confessions of a bible major (#1)

[[here begins my first series of posts. i plan to spread out my little confessions, interchanging them with regular posts without any real regularity. i'll post these as they come to mind, and they won't always be so serious-sounding as this one. promise.]]

#1 - i tend to dislike paraphrases, as a rule.

when people quote the message, i often cringe. no offense intended, now, but i don't like the idea of basing my faith, beliefs or actions on something so fluid. there is so much interpretation involved in paraphrases, and that makes me nervous. sure, some of the "verses" are pretty spot-on, or hard to mess with, or whatever. and no, not everyone knows greek and hebrew. i don't expect that.
mostly, i tend to feel that such weighted interpretations belong in commentaries, not in "bibles." because too many people who don't know better believe paraphrases to be more accurate than they sometimes are.
i don't expect everyone to adopt my stance and habits of avoiding paraphrases altogether. i do, however, want to help people be aware of what they read, encourage them to analyze paraphrases more carefully, and use them sparingly as simply a resource instead of a main text.
God's word is too important to take lightly, and it deserves our full respect and care in both reading and interpreting.

"what you don't see with your eyes, don't invent with your mouth." - jewish proverb