 |
Paraphrasing is not
a license to embellish. |
(A review of The
Clear Word, by Jack J. Blanco, Copyright © 2003 by Review and
Herald® Publishing Association)
I am not sure what disturbs me
more: that the paraphrase-commentary
hybrid known as The Clear Word could
be created by a former dean of a Seventh-day
Adventist university, or that Seventh-Day Adventists would welcome it, promote
it, and distribute it. Jack J. Blanco’s The Clear Word is one of the most
corrupt forms of the English Bible being sold today. Its author has smuggled thousands of man-made
additions into the Biblical text.
I have little
doubt that the author’s intentions to create a “devotional paraphrase expanded for clarity” were noble.
This review is not intended as an evaluation of intentions, but of
results. The author of The Clear Word has essentially squeezed
and molded Scripture into the shape of the teachings of Seventh-Day Adventism.
Even if all of those doctrinally
driven anomalies were corrected, The
Clear Word would still be useless for anyone who wants to know what the
Bible says, because The Clear Word is
full of commentary-material that has been blended into the text. It is not as if commentary-material is in a
side-bar, or in footnotes, as is the case with various Study Bibles. The commentary-material is blended directly
into the text. This unfortunate trait contaminates
every page of The Clear Word. I will supply some samples from Genesis and
the Gospels. Comparisons of these passages to translations such as the KJV, NKJV, HCSB, ESV, or NASB will illustrate the same thing: The
Clear Word is saturated with man-made insertions. In the following six quotations from Genesis in The Clear Word, passages that are neither translation, nor paraphrase, but simply insertions, are highlighted and are in bold print:
(1) Genesis 3:6: “As Eve watched the serpent eat
the delicious fruit, she suddenly felt a strong urge to taste it too. She reached out and
touched the fruit and nothing happened. Then she picked it, took a bite and instantly felt a surge of energy.
Excited, she took more fruit and ran to find her husband. When Adam saw her, he sensed what she had
done. But in the blush of her
excitement, she looked more beautiful than ever. He couldn’t bear the thought of living
without her, so he took the fruit and ate it also.”
(2) Genesis 3:21: (KJV: “Unto
Adam and also to his wife did the Lord
God make coats of skins, and clothed them.”) “But God didn’t carry out their
sentence that day. He told them He had a
plan to save them. Adam must sacrifice a
lamb as a symbol of the One who would come and die in their place. God then took the lamb’s
skin to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness.”
(3) Genesis 6:8: (KJV: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”) “So gradually the Lord laid to
rest all those who loved Him, except Noah and his
family. Finally, they were the only ones
left alive who found grace in God’s sight because they
obeyed the Lord and did what was right.”
(4) Genesis 19:26a: “Lot’s wife, who had begged to live in Sodom, looked back.” The phrase, “who had begged to live in Sodom,” is not a paraphrase of anything. It is simply an insertion.
(5) Genesis 22:9: (KJV: “And they came to the place which
God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in
order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.”) “Finally they reached the top. Together they found some stones, arranged
them to build an altar and put the wood on top.
Then Abraham told Isaac what God had said. Though sad, Isaac saw it as a privilege to
give up his life for God while he was young. He let Abraham tie his hands, then he
willingly lay down on the altar.” The two highlighted sentences are fabricated, and the sense of the final
sentence is significantly altered.
(6) Genesis 25:34: (KJV: Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of
lentils; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.”) “Then Jacob
gave him as many lentils as he could eat, and Esau ate and drank until he was
full. Without even thinking about what
he had just given away, Esau said good-bye and left. But Jacob had run ahead of God’s
providence, just as Abraham had in fathering Ishmael.” The final sentence has no foundation in the Hebrew text; it is commentary-material.
Many more could be listed. Let’s turn to the New Testament and look at some of the insertions in the Gospel of Mark and the
Gospel of John.
