I was reading in Romans yesterday morning in The Message version of the Bible. I had to do a triple take. Did they actually use a brand name in the Holy Bible???
Romans 8:3-4 (The Message)
3-4God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.
The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.
There seems to be many interesting things in The Message version, so I have a parallel Bible with that version alongside the NIV. So… does Band-Aid pay Zondervan and other Bible producing companies to use their name? I’m sure they don’t, but this just struck me as an oddity. I suppose this word is like Kleenex, where the brand has become the word. Literally, in this case.
On the flip side though…what else are they called? Sticky strips of tape with cotton pads? I honestly have no clue. Whats interesting to think is….how much other stuff in modern bibles have been “re-translated” to more common terms…and are they correct? I mean did they even have sticky pieces of tape with cotton pads when Romans was written?
~Ozz~
I know, at least Kleenex has the alterante name tissue. I tried to think of other ways they could have worded it, and I have nothing. I’m not offended and it is a good use of the word. (pun intended) And I’m guessing they didn’t have sticky pieces of tape with little cotton pads on them. I could be wrong, who really knows when the first bandaid was made? They might have had them all along, but the Band-Aid company just took them and marketed them well. ;)
bandage
Bandage… with sticky stuff on the ends and non-stick cotton type pads in the middle and wings. Wait, wings is a different product. ;)
OK I’m out.
You must have ‘The Message’ version. I checked twenty other versions/translations and no other interpretation of Romans 8:3-4 is anywhere close. Pretty funny though.
The Message version always has some ‘interesting’ translations. I like the poetic, story-like nature of it, although you have to wonder how much the meaning is altered. :)
I realized to mentioned it was from the Message version after I wrote the comment. I probably missed it because I had never heard of that version. I had no idea there were like 22 different English versions of the Bible.
Like you mentioned, it almost seems like a paid ad. Another example would be aluminum foil or tin foil. When I was growing up it was always reynolds wrap even though it was usually a generic brand.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t be too terribly surprised if there wasn’t things like that going on. Like that new singer ladygaga. She writes paid ads into her lyrics. I think marketing is very interesting and wouldn’t be against the idea, as long as it wasn’t hidden.