New English Translation™
Welcome to the NET Bible! What you have in your hands—or on your computer monitor, laptop, or PDA—represents a new approach to Bible translation for the electronic age and for the next millennium. Never before in the history of the Bible has a translation been published in electronic form on the Internet before being published in traditional print media. Never before has a translation been published which includes explanatory notes from the translators and editors as to why the preferred translation was chosen and what the alternatives are. Never before has a translation committee invited public comment on the working drafts of the translation via the Internet, whether from laypersons, clergy, or biblical scholars.
With a translation so revolutionary as the NET Bible, you no doubt have some additional questions. The remainder of this Preface addresses in question-and-answer format the most frequently-asked questions, to help you understand what the NET Bible is about and how it differs from the many other Bible translations available to the English-speaking reader today.
The New English Translation, also known as the NET Bible, is a completely new translation of the Bible, not a revision or an update of a previous English version. It was completed by more than twenty biblical scholars who worked directly from the best currently available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. These scholars teach biblical exegesis in seminaries and graduate schools. Further, the original translator for each book was chosen in every instance because of his or her work in that particular book—often extending over several decades. Many of the translators have participated in other translation projects as well. They have been assisted by doctoral students and advised by style consultants and SIL field translators. Hence, the notes alone are the fruit of hundreds of thousands of hours of biblical and linguistic research.
Why do we need yet another translation of the Bible?
With over twenty-five different English translations of the entire Bible and approximately forty of the New Testament, an obvious question you may ask is, why another one? The project originally started as an attempt to provide an electronic version of a modern translation for electronic distribution over the Internet and on CD (compact disc). Electronic searchable versions of a contemporary English translation tend to be very expensive. Anyone anywhere in the world with an Internet connection will be able to use and print out the NET Bible without cost for personal study. In addition anyone who wants to share the Bible with others can print up to 1,000 copies and give them away free without the need for written permission. Pastors without expensive libraries, missionaries and Bible translators in the field, and people in countries where access to Bible study materials are restricted or prohibited will all benefit from access to a contemporary English translation with extensive notes. The notes accompanying the NET Bible can even help you understand other translations better. Ultimately what you have in your hands or on your computer monitor with this copy of the NET Bible is God’s Word, and we believe it should be available to everyone to read and study in a version that is accurate, readable, and affordable.
It is not just the new media that justifies this translation; a great deal of scholarly literature has been produced on biblical interpretation and translation in the last quarter of a century. While virtually all other translations produced in the last two decades of the twentieth century were revisions of earlier versions, the NET translators felt that an entirely different kind of translation was needed. In particular, the extensive notes that display for the reader the reasons for the translation are unique among Bible translations. Further, the translation itself is intended to capture the best of both worlds: readable and accurate.
How did we get our English Bible?
The history of the Bible’s translation into English is a long and complicated one, and can only be summarized here. Parts of the Bible appear to have been translated into Old English by Alfred the Great (died a.d. 901), including the Ten Commandments, parts of Exodus 21-23 and Acts 15, and a number of Psalms. Later in the tenth century Abbot Aelfric and perhaps others translated significant parts of the Old Testament into English, as well as the Gospels and some other New Testament books.
By around 1300 parts of the Psalms and the New Testament were being translated into Middle English. These were precursors of the famous versions associated with John Wycliffe (died a.d. 1384). The tradition that Wycliffe himself translated the Bible into English is founded on a statement by his follower Jan Hus. Whether he actually did the translation himself or it was carried out by his followers, he doubtless exerted a great influence over it. These translations were based on the Latin Vulgate, originally the work of Jerome, which was finished at the beginning of the fifth century a.d. and which became the standard Bible of the Western church throughout the Middle Ages.
Several other events in Europe had a significant impact on the history of the English Bible at this point. First was the general revival of learning in Europe known as the Renaissance, which brought about renewed interest in Hebrew and Greek, the original languages of the Bible. Second was the invention of the printing press ca. 1455 by Johannes Gutenberg (the first book he printed was a Bible). The third event occurred when Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg in 1517, setting in motion the Protestant Reformation. These events combined to give considerable momentum to the translation of the Bible into everyday language. Luther’s New Testament, translated from the Greek into German, appeared in 1522, while William Tyndale’s, translated from the Greek into English, followed in 1525. Tyndale was arrested in Antwerp in 1535 and executed for translating the Bible into the vernacular, and his translation was vilified by the authorities. Yet almost every English translation for the next hundred years borrowed heavily from Tyndale’s work, including in particular the King James Version of 1611. Before this landmark in the history of English Bibles, however, there were other translations, like Coverdale’s in 1535 and the version called Matthew’s Bible in 1537. Both these Bibles received the royal license in 1537. The year 1539 saw the appearance of the so-called "Great Bible," actually a revision of Matthew’s Bible by Coverdale, which by royal decree of Henry VIII was placed in every church in England.
