Jump to content

Please read the Forum Rules before posting.

Photo

Bibles - Modern Literal Version (NT)


  • Please log in to reply
No replies to this topic

#1 BaptizedBeliever

BaptizedBeliever

    Christian

  • Members (T)
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 924 posts
Offline

Posted 09 December 2011 - 12:36 AM

File Name: Modern Literal Version (NT)

File Submitter: Bradley S. Cobb

File Submitted: 09 Dec 2011

File Category: Bibles

Author: Modern Literal Version NT Committee
e-Sword Version: 9.x - 10.x

Holy Bible

Modern Literal Version

New Testament

2013 Update



In Oct. 2013 the "Modern Literal Version" was made available in printed format, paperback, 8.5” x 11” with a 2” outer margin for notes, 12 point font size, BOLD Letter Edition available at https://www.createspace.com/4450574 (the publisher) & amazon.com, $9.39 retail. If you are in the U.S.A. please buy from the publisher; more money stays here. Bulk orders and discount codes at http://www.ChristianLibrary.org/greek-ref. Bulk are roughly $5.80 up with shipping included plus sales tax in 13 states.

Major changes between 2012 version & 2013 versions:

A few hundred words were corrected Greek to English & English to Greek to improve even more on the accuracy of the MLV. Only about 300 English words remain that are from multiple unrelated Greek words out of about 6200 different English words, which include all tenses, used in the MLV.

An “Accuracy Chart” was submitted and attached to Preface / Appendix pages.
A “MLV Word List” was also attached.

Subjunctive verbs are now uniform. See more in the Appendix. This is major improvement over all English translations.

Major overhaul of punctuation to be more “American English.”

A few more words were added to the Appendix to better help the Bible student.

More transliterated words and traditional wording has been translated like "The Devil" to "The Slanderer."

More English & Greek proofreaders joined in the “Open Bible Translation” and have contributed a thousand or so simple wording or punctuation corrections. You can join in too.







(The Open Bible Translation)

(The world’s most accurate English translation.)



Copyright 1999, 2013 by G. Allen Walker, Co-Editor, world wide restrictions as follows:



We are not here for profit and will entertain requests for items not listed below.

1. Copyright was done to stop some publishing company from copyrighting the MLV and then stopping free distribution like what happened to Vine’s Dictionary and to make sure the actual text is not changed by anyone else but us.

2. When quoting the Modern Literal Version the quotes are to be noted by ‘Modern Literal Version’ or ‘MLV’. Footnoting larger amounts is totally acceptable.

3. This translation may be used in any Bible commentary, study module, tract, class book, similar study materials as long as noted according to the guidelines above and the Modern Literal Version’s part does not exceed 50% of the volume of the total project; so ‘have at it.’

4. After 50% you cannot ever sell the MLV! Including no handling or shipping fees! Please report any violations. ‘We want to be rich in money as well as Spirit.’ (smile)

5. If you want to incorporate this version into computer software form, the answer for non resale (true non profit or give away) is YES but the request must be formal (paper trail). At any given time you sell your product, the MLV must be removed from the product. If you find any software or module that is not linked from our main page, consider that what is there is altered, pirated, or contains possibly spyware.

6. The HTML version and search engine can be reproduced on other web sites but requires permission. (Too many OLD copies of the MLV are around and we would like to have those fixed.)

7. https://www.Createspace.com/4450574 is the current publisher of the Modern Literal Version printed edition and please whenever possible buy directly from them (more of your money stays in the USA.) List price is $9.39 for the 8.5" x 11", wide margin for notes, Bold Letter Edition paperback. Volume discounts will be made available through the Christian Library at www.ChristianLibrary.org/greek-ref.

8. Kindle format only available legally through amazon.com.


Preface to the Modern Literal Version

2013 Update


The Open Bible Translation:
Any corrections please email to mlvbible (at) gmail (dot) com with subject line: “MLV”. Unlike all others before it, this translation will be corrected when needed.

