I could be wrong, but there seems to be something seriously sacrilegous about a new Seventh Day Adventist translation of the Bible: ‘The Clear Word Bible’ by Jack J. Blanco (published 1994, printed and distributed by Review and Herald Publishing Association, 55 West Oak Ridge Drive, Hagerstown MD 21740. ISBN 0-8280-0858-2).

[‘Sacrilege’ – n., an intentional injury to something sacred].

Perhaps our SDA friends will say this is an ‘unofficial’ translation, but note these credentials: Blanco is Chair of the Religion Department of Southern College (an institution of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church) near Chatanooga, Tennessee. The dustjacket includes testimonials from Robert S. Folkenberg, president, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, and from Malcolm D. Gordon, president, Southern Union of Seventh-day Adventists.

Embedded within the text are ideas from books written by Ellen G White (SG3 – Spiritual Gifts, vol 3, 1864. PP – Patriarchs and Prophets, 1913. AA – Acts of the Apostles, 1911).

A few random examples are cited. Those of you who know anything of the SDAs’ favorite themes will note some interesting ‘twists’ to these Scriptures:

(Genesis 2:25) Adam and the woman, whom he called Eve, wore no clothes in those days, yet they were unashamed because they were clothed with light. (SG3 34) This sinless pair wore no artificial garments. They were clothed with a covering of light, such as angels wear.

(Genesis 3:1) Of all the animals, the flying serpent was the most beautiful and intelligent that God had made. One day Satan used the serpent to speak to Eve. (SG3 39) Satan, in the form of a serpent, conversed with Eve. The serpent had not the power of speech, but Satan used him as a medium… …This serpent was a very beautiful creature with wings; and while flying through the air his appearance was very bright, resembling the color of burnished gold. (PP 53) The serpent was then one of the wisest and most beautiful creatures on the earth. It had wings…

(Genesis 3:2) Eve was startled but instead of fleeing to Adam’s side… (SG 40) Eve’s curiosity was aroused. Instead of fleeing from the spot, she listened to hear a serpent talk. That strange voice should have driven her to her husband’s side… (PP 54) Eve was surprised and startled… Instead of fleeing from the spot…

(Genesis 3:6) The woman saw how good the fruit was as the serpent ate it. Suddenly she felt a strong urge to eat it, too. She took a bite and instantly felt a surge of energy. (SG3) She ate, and was delighted with the fruit. It seemed delicious to her taste, and she imagined that she realized in herself the wonderful effects of the fruit. (PP) It was grateful to the taste, and as she ate, she seemed to feel a vivifying power, and imagined herself entering upon a higher state of existence.

(Genesis 3:21) God allowed them to continue to live because He had a plan to save them later. He told Adam to sacrifice a lamb as a token of what that salvation would cost. He helped Adam prepare the lamb, then took the skin to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness. (SG3 46) God clothed them with coats of skins to protect them from the sense of chilliness and then of heat to which they were exposed. (SG3 47) Cain and Abel… had been instructed in regard to the provision made for the salvation of the human race.

(Genesis 6:4) In those days people were giants, twice as large as people today. (SG3) Those who lived before the flood, come forth with their giant-like stature, more than twice as tall as men now living upon the earth.

(Genesis 6:7) …I will have to destroy the very creatures I made – people, animals and birds, including the large creatures which have come about by crossbreeding. I cannot let… (SG3 64) But if there was one sin above another which called for the destruction of the race by the flood, it was the base crime of amalgamation of man and beast which defaced the image of God, and caused confusion everywhere. (SG3 75) Every species of animal which God had created were preserved in the ark. The confused species which God did not create, which were the result of amalgamation, were destroyed by the flood. Since the flood there has been amalgamation of man and beast, as may be seen in the almost endless varieties of species of animals, and in certain races of men.

(Exodus 16:5) On the sixth day they should gather twice as much as on other days so as to have enough for the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, the day I set aside for worship and rest.

(Daniel 8:14) He said to him, “After two thousand three hundred prophetic days (or two thousand three hundred years), God will step in, proclaim the truth about Himself and restore the ministry of the Sanctuary on heaven to its rightful place. This is when the judgment will begin, of which the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary was a type.”

