Principles

1.     A translation should always be based upon the right source text: For the Hebrew Scriptures, (i.e. the Old Testament) the Masoretic Text (Ben Chayyim, Second Rabbinical Edition, printed by Bomberg) is considered to be the Hebrew Text God has preserved for us. Over 1,000 hand-copied manuscripts of this text are still available today. For the New Testament, the Received Text as edited by Dr. Scrivener in 1894 is considered to be the most reliable. There are over 5,700 manuscripts that exist to support this text.

2.     Translators should be mature in their walk with the Lord and dedicated to finishing the challenge of translation once they have started.

3.     Translators should translate and not interpret.

4.     Every translator should have a healthy, holy fear of adding to, or detracting from the Word of God.

5.     Translators should seek to reproduce the original words that God gave, whether they understand them or not.

6.     The translators should be sure that the meaning of every word in the Hebrew and Greek and Aramaic Scriptures find its way into the national translation.

7.     When words must be added because of the differences in language, this should be indicated by the use of italics.

8.     Translation efforts should be compared to long-established Received Text translations to verify accuracy in translations.

9.     Rough drafts of a translation should be circulated for the purpose of extensive scrutiny.

10. Translators should be humble enough to support a thorough process of examination and purification.

11. Translators should remember that the grammar of the original languages “trumps” the grammar of the national language. This may create some “unusual phrasing” but it preserves accuracy.