For the last few weeks, The Passion Translation has been getting beaten up and bashed, in light of a devastating exposé by the YouTube channel Minor Prophets.
The video reveals the extent to which its creator, Brian Simmons, routinely plagiarized or outright lied about where the translation came from and how he produced it, demonstrating repeatedly that much of Simmons’ “translation’ involved just making things up.
As a result of the exposé, YouVersion, the world’s top Bible app, has been urged to drop it, Something Bible Gateway had done years ago, as more and more calls grow for the famously flaky translation to be cast in the lake of fire.
Protestia publisher David Morrill, however, points out the elephant in the room with the timing of the cancellation:
Notably, The Passion Translation has been heavily platformed and lauded by Bethel Church personalities, who routinely uses it as their preferred translation.
Bill Johnson’s endorsement of it is featured prominently on its website, where he hypes it as “one of the greatest things to happen with Bible translation in my lifetime.
In fact, Johnson has cut promo ads for The Passion Translation, saying there’s hardly a day that geos by where he doesn’t read it, and previously revealing “I actually read The Passion Translation every night before I go to sleep.”
As a result, Bethel Church has always carried it in their bookstore, sometimes with exclusive releases, and even had their own version of it, he Passion Translation Bethel Editon, which features a forward by Johnson himself:
A week ago, it was the only bible they carried.
Now, however, it was been removed from their website, despite being a mainstay for nearly a decade.
We’ve reached out to Bethel and did not receive an response at the time of publishing, but given all the scandals Bethel is involved in, we don’t expect it back anytime soon.
