The first pass of the translation was to convert about 1,000 archaic words and word forms to modern equivalents using a custom computer program. The second through seventh phases consist of manual editing and proofreading. The initial manual pass is to add quotation marks (the ASV of 1901 had none), update other punctuation, update usage, and spot check the translation against the original languages in places where the meaning is unclear or significant textual variants exist. The subsequent passes are to review of the results of the previous pass. In each pass, volunteers read the current draft, looking for typos, unclear passages, etc., then report back to the senior editor, who checks the suggestions and merges the best suggestions into the master draft.
Many people have been involved in the production and editing of the World English Bible from a variety of backgrounds. Because this is a revision of the American Standard Version of the Revised Bible, we start with the over 50 Evangelical scholars who worked on that project. They, in turn, relied on the work of those who had gone before them. We also rely on the work of many scholars who have found, compiled, combined, and published the excellent and highly accurate Hebrew and Greek texts from which we work. We also rely on the excellent lexicons of Hebrew, Chaldee, and Greek that are available to us.
In addition to these excellent references that represent literally hundreds of years of combined labor by many committed Christian men and women, we have access to the United Bible Society handbooks on Bible translation and a large number of other English translations to compare and consult.
What is the World English Bible Translation Philosophy?
The World English Bible must:
* be done with prayer -- specifically prayer for inspiration by the Holy Spirit.
* be accurate and reliable (Revelation 22:18-19).
* be understandable to the majority of the world’s English-speaking population (and therefore should avoid locale-specific usage).
* be kept in the Public Domain (and therefore be done by volunteers).
* be made available in a short time, because we don’t know the exact time of our Lord’s return.
* preserve the essential character of the original 1901 publication.
* use language that is not faddish, but likely to retain its meaning for some time.
* render God’s proper Name in the Old Testament as “Yahweh.”
* resolve unclear passages by referring to the original Hebrew and Greek.
* be done with utmost respect for God and His Word.
* be done by Christians from a variety of denominations and backgrounds.
* retain the ASV 1901’s pronoun capitalization rules (lower case “he” referring to God).
* retain (in most cases) the ASV 1901’s use of “he” when that word might mean (“he and/or she”).
* restrict footnotes to those which clarify the translation or provide significant alternate readings
Bible translation (as with any natural language translation) is a balancing act, where the translators seek to preserve the following:
* The meaning of each thought or sentence.
* The meanings of individual words in their context.
* The shades of meaning implied by word forms, tense, etc.
* The impact and tone of each passage.
* The style of the original authors who were inspired by the Holy Spirit.
* Faithfulness to the target language (English, in this case).
Note that some of the above goals are at odds with one another, like preservation of the original style vs. faithfulness to the target language, and expressing the last bit of the shades of meaning vs. preserving the impact. Still, it is possible to retain a good balance. Different balance points are chosen by different translation committees. Indeed, many translations can be characterized by the weight the translators gave to each of the above items. For example, The Amplified Bible excels at getting the meaning across, but falls down hard on impact, style preservation, and faithfulness to the target language. The New Living Translation excels at preserving the meanings of entire thoughts, impact, and faithfulness to the target language, but loses some of the style and shades of meaning. The New International Version excels at most of the above, but loses some elements of style and some of the subtleties of wording. The World English Bible attempts to balance all of the above with a fairly literal translation.
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