Proponents
for a Literal Translation
of the
New Testament

by
Frank Neil Pohorlak, D.D. Litt.D.

Dr. Charles Taber of the Translations Department of the American Bible Society conducts classes for students attending a Translators Institute. On a chalkboard, he writes: “Anything that can be said in one language can be said in another.” Another principle is: “To preserve the content of the message the form must be changed.”

We agree with these principles even though we state them differently. For example: A word modifies and is itself modified by the words with which it is associated. And, The usage of a word varies, the meaning of a term is unvaried. Our literal equivalents and controlled idioms are not wooden, not mechanical word-for-word monstrosities, but serious efforts to guard against bias, to avoid religious cant or jargon, and to have respect for the two cultural worlds in which the reader and the translator are involved. When our method is understood and applied, it will be applauded.

Any Version should reproduce the Original, not reflect the religious milieu of the translator. The reader has the right to know what God says, exactly, accurately, literally.

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