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It would be presumptuous of me to think that I, or anyone else, could
improve on the Word of God, so this is not an attempt to do that. I did this
work because I wanted to see, for myself, the Scriptures in a fresh way, and
also to bring out the warmth and humanity of (in this case) Matthew the writer.
I also wanted to make the words of Jesus clearer, to decode what he said,
so to speak, so any reader could understand him better.
I have not tried to tie in too many cross-references, or to harmonise the
four gospels in every area. For that sort of exhaustive, scholarly work I leave
readers to find other books.
I apologise to anyone who is offended at the way I have presented this
material. My only aim is to draw people past myself to the pure Word of God.
Just as the Living Bible and other paraphrases have introduced God to people in
simple language, reaching them at a lower level and drawing them up, so this
work is not meant to be a stopping place, but a bridge to better material.