The reign of Elizabeth I saw the production of two more English Bibles, the Geneva Bible (published in 1560 in Geneva, with a dedication to Elizabeth) and the Bishops’ Bible (1568, with a second edition in 1572). The former was the Bible used by Shakespeare, and was thoroughly Calvinistic in its translation and notes. It was so far superior in translation to the Great Bible that it became very popular, although the Anglican authorities were not pleased with its Calvinistic leanings. The Bishops’ Bible was prepared as a response, and English-speaking Protestantism was left at the end of the sixteenth century with two competing Bibles. The problem was not resolved until the Hampton Court Conference of 1604, when King James authorized a new translation of the Bible and specifically forbade the use of marginal notes commenting on doctrine (notes commenting on the sense of words were permitted, and the original King James Version contained thousands of these). Gradually this translation established itself as the English Bible par excellence, and the last edition of the Geneva Bible appeared in 1644.
Until 1885, when the Revised Version was published in England, the King James Version reigned supreme. An American version of the revision, known as the American Standard Version, was published in 1901. The twentieth century saw the publication of a number of Bibles and New Testaments, among them James Moffatt’s (NT 1913; OT 1924) and E. J. Goodspeed’s (NT 1923), which combined with the Old Testament by A. Gordon, T. Meek, J. M. Powis Smith, and L. Waterman (1935) was published the same year as The Bible: An American Translation. One of the most important English translations of the twentieth century was the Revised Standard Version (NT 1946; complete Bible, 1952). This was a thoroughgoing revision of the KJV and ASV which many consider to be the first of the "modern" translations. The publication of the RSV was only the beginning of a flood of translations and paraphrases, including (among others) J. B. Phillips’ The New Testament in Modern English (1958), the Amplified Bible (1965), the Jerusalem Bible (1966), the New American Bible (1970), the New English Bible (1970), the New American Standard Bible (1971), The Living Bible (1971), and the New International Version (1973).
More than twenty-five years have passed since the release of the NIV New Testament. This major English translation is taken as a benchmark because it was not a revision or update of an existing translation or a successor to a previous translation. During these twenty-five years neither biblical scholarship nor the English language itself has stood still. The NET Bible is the first completely new translation of the Bible to be done in the age of the Internet (World Wide Web) with full computer networking support. Biblical scholars exchanged not only email but entire documents over computer networks and the Internet for constant editorial revision and correction. The NET Bible truly is the first English translation for the next millennium, representing a step as significant as Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in 1455. The original authors of the Bible made the books and letters they had written available for free. That is what we are now doing electronically.
What is unique and distinctive about the NET Bible?
Working with the format of electronic media, it soon became apparent to those of us involved in the translation project that we could do some things that had not been possible before, given the limitations of traditional print media.
In short, the notes allow a sort of running commentary on the biblical text to a degree never seen before in modern translations of the Bible. The NET Bible New Testament with the complete set of translator’s footnotes is not just a readable modern translation, but a copy of the Bible with its own commentary attached containing an average of two notes for each verse.
How did the NET Bible project get started?
The project began in November 1995 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. There a group of Old and New Testament scholars met with the sponsor of the project to discuss the possibility of an English translation for electronic distribution over the Internet. While the initial discussions concerned a revision and update of some existing English translation, later discussions soon made it apparent that a completely new translation was both possible and desirable. The initial planning group was interdenominational and evangelical, although not made up of official representatives from church groups or denominations. A deliberate decision was made early on, however, to devote special attention to the avoidance of doctrinal peculiarities or sectarian bias.
What is the significance of the NET Bible’s name and logo?
A name and logo were chosen that would reflect our goals to provide the Bible to the electronic Internet audience as well as to readers of printed Bibles. Users of the Internet can relate to the NET Bible as an obvious name, plus the phrase "New English Translation" fits well with the abbreviation. Our logo reflects a simple computer mouse linked to an open electronic Bible in the form of a net. This net represents a virtual fisherman’s net, to catch people on the Internet.
