So, what is it that assures my readers not only that your understanding of New Testament Greek is accurate, but that your reformulation of it into English is as accurate and unbiased as possible?
Four things:
- Every single rendering of a Greek word with an English word in my translation will be defensible by appeal to its accepted Greek dictionary definition.
- Every English grammatical formulation in my translation will be defensible by appeal to the universally accepted force of the Greek grammatical and discourse-level conventions of the original.
- In striving for maximum readability, SENT keeps words that do not correspond to any Greek word to a minimum, and these words, when they must be supplied for English sense or style, are indicated by special formatting. They are printed in dark gray rather than black. If you want a closer glimpse into what the underlying Greek says, you can read only the black words.
- Where I am forced to recast a Greek expression significantly, I supply a footnote indicating a more literal rendering. You can pretty much see my reason for the rephrasing choice that I have made by comparing the more literal rendering to the one that lies in SENT's main text. And if you don't feel comfortable with my rephrasing of the text, you are free to make what sense you can of the more word-for-word rendering. Everything is as transparent as I can make it.
Did you check your translation work in some systematic way?
Readers may be interested to know that I used a specific quality control method in my translation work. Before I began, I selected what I considered to be the three most literal and expert contemporary English translations: The New American Standard Bible, the New Revised Standard Version, and Richmond Lattimore's translation. If you're not familiar with this translation, Lattimore was extremely widely read in ancient Greek, and was highly respected as a translator of the classics. His New Testament translation was published in two volumes: The Four Gospels and the Revelation and Acts and Letters of the Apostles.
As I worked, I constantly compared my renderings to all three of these. I did not move on until I was satisfied that I had not left anything out, and that I understood in each case why these three translations differed from one another or from my rendering. It was very rare for me to stray from these three in terms of basic meaning. For such a rare occurrence, see SENT Mark 14:72 and the footnote there. SENT gives, as far as I know, a completely new and persuasive interpretation of the last words of the verse.
What sets this version of Scripture apart from other Bible translations?
SENT has a number of distinctive features and advantages. To give a short list:
SENT gives the reader the closest possible rendering of the scriptural text into natural and accessible spoken English. Unlike other easy-to-read translations such as the Contemporary English Version, SENT does not sacrifice meaningful information in its quest for ease of reading.
SENT supplies numerous easy-to-understand explanations of Bible words and terms, and gives many "literal" and alternative renderings in footnotes. Readers often say that they really appreciate this feature.
SENT assists reading aloud by using an easy-to-understand system for sounding out unfamiliar words, names, and places. Italics are also occasionally supplied in the main text to help the reader deliver a sentence with maximum hearer comprehension.
SENT has been read aloud, tested, and improved with the help of dozens of real readers in focus groups. Christians and non-Christians participated—people very familiar with the Bible and people completely unfamiliar with it. Readers of the preliminary edition are encouraged to form focus groups and write in with their suggestions for improvement. Perhaps thirty pages of suggested improvements have already been submitted by readers who love SENT as a translation.
What else would you like readers to know about SENT that I have not asked?
I'd like people to know that the Spoken English New Testament is a translation that will be particularly appreciated by two groups of people. The first group is people who want to revitalize their love of the Scriptures, but have been nervous about acquiring a translation that is easy to read at the expense of being inaccurate or biased. The second group is people who have never read the New Testament. Maybe they've tried to crack it open, but have never gotten past the weird, wooden, archaic, jargon-filled language of the standard translations they've been exposed to.
More About SENT
- If you'd like to learn more about J. Webb Mealy and the SENT Bible translation, visit SENT Press.
- You can read SENT online or listen to passages being read aloud.
- Also, check out this comparison between SENT and The Message
