A Bible version designed to “recapture the emotion of God’s Word” was removed from Bible Gateway recently. The Passion Translation is listed as “no longer available” among the site’s 90 English-language Bible offerings.
First released as a New Testament in 2017, The Passion Translation includes additions that do not appear in the source manuscripts, phrases meant to draw out God’s “tone” and “heart” in each passage.
Brian Simmons—a former missionary linguist and pastor who now leads Passion and Fire Ministries—developed the Passion Translation. His work has been endorsed by a range of apostolic charismatic Christians.
Bible Gateway’s parent company, HarperCollins Christian Publishing, told Christianity Today, “We periodically review our content, making changes as necessary, to align with our business goals.” The company declined to offer further details about its reason for the decision.
Simmons and his publisher describe TPT as a translation instead of a paraphrase because Simmons and his partners worked to develop the text from Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic manuscripts rather than taking an existing English translation and putting it into his own words.
But Bible scholars, including those who translated the NIV, use a more rigorous standard. Critics say it is a paraphrase posing as a translation.
TPT remains available on YouVersion and Logos Bible Software.