The Cotton Patch Gospels
Clarence
Jordan brought the Scriptures to life with his modern
day Southern translations of the New Testament, his
poignant sermons, and his inspired and insightful interpretation
of the Sermon on the Mount and what it means to Christians
today.
Rich
in humor and unsparing in their earthiness, Clarence's
translations and lectures "explode in our ears
the mighty ideas which transformed the early disciples
and enabled them to turn their world upside down."
(Dallas Lee, Introduction to The Cotton Patch Evidence)
In
the Cotton Patch versions of the New Testament, Jesus
was wrapped in a blanket and placed in an apple box
at his birth, lynched in Leesburg, Georgia and greets
his disciples with a "Howdy" when he emerges
from his tomb on Easter. From the introduction of the
Cotton Patch Version of Paul's Epistles, Clarence explains
his motivation:
"Why
a "cotton patch" version? While there have
been many excellent translations of the Scriptures into
modern English, they still have left us stranded in
some faraway land in the long-distant past. We need
to have the good news come to us not only in our own
tongue but in our own time. We want to be participants
in the faith, not merely spectators...So, the "cotton
patch" version is an attempt to translate not only
the words but the events. We change the setting from
first century Palestine to twentieth-century America.
We ask our brethren of long ago to cross the time-space
barrier and talk to us not only in modern English but
about modern problems, feelings, frustrations, hopes
and assurances; to work beside us in our cotton patch
or on our assembly line, so that the word becomes modern
flesh. Then perhaps, we too will be able to joyfully
tell of "that which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes and have felt with our hands, about
the word of life" (1 John 1:1)
"Another
reason for a "cotton patch" version is that
the Scriptures should be taken out of the classroom
and stained-glass sanctuary and put out under God's
skies where people are toiling and crying and wondering,
where the mighty events of the good news first happened
and where alone they feel at home...
"Perhaps
the main reason, though, is that the major portion of
my life has been spent on a farm in southwest Georgia
where I have struggled for a meaningful expression of
my discipleship to Jesus Christ. With my companions
along the dusty rows of cotton, corn and peanuts, the
Word of Life has often come alive with encouragement,
rebuke, correction and insight. I have witnessed the
reenactment of one New Testament event after another
until I can scarcely distinguish the original from its
modern counterpart..."
