁵ There are many problems. These involve much more than the general blurring and loss of significant details which must always accompany a reduction in reading-level. This loss of detail is regrettable enough; but aside from that, Taylor’s version contains venturesome interpretations that no scholar is likely to approve. Some of the misinterpretations are downright ludicrous—the sort of mistakes that only an uneducated man could make. For example, John 12:15:

ESV

Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!

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