When I was in seminary I had the priviledge of learning greek from Dr. Erwin Penner Ph.D. Dr. Penner once recommended to us Clarence Jordan’s Cotton Patch Gospel. The Cotton Patch Gospel was a colloquial paraphrase of scripture into the common tongue of the american south in the 1960’s (not unlike what Eugene Peterson’s The Message paraphrase is today). Part of the brilliance of Jordan’s Cotton Patch is that it is so clearly a product of it’s era and still a timeless masterwork. You can read it and almost hear the flashpoints and struggle of the Civil Right’s movement. Jordan himself is an extraordinary man who’s story is worth learning if you have the time…he was the inspiration for Habitat for Humanity.
As a paraphrase it shines and it is my absolute favorite for reading of scripture. Don’t get me wrong, for study I prefer the NASB for accuracy and its literal character but for sheer joy of reading nothing beats the Cotton Patch. It’s a little like stepping into a time-capsule and it certainly helps to have some basic understanding of the american south, the civil rights movement etc.
So – why am I writing about this? Well I finally got my four-volume set today and I am psyched! Up until today I have been reading it online. Here are a few choice verses:
JOHN 9:29-31 "Next day, John saw Jesus coming to him. "Y’all look! There’s God’s Lamb, the world’s sin-bearer! That’s the one I was talking about when I said, ‘A man is coming behind me who has gotten ahead of me, because he was there before I was.’ Even I was not sure of him, but that he might be introduced to the nation, I began a pre-enrollment in water."1 COR. 10:12-13 "Let the man who thinks he has his feet on the ground be careful lest he slip and fall. Yet only temptation of a human sort ever overtakes you, and God can be trusted not to let you be tempted beyond your capacities, always providing along with the temptation a way out, so you can be victorious."JUDE 1-4 "From Joe, Jim’s brother, and owned by Jesus Christ lock, stock, and barrel; to the church members—people who have been loved by Father-God and nursed by Jesus Christ. May you all be loaded up with kindness and peace and love. My dear ones, while doing my dead-level best to write to you about our mutual salvation I had the urge to get a letter off to you begging you to fight like fury for the way of life that has been totally entrusted to the Christians. For some guys have come into the church like snakes in the grass. (It was pointed out in earlier writings that they would stoop to this.) They are uncommitted; they twist the undeserved favor of our God into a cover-up for their lewdness; and they disown Jesus Christ as our only ruler and master."LUKE 2:6 "While they were there, her time came, and she gave birth to her first boy. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in an apple box. (There was no room for them at the hospital.)"
If you are interested in reading it check out the website, look up some of your favourite verses and let me know what you think (BTW – I won’t be offended if you don’t like it): http://rockhay.tripod.com/cottonpatch/
Harnessing Chaos 
Wow, that\’s rather cool. I think the bible would be rather entertaining to read that way, actually.
LikeLike