About TFW
The Fightin Word: Enlisted Exegesis for Rank and File Believers
Scripture wasn't written for seminary professors. It was written for fishermen, tax collectors, soldiers, and people whose hands got dirty. But somewhere along the way, the Bible got locked up in libraries and lecture halls, translated into safe language that wouldn't offend anyone's sensibilities.
The Fightin Word is a project to get Scripture back into the hands—and the language—of ordinary believers. Think of it as The Message if Eugene Peterson had been willing to leave some of the blood and dirt on the page.
What You'll Find Here
This is a growing project built around three main threads:
Liturgical Sundays - Every Sunday, a new episode following the three-year Revised Common Lectionary cycle. Not sermons. Not lectures. Just wrestling with the texts the church has been reading for centuries, using the grammar we actually speak. Audio on Spotify and YouTube.
Word Studies - Deep dives into specific Greek and Hebrew terms that matter. The kind of words that get smoothed over in translation but carry weight in the original. Text-based, reference-ready.
Conversations - Interviews with people who have something to say about Scripture, theology, war, suffering, and what it means to follow Jesus when the easy answers don't work anymore.
As the project grows, you'll find an entire paraphrased Bible built chapter by chapter, week by week, hyperlinked and cross-referenced so you can trace ideas through the whole canon. It's being built at the pace of the liturgical year—which means it's being built to last.
Start Here
New to the project? Start with a Liturgical Sunday episode from the current season, or browse the word studies if you want to see how deep this goes. The whole archive is organized by the church calendar and indexed by topic.
This isn't for everyone. But if you're tired of Scripture that's been focus-grouped into something inoffensive, you might be in the right place.
Genesis 1
1 In the beginning Gods made the skies and the ground. 2 But the ground wasn't fit for sight and disordered, and darkness was over the abyss, and the divine spirit drew near the water. 3 And Gods said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And Gods saw the light was good, and split the light from the darkness. 5 And Gods called the light Day, and the darkness they called Night, and there was evening and there was morning, the first day. 6 And Gods said, Let there be a solid ground in the midst of the water, and let it be a division between water and water, and it was so. 7 And Gods made the firmament, and God divided between the water which was under the firmament and the water which was above the firmament. 8 And Gods called the firmament Heaven, and God saw that it was good, and there was evening and there was morning, the second day. 9 And God said, Let the water which is under the heaven be collected into one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so. And the water which was under the heaven was collected into its places, and the dry land appeared. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the §gatherings of the waters he called Seas, and God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the herb of grass bearing seed according to its kind and according to its likeness, and the fruit tree bearing fruit whose seed is in it, according to its kind on the earth, and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth the herb of grass bearing seed according to its kind and according to its likeness, and the fruit tree bearing fruit whose seed is in it, according to its kind on the earth, and God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. 14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, to divide between day and night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. 15 And let them be for light in the firmament of the heaven, so as to shine upon the earth, and it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights, the greater light for regulating the day and the lesser light for regulating the night, the stars also. 17 And God placed them in the firmament of the heaven, so as to shine upon the earth, 18 and to regulate [archo] day and night, and to divide between the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. 20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth reptiles having life, and winged creatures flying above the earth in the firmament of heaven, and it was so. 21 And God made great whales, and every living reptile, which the waters brought forth according to their kinds, and every creature that flies with wings according to its kind, and God saw that they were good. 22 And God blessed them saying, Increase and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the creatures that fly be multiplied on the earth. 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. 24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind, quadrupeds and reptiles and wild beasts of the earth according to their kind, and it was so. 25 And God made the wild beasts of the earth according to their kind, and cattle according to their kind, and all the reptiles of the earth according to their kind, and God saw that they were good. 26 And God said, Let us make man according to our image and likeness, and let them have dominion [archo-] over the fish of the sea, and over the flying creatures of heaven, and over the cattle and all the earth, and over all the reptiles that creep on the earth. 27 And God made man, according to the image of God he made him, male and female he made them. 28 And God blessed them, saying, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the seas and flying creatures of heaven, and all the cattle and all the earth, and all the reptiles that creep on the earth. 29 And God said, Behold I have given to you every seed-bearing herb sowing seed which is upon all the earth, and every tree which has in itself the fruit of seed that is sown, to you it shall be for food. 30 And to all the wild beasts of the earth, and to all the flying creatures of heaven, and to every reptile creeping on the earth, which has in itself the breath of life, even every green plant for food; and it was so. 31 And God saw all the things that he had made, and, behold, they were very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.