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Kenneth Taylor, whose creation of "The Living Bible" in conversational language made the holy text accessible to millions around the world and was the cornerstone of a Christian publishing empire, died Friday in his Wheaton home.
Taylor, 88, had been in declining health for some time but remained actively involved with Tyndale House Publishers, the Christian publishing firm he started from his home more than 40 years ago and which grew to one of the most prominent in the world.
As recently as May 9, Taylor came into the firm's Carol Stream office to celebrate his 88th birthday with staff, said Tyndale corporate publicist Mavis Sanders.
More recently, Tyndale has been known for putting out the wildly popular "Left Behind" series.
But Taylor, who was Tyndale's president from 1962 to 1984 and then chairman of board until his death, was best known for his work in making the Bible more understandable.
Born in 1917, in Portland, Ore., Taylor and his wife, Margaret, started Tyndale after he was unable to find a publisher for his Biblical paraphrasing.
The father of 10, Taylor began putting the Bible into conversational English in the 1950s after he found that his children had difficulty understanding the traditional King James version.
After finishing his paraphrasing of the New Testament epistles, which he called "Living Letters," he self-published 2,000 copies and kept working on other portions of Scripture.
Acceptance was slow at first, until evangelist Billy Graham recommended the use of "Living Letters" in...