For years I studied from parallel bibles. And when I did serious bible study I gathered together additional versions. I've even read slices of various versions in church. I've always gained much from the variations found in multiple versions of the bible.
As a young man I found the Living Bible and the Phillips New Testament refreshing. Modern versions of the bible bring a vibrancy and an insight into meaning that the King James Version didn't deliver. At the same time, the KJV remained familiar. And while not as successful at bringing the message to me as the newer versions, its familiarity remained a bedrock. I never studied from other versions without comparing with the KJV. I might teach at church and read from newer versions. I never presented scripture in these newer versions without having compared with the KJV and confirmed to myself that the freshness and clarity in the new rang true with the reliable King James Version.
Today, with our electronic devices, the biblegateway.com web site makes it easy to read from multiple versions. One can create their own parallel set of versions. So it has been easy to gather multiple versions and select and slice what seems to me to be an intense, more meaningful story.
In February of 2017 I began this Combined Voice Paraphrase. I read verse by verse from 15 different versions, selecting what appears to be the most powerful words and expressions found from all 15 versions. I then slice and combine into what I call the Combined Voice Sliced Working Copy. This CVSWC contains only the words from the original 15 versions of the bible. Sometimes the slicing is severe, but no words have been added to the Working Copy.
As a result of this sometimes severe slicing, the CVSWC sometimes reads awkwardly. No thoughts are left out. In fact, occasionally the thoughts from two or more versions are cascaded. From this CVSWC I smooth out the awkwardnesses and this more conventional wording become the Combined Voice Paraphrase (CVP). The verb tenses in the various versions don't always agree, so I make choices.
I'm sometimes tempted to make the wording more efficient, according to modern tastes. I do little of this. The King James version is less efficient that some of the newer versions. And the KJV has a cadence that people sometimes praise as musical or poetic. The original greek usually has this less efficient phrasing. (I see the Greek wording in the Mounce Translineal translation, which is one of the 15 versions. I don't read Greek but I see and become somewhat familiar and recognize root words that come down to us in English. So the Mounce version being in reality two versions, the CVP has origins from 16 versions.) Many translators try to stay somewhat true to this phrasing even though they may focus on a thought for thought translation. I seldom deviate at all from what I find the norms to be.
Although this is a paraphrase, it could probably be a near translation. I take little liberty when moving from the CVSWC to the paraphrased CVP. Most verses remain identical to the exact slicing in the Working Copy. Recall that ALL words in the Working Copy come from the 15 versions of which 14 are translations while the Living Bible is a paraphrase from 50 years or more ago.
Please look at the Combined Voice Paraphrase. You will be able to review the intermediate CVSWC and you will be able to click straight through to the original translations from which each verse came. So there will be nothing hidden from view. You will be able to read for yourself the actually slicing words and phrases in the CVSWC and you will be able to compare to the full verses in the originating translations.
Enjoy reading!
At this time I'm on my 13th chapter of the Revelations. I hope to complete at least this book of Revelations. If all goes well then I'll probably start with either Matthew or Galations. Obviously I'm not intending to think or write sequentially. Be patient and stay with me.