The Layman – March 2005 Volume 38, Number 1 – Posted April 12, 2005

The cutting edge of Scripture During his student days at Duke University in the early ’70s, Mark D. Taylor dressed in the radical campus chic of his time: long beard, baggy pants, flip-flops. But there was something about Taylor that was out of the norm. He was not a rebel swimming in the currents of campus protests. One of a dozen children of a Presbyterian minister, Taylor and his brothers and sisters had been guinea pigs. Their father read and interpreted Scripture to them daily. But, seeing the “duhs” on his children’s faces, the father began rewriting passages so that his children could understand the text. Those variations on traditional translations of the Bible took root. At Duke, Taylor began a contemporary high-amp Christian group dubbed J.C. Power & Light Co. The group still exists, recruiting new evangelical students to replace the graduates. Taylor started a spark that hasn’t died out. Taylor, like a generation-ago folk singer doing a gig for old-times sake, recently joined a small group from his J.C. Power & Light Co. days to render a sedate version of their theme song. The setting was a retreat for over-40 members of the evangelical Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church in Durham, N.C., which Taylor attended and where J.C. Power & Light Co. practiced. The old-timers sang their ’70s theme song, Pass It On. It only takes a spark, to get a fire going, and soon all those around can warm up in its glowing. That’s how it is with God’s love, once you’ve experienced it; you spread his love to everyone; you want to pass it on. No longer bearded (but balding), now business-like in demeanor, soft-spoken and sans toe-tapping, Taylor nonetheless sang and taught a principle at the Blacknall retreat that was planted when his father wrestled to make the Scripture clear to his children. That’s been his mission in life. Taylor is the son of Kenneth Taylor, who wrote the Living Bible, a paraphrase that is still popular. He is also the president of Tyndale House, the publishing company his father began. Today, he’s passing it on in the form of the New Living Translation, which builds on his father’s work but delves more deeply into Biblical scholarship for accuracy. Having involved 90 evangelical scholars in the work, the New Living Translation is believed to have been the most expensive Bible produced. Whether singing, teaching or publishing, Mark D. Taylor continues to honor the Taylor name by demonstrating his belief that “the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper that the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12, New Living Bible). The Taylor family stands as a witness to Presbyterians, people of the Word who are called to pass it on or lose it.

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