(Daniel 9:24-27) Seventy prophetic weeks have been allotted to your people and to Jerusalem – each day representing a year. This comes to four hundred and ninety years. This period is the first part of the two thousand three hundred-year prophecy I told you about before. <…> Before this period ends, the Messiah will come, the vision and the prophecy will be confirmed and the heavenly Sanctuary will be anointed. This prophecy has nothing to do with the end of the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity that you’ve been studying about and the time for your people to go home. What you need to understand is that when a Persian king commands the rebuilding of Jerusalem, that’s the point in time when the two thousand three hundred year prophecy will begin. Seven weeks, or forty-nine years later the city will be rebuilt in spite of great opposition. Sixty-two weeks or four hundred and thirty-four years after the city is rebuilt, the Messiah will come and be anointed, the One whom you and your people have looked forward to for so long. These two periods, the seven weeks and the sixty-two weeks I just mentioned, make up sixty-nine weeks. This means that one week or seven years are left of the time allotted to your people. During this week the Messiah will carry out His mission and lay down His life for all people. A few years later Jerusalem and the Temple will both be destroyed. War, destruction and desolation will come in on the land like a flood. These things have already been decreed. It’s during this week that God, through the Messiah, will ratify His covenant and extend one last call to His people. But in the middle of that week, just three-and-a-half years into His ministry, the Messiah will be rejected by His own people and allow Himself to be crucified. That’s when the ancient sacrifices and offerings will come to an end. His followers will offer God’s mercy to Israel for another three-and-a-half years to complete the seventieth week. But the rulers will again reject God’s offer of mercy, and this is what will bring about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple that I mentioned to you above. Those who would destroy the city and the Temple will also come to their end.”

(Daniel 11:16-18) He will take over Palestine and try to force your people to give up their religion and adopt the religion and culture of the Greeks. Then the king of Rome will come with the strength of his kingdom and invade the land of Palestine. The king of Syria will withdraw and the king of Egypt will make an alliance with the king of Rome. He will give him his daughter in marriage, but she will not be for him nor stand by his side. He will turn his attention to the coastal lands of Africa and take his army north and west as far as the British Isles. He will have many victories but his arrogance and pride will lead to his downfall.

(Acts 15:21) On the positive side, we should ask them to familiarise themselves with the laws of health and moral standards given to us in the law of Moses, of which we read a portion every Sabbath in the synagogue. (AA 191) God had given these injunctions to the Jews for the purpose of preserving their health.

(Galatians 1:17) …From Damascus I went straight into the Arabian desert and lived there for three years and was taught the gospel by Jesus Christ Himself. (AA 125-126) Here, in the solitude of the desert, Paul had ample opportunity for quiet study and meditation. He calmly reviewed his past experience and made sure work of repentance. He sought God with all his heart, resting not until he knew for a certainty that his repentance was accepted and his sin pardoned. He longed for the assurance that Jesus would be with him in his coming ministry. He emptied his soul of the prejudices and traditions that had hitherto shaped his life, and received instruction from the source of truth. Jesus communed with him and established him in the faith, bestowed upon him a rich measure of wisdom and grace.

(Galatians 3:2) Tell me this one thing: Did the Holy Spirit come into your lives because you were observing Jewish rituals or because you listened to the gospel? (Galatians 3:10) But those who depend for salvation on keeping the ceremonial law or even the moral law…

(Colossians 1:20) He brought peace to the human race by shedding his blood on the cross, thus uniting heaven and earth.

(Revelation 1:10) One Sabbath morning… (AA 581) It was on the Sabbath that the Lord of glory appeared to the exiled apostle. The Sabbath was as sacredly observed by John on Patmos as when he was preaching to the people in the towns and cities of Judea.

I was surprised this morning, to stumble across your comments in what appears to be an older article at http://jmm.org.au/articles/2102.htm .

As a Seventh-day Adventist pastor I appreciate your observations and have read your material in various publications over many years. Judging from the quality of your writing over the last 8-10 years I would expect that you would recognise a paraphrase. Thus I am somewhat surprised that you would apparently build a ‘straw man argument’ suggesting that the clear word, an obvious PARAPHRASE, is a Seventh-day Adventist Bible.

While it is possible that Blanco and/or Folkenberg and friends may have had grander intentions for this volume, I suspect that some critics of this volume may have missed reading the first line of Blanco’s preface which states “This is not a new translation but an interpretative paraphrase of scripture. It is not intended for in-depth study or for public reading in churches.”

The clear word as it is inaptly named is NOT a Bible translation, it is certainly NOT a Seventh-day Adventist Bible – far from it! It is at best ONE man’s paraphrase, it is part scripture with infusions of Ellen White (as you have rightly observed) and truck loads of personal opinion. I personally rate it below the so called “Message Bible” (another personal paraphrase) and I certainly would not use either as a study Bible or as a means of teaching scripture and its doctrines.

Incidentally the ‘clear word’ has been republished (quite some time ago) without the term Bible in its title in an effort to reduce confusion.