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I N TRO DUCTION TO THE NEW L IVING TR ANSL ATION
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 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
In the Old Testament, 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.”
When ’elohim and YHWH appear together, we
have rendered it “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 Gospels and Acts, the Greek word
christos has normally been translated as “Messiah” when the context assumes a Jewish audience. When a Gentile audience can be assumed
(which is consistently the case in the Epistles
and Revelation), 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.
Textual Footnotes
The New Living Translation provides several
kinds of textual footnotes, all designated in the
text with an asterisk:
• When for the sake of clarity the NLT renders
a difficult or potentially confusing phrase
dynamically, we generally give the literal rendering in a textual footnote. This allows the
reader to see the literal source of our dynamic
rendering and how our translation relates to
other more literal translations. These notes
are prefaced with “Hebrew,” “Aramaic,”
or “Greek,” identifying the language of the
underlying source text. For example, in Acts
2:42 we translated the literal “breaking of
bread” (from the Greek) as “the Lord’s Supper” to clarify that this verse refers to the
ceremonial practice of the church rather than
just an ordinary meal. Then we attached a
footnote to “the Lord’s Supper,” which reads:
“Greek the breaking of bread.”
• Textual footnotes are also used to show alternative renderings, prefaced with the word “Or.”