Learn

Why literal

This translation was not made difficult by design. Its character follows from the principle of erasing nothing from the original.

Translation always entails choice

The semantic range of a single word in the source text is usually wider than any one rendering. The translator must therefore choose at every point; the choice itself cannot be avoided.

The question is whether the traces of that choice should afterwards be erased. A fluent translation erases them. Readability improves, but the reader is left unaware that the text being read has already been interpreted. The Yeshua Literal Version has chosen to preserve those traces.

The retention of original-language terms

Terms such as logos, psyche, exousia, and moed are retained in the text alongside the English rendering.

This is not an affectation of learning. Once such a term is reduced to a single English word, it can no longer be traced across the text as a whole. Where one original word is rendered differently from passage to passage, the reader cannot know that it is the same word. With the original retained, the original-language analysis allows the reader to trace where and how that word is used throughout the Bible.

The literal sense of the text

פְּשָׁטPESHAT — The plain sense · the layer the text is actually saying

A single verse shows why the original is retained

For the logos(word) of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of psyche(soul) and pneuma(spirit), of joints and marrow,Hebrews 4:12 · Yeshua Literal Version

This single verse demonstrates the point. If both psyche and pneuma are rendered “spirit”, the sentence becomes “the division of spirit and spirit” and its sense is lost. The text states that the two are divided.

Preserving the information of the original

Principles on gender, the directional he, and names

Grammatical genderHebrew and Greek mark gender on nouns and pronouns. English marks it only on a few pronouns, and Korean not at all. This information is therefore the most readily lost in translation. When gender is lost, however, the referent of a pronoun becomes unclear. In the original, gender and number make plain which word in the preceding sentence a pronoun resumes, whereas a translation may leave the same passage open to several readings. In such passages this translation follows the reference indicated by the original and, where necessary, marks that fact in the text.

The directional heHebrew possesses a letter, suffixed to a word, that marks direction or motion toward. Because English has no ready equivalent, it is almost always omitted in translation. In certain passages, however, that single letter determines the direction of the entire sentence. The Yeshua Literal Version marks such passages rather than omitting the feature. A fuller treatment appears in the “directional he” study under Bible studies.

The transliteration of namesYeshua is not a translated name but the name as it was spoken. The same applies to Messiah, Shabbat, and moed. The governing principle is that a name conveys its sound, not its meaning. For first-time readers, the familiar form is supplied in parentheses.

The YLV Bible text on ylvbible.org: Genesis 1, John 1 and John 1 in Korean

On readability

A translation that causes the reader to pause

This translation does not read with the ease of a novel. Parentheses are frequent, and unfamiliar terms are retained in the text.

The Bible, however, is not a book to be read in haste. To cause the reader to pause before a single verse is precisely the intent of this translation. At such points the reader is encouraged to consult the original-language analysis, where the derivation of the word and its other occurrences may be examined.

This is no criticism of fluent translations. The two kinds serve different purposes. For continuous reading, a familiar version is more suitable; for the close study of a single word, this translation is more suitable. The use of both is recommended.

Sources of the text

The Hebrew text is the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB). The Greek New Testament is translated from the Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform (2018 edition). No copyrighted translation was consulted, and every rendering is the original work of this organization. Full details are given under Text Sources & Copyright.

Read the text for yourself

Both Testaments in full, free of charge. Any word that raises a question may be opened in place.

Get the Bible