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IN T RO D U C T I O N T O T H E NEW L IV ING TR ANS L ATION
words and phrases in the ancient context; then
they rendered the message into clear, natural
English. Their goal was to be both faithful to
the ancient texts and eminently readable. The
result is a translation that is both exegetically
accurate and idiomatically powerful.
Translation Process and Team
To produce an accurate translation of the Bible
into contemporary English, the translation
team needed the skills necessary to enter into
the thought patterns of the ancient authors and
then to render their ideas, connotations, and effects into clear, contemporary English. To begin
this process, qualified biblical scholars were
needed to interpret the meaning of the original
text and to check it against our base English
translation. In order to guard against personal
and theological biases, the scholars needed to
represent a diverse group of evangelicals who
would employ the best exegetical tools. Then
to work alongside the scholars, skilled English
stylists were needed to shape the text into clear,
contemporary English.
With these concerns in mind, the Bible
Translation Committee recruited teams of
scholars that represented a broad spectrum of
denominations, theological perspectives, and
backgrounds within the worldwide evangelical community. (These scholars are listed at the
end of this introduction.) Each book of the Bible
was assigned to three different scholars with
proven expertise in the book or group of books
to be reviewed. Each of these scholars made a
thorough review of a base translation and submitted suggested revisions to the appropriate
Senior Translator. The Senior Translator then
reviewed and summarized these suggestions
and proposed a first-draft revision of the base
text. This draft served as the basis for several
additional phases of exegetical and stylistic
committee review. Then the Bible Translation
Committee jointly reviewed and approved every
verse of the final translation.
Throughout the translation and editing process, the Senior Translators and their scholar
teams were given a chance to review the editing
done by the team of stylists. This ensured that
exegetical errors would not be introduced late
in the process and that the entire Bible Translation Committee was happy with the final result. By choosing a team of qualified scholars
and skilled stylists and by setting up a process
that allowed their interaction throughout the
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process, the New Living Translation has been
refined to preserve the essential formal elements of the original biblical texts, while also
creating a clear, understandable English text.
The New Living Translation was first published in 1996. Shortly after its initial publication, the Bible Translation Committee began
a process of further committee review and
translation refinement. The purpose of this
continued revision was to increase the level of
precision without sacrificing the text’s easy-tounderstand quality. This second-edition text
was completed in 2004, with minor changes
subsequently introduced in 2007, 2013, and
2015.
Written to Be Read Aloud
It is evident in Scripture that the biblical documents were written to be read aloud, often in
public worship (see Nehemiah 8; Luke 4:16-20;
1 Timothy 4:13; Revelation 1:3). It is still the case
today that more people will hear the Bible read
aloud in church than are likely to read it for
themselves. Therefore, a new translation must
communicate with clarity and power when it is
read publicly. Clarity was a primary goal for the
NLT translators, not only to facilitate private
reading and understanding, but also to ensure
that it would be excellent for public reading
and make an immediate and powerful impact
on any listener.
The Texts behind
the New Living Translation
The Old Testament translators used the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible as represented in
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (1977), with its
extensive system of textual notes; this is an update of Rudolf Kittel’s Biblia Hebraica (Stuttgart,
1937). The translators also further compared
the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint and other
Greek manuscripts, the Samaritan Pentateuch,
the Syriac Peshitta, the Latin Vulgate, and any
other versions or manuscripts that shed light on
the meaning of difficult passages.
The New Testament translators used the
two standard editions of the Greek New Testament: the Greek New Testament, published
by the United Bible Societies (UBS, fourth revised edition, 1993), and Novum Testamentum
Graece, edited by Nestle and Aland (NA, twentyseventh edition, 1993). These two editions,
which have the same text but differ in punctuation and textual notes, represent, for the most