What was the size of the NET Bible Translation Committee?
A major consideration was the size of the translation committee. More than one person should do the work of translation, to avoid the unintentional idiosyncrasies that inevitably result from an individual working in isolation from a community of colleagues. At the same time, it was obvious to all of us that a smaller group of about twenty scholars who shared a number of basic assumptions and followed generally similar approaches to the biblical text in terms of interpretive method and general philosophy of translation would be able to work far faster than a larger committee. In addition, large committees are subject to more differences of opinion, forcing compromise and producing an output that is often neither elegant nor vivid. Our assumptions about the speed with which a smaller team could work proved to be the case, since the time from the commencement of the project to the completion of the first release version of the New Testament (version 1.0) was a remarkable thirty-two months.
What do you mean when you say the NET Bible was beta tested?
Since the NET Bible is the first English translation done entirely in paperless form, an idea was borrowed from software developers, an idea which did not exist when the NIV New Testament was completed in 1973—a beta test. How does someone beta test the Bible? Just like beta testing software, we let people try it and tell us where it could be improved.
By publishing every working draft of the NET Bible on the Internet from the very beginning of the project, more people have previewed the NET Bible than any translation in history. These prepublication reviewers of the NET Bible have logged over one million review sessions and sent the translation committee countless comments. The committee always takes each of these user-comments seriously and many have substantially improved the translation. The translation committee continues to solicit comments to improve both the translation and the notes.
Now the complete NET Bible is available in both electronic and printed form. You have the opportunity to learn from a truly detailed, totally new Bible translation, plus our invitation to help us continue to improve the translation through its ongoing development. This is unique in history.
Can I still submit suggestions for future improvements?
Absolutely. The goal of this translation is to be clear and detailed. While we think we’re close, that doesn’t mean we have yet achieved perfection. If you come across a phrase or verse you feel needs improvement, you can send an e-mail to
< comments@netbible.org >.
There are four levels of comments that we request:
How was the NET Bible actually made?
The procedure followed in the making of the NET Bible involved the assignment of each book of the Old or New Testament to an individual scholar who was well versed in the interpretation of that particular book and in most cases had extensive experience in doing research, teaching, and writing about the book. These scholars produced an initial draft translation of the books assigned to them along with a preliminary set of translator’s notes (and in some cases text-critical notes and study notes as well). This work was then submitted to the New Testament or Old Testament editorial committee for extensive editing and/or revision. In some cases suggested revisions in form and content were carried out by the original translator, while in other cases an editor reworked the draft translation as needed. The work was then resubmitted to the editorial committee for final approval. An English style consultant, working independently of the appropriate committee, reviewed the translation for smoothness, clarity, and elegance of contemporary English style. Changes suggested by the style consultant were checked against the original Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek before final incorporation into the translation. In most cases a minimum of three different individuals edited and revised each book of the Bible. In this way the final release version of the NET Bible was checked and revised a number of times at different levels for accuracy, clarity, and English style. Finally it was proofread and field-tested a number of times. Countless hours of research, translation, revision, and interaction thus went into the production of the NET Bible.
Who decided what kind of translation the NET Bible was going to be?
No denomination, church, agency, or publisher determined the nature of the NET Bible translation beforehand. It was a translation conceived and designed by biblical scholars who were primarily specialists in the biblical languages and in the exegesis (interpretation) of the biblical text. At the beginning of the project the Executive Steering Committee, composed of members of both the Old and New Testament editorial committees and the project director, held extensive discussions before approving the "Guidelines for Translators" (see the reference material at the end) which set forth the basic character of the NET Bible translation and notes. Faithfulness to the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek in which the biblical documents were originally written was the primary concern. This frequently extended to the connectives ("for," "then," "so," "now") used to introduce clauses, sentences, and paragraphs in the original languages. These conjunctions are often omitted in contemporary English translations since current English style does not use them very often to indicate transitions and argument flow. The Executive Steering Committee felt, however, that in many cases it was important for the modern reader’s understanding to preserve these connections. (In some cases where this would result in awkward English style, these conjunctions have been indicated in the notes that accompany the text.)
What are the chief characteristics of the NET Bible as a translation?
