I have been tryin to put togeather a devotional for all of us to do as a faimly, but wit the young ones an scattered ages... nuthin seems to work, so what I thought I would do is jes take a chapter of Proverbs each day an read that to em. Ok, that' all fine an dandy... buuuttt... then I ran into the translation problem... KJV has words that I don't tend to know witout lookin up, let alone my kids. So any ideas of a translation that the kids can understand witout a constant interuption by em askin what sumthin means?

CEB Common English Bible seems to be the front runner at the moment, but I also looked at the Message, an I donno... don't have time to research it right now, but seems like I heard some bad reviews bout that one. I gotta git to work mysef.

My girls have an NIrV that they seem to be able to understand. I think it is a 3rd grade reading level or something like that.

John 3 from the NIV:

John 3
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
John Testifies Again About Jesus
22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. 23 Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. 24 (This was before John was put in prison.) 25 An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. 26 They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

27 To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less.”

31 The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. 33 Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. 34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

And now the same passage from the NIrV:

John 3
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
1 There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus. He was one of the Jewish rulers. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. We know that God is with you. If he weren't, you couldn't do the miraculous signs you are doing."

3 Jesus replied, "What I'm about to tell you is true. No one can see God's kingdom without being born again."

4 "How can I be born when I am old?" Nicodemus asked. "I can't go back inside my mother! I can't be born a second time!"

5 Jesus answered, "What I'm about to tell you is true. No one can enter God's kingdom without being born through water and the Holy Spirit. 6 People give birth to people. But the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised when I say, 'You must all be born again.'

8 "The wind blows where it wants to. You hear the sound it makes. But you can't tell where it comes from or where it is going. It is the same with everyone who is born through the Spirit."

9 "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.

10 "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus. "Don't you understand these things?

11 "What I'm about to tell you is true. We speak about what we know. We give witness to what we have seen. But still you people do not accept our witness. 12 I have spoken to you about earthly things, and you do not believe. So how will you believe if I speak about heavenly things?

13 "No one has ever gone into heaven except the One who came from heaven. He is the Son of Man. 14 Moses lifted up the snake in the desert. The Son of Man must be lifted up also. 15 Then everyone who believes in him can live with God forever.

16 "God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son. Anyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life.

17 "God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world. He sent his Son to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not judged. But anyone who does not believe is judged already. He has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

19 "Here is the judgment. Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light. They loved darkness because what they did was evil.

20 "Everyone who does evil things hates the light. They will not come into the light. They are afraid that what they do will be seen. 21 But anyone who lives by the truth comes into the light. He does this so that it will be easy to see that what he has done is with God's help."
John the Baptist Gives Witness About Jesus
22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the countryside of Judea. There he spent some time with them. And he baptized people there.

23 John was also baptizing. He was at Aenon near Salim, where there was plenty of water. People were coming all the time to be baptized. 24 That was before John was put in prison.

25 Some of John's disciples and a certain Jew began to argue. They argued about special washings to make people "clean." 26 They came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River is baptizing people. He is the one you gave witness about. Everyone is going to him."

27 John replied, "A person can receive only what God gives him from heaven. 28 You yourselves are witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Christ. I was sent ahead of him.' 29 The bride belongs to the groom. The friend who helps the groom waits and listens for him. He is full of joy when he hears the groom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become more important. I must become less important.

31 "The One who comes from above is above everything. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks like someone from the earth. The One who comes from heaven is above everything. 32 He gives witness to what he has seen and heard. But no one accepts what he says. 33 Anyone who has accepted it has said, 'Yes. God is truthful.' 34 The One whom God has sent speaks God's words. God gives the Holy Spirit without limit.

35 "The Father loves the Son and has put everything into his hands. 36 Anyone who believes in the Son has eternal life. Anyone who says no to the Son will not have life. God's anger remains on him."

DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT even THINK about using "the message"


How "The Message" totally ruins and reinterprets the Word of God

Here, which version do you think would be more profitable for your children to "hide in thier hearts"?

THE MESSAGE:

Here is GOD's Message to the prophets, the preachers who lie to my people: "For as long as they're well paid and well fed, the prophets preach, 'Isn't life wonderful! Peace to all!' But if you don't pay up and jump on their bandwagon, their 'God bless you' turns into 'God damn you.'
Micah 3:5

KJV

Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him. Micah 3:5


NKJV

9 In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
13 And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.[c]

THE MESSAGE

Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what's best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You're in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You're ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.


The Message has a problem with addressing God as Lord and acknowledging Him for Who he is. It juxtaposes a new agey type energy presence with the Sovereign Lordship our God holds. He is reduced to some mystical being..its really weird..

I recommend the New King James Version because as the original KJV is more accurate in its translation, the New KJV maintains more closely those original meanings. As in the example of the Lord's prayer above, you can see that it takes words such as 'thy" and "thine" and replaces them with more modern English versions of those same words without having to rewrite the whole sentence. Some of the words are rearranged to our current way of speaking, but it is not paraphrased (as is done in many other translations) or re-translated, which increases potential loss of original meaning.

NIV is not a good choice either. Verses are completely missing and many are changed to be quite contradictory to the earlier King James bible..

NIV link:

NIV

Thanks for the advice, I knew the 'message' had issues, espiecally wit regard to God Himself, I don;t like the NIV either... too many issues to list on that one.

What I've been doin is usin biblegateway.com and you can add parralle transaltions to the one on the screen an go back an forth... at least in the first chapter of Proverbs I didn't have a problem wit the 'message' compared to the NIV, but they both failed in comparisson to KJV.

Tonight I used Kat's childrens Bible to read Proverbs 1, still had a few lil issues at dinner, but I think the kids were into it an hungry for more. I jes need to make sure that we don't git booged down in what does this mean er that mean... not scriputre, but specific word. I can post what I mean in the mornin