A New Bible... well, to me, anyway...

In a conversation with some friends recently, I was introduced to a new Bible and thought I’d pass it along. It’s the Mirror Bible from Francois and Lydia du Toit. On the website, it states that the Mirror Bible is “a paraphrased translation from the Greek text.” When looking at the Mirror Study Bible, one finds a copious amount of notes and reasons why they chose the words they did. Here are some examples:

John 3.16: The entire cosmos is the object of God’s affection! And he is not about to abandon his creation — the gift of his son is for humanity to realize their origin in him who mirrors their authentic birth — begotten not of flesh but of the Father! In this persuasion the life of the ages echoes within the individual and announces that the days of regret and sense of lost-ness are over!

While I don’t particularly like the masculine language used here,[1] I absolutely love “… the life of the ages echoes within the individual…”. In my writing and guiding, that’s how I’ve been translating ζωὴν αἰώνιον (“eternal life”), too. 

Here are a couple of other passages:

John 1.29: The next day John saw Jesus approaching him, and declared: “Behold the Lamb of God; this is the one who would lift the sin of the cosmos like an anchor from the sea floor, for mankind to sail free!”

Again, I don’t like the exclusive language. They could just have easily said “humanity” or “people.” The study note for this verse states:

This is unheard of! It is not about a revengeful god demanding a sacrifice; this is your Father and Creator providing himself as sacrifice. The ultimate sacrifice for sins would never be something we did, or brought to God to appeal to him; the shocking scandal of the cross, is the fact that mankind is confronted with the extravagant, embarrassing proportions of the love of their Maker; Father, Son, and Spirit would go to the most ridiculous extreme to finally convince us of their heart towards us! In order to persuade us of our worth, God speaks to most severe scapegoat language: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away [airo — lifts up] the sins of the world!” This completely disarms religion! Suddenly there is nothing that we can do to persuade God about our sincere intentions; this is God persuading us of their eternal love dream! The word αἴρω - airo, a primary verb; to lift up; by implication to take up or away; specifically to raise the anchor to sail away. See John 12:32, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all judgment to me!” Also John 19:15, “Lift him up! Lift him up! Crucify him!” The word, kosmos in the NT refers to the entire human family and their social structures.

I love how they say, “this is God persuading us of their eternal love dream.” 

One last verse, John 1.32:

Then John made this emphatic statement, “I gazed with wonder and saw the Spirit descending out of the heavenlies and resting upon him like a dove, endorsing her abiding anointing on him, thereby uniting heaven and earth in the incarnate Christ!”

And here’s the note:

John uses the word, theaomai, to view attentively, to contemplate, to learn by looking; it suggests a gazing with wonder. See 1 John 4:13, 14. The preposition ek always denotes source or origin. The word for dove in the Greek, peristeran is feminine. The preposition epi suggests a continuous influence upon; to superimpose, to have charge of; thus to endorse! The word meno means to continue to be present in a seamless union; to abide. It is not as though the Spirit was absent in Jesus’ life until now; this coming upon him was the prophetic moment of the Spirit’s endorsing of his ministry; uniting heaven and earth in the incarnate Christ.

I appreciate their use of the feminine pronoun when referring to the Spirit. A lot of translators will stick with traditional renderings instead of letting the text direct them. That’s why the use of exclusive language is so off-putting (and some of my other friends pointed that out). As this is a “paraphrase translation” the use of inclusive language could be used without distorting the text. Besides, inclusive language would actually embrace the intent of the biblical writers but also the wide and diverse people who would benefit from seeing themselves included within the story.

This is an ongoing translation, so there’s still some work that needs to be done. Currently, the Mirror Bible only contains the following books: John’s Gospel, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Timothy, Titus, Hebrews, James, 1 John, and Revelation. 1 Peter 1, 2; 2 Peter 1 are currently being translated.

I don’t know if one will automatically get the updated texts when one purchases the electronic version on Kindle, but I’ve reached out to the du Toit’s and I’m awaiting their response. When I find out, I’ll update this post so you might want to bookmark it if you’re interested in the Mirror Bible.

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In the Love of the Three in One,

Br Jack+, LC

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[1] This could have easily been changed to be more inclusive: “The entire cosmos is the object of God’s affection! And God is not about to abandon creation – the gift of God’s son is for humanity to realize their origin in Christ who mirrors their authentic birth – begotten not of flesh but of God! In this persuasion the life of the ages echoes within the individual and announces that the days of regret and sense of lost-ness are over!”