Mark 1:13: (KJV: “And he was
there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and he was with the wild
beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.”) “He was there for forty days surrounded by
wild animals. He was severely tempted by
the devil to use His divine powers to feed Himself. When it was all over, He
was so exhausted that angels from heaven had to come to revive His dying
body.” Wherever
Jack J. Blanco got that part about the angels having to “come and revive His
dying body,” it was not from the Greek text of the Gospel of Mark.
Mark 1:45: (KJV: “But he went out, and began to publish it
much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly
enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter.”) “But the man didn’t
listen. He thought that Jesus was just
being modest, so he told everyone he met how Jesus had healed
him. This greatly upset
the priests, especially since the man hadn’t yet carried out the prescribed
ritual. So Jesus decided to
leave town, because He knew He would attract other lepers and
be accused of breaking down the restrictions of the ritual law. He decided to carry on His ministry in a more
isolated area, but before long people found Him and
once again huge crowds came to see Him.”
Some of the imprecision in this verse could be regarded as paraphrasing
– but about half of it has no basis in the Greek text.
Mark 2:14b: “Matthew got up, asked his assistant to take over and followed Jesus.”
Mark 2:28: “I am the Lord of the Sabbath. I know what’s right to do on the
Sabbath and what isn’t.”
Mark 3:12: “Jesus commanded the spirits to stop shouting because this could bring on a public disturbance if the people began to
argue over who He was instead of listening to what He had to say.”
Mark 4:39a: “Jesus, knowing that the demons were causing the fierce wind, stood
and said to the storm, “Peace, be still.””
Mark 6:22b: “Having had too
much to drink, Herod said to the girl, “Ask for anything you want,
and I’ll give it to you.””
Mark 8:33: “Jesus then turned to His disciples and rebuked the
Satanic influence around them, saying, “Get behind Me Satan!” Looking straight at Peter, He said, “You’re
only thinking about what’s important to man, not what’s important to God.”
Mark 11:7: “They led
the donkey to the top of the Mount of Olives. Suddenly they realized that what
Jesus was about to do had for centuries been a symbolic act of kings prior to
their coronation. Joyfully,
they took off their robes and laid them on the young animal. Jesus then mounted the donkey, and the disciples led Him into Jerusalem.”
Mark 11:14: “Jesus said to the tree, “Never again will you deceive
people with your pretense.” The disciples wondered why He would speak that way to a tree, but later
they understood that it was a symbol of Israel.”
Mark 12:7: “What was God telling Moses? He
was telling him that He was the One who activated
Sarah’s dead womb, giving through Abraham life to Isaac who, in turn, gave life to Jacob. Therefore, God is not the end of life
but the Giver of life! So your idea that there is no life after
death is wrong.” (For comparison: Mark 12:27 in the
KJV: “He is not the God of the dead, but
the God of the living; ye therefore do greatly err.”)
Mark 14:23-24: “Then He took the cup of unfermented
wine, gave thanks and passed it to the disciples to drink from,
which they each did. Jesus said, “The pure juice which you just drank represents my blood that I
will shed for the sins of the world. This will fulfill the covenant my Father and I made from the beginning.”
Mark 14:28: “But I will always love you. When I rise again, I’ll meet you by the lake of Galilee where we had such good times
together.”
Mark 14:72b: “Ashamed of what he had just
done, Peter hurriedly left the courtyard,
ran all the way back to Gethsemane and wept bitterly.”
Now let’s turn to the Gospel of
John.
John 2:4-5: “Jesus answered,
“Mother, I love you, but why are you asking me to help
them? I can’t work a miracle unless my
Father tells me it is time to do it.”
Mary understood His hesitation but turned to
the waiters and said, “Whatever my Son tells you to do, do it.” (For comparison, here’s John 2:4-5 in the KJV: “Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to
do with thee? Mine hour is not yet
come. His mother saith unto the
servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.”)