A few million people world wide have visited the Christian Library On-Line and were able to view the Modern Literal Version and download a free copy for non-resale use.

This translation has been open for revision by anyone since 1998, and this is the current result. This was a first in the translation arena. You are invited to participate in the ongoing revision of the “Modern Literal Version.” All who have helped have contributed something to further the readability or accuracy of this translation or simply double checked all who have worked on this translation. It is time the Bible is back into the hands of the Christian, not some big publishing company out to make money. This translation will continue to stay ‘open’ with a yearly update or “change log” until that is not possible.

The NEWEST version with current corrections, in various word processing, spreadsheet and database formats is located at: http://www.ChristianLibrary.org/greek-ref The Word Perfect version is our offsite(s) backup which can be opened in the free Open Office Suite version 3.3 or lower, naturally.

A printed version, 8.5"x11", wide margin, standard 12 pt font size and ‘BOLD Letter Edition’ is available at https://www.createspace.com/4450574 (The publisher which is located in S.C., USA) & http:///www.amazon.com/dp/1492776270 (The Netherlands). Please purchase whenever possible from the publisher’s web site to keep more money in the USA. Retail price is $9.49. Kindle version available too at amazon.com (Just search on “Modern Literal Version” in Red Letter & BOLD Letter Versions to match new & old Kindles. Links are always updated in the Christian Library URL above.

If you or your congregation has a website, we ask that you help the MLV in the search engine rankings by adding one or all of the download links above to your site. You may also add this translation with its own search module too. Any other free advertising like Facebook (please click the LIKE), Twitter, etc. is always appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Our prayer, and hopefully yours too, is that all the paraphrased translations are removed from your pews and replaced with the Modern Literal Version; ‘an example is worth a thousand words.’ We pray all Christians everywhere get back to only the Bible and remove all that is not from their church.



Quick Overview:
The “Modern Literal Version” is a ‘word for word’ translation of the Original Greek New Testament according to the compiled 2005 Majority Text. It does not use paraphrasing, dynamic equivalence, free style or any other fancy wording to describe paraphrasing or other lame excuses for sloppy translation principles. Any form of paraphrasing would make the opinions of the translators your ‘Word of God.’ The goal of everyone who worked on this project was to keep any form of commentary out of this translation as is humanly possible. Since there is no denomination or publishing company behind the MLV and it was never made for profit, the only uninspired traditions kept in the MLV are: punctuation and capitalization; chapter and verse numbers; and book order (much to our distaste).

History:
The ‘Modern Literal Version New Testament’ came about because of a young Christian’s quest to find an accurate modern-English translation from which to study in 1987. The New American Standard contradicted itself in Matthew 5:17 and Ephesians 2:15 for example. The New King James is often too paraphrased rather than literal. Almost all other modern-English translations do not claim to be literal or even word for word and most that do are really not. Concordance look-ups showed the non-uniform Greek word renderings in all existing translations, this too became an issue of concern.

A group of Christians, of which this new Christian was a part, were actively doing topical and English and Greek word studies with their Bibles and “Englishman’s Greek Concordances.” They had discovered the ASV was the most accurate translation of the time. They initially started a study bible cross reference section for it. Then an idea grew to do a computerized revision of the 1901 American Standard Version for the public domain, code named “ASV3”. These ideas were dropped with too many problems: underlining Greek text, massive amounts of footnotes, archaic words, inconsistent Greek word translations, etc. A better idea grew, the creation of a modern literal version (which later became the name). A group of workers, computer owners and scholars, who believe in the total authority and inspiration of the Bible, devoted time, advise, software and work for the project. Now, over 24 years later, at least 29 experts in the original language have contributed work needed to make this translation a reality. Many others, about 124, have also helped with large amounts of proofreading, English comprehension, double-checking Greek definitions, compounds, synonyms, Greek concordance look-ups, accuracy checks and other menial (but extremely essential) tasks. A few thousand corrections have been received via E-mail for changes, so far. We will never be able to express our gratitude enough to all of these people, living & dead.

