Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Luke 4:16-30:
Jesus — now a grown man — returned one day
to his hometown of Nazareth,
where he attended synagogue on a Sabbath.
He was handed a Bible and instructed to read from Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord has descended upon me
and has chosen me to proclaim great news for the poor,
to set prisoners free, to heal blindness and suffering,
and to announce this is the Lord’s chosen time.
Jesus closed the Bible and handed it to the leader,
then sat down, and with everyone staring at him, said,
“These words have all come true today.”
Though completely amazed at the teaching of Jesus,
the entire congregation was puzzled and questioned,
“Isn’t this the son of Joseph?”
So Jesus responded:
“You think I’m really the one in need of help,
and you challenge me to work in my own hometown
the same miracles you heard I worked in Capernaum.
Need I remind you — prophets are rejected at home!
“During the time of Elijah the prophet,
there was a drought for three years,
and people were starving everywhere.
But God sent Elijah to help only a foreign widow.
“During the time of Elisha the prophet,
many men in our nation suffered from leprosy,
but God healed only Naaman, who lived in Syria.”
At this, everyone in the synagogue became furious.
They threw Jesus out of their town,
dragged him to the edge of a cliff,
and started to throw him down from there.
But Jesus slipped through the crowd and disappeared.
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