The ultimate objective of the NET Bible is to be accurate, readable, and elegant. Yet these three principles are all too often in conflict with each other. Even a universal taxonomy will not work, because some passages pose special problems (such as liturgical use, familiarity, connections with the Old Testament, theological richness, and the like) that would override any rigid taxonomy.
As an illustration of the complexity of competing principles, consider the Lord’s declaration in Mark 1:17: "I will make you fishers of men." This wording, found in the KJV, RSV, NASB, NIV, REB, and ultimately going back to Tyndale, is familiar to church-goers. But in contemporary English it communicates a meaning that slightly deviates from the point: Jesus did not just want his apostles to evangelize adult males, but all people (the Greek is
aJlie'" ajnqrwvpwn, Jalie" anqrwpwn). But there is a second problem with this verse: "fishers of men" is archaic. The NRSV opts for "I will make you fish for people." This resolves the two problems of the older translations, but introduces two others. First, it sounds as if Jesus will force the disciples to "fish for people"; second, the conversion of the objective genitive to an object of the preposition results in a subtle shift from a focus on a new occupation to a mere activity. The NLT and TEV get past the first problem but not the second ("I will show you how to fish for people," "I will teach you to catch people"). So, how best to solve the dilemma? The full meaning of Jesus’ declaration includes both non-exclusive evangelism and implications of an occupational shift. It is too cumbersome to express this as "I will make you fishermen of people," though the archaism is removed. Nor is it correct to translate this as "I will make you fishers of mankind" because that would imply a mission to gentiles which the disciples could not have conceived of at this time in redemptive history. This text illustrates the clash of the translational objectives of accuracy, readability, and elegance. At bottom, we believe that the great value of the NET Bible is its extensive notes that wrestle with such issues, for the footnotes become a way for us to have our cake and eat it too. But on this passage—for now—we have settled on the translation, "I will turn you into fishers of people." We have retained an archaism both because of its familiarity and because the alternative "fishermen" was too inelegant. The object complement construction was rendered "turn you into fishers" instead of "make you fishers" both because of its clarity and the hint of the disciples’ conversion as a prerequisite to their new occupation. We chose not to go with the more natural but less accurate rendering of "I will teach you to catch people." In this passage, accuracy was more important than readability or elegance. But a decision was not easy; we are still open to suggestions.Is a literal translation the best translation?
Although one of the general principles of this translation is to indicate in the footnotes a more literal rendering, not every departure from such is noted. For one thing, Greek (or Hebrew) and English are sufficiently different that to document every departure would be an exercise in futility. No translation is completely literal, nor should that be a desirable goal. A completely word-for-word literal translation would be unreadable. John 4:15, for example, would be rendered: "Says to him the woman, ‘Sir, give to me this the water that not I thirst nor I come here to draw." Matthew 1:18 would say, "Of the but Jesus Christ the birth thus was. Being betrothed the mother of him, Mary, to Joseph, before or to come together them she was found in belly having from Spirit Holy." Such examples are not isolated, but are the norm. Claims for a literal translation must necessarily have a lot of fine print.
Literal is also not necessarily faithful. The word order differences between English and Greek, the use of the article, case, infinitives, participles, voice, mood, and other grammatical features are often so different that gibberish is the result if an absolutely literal translation is attempted (as in the two examples cited above). Not only this, but the idioms of one language have to be converted into the receptor language. Thus, in Matthew 1:18, no English translation (not even the King James Version) would dare speak of Mary’s pregnancy as "she was having [it] in the belly." Yet this is the Greek expression for pregnancy. But it is not English. The real question in translation then is not whether it is literal, but whether it is faithful. And fidelity requires converting the lexical, grammatical, idiomatic, and figurative elements (to mention but a few) of the original language into the corresponding package in the receptor language. At times this can be accomplished by maintaining an approximately literal force. At other times, a loose rendering is required if the sentence is to have any meaning in English at all. Of course, this can be overdone. There are two dangers to avoid in translation. First, a translation should not be so literal that it is not good English. The meaning of the original needs to be as faithfully rendered into good English as possible. Second, a translation should not be so loose that it becomes merely an interpretation or allows sectarian interests to overwhelm the resultant text. All translation is interpretation; it cannot be otherwise. But the issue is how much interpretation and how idiosyncratic an interpretation is.
