Chavurat Derekh HaMashiach

I’ve said this for years, long before I became Messianic, and people always push back: every English Bible is a paraphrase. KJV, NIV, NASB, ESV, ASV… all of them. And yes, even my two favorites, the CJB and TLV, are paraphrases too. They’re better paraphrases because they preserve Hebrew thought and vocabulary, but they’re still paraphrases. The reason is simple: English collapses meanings that Hebrew and Greek separate. 

Take the word “love.” English uses one word for everything—love your child, love your brother, love your wife, love your dog, love God, love tacos. One word. One spelling. One sound. But Greek doesn’t work that way. It has agape for covenantal love, philia for brotherly affection, storge for family love, and eros for romantic desire. Four different words with four different meanings. So when an English Bible says “love,” the translator already made a choice, and choosing is paraphrasing.

Translation always involves interpretation, and interpretation is paraphrase. You cannot translate Hebrew or Greek into English without deciding which meaning fits the context. 

That’s why English Bibles differ so much. “Hell” might be Gehenna, Hades, Sheol, or Tartarus. “Law” might be Torah, mitzvot, or nomos. “Nation” might be ethnos, which has several meanings. “Word” might be logos or rhema. Even “you” might be singular or plural, but English doesn’t distinguish. 

English forces translators to compress multiple ancient concepts into fewer English words. That’s paraphrase, no matter how “literal” someone claims their translation is.This is why the CJB and TLV stand out. 

They still paraphrase, because they have to, but they preserve Hebrew categories instead of flattening them. Words like shalom, mitzvot, Torah, Adonai, Yeshua, Ruach, olam, tzedakah, and chesed carry layers of meaning English simply cannot reproduce. So yes, they’re paraphrases, but they paraphrase less because they refuse to erase Hebrew thought.

My favorite example is the word “right.” I can say “you’re right,” but do I mean you are correct, or you are standing to the right? Without context, the word is meaningless. 

The same is true for ethnos, love, hell, law, word, you, and dozens more. Context determines meaning. Translation determines paraphrase. So here’s the point: if you’re reading the Bible in English, you’re reading a paraphrase. A faithful paraphrase, a careful paraphrase, maybe even a beautiful paraphrase—but still a paraphrase. 

That’s not a bad thing. It’s just reality. And it’s why understanding Hebrew and Greek (or at least how they work) matters so much.

You might notice yourself wondering now: if this is true, what else have I assumed about my favorite translation? If that thought sticks with you, let it. Sit with it. 

Let it nudge you to look deeper, to question, to study, not out of doubt, but out of hunger for clarity. If this stirred something in you—agreement, disagreement, curiosity—drop a comment and tell me which translation you use and why. 

If you know someone who would argue with this or secretly love it, share this post to your timeline or in your favorite Bible group and watch the discussion unfold. 

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