Published Transliteral New Testament

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otseng
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Published Transliteral New Testament

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Post by otseng »

Big milestone for me, I just completed the first pass of my translation of the New Testament.

More info at TransliteralBible.com.

You can read it at uniquebibleapp.com.

I started this project on Feb 2019 as a way to learn Greek and to dive deeper into the Bible. And this has turned out to be one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. Honestly, when I started on this project, I was in a very dry place. All sermons were boring to me, personal Bible study was boring, and prayer was boring. Preachers seemed to be teaching the same things over and over. Bible study materials did not go very deep.

Doing this has been a journey that has affected me in ways that I would not have ever expected. But, one thing I can honestly say now is I love the law. I have such a greater appreciation and awe of the Bible that really only people who have dug deep can understand. And ironically, I feel I've only scratched the surface. There is so much to dig even further.

Doing this has transformed how I view the Bible, how I walk out the Christian faith, and even improved my marriage! Now, whenever someone is willing to listen to me, I say if they want to transform their Christian walk, they should write their own translation of the Bible.

It's not as hard as it sounds, though it does require effort. We have so many tools now to look into the original languages that one doesn't really need to know Greek or Hebrew. I started just using Blue Letter Bible. Really that's all one needs to write their own translation.

As for the tools I use, three years ago, I got introduced to VS Code at work, which really makes composing the text easier. And also around that time, I started playing with Python which allowed me to automate some of the translation work. Last December, I discovered a fantastic Bible study program called UniqueBible.app. It made my translation work go much faster and it also allows me to publish my translation on the web.

I'll now go through the second pass of the NT and also start translating the OT, which will take much longer. But I'm not too concerned about how long it'll take. It's the journey that has been transformational. And I encourage anyone to start this journey for yourself to dramatically increase your love of God and the Bible.

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Re: Published Transliteral New Testament

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Post by Overcomer »

I commend you for that accomplishment. And I can certainly understand how it would be a life-changing experience as it drew you nearer to the Lord and gave you a greater understanding of him and his Word.

The Bible is like a gold mine, isn't it? You can just keep mining it and it never runs out. There are always new riches to find when we apply ourselves. I can read the same passage a hundred times and then, suddenly, on the 101st reading, I finally get it!

Thank you for those links. I will take a look at them. I honestly don't think I could persevere in translating the whole New Testament. I don't know as I have the self-discipline. But I might try my hand at some of my favourite passages -- like the first chapter of John's Gospel and the Christ Hymn in Philippians 2, for example.

God bless you with your translation of the Old Testament. I pray it blesses you just as mightily as translating the N.T. did.

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Re: Published Transliteral New Testament

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Post by otseng »

About my translation philosophy...

My translation was inspired by the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible. It has the Strongs number next to key words in the Bible. Then you look up the number in the back of the Bible to find the transliterated word and the definition. So for example, John 3:16 starts with "For God 2316 so loved 25 the world 2889..." You then look up 2316 in the back of the Bible and and it says "Theos" and gives a definition of it. So for my translation, basically all I did was replace the key words with the transliterated word and added a few more. So, my version says "For theos houtō agapaō the kosmos".

The good thing about this it allows you to learn Greek vocabulary without having to learn the Greek letters. And it's actually not too difficult to grasp what the words mean even without learning any Greek. In the verse above, the only word you probably wouldn't know is houtō. The others you can easily guess. And if you don't know the word, then you click on the word to look it up with the lexicon.

What would be the advantage of replacing certain words with the transliterated word? Because it solves the problem of how to translate the word. There are two broad methodologies of Bible translation - formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence. In formal equivalence, it's a more literal translation, but often results in less readability. In dynamic equivalence, it's less literal, but it's more readable. As an example, the NASB is considered formal, but NIV is considered more dynamic. Each has its pros and cons. But neither is really able to capture the full original meaning of words. With the Transliteral Bible, there is no limitation of either since it's not translating, but transliterating. It's the actual original word, but just in English letters so anyone can read it.

The limitation of the Transliteral Bible is it doesn't contain any morphology. So, you don't know gender, number, tense, mood, voice, etc of the word. But, having those would make it more difficult to read (and to transliterate).

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Re: Published Transliteral New Testament

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Post by Overcomer »

Excellent advice. I especially appreciate your definition of the words "translation" and "transliteration". I'm really going to give this a shot. I need something to occupy myself now that my school term has ended.

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Re: Published Transliteral New Testament

Post #5

Post by JehovahsWitness »

Good for You!


Maybe you'll find the forward for the New World Translation interesting.
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1001070201

I admire and that undertook such an endeavor.


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