The Clear Word
| The Clear Word | |
|---|---|
| Full name | The Clear Word |
| Other names | The Clear Word "An Expanded Paraphrase" |
| Abbreviation | TCW |
| Language | English |
| Complete Bible published |
1994 |
| Authorship | Jack Blanco |
| Translation type | 100% paraphrase rate, Contemporary |
| Version revision | 1996 |
| Publisher | Jack Blanco |
| Copyright | 1994 |
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This earth began by an act of God. He created the heavens and the earth. The earth was only a mass of created matter floating in space, covered with a vapor garment. Everything was dark. Then the Holy Spirit hovered over the vapor, and God said, "Let there be light." And everything was bathed in light.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to come here and die, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life.
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The Clear Word, originally published in March 1994 as the Clear Word Bible, is an English-language "devotional paraphrase of the Bible expanded for clarity". It is an interpretive text of the Bible written as a personal devotional exercise by Jack Blanco, former dean of the School of Religion at Southern Adventist University, to be an additional study tool and devotional alongside the Bible. Major portions of the translation are material added by the author. It is printed in chapter-and-verse format, two columns to a page.
The free paraphrase was initially printed at the school by the Southern College Press of Southern Adventist University and sold in Church-owned Adventist Book Centers. Though The Clear Word is not officially endorsed by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, it is now being printed by the Review and Herald Publishing Association.
Blanco originally wrote The Clear Word as a devotional exercise for himself. After friends and family saw what he did, they encouraged him to publish it. The New Testament part was first published and readers widely received and encouraged him to do the whole Bible.
It is considered a free paraphrase of the Bible:
Free paraphrase: Paraphrases take great liberty with the biblical text and seek to convey the meaning of the author using contemporary phrases and metaphors. The best-known paraphrases are The Clear Word (Clear Word), The Living Bible (TLB), and The Message (Message).
In the preface Blanco explains precisely what he did in producing the paraphrase.
Chapters 11 and 12 of Daniel were a challenge. Here more interpretative freedom in the light of historical studies and related prophecies (such as found in Revelation) had to be exercised in order to make the chapters more readable and understandable. In the New Testament, I attempted to harmonize in the four gospels what at first appears to be contradictory. The more difficult passages were made clearer by allowing each gospel to inform the other three and elaborating on certain points or scenes revealed in the other gospels. Certain passages from the book of Acts, a historical narrative, were slightly expanded with insights gleaned from commentaries. The epistles of Paul were the most difficult to paraphrase.
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