New Believers Bible - Flipbook - Page 136
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A63
INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW LIVING TRANSLATION
place of these words, we have provided renderings such as “made right with God”
and “made holy.”
The Spelling of Proper Names. Many individuals in the Bible, especially the Old Testament, are known by more than one name (e.g., Uzziah/Azariah). For the sake of clarity, we have tried to use a single spelling for any one individual, footnoting the literal
spelling whenever we differ from it. This is especially helpful in delineating the kings
of Israel and Judah. King Joash/Jehoash of Israel has been consistently called
Jehoash, while King Joash/Jehoash of Judah is called Joash. A similar distinction has
been used to distinguish between Joram/Jehoram of Israel and Joram/Jehoram of
Judah. All such decisions were made with the goal of clarifying the text for the
reader. When the ancient biblical writers clearly had a theological purpose in their
choice of a variant name (e.g., Esh-baal/Ishbosheth), the different names have been
maintained with an explanatory footnote.
For the names Jacob and Israel, which are used interchangeably for both the individual patriarch and the nation, we generally render it “Israel” when it refers to the
nation and “Jacob” when it refers to the individual. When our rendering of the
name differs from the underlying Hebrew text, we provide a textual footnote, which
includes this explanation: “The names ‘Jacob’ and ‘Israel’ are often interchanged
throughout the Old Testament, referring sometimes to the individual patriarch and
sometimes to the nation.”
The Rendering of Divine Names. All appearances of ’el, ’elohim, or ’eloah have been
translated “God,” except where the context demands the translation “god(s).” We
have generally rendered the tetragrammaton (YHWH) consistently as “the LORD,”
utilizing a form with small capitals that is common among English translations.
This will distinguish it from the name ’adonai, which we render “Lord.” When
’adonai and YHWH appear together, we have rendered it “Sovereign LORD.” This also
distinguishes ’adonai YHWH from cases where YHWH appears with ’elohim, which
is rendered “LORD God.” When YH (the short form of YHWH) and YHWH appear
together, we have rendered it “LORD GOD.” When YHWH appears with the term
tseba’oth, we have rendered it “LORD of Heaven’s Armies” to translate the meaning
of the name. In a few cases, we have utilized the transliteration, Yahweh, when the
personal character of the name is being invoked in contrast to another divine name
or the name of some other god (for example, see Exodus 3:15; 6:2-3).
In the New Testament, the Greek word christos has been translated as “Messiah”
when the context assumes a Jewish audience. When a Gentile audience can be
assumed, christos has been translated as “Christ.” The Greek word kurios is consistently translated “Lord,” except that it is translated “LORD” wherever the New Testament text explicitly quotes from the Old Testament, and the text there has it in small
capitals.