The MLV was the first translation to use the power of the computer (8086) and would have been impossible before the computer age. This translation to its current level would have been impossible without Word Perfect (special thanks to Corel Corporation.) This translation continues to make use of modern technology with its database, spreadsheet, word processing and various custom written programs to help assure accuracy.

The original intentions and guidelines for the ‘Modern Literal Version’ were:

1. To translate the original languages, word for word into English. Then to further boost the accuracy of the MLV, translate the same Greek word into as few different English words as possible. The same with English words– not to use them for different Greek words.

This is why the “Modern Literal Version” is different from all other English translations.

About 594 Bible Greek words actually have more than one meaning even after careful consideration of which English word to substitute; the context determines which meaning is used. The Majority Greek New Testament contains approximately 5401 different Greek words, 1877 only occur once, 589 are proper names, 1450 are compounds of two words that should be translated the same or very similarly as if the two words were not in compound or contracted form. No language can be treated purely like a math equation.

The New Testament is its own best commentary when you see the same Greek word translated the same throughout. Careful attention was paid to synonyms, antonyms and compound words.

The MLV uses about 6257 unique English words which include all plurals and tenses. Only about 300 are used to render more than one unrelated Greek word(s) into the same English word.

2. To have, in places where a literal translation could not be understood or was an idiom used by the common Greeks, the literal Greek will be footnoted or put in the Appendix. For example: ‘unto the ages’ is an idiom for ‘forever’. (These are not as common as many people would have you believe).

3. To keep the number of footnotes down to about what the KJV had originally or less.

4. To use italics for supplied words and use supplied words as opposed to paraphrasing.

5. To not attempt to make the MLV a translation that is perfect everyday English, but try to make it understandable to the mass majority of English speaking people; again, as opposed to paraphrasing. Verses in the MLV may start with conjunctions like 'and' 'but' or 'for'. This was a good way to split what was one Greek sentence which became a 50+ word English sentence. Large amounts of punctuation typical of English is not used. The original Bible only had punctuation used to distinguish between different words that are spelled the same and contractions.

6. To use ‘will’ for all future tenses. Though not proper modern-English, it is the way most English people speak. ‘Shall’ is retained in questions.

7. To translate some verses that have been misinterpreted for years by many religious groups, as close as possible to the original language.

8. To arrange the Greek object-subject-verb order into English, subject verb object. To follow Greek word order is not more literal or accurate; it is a Greek interlinear.
9. To use 'The New Testament in the Original Greek: Byzantine Textform 2005 compiled and arranged by Maurice A. Robinson and William Pierpont' (the 'Majority Text' as referred to by most people.)

10. Show testament parallels.

11. To further break down of chapters into thought paragraphs. (Some chapters may require a footnote like Acts 1 & 2.)

12. To translate the money and measuring systems of the Bible into some usable form without massive footnoting. (See the Appendix.)

13. To show a Harmony of the New Testament by showing AD dates and when epistles were written and show the locations in the Book of Acts so that a person can read the entire New Testament in chronological order. (Start at Mark, then go to Acts.)

14. Many of the 1st person active tense verbs were translated ‘is VERB-ing’ to help show action. Many people wrongly say the ‘-eth’ ending used in older translations meant continual action. It was simply the way they spoke in the 1500's to the 1800's.

15. To use the more proper ‘may’ or ‘might’ for the subjunctive mood. The ASV used ‘should’ and ‘shall.’ Shall is not consider ‘conditional’ in modern-English. See more in the Appendix.

The 1987-1999 version, roughly 95% completed, was formally U.S. copyrighted and placed into the ‘Christian Library’ in June, 1999 at http://www.ChristianLibrary.org.

In Christ,
G. Allen Walker, June 9, 1999.
Computer Tech for the New Testament, 1987-2012
Revised by multiple people 2011-2013.
To God is the glory. Amen.

Click here to download this file






0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users




Similar Topics



Latest Blogs