New Believers Bible - Flipbook - Page 135
INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW LIVING TRANSLATION
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people generally. In some contexts, it refers more particularly to the Jewish religious leaders. We have attempted to capture the meaning in these different contexts by using terms such as “the people” (with a footnote: Greek the Jewish people)
or “the religious leaders,” where appropriate.
• One challenge we faced was how to translate accurately the ancient biblical text
that was originally written in a context where male-oriented terms were used to
refer to humanity generally. We needed to respect the nature of the ancient context while also trying to make the translation clear to a modern audience that
tends to read male-oriented language as applying only to males. Often the original
text, though using masculine nouns and pronouns, clearly intends that the message be applied to both men and women. A typical example is found in the New
Testament letters, where the believers are called “brothers” (adelphoi). Yet it
is clear from the content of these letters that they were addressed to all the
believers—male and female. Thus, we have usually translated this Greek word
as “brothers and sisters” in order to represent the historical situation more
accurately.
We have also been sensitive to passages where the text applies generally to human beings or to the human condition. In some instances we have used plural
pronouns (they, them) in place of the masculine singular (he, him). For example, a
traditional rendering of Proverbs 22:6 is: “Train up a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it.” We have rendered it: “Direct your
children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.” At
times, we have also replaced third person pronouns with the second person to ensure clarity. A traditional rendering of Proverbs 26:27 is: “He who digs a pit will
fall into it, and he who rolls a stone, it will come back on him.” We have rendered
it: “If you set a trap for others, you will get caught in it yourself. If you roll a boulder down on others, it will crush you instead.”
We should emphasize, however, that all masculine nouns and pronouns used to
represent God (for example, “Father”) have been maintained without exception.
All decisions of this kind have been driven by the concern to reflect accurately the
intended meaning of the original texts of Scripture.
Lexical Consistency in Terminology. For the sake of clarity, we have translated
certain original-language terms consistently, especially within synoptic passages
and for commonly repeated rhetorical phrases, and within certain word categories
such as divine names and non-theological technical terminology (e.g., liturgical,
legal, cultural, zoological, and botanical terms). For theological terms, we have
allowed a greater semantic range of acceptable English words or phrases for a single
Hebrew or Greek word. We have avoided some theological terms that are not readily
understood by many modern readers. For example, we avoided using words such as
“justification” and “sanctification,” which are carryovers from Latin translations. In
