Preface

Translation Legacy and Textual Basis

The Essentially Literal Version (ELV) is a completely original English translation from the Greek New Testament. The ELV was constructed directly from the Greek without an intermediary translation, however, for historically difficult passages of Scripture I consulted the English Standard Version (ESV) and King James Version (KJV) for accuracy and guidance to aid in the composition of the ELV.

The ELV is based on the Greek text in the Novum Testamentum Graece (28th ed.) edited by Nestle and Aland (NA28). At the time of the translation, this was the most up to date Greek available. Any time the NA28 indicated a contention of which Greek texts were most accurate, alternate textual variants are cited in the footnotes when they appear in a significant number of manuscripts. In addition to this, the footnotes occasionally provide an explanation for technical terms or for a difficult reading in the text.

Translation Style

The ELV is a pure, essentially literal translation. I preserved the original word order as much as possible and chose the English words to encapsulate the biblical author's intent to the greatest degree in modern English, however, at some point, formal equivalence must become functional. The Greek must be reordered or translated more widely from the original text. I made every effort to communicate to the reader why these instances occur.

Frequently in English translations of the Greek New Testament, the translators ascribed multiple meanings to one word. While many Greek words do have multiple meanings, the ELV strives for consistency throughout the translation. The ELV minimizes the variations of the translations of many words to exemplify the stress of the original authors in their repetition of said words. When a word has significant depth or variation, or is translated using a definition not commonly used, it is footnoted for the reader's convenience.

Since there is no punctuation in the most original Greek manuscripts, any punctuation in any translation will be human fingerprints on God's Word. This is unavoidable in any modern English translation. The NA28 has minimal punctuation and is used to determine cases where the ELV differs from the ESV which was used as a starting point. Chapter and verse delineations are also inserted by humans, but in the ELV all chapter and verse numbers come directly from the NA28 and no other translation.

Gender language is translated in line with the NA28. In cases where the Greek can mean “any man” and the word for “man” is not present, “anyone” is substituted. Greek is a male dominant language, so frequently the word “men” is used to refer to a mixed gender group of people (see the Word Study section for the discussion on Greek word usage). When the word “men” appears in the Greek text, I translated it as “men” in the ELV. This is also true for the Greek words “brothers” and “sons” which can mean “brothers and sisters” and “sons and daughters”, respectively.

The Translation of Specialized Terms

In the ELV, Χριστός has been translated consistently as “Christ”. Originally, the term meant “anointed” but among Jews in the New Testament times, the term came to designate the Messiah prophesied about in the Old Testament. In other NT contexts, Χριστός was on its way to becoming a proper name. As such, the ELV translates Χριστός as “Christ” in all its appearances.

I translated the word ἰδού as “behold” in the ELV in every instance. The word means something like “Pay careful attention to what follows! This is important!” Other than the word “behold”, there is no single word in English that fits well in most contexts. Although “look!”, “listen!”, and “see!” would be workable, these words lack sufficient weight to convey ἰδού. I retained the older and more formal word “behold” as the best available option for conveying the original sense of the meaning.

Errors

The word of God may be perfect, but I am not. I have made every effort to proof read the text for grammar, punctuation, formatting, and chapter and verse delineations. The times at which the grammar may sound strange or a verse is not split as is common to mass-market translations, that is how it appears in the Greek, not a translation error. The Greek authors do not always write in the way English speakers prefer to read. Any errors made in the construction of the ELV are mine and not God's. If any errors are discovered, please let me know by writing to me using the email found on the copyright page.