Each night, as a part of their evening routine, the family spent time reading the Bible, singing hymns, and praying together. Taylor and his wife, Margaret, raised ten children in their Wheaton home. The Living Bible was born out of Taylor’s deep desire for his children to understand God’s Word. He was the author of many children’s books, including The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes and My First Bible in Pictures.īut Ken Taylor is probably best known as the man who wrote The Living Bible, a paraphrase of Scripture that to date has sold more than 40 million copies. Taylor, who spent 65 years in the publishing industry, began his career as editor of HIS magazine and later served as director of Moody Press in Chicago. (He later received honorary doctorates from Wheaton College, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Huntington College, and Taylor University.) He graduated from Wheaton College (Wheaton, Illinois) in 1938, attended Dallas Theological Seminary for three years, and received a Th.M. Due in large part to his pastor father and godly mother, Taylor developed a solid faith in Christ and a deep respect for the Bible at a very young age. Taylor was born on May 8, 1917, in Portland, Oregon, to George and Charlotte Huff Taylor. Tyndale House Publishers grew from a modest home into a major publishing entity that reaches every continent in the world. Ken Taylor’s dream had become a reality and more-a publishing entity had been born. Half a million copies were given away through the Graham crusades.

The following spring Billy Graham saw a copy of Living Letters and asked if he could print a special edition and offer it on the telecasts of his crusades. In 1962, Taylor exhibited his self-published Living Letters at the Christian Booksellers Association convention. Convinced that there was value in the work for more than just their children, Taylor and his wife Margaret, decided to use their limited savings to publish Living Letters. After seven years of writing and rewriting, he submitted the manuscript to several publishing houses, but it was rejected by all of them. In 1954, as he rode the commuter train to his job in Chicago, Taylor started paraphrasing the New Testament into modern English. Concerned that his ten children were having a hard time understanding the King James Bible, Taylor began paraphrasing the scriptures, so they could better understand the nightly Bible readings. Kenneth Taylor, making Scripture accessible for all people was his life’s passion.

The living bible paraphrased 1971