Part of the problem is this: the more literal a translation is, the less readable it generally is; the more readable it is, the less faithful it is to the original meaning (at least in many cases). Some modern translations are quite readable but are not very faithful to the biblical author’s meaning. A major goal of good translation is of course readability—but not at the expense of the intended meaning. The philosophy of the NET Bible translators was to be interpretive when such an interpretation represents the best thinking of recent scholarship. Thus, for example, in Romans 6:4, the expression "newness of life" is taken to mean "new life" by grammarians and exegetes alike and is thus translated this way. But when an interpretive translation is unnecessary or might suggest sectarian bias, and when a more literal rendering results in good English, we have followed the latter course.
A major category of non-literal translation involves certain conjunctions. For example, the Greek word
kaiv (kai), meaning generally "and, even, also, yet, but, indeed," is often left untranslated at the beginning of a sentence. When such is the case, there is usually no note given. However, if the possibility exists that an interpretive issue is involved, a note is given.An additional consideration of the translation team was faithfulness (as far as possible without violation of current English style) to the style of the individual biblical authors. Even within the New Testament, written over a short span of time in comparison with the Old Testament, the authors exhibit their own unique literary styles. Paul’s style differs from Peter’s, and both differ from John’s. The translators and editors attempted to give the modern reader an impression of these stylistic differences where it was possible to do so without sacrificing accuracy, clarity, or readability.
Is the NET Bible suitable for use as more than a study Bible?
Beyond the primary objective of faithfulness to the original, a second major objective for the NET Bible was the clarity of the translation for the modern reader. This concern for clarity extended to the literary quality and readability of the NET Bible, and individual translators were encouraged to have their translations read aloud so that such factors as assonance and rhythm could be considered. Thus, although originally conceived as a study Bible, the NET Bible is designed to be useful for reading aloud, memorizing, and preaching, as well as private reading and study.
What position does the NET Bible take on gender-inclusive language?
Much concern has recently been expressed by people unhappy about modern translations of the Bible which employ "gender-inclusive" language. Some of the changes causing such concern involve the inclusion of references to women in almost all places where the biblical text refers to men, the pluralization of singular references to avoid the use of masculine pronouns like "he" or "him," and even, in extreme cases, the application of such inclusive language to God himself. This last idea is one completely foreign to the original authors of the canonical texts in question.
Having said this, it is also true that many of the ancient texts of the Bible are less gender-specific than English translations often suggest. In many cases an ancient reader encountering a masculine noun or pronoun would have recognized it to be generic without having to be told. Modern readers (accustomed to the tendency of current English style to use inclusive language wherever possible) often assume the opposite to be true: if both genders are not explicitly mentioned, an assumption of exclusivity is frequently the result.
It is important to distinguish two approaches to gender inclusivity in the history of the Bible’s translation into English. The first approach we might call "Ideological Gender Inclusivity," since it attempts, on an ideological basis, to remove "objectionable" elements like patriarchalism or even male metaphors for God himself. No such radical approach has been followed with the NET Bible. The other approach could be called "Gender-Accurate Translation," which simply means translating terms without respect to gender when the intended meaning or application is broad and not gender-specific. This type of translation has been around at least since the publication of William Tyndale’s New Testament in 1526, when he rendered the phrase
uiJoiV qeou' (Juioi qeou, "sons of God") as "children of God," a gender neutral translation. Along these same lines the KJV of 1611 rendered /B@ (B@n, "son") or its plural 2,822 times as "son" or "sons" and 1,533 times as "child" or "children," resulting in a gender-neutral translation 35% of the time. A further example of gender-neutral translation can be found in Hosea 2:4, which refers to Gomer’s three children, two sons and one daughter. The Hebrew text of Hosea 2:4 literally reads "Upon her sons also I will have no pity, because they are sons of whoredom." Yet the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint (LXX), uses the Greek term for children, tevkna (tekna, Hosea 2:6 LXX, which is neuter gender), and among English translations the KJV, ASV, NIV, and NRSV all employ "children."With the NET Bible our concern was to be gender-accurate rather than gender-inclusive, striving for faithfulness to the original biblical texts while at the same time seeking to attain accuracy in terms of current English style. The English language constantly undergoes change. Acceptable conventions for dealing with gender-related language have undergone a great deal of change in the last few decades, and more change in this area will certainly come in the future. As the conventions of the English language change, new translations and revisions of existing translations will have to take this into account. This is especially important when the goal of the translation (like that of the NET Bible) is faithfulness to the original.
