The Jack Blanco Story

 

 

Nehemiah 8:10 Good News Translation

¹⁰ Now go home and have a feast. Share your food and wine with those who don't have enough. Today is holy to our Lord, so don't be sad. The joy that the Lord gives you will make you strong.”

 

Last Sabbath Sylvia and I watched “The Jack Blanco Story; It’s All About Jesus[1]”. Jack’s father ran away from his mother before he was born. She returned to Germany where Jack was forced into Hitler’s labor camps. He escaped at least twice and was rejected by his grandfather whom he had been staying with. He served in the US Air Force in Guam where he accepted Christ as his savior. Later he entered the ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist church. At one point in his ministry, he served as the head of the Theology Department at Solusi University.

While documenting his service at Solusi, the DVD zooms in on one of the graves[2] in the Missionary Cemetery on the Solusi campus. That grave is my mother’s grave, and I include a picture of the gravestone with this blog[3]. It shows me kneeling at her grave with three of her grandchildren around me. She died on Easter Sunday while serving at the university in 1974—just six weeks prior to her retirement from 40 years of service in Africa.

Pastor Blanco served the Lord in many places around the world. The documentary describes how he decided to improve his devotion time by making his own paraphrase of the Bible, verse by verse. His purpose was to convey his understanding of what the Bibe writers were saying in modern English that modern speakers of English could relate to. It was also to deepen his own devotions. He published his paraphrase in 2004 under the title The Clear Word. The documentary mentions that the first book of the Bible he paraphrased was Mark.

Eugene H. Peterson started publishing selections of his paraphrase, The Message, in 1993 and published the whole work in 2002. His purpose was to make the Bible accessible to modern teenagers.

I started paraphrasing the Bible on October 11, 2023, about the same time I had my first stroke, although I don’t believe there was any connection between the two events. I was inspired to try this after listening to the testimony of the Bible translators working under the training of Wycliffe Associates. Many of the translators expressed the deep spiritual discernment they experienced during the translation process. I decided, that I didn’t know any language that didn’t have a Bible translation, nor did I know any other language well enough to even consider translating into it. So, I decided to translate/paraphrase parts of the Bible into English. I have found that doing so makes Christ’s life come alive for me. I, too, started with the shortest gospel. I recommend that you try it. My technique is to get five versions of the text up on Biblegateway.com—usually the KJV, GNT HCSB, and CEV, plus the SBL Greek version (purely for my curiosity). I read the text in the various English translations and then go over what I read and, without looking at the source texts, write my thoughts down. Then I examine my version and compare it with the source text. I make sure that my version has all of the parts of the original and conveys what I understand to be the mood of the verse.

Doing this increases my understanding of the text. As I think about it, the text becomes real to me. I heartily encourage you to examine your own devotions. If you feel something is lacking, maybe try paraphrasing what the text you are reading says.

Thank You, Lord, for Your Word that You have given us to learn more about You. Bless me and others as we study it.

 

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[1] Review and Herald Publishing Association 2014. A DVD documenting the life of Jack Blanco.

[2] The scene occurs at the position 1:12:37 on the DVD

[3] The Grave of Esther Muira Clarke. The picture was taken on August 31, 2023 while we were visiting places where she served in Africa.