greek interlinear bible nasb best translation stackexchange

Is the translation based on the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek manuscripts (or an attempt to reconstruct non-extant manuscripts in another language)? Or is it based on an existing translation? Is the translation consistent? Does it take recent scholarly linguistic and philological data into account? Does it allow the New Testament to inform how the Hebrew Bible is translated (and take into account differences between the Septuagint and Masoretic or other texts)? Are masculine pronouns translated as gender-neutral where grammar allows? Is there a clear bias (translations produced by sectarian groups or individuals often have a determined bias - and all translation involves bias if we're honest)? Translation philosophyĪ thought-for-thought translation is known as dynamic equivalent, while a word-for-word translation is called formal equivalent. usage of the best texts/manuscripts availableĪs I stated, these criteria are purely subjective, therefore some religious traditions will prefer various manuscripts or translation philosophies over others.translation philosophy (thought-for-thought, word-for-word, or paraphrase).I would propose the following criteria for selecting an English Bible translation: This is cross-posted and adapted from my answer here.Īccuracy and 'literalness' are only two of several factors in a translation, and I would argue that they are subjective factors at that. You can get a good idea of the translation philosophy represented in the subsequent pages and where the editors stood on controversial issues such as gender-inclusive language, archaic pronouns referring to God, translating the names of God, and so on. If you look in the first few pages of a Bible, it's quite likely you will be able to read an impassioned argument for why that particular English version should be read and used. Thankfully, English translators have a long tradition of including introductory notes to their work. Older translations were unable to benefit from these sorts of discoveries. Modern translations of the Old Testament are also informed by the Dead Sea Scrolls, which strongly support the Masoretic Text. By contrast, modern Greek texts make use of over 5,800 Greek manuscripts including some found only within the last 100 years.

It was formed from just 6 Greek manuscripts and was supplemented by translations of Vulgate texts back into Greek. Until quite recently, English Bibles were translated from a version of the Greek New Testament called the Textus Receptus produced by Desiderius Erasmus. For obvious reasons, these translations are automatically less accurate to the original texts than more recent translations. Before the Tyndale Bible, English translations were made from the Latin translation (the Vulgate) and not directly from the Greek. I agree wholeheartedly with Jessica Brown's answer, but there's another dimension to accuracy: the text a translation is based on.

Greek interlinear bible nasb best translation stackexchange