At the same time, we do not employ "Ideological Gender Inclusivity," since we do not believe the Bible should be rewritten to incorporate gender-inclusive language foreign to the original. The Bible is a historical document rooted in a particular set of cultures and languages, each with their own conventions in the area of gender-related language. In addition, these languages and cultures are separated from us not by mere decades, but by millennia. In all cases the goal for the NET Bible was to be as accurate as possible with regard to gender-related language, faithfully reproducing the meaning of the original text in clear contemporary English. In some instances this meant allowing gender distinctions found in the original-language texts to stand in the translation, as for example in a historical setting—like Jesus crossing the Sea of Galilee with his disciples in a boat—when it is almost certain that only males were present. In other instances when a group of people are addressed by the Greek term
anqrwpo" (literally, "men") and it is clear from context that both men and women are addressed (with the term used in a generic sense), the translation "people" has been used. Here are some of the other typical features of the NET Bible’s handling of gender-related language:In most of these instances, further explanation of the way the gender-related language has been handled in the translation is given in a translator’s note.
Considerable time was spent discussing many significant New Testament texts with regard to gender issues. One example of such a text is 1 Timothy 2:5, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and
anqrwpoi (men / mankind / humankind), the anqrwpos (man / person / human) Christ Jesus." The NET Bible New Testament translation team discussed this intriguing example at length. The basic question was, "Is the key to Jesus’ role as mediator that he mediates for males, or for both men and women?" There was also the need to be sensitive to the word play in both halves of the verse involving anqrwpos. Typically the objection has been that a rendering like "human" compromises Jesus’ maleness which is also involved here. But the translators had to ask, "Which rendering might cause more confusion, a use of "men" in a generic sense, or a rendering like "humanity"? Which point is more central to this particular context, the redemption of humanity, or Jesus’ maleness? Everyone knows Jesus was a male human, so his maleness is not in question here! Deciding that the redemption of humanity was the primary point in the context, and that Jesus’ participation in humanity was central to his mediatory role, the translators opted for the rendering, "For there is one God and one intermediary between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, himself human."Finally, with regard to the issue of translational gender inclusivity it is important to note the flexibility shown by the New Testament authors themselves when citing Old Testament texts. A few examples will suffice: in Isaiah 52:7 the prophet states "how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news"; this was incorporated by Paul in Romans 10:15 as "the feet of those who proclaim the good news." In Psalm 36:1 the psalmist writes, "There is no fear of God before his eyes," while Paul quotes this in Romans 3:18 as "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Again, the psalmist writes in Psalm 32:1, "Blessed is he whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered," while Paul in Romans 4:7 has "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered." Even more striking is the citation by Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:18 of 2 Samuel 7:14, where God states, "I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me." Paul renders this as "I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters." Furthermore, it cannot be claimed that Paul is simply following the common version of the Greek Old Testament (the LXX) here, since the LXX follows the Hebrew text closely at this point, literally, "I will be to him for a father, and he will be to me for a son." Although considerable flexibility is shown in Paul’s handling of this text, hardly anyone would charge him with capitulating to a feminist agenda!
Will the NET Bible be updated on a regular basis?
Absolutely. No translation can achieve perfection, and even if it could, the English language itself would change and the translation would still become dated. The supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary, the standard reference source for English vocabulary, contains over 85,000 entries of words that did not exist in the English language when the OED was published in 1924. No one has any idea of the number of words and phrases that have dropped out of English usage in the same period. No one reading the KJV who comes across expressions like "meteyard" in Leviticus 19:35, "vain jangling" in 1 Timothy 1:6, or the "mean man" in Isaiah 2:9, 5:15, and 31:8 can fail to see how words change in meaning over time. Even terms like "usury" (Nehemiah 5:10; Ezekiel 18:17) or "she-camel" (Jeremiah 2:23)—both found in the NIV—are not familiar to many modern readers.
Additional research, additional discoveries of new manuscripts, or archeological discoveries that shed additional light on first century history and culture, also contribute to the need for revision. Attempts to produce notes better suited to the needs of users will also result in frequent revision of the notes accompanying the NET Bible. Thus the production of the NET Bible is not a one-time undertaking to be completed and put aside, but an ongoing project with planned improvement and revision.
Nevertheless, with the completion of the whole Bible, revisions to the translation itself will occur in five-year increments, allowing readers to memorize passages with at least a measure of durability.
What specific guidelines were given to translators working on the NET Bible?
See "NET Bible Principles of Translation" in the reference material at the end.
