Actually, Eugene Peterson worked directly from the Greek and Hebrew. 
He tried to recreatte as much as posible the feel of how the 
Scriptures read to the origianl readers in Biblical times.

As I said before, this is not meant to be a literal translation and 
is not but makes a good read alongside a moreliteral version.

God bless,

Doris

At 12:35 PM 9/3/2009 -0400, you wrote:
>Pat, I don't think of it.  Because it is a paraphrase, I would avoid 
>it.  When you read a paraphrase, you are reading someone's opinion 
>and not an actual translation.
>
>earlier, Pat Ferguson, wrote:
>>Hi Everyone,
>>
>>I'm considering getting the Message Paraphraised Bible.
>>
>>What do you all think of it?
>>
>>Thanks much.
>>
>>Love and Blessings,
>>
>>Pat Ferguson
>
>John