Living Bible

A paraphrase is the restatement of an author’s thoughts, using different words. The purpose of this version is for it to say as exactly as possible what the writers of the Scriptures meant, and to say it simply, expanding where necessary for clear understanding by the modern reader. There is a danger in paraphrasing that the translator, though honest, may give the English reader something that the original writer did not mean to say. When the Greek or the Hebrew is not clear, the theology of the translator and his sense of logic are his guides. The theological guide in this version has been a rigid evangelical position.

This version has undergone several manuscript revisions. It has also been under the scrutiny of a team of Greek and Hebrew experts to check the content and of English critics to check for style. Thus, this edition is tentative.

It is a compilation of previous paraphrases by Tyndale: 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), and Living History of Israel (1970).

Genesis 1: 1, 2
When God began creating the heavens and the earth, the earth was at first a shapeless, chaotic mass, with the Spirit of God brooding over the dark vapors.

John 1: 1 – 3
Before anything else existed, there was Christ, with God. He has always been alive and is himself God. He created everything there is – nothing exists that he didn’t make.

The following comparative studies include this version:

1. Bishops, Overseers, Presbyters, and Elders
2. Burden and Yoke to Be Removed
3. Deceived Prophet
4. Entering His Rest
5. Falsifying Scribes
6. From Eternity or From Ancient Times?
7. Fringe on the Borders of a Garment
8. Gifts of the Spirit
9. God So Loved the World
10. Hebrew Poetry in the Bible
11. Hebrew Synoptic Gospels
12. Horses from Egypt and Kue
13. Israelites and Baal-Peor
14. Let No Man Judge You
15. Lord Is My Shepherd: An Anthology
16. Lord’s Day in the Book of Revelation
17. Minor Prophets
18. Miracle at Cana
19. Name of Our Heavenly Father
20. Offering Sacrifices to the He-Goat
21. Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread
22. Sabbaths and Sundown
23. Scripture Inspired by God
24. Seventy Weeks of Daniel 9
25. Sides of the Court of the Tabernacle
26. Some Variations in the Book of Acts
27. Song of Solomon
28. Speech Problem of Moses
29. Story of the Adultress
30. That Which Will Happen Before the End
31. Those Who Work Iniquity
32. Time of Peleg
33. Words with Heathen Origins in the Scriptures