LISTEN NOW (7 minutes):
Today on celebrate the bible, we’ll explore a modern Bible translation for the streets. It’s called The Black Bible Chronicles.
If you are listening to this as a podcast, please go to celebratethebible250.com to see the photos associated with this episode.
The Black Bible Chronicles were a two volume set by author P.K. McCary. The first was titled: Black Bible Chronicles: from Genesis to the Promised Land. The second was titled: Rappin’ with Jesus: the Good News According to the Four Brothers.
The first was released in 1993.
Both volumes were more adaptations than what we would define as translations. McCarey would say they were to bring “the message of life into the language of the streets”.
As one would imagine, both volumes received mixed reactions from the public. On one hand, McCary was doing her best to make the stories come alive for the audience she was reaching out to. To make them more familiar, if you will.
She was telling of the same content, the same messages . . . just doing so with wording that would relate to her intended audience.
Some people found that almost blasphemous.
However, many of her critics — at the same time — may have already been reading bibles translated from questionable ancient texts!
They’re out there, you know.
One of the saving graces in all of this is the bible references. They are located at the bottom of many of the book pages.
Here is a photo from my collection of P.K. McCary working with her notes.
The photo caption states the following:
“P.K. McCary, author of the Black Bible Chronicles takes notes while looking at the Bible in her office during an August 1993 interview in Houston. McCary’s new slang version of the Bible aims to inspire hope in young blacks so often dispirited by poverty and violence.”
I would like to read an excerpt from Rappin’ with Jesus — which is the second book in this two-book series. I’m choosing John chapter 3. This is the chapter where Nicodemus visits Jesus at night. The reason for this particular reading is that I have a 1553 page from the William Tyndale New Testament to compare it to.
As follows:
One Pharisee brother named Nicodemus came to Jesus one night. “Look, Teach,” he said to Jesus. “You gotta be the Man ‘cuz nobody could do these things unless he was on the one with the Almighty.”
“For sure. Unless a brother is born again he can’t even get in the Almighty’s front door.”
“What’s with this born again? How can I go back inside my Mamma? Are you saying this can be done?”
“Unless a brother is born of water and Spirit he can’t get in the front door. Look, we ain’t talking about flesh things, but spirit. Don’t look so silly when I tell ‘you gotta be born again.
You don’t ask where the wind is coming from and you can hear it. Well, you don’t have to know how, just know that being born again can be done.”
“But how?” Nicodemus asked. “It don’t make sense.”
“You’re supposed to be the teacher. How can you not know?” Jesus answered him. “Look, you guys don’t even seem to understand things when they are right in your face. How you gonna understand heavenly things? I came down from heaven to get things straight. Moses lifted up a serpent and as the Son of Man, I gotta be lifted up too. It’s this simple. The Almighty loved you guys so much that He sent His own kid so that you all could have that ever, always, and forever, kind of life. He didn’t send the kid to give folks a hard time, but so that the kid could help save ‘em. Some brothers will take the hard way ‘cuz they’re hardheaded. If they want to stay in darkness rather than light, so be it. Evil don’t like goodness and doesn’t want to be around it. But if you’re looking for the right road, you’ll do the right thing and it’ll be on the one with the Almighty.”
So, what do you think? I am a very staunch Authorized Version Bible literalist by nature, and personally, I do not have, or see, any issues with the above message taken from the book of John, chapter 3.
Yes, it certainly does read differently from my William Tyndale page! But they’re both saying the same thing.
I’ll mention once again that the actual scripture references are printed at the bottom of the page.
A few reviews at the time stated this about the Black Bible Chronicles:
Rev. Andrew Greeley had this to say in People Magazine. “Vivid and forceful, it is also charming. Whatever it’s impact on kids who live on the street, a lot of other people of every racial and ethnic background might benefit from reading this lively retelling of the stories on which the religions of many of us are based.”
and also:
The Honorable Andrew Young, former ambassador to the United Nations and Mayor of Atlanta said: “The Black Bible Chronicles attempts to express a faith which address the deepest longings of our younger generation for hope, love, and an encouraging vision of the future.”
So, until we meet again, and for celebratethebible250, this is Francis Douglas.
If you would like me to give a presentation at your church, school, gallery, or organization, please let me know. My contact information is below.
The topic I cover is the History of the Christian Holy Bible in America.
Your group will not only learn about it. They will also see, on display, pages from the most significant Bibles in American history.
I will be available for Southern New Jersey, Southeastern Pennsylvania, and Northern Delaware.
CONTACT (for presentation inquiries only please):
Available for Southern New Jersey, Southeastern Pennsylvania, and Northern Delaware.
Your message has been sent
America 250 Semiquincentennial Bible Celebration 