John 3:14: “The miracle of the new birth was
taught by Moses when he put a brass
serpent on a makeshift
cross and held it up for people to look at. All those bitten by snakes who looked at it
in faith were healed. That power didn’t
come from the cross Moses made, but from the Son of God who would come and die on a
cross. He will soon be lifted
up between heaven and earth for all to see,”. (For comparison, here’s John 3:14 in the
KJV: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”)
Now we come to John chapter
8. The embellishments of this passage
are particularly strange.
John 8:1-4: “Toward the end of
the day Jesus left the Temple and
went out of the city to the top of a hill
called the Mount of Olives to spend some time in prayer. The following morning, He went back to the Temple and sat down in the courtyard to teach, even though the week-long festival was over. Soon a crowd gathered around Him to listen to
what He had to say. While He was
teaching, the Scribes and Pharisees dragged in a prostitute whom
they had tricked into adultery so they could use her to confront Jesus. They pushed her toward Him and said,” ….
Jumping ahead to John 8:8:
“Then He leaned forward and
started writing again. This time the leaders looked at what He was doing and saw traced before
them their own secret sins and their part in trapping the woman.”
Now, there is a sub-branch of the text of the Gospel of John that contains a
reading in this verse to the effect that the religious teachers saw their sins
written in the earth. But there is
nothing in the Greek text of John 8:3 that says that the scribes
and Pharisees had tricked the woman into committing adultery, and there is
nothing that says that they saw, written down, anything about their part in
trapping the woman. All those details
are entirely made-up.
Further along, in chapter 11, The Clear Word adds another made-up
detail:
John 11:2: “His sister Mary was the one who had been caught in adultery, whom the Pharisees wanted
to stone but whom Jesus forgave. She
was also the one who later anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume and
wiped His feet with her hair shortly before His death.” I emphasize:
this new claim that Mary of Bethany was the woman caught in adultery does
not come from anywhere in the Greek text of John 11:2.
Extra details continue to pop up
in the text of The Clear Word:
John 12:8: “You will have plenty
of opportunities to feed the poor, but I’m only here once. After what I’ve been through,
it’s refreshing to be appreciated.”
John 13:6-8a in The Clear Word contains some insertions
and substitutions, too:
“When He came to Peter, Peter
said, “Lord, you’re the Son of God! You’re not going to lower yourself by washing
my feet!” Jesus looked at him
and said, “Right now you don’t understand why I’m doing this, but after I’m
gone, you will.” Peter said, “I am not
letting my God wash my feet!” This frivolous imprecision risks misleading
readers: some are likely to rely on this
passage to prove that the Bible teaches the deity of Christ, only to be shown
that the words “my God” do not belong in the text.
A little further on in The Clear Word, John 13:10 looks like
this: “Jesus said, “When a person has
had a bath, he only needs to rinse the dust off his feet. If a man has been born again and
baptized, he doesn’t have to be baptized all over again each time he does
something wrong. All of you
are clean, except one.”” An entire
sentence, attributed to Jesus, appears out of the blue.
These examples are not exceptional. Similar insertions appear throughout The Clear Word. In addition, parallel-passages are frequently
altered, removing difficulties at the expense of effectively erasing the text
written by the inspired authors. In The Clear Word, Mark mentions both Gadarene demoniacs, and both blind men at Jericho (not just Bartimaeus) – whereas in the original text of
the Gospel of Mark, Mark simply does not do so.
Acts 1:17-18 is barely recognizable in The Clear Word. This sort of
alteration does indeed result in a clear
text, but not a pure one.
Without all the baseless embellishments,
The Clear Word could be a lucid paraphrase of the same base-text upon which the KJV is based. Unfortunately, Jack Blanco has created an adulteration, a hybrid that is partly the Word of God, and partly his own
ideas (mostly based on the teachings of Ellen G. White), blended together
without distinction. For Christians who
want their Bibles to be undiluted, this completely disqualifies
The Clear Word from being used for any purpose,
except as an example of how translation should not be done. I encourage the Review and Herald Publishing
Association to stop printing it, and I encourage
Adventist Bible Centers to
stop distributing it.