The Hebrew Text Behind the NET Bible Old Testament
The starting point for the Hebrew text translated to produce the NET Bible Old Testament was the standard edition known as Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS), which represents the text of the Leningrad Codex B19A (L), still the oldest dated manuscript of the complete Hebrew Bible. Thus the Hebrew text on which the present translation of the Old Testament is based does not represent a critical, or reconstructed, text in the same way the standard critical editions of the Greek New Testament do. It is generally recognized that the Hebrew text represented by the Leningrad Codex occasionally needs to be corrected based on other Hebrew manuscripts, early versions, and the biblical manuscripts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. In the case of the Old Testament such decisions were left up to the individual translators who prepared the initial drafts for consideration by the Old Testament Editorial Committee. The textual decisions made by the translators were then reviewed by the editors and a textual consultant, and in some cases were revised. Conjectural emendation was employed only where necessary to make sense of the Hebrew text in order to be able to translate it. Significant textual variants or emendations are noted in a text-critical note [tc]. These notes frequently include references to principal versional evidence where relevant. The text-critical notes on the Old Testament are not intended to be exhaustive, but to provide the reader with basic information about the major textual issues affecting the translation.
Arrangement of the Old Testament Text
Some of the divisions found in copies of the Hebrew Bible were already established by the end of the Masoretic era (ca. a.d. 900). While it is generally understood that the division of the Old Testament text into verses goes back to the early centuries of the Christian era, the standard verse division which has continued in use up to the present was fixed by the Ben Asher family around a.d. 900.
In the places where the Hebrew versification differs from that of the English Bible, the NET Bible follows standard English practice, but a study note [sn] gives the corresponding Hebrew versification. Unlike the Hebrew text, which treats the superscriptions to individual psalms as the first verse, the NET Bible follows most English Bibles in leaving the superscriptions unnumbered, and they are set in a slightly smaller font size to distinguish them from the text of the Psalm proper.
Translation of the Divine Name
The translation of the Divine Name represents special problems for all English Bibles. The most difficult issue is the handling of the so-called tetragrammaton, the four consonants which represent the name of God in the Old Testament. This was rendered traditionally as "Jehovah" in the King James Version, but it is generally recognized that this represents a combination of the consonants of the tetragrammaton, YHWH, and the vowels from a completely different Hebrew word,
a&d{n`y ("master"), which were substituted by the Masoretes so that pronunciation of the Divine Name could be avoided: whenever YHWH appeared in the text, the presence of the vowels from the word a&d{n`y signaled to the reader that the word a&d{n`y was to be pronounced instead.Today most Old Testament scholars agree that the vocalization of the Divine Name would originally have been something like Yahweh, and this has become the generally accepted rendering. The Executive Steering Committee of the NET Bible spent considerable time discussing whether or not to employ Yahweh in the translation. Several Old Testament editors and translators favored its use, reasoning that because of its use in the lyrics of contemporary Christian songs and its appearance in Bible study materials, the name Yahweh had gained more general acceptance. In spite of this, however, the Committee eventually decided to follow the usage of most English translations and render the Divine Name as "Lord" in small caps. Thus the frequent combination
a&d{n`y a$l)h!< is rendered as Lord God.Other combinations like Yahweh Sebaoth, traditionally rendered "Lord of Hosts," have been translated either as "Sovereign Lord" or "the Lord who leads armies" depending on the context. Such instances are typically indicated by a translator’s note [tn].
The Greek Text Behind the NET Bible New Testament
As for the Greek text used in the NET Bible New Testament, an eclectic text was followed, differing in a number of places from the standard critical text as represented by the Nestle-Aland 27th edition and the United Bible Societies’ 4th edition. The translators who prepared the initial drafts of individual New Testament books made preliminary decisions regarding textual variants, and these were then checked and discussed by editors and a textual consultant. Where there are significant variant readings, these are normally indicated in a text-critical note [tc], along with a few of the principal witnesses (Greek manuscripts, ancient versions, and patristic writers) supporting the variants. While this listing of manuscript evidence is not intended to be exhaustive, readers familiar with the major witnesses will find this feature useful in making brief evaluations for themselves, sometimes with the aid of the textual apparatus in a standard critical edition of the Greek New Testament.
