Controversy and Criticism
David Newman, editor of Ministry magazine wrote a letter expressing concerns about The Clear Word (June 28, 1994), stating that "A cursory examination of the Clear Word Bible reveals the prolific addition of many ideas not found in Scripture."
In response to criticism, the South Pacific Division of the church released the following statement:
The Clear Word Bible is not produced, nor endorsed by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, but is the private enterprise of an individual. The Adventist Church does not use the Clear Word edition, which includes passages from Ellen G. White’s writings, for its worship services and Bible studies around the world, but quotes from well known and well accepted Bible translations in the various languages. In the English language for example, the church uses the King James Version, the Revised Standard Version, the New American Bible, the New International Version, and others
— Australasian Conference Association Limited
Others within the church, such as Phil Ward, have expressed criticism in two areas. One that the current publisher does not have a large enough footprint to get The Clear Word out to mainstream Christian book centers, and that the paraphrase has too much extra material in it. In the preface Blanco explains precisely what he did in producing the paraphrase.
Chapters 11 and 12 of Daniel were a challenge. Here more interpretative freedom in the light of historical studies and related prophecies (such as found in Revelation) had to be exercised in order to make the chapters more readable and understandable. In the New Testament, I attempted to harmonize in the four gospels what at first appears to be contradictory. The more difficult passages were made clearer by allowing each gospel to inform the other three and elaborating on certain points or scenes revealed in the other gospels. Certain passages from the book of Acts, a historical narrative, were slightly expanded with insights gleaned from commentaries. The epistles of Paul were the most difficult to paraphrase.
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“The critic lives at second hand. He writes about. The poem, the novel, or the play must be given to him; criticism exists by the grace of other men’s genius. By virtue of style, criticism can itself become literature. But usually this occurs only when the writer is acting as critic of his own work or as outrider to his own poetics, when the criticism of Coleridge is work in progress or that of T.S. Eliot propaganda.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)