Did you know that every time you pick up your bible, you're actually holding millions of hours of careful and arduous work that spans across over three millennia? In order to bring you the Holy Scriptures, the Jewish people, the Israelites have passed down the role of Sefer or scribe to each new generation. This sacred task of inscribing the scriptures onto velum has been the duty of God's Chosen since Mount Sinai and continues in it's ancient methods to this day. With ink and quill, scroll after scroll after scroll has been copied in order to fulfil the Jewish people's enduring commission: to make the Name of Adonai known. 

Whenever the Israelites were captured, exiled, or enslaved, they came back to their homeland with new languages, new cultures, and new practices. But returning to the Torah would always bring them back to wholeness! Eventually, as the world expanded and the Jewish people dispersed throughout the continents, the Torah was translated into other languages. The premier example of this is called the Septuagint, or the Torah in Greek. In fact, based on the way that Yeshua quotes Torah in the Gospels, there's some evidence that He learned the Scriptures from the Septuagint instead of the Hebrew scrolls! So, the practice of Bible Translation is a long-standing one that we still engage with today. 

But what does that mean for you, dear reader? 

Well, that means that your English Bible has at least five degrees of separation from the original scrolls, manuscripts and letters: from the Hebrew and Aramaic to the Greek, to the Latin, to Old English, to Modern English! So let's take a little dive into the Spectrum of Bible Translation so that you can determine which version, edition, or translation to use! 

Since different languages have different words for the same concept or item, it can be a bit tricky to convey the most authentic version of the Text. Which is where we get the foundation of our Translation Spectrum. One end of the translation spectrum is Word-for-Word. The other end is Thought-for-Thought. It can also be labeled as the difference between Accuracy and Readability. 

Many of today's novelty Bibles are on the thought-for-thought, extremely readable side of the spectrum. Usually crafted by one or two people, some notable thought-for-thought translations are The Message Bible (MSB), The Passion Translation, and the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB). Curated by scholars and pastors and theologians, thought-for-thought translations attempt to look at a verse holistically and relay the intention behind the words instead of translating the words directly. Many readers find these versions helpful when seeking an alternate perspective on familiar verses. But these are not vetted and systematically translated by a team of theologians, just a single lead translator. 

On the word-for-word end of the spectrum, you'll find most of the notable and venerated translations such as the New American Standard Bible (NASB), the King James Version (KJV) or New King James Version (NKJV), the New International Version (NIV), and the English Standard Version (ESV). These versions have been compiled by a whole host of scholars from some of the most respected learning institutions and are done in accordance with a strict set of principles. The more accurate a version is, the less readable it generally becomes. Which is why some might find the language clunky or awkward. It takes a bit more time to interpret or discern what the text is saying, but it is closer to the original language. 

So where does the TLV sit on this spectrum?

I'm so glad you asked!

In order to stay in alignment with our divine calling as Jews to maintain the Scriptures, the TLV Translation team worked together to determine our key principles of translation so that the TLV could be as accurate as possible while keeping a high level of readability and renewing reverence for the Lord within its pages. So, the TLV leans further towards the Word-for-Word side of the spectrum than many other vetted translations in English. However, our goal of readability was accomplished by introducing a small selection of transliterated words from the original Hebrew or Greek for which there weren't clear renderings. So, check out this little comparison chart to see where the TLV falls on the spectrum against other well known translations!