Arrangement of the New Testament Text
Divisions in the New Testament text like chapters, paragraphs, and verses were added later in the process of handing the text down from one generation to the next. Verse divisions were added to the New Testament, for example, in 1551. They are not part of the original documents, and in many cases give the appearance of being rather arbitrary. However, they have become accepted over time, and are useful to students of the Bible as "aids to navigation" when reading through or referring to the text. The text of the NET Bible itself has been arranged in paragraphs determined by the translators and editors. In almost all cases the verse divisions follow standard English practice. In the few instances where there is a difference between the versification of the standard critical editions of the Greek New Testament and most English versions this is indicated by a translator’s note [tn].
New Testament quotations from the Old Testament are indicated by a combination of boldface and italic type. Less direct allusions to Old Testament passages are indicated by italic type only. In both cases a study note [sn] gives the Old Testament reference.
Sectional Headings in Both Old and New Testaments
As a further aid to readers and students of the Bible, descriptive sectional headings are given in italics. These were determined by the translators and editors in an attempt to be as helpful as possible, but should not be viewed as an integral part of the NET Bible text. They were not part of the original Hebrew and Greek texts that formed the basis for the translation.
Use of Quotation Marks
Earlier printed editions of the Bible (the King James Version of 1611, for example) did not make use quotation marks. Modern readers have come to expect them, however, so the NET Bible follows standard conventions of setting direct quotations with various combinations of single and double quotation marks. In cases where embedded quotations would require the use of more than three layers of quotation marks (instances are found in many of the Old Testament prophetic books which could run to five or more layers of embedded quotation), a more streamlined approach has been followed to eliminate excess layers of quotation marks by the use of colons and commas.
Further Remarks About the Notes in the NET Bible
One of the unique opportunities offered by electronic media is the inclusion of notes to accompany the translation. The notes offer the translator the opportunity to explain and justify the translation where necessary. Although the NET Bible is now available in printed editions, many of the original considerations in designing the format for the notes related to electronic media. No Bible yet published has included notes produced as an integral part of the translation process in as much depth and detail as the notes that accompany the NET Bible. One of the goals of the NET Bible with the complete set of translator’s footnotes is to allow the general public, as well as Bible students, pastors, missionaries, and Bible translators in the field, to be able to know what the translators of the NET Bible were thinking when a passage or verse was rendered in a particular way. Many times the translator will have made informed decisions based on facts about grammatical, historical, lexical, and textual data not readily available to English-speaking students of the Bible.
Types of Notes in the NET Bible
There are three basic kinds of notes employed in the NET Bible, "text-critical notes" [tc], "translator’s notes" [tn], and "study notes" [sn]. In version 1.0 of the NET Bible the "translator’s notes" are generally more numerous and considerably more technical in nature than the "study notes" (although the latter will continue to be expanded and developed in future editions of the NET Bible).
The "text-critical notes" [tc] discuss alternate (variant) readings found in the various manuscripts and groups of manuscripts of the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament. The basic Hebrew text followed by the translators of the NET Bible is that of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS), with differences indicated by a text-critical note [tc]. For the New Testament, in cases where the translation follows a different reading than that found in the standard critical editions (NA27 and UBS4) a text-critical note [tc] explains the major options and defends the reading followed in the translation. In some other selected cases (such as the longer ending of Mark or the inclusion of John 7:53-8:11) a text-critical note explains the issues involved even when the translation follows the same reading found in the standard critical editions.
The "translator’s notes" [tn] are the most numerous. They explain the rationale for the translation and give alternative translations, interpretive options, and other technical information. "Translator’s notes" generally fall into the following categories:
The "study notes" [sn] are the other major category of notes occurring in the NET Bible. These are explanatory notes intended for the nonspecialist engaged in the reading or study of the Bible. This category includes comments about historical or cultural background, explanation of obscure phrases or brief discussions of context, discussions of the theological point made by the biblical author, cross-references and references to Old Testament quotations or allusions in the New Testament, or other miscellaneous information helpful to the modern reader.
No matter how bad or good a translation may be, it will do you no good at all unless you read and study it! The words of the Prologue to Ecclesiasticus (also known as Sirach) are appropriate here: "You are therefore urged to read with good will and attention, and to be indulgent in cases where, in spite of our diligent labor in translating, we may appear to have rendered some phrases imperfectly." It is our desire and earnest prayer that the Lord add his blessing to our endeavor at the translation of his word.
The NET Bible Project Director
for the Translators, Editors, and Sponsor of the NET Bible