Which English Bible is best translation to other language?

Discussion on theWord modules and other resources
kdz
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Which English Bible is best translation to other language?

Post by kdz »

Hello everyone!

There are hard restrictions from bible society to freely use bible texts in bible softwares and paper books. One idea is to make public domain text translating english bible to local language and in this job can help many people, because english is common language.

I want to understand which english version is best for translation to other language (in my case latvian).
I mean the best from text view and from copyrights view!
I think about KJV, because it is in public domain and probably there is no need permisions.

Can you give smart advice about this all!

Karlis, from Latvia.
mathetes
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Re: Which English Bible is best translation to other languag

Post by mathetes »

Unless you thoroughly understand how the English language has changed over the last 400, the KJV is a poor choice. A better choice for re-translating into another language might be the World English Bible (http://www.theword.net/bin/get.php/web.ont.exe). The text is public domain for that very purpose. See https://worldenglishbible.org/. The one caveat I would mention is if the target language distinguishes between singular and plural second person pronouns. In that case you would want to compare with the KJV or other older English Bible that preserves that difference.
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jonathangkoehn
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Re: Which English Bible is best translation to other languag

Post by jonathangkoehn »

Dear fellow theWORD user,
Even though English is a popular language (there are others as well such as Spanish) it would be best to not use it as a source language for the Bible since it is not. I would go back to the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek text. I know this is a lot of work but will prevent many errors from creeping in. When going from one language to another not everything can be brought across.
So an English based translation would look like this:
Original languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek)
-> English (middle man who has many good versions but not designed for passing on the original languages, no language is designed that way, the Tower of Bable really made languages complicated)
-> local languages translation based on English but misses the original language
For example:
Greek ("ὥστε ὁ νόμος παιδαγωγὸς ἡμῶν γέγονεν εἰς Χριστόν..." - NA28)
-> English ("Thus the law had become our guardian until Christ,..." - NET)
-> Spanish ("guardián")

NET is a great translation but is there a better word or perhaps phrase than guardián in Spanish for the concept of a paidagogos? If it was only translated from the NET without looking at the Greek the local language would never know. Never-mind the preposition εἰς which is "until" in the NET, "to" in the NKJV, "unto" in KJV. There were different no doubt godly translation committees behind these Bible versions and many went back to the original languages.

For example: The Spanish Bible La Biblia de las Americas is not based on the English Bible New American Standard Bible it is based on the original languages.

It is more work to go back to the original languages but well worth it in the end.

I hope this helps.
Jonathan Koehn @ https://www.thewordbooks.com
TotheWord make resources for theWord
2 Timothy 2:15 “Make every effort to present yourself before God as a proven worker who does not need to be ashamed, teaching the message of truth accurately.” NET2
kdz
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Re: Which English Bible is best translation to other languag

Post by kdz »

Thanks you!

I understand that the best source is orginal Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts!
But there are few peoples who knows Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and my local language. And make public domain translation from orginal is almost imposible and it will take many years.
I think in every translation is some thinks,words where all can discus,discuss and discuss how to better express, but main overall thinks is clear.
It is just idea. May be it is not good idea because, there can be lost some thinks in translation. But i believe that with God help it is possible correctly translating from english too.
I want receive answer from God to make this project or not.
Jeff
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Re: Which English Bible is best translation to other languag

Post by Jeff »

kdz wrote:Thanks you!

I understand that the best source is orginal Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts!
But there are few peoples who knows Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and my local language. And make public domain translation from orginal is almost imposible and it will take many years.
I think in every translation is some thinks,words where all can discus,discuss and discuss how to better express, but main overall thinks is clear.
It is just idea. May be it is not good idea because, there can be lost some thinks in translation. But i believe that with God help it is possible correctly translating from english too.
I want receive answer from God to make this project or not.
I'm not sure this is the best forum to discuss textual issues, but I will say that I believe you have made some good points here. It does seem strange to me to think that the language issue somehow caught God by surprise, and that He was unable to keep the Bible pure because of that. I believe God preserves His word even through the degradation of the languages.

I also agree that you won't be able to understand the ancient biblical languages better than you can understand English from just a few centuries ago. A Webster's 1828 Dictionary of American English (available as an official theWord module, among other places) will give you accurate definitions of words used in the KJV, and it's not as hard as people make it out to be, it's actual a more precise and accurate English. You may even have a slight advantage; I understand that those who are taught English as a second language may be taught it more purely than those of us native speakers who are used to the more colloquial corruptions of native English.

But perhaps as important as the version itself, is what texts the version was translated out of. If you believe God transmitted His word through the ages through the true Christian Church, I believe you will hold more to the Received Text, Textus Receptus, or whatever you call it, and look for Bibles that have been faithfully translated from those texts, and the KJV is the one I trust.

I hope this helps, but in any case, continue to seek God's will, He knows more than any of us who fancy ourselves scholars how to keep and spread His word. :D
Jeff


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petrosd
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Re: Which English Bible is best translation to other languag

Post by petrosd »

Unless you are a very capable English speaker, able to manage the language and nuances as flawlessly as a natural speaker, I cannot see the value in translating from English. The English will be an interpretation of the original languages, and contain subtle influences and nuances that may be difficult for a natural English speaker to understand. If you do not understand these, how can you translate them into your language? Even though knowledge of the original language is less, it is still the best way to go.

If you really have to use English as your source language, I recommend that you use several modern translations in order to gain a fuller understanding of the underlying meaning. I would recommend NASB, NET, WEB, ESV, and HCSB. I would not recommend the KJV, either 1611 (original) or the more commonly used revisions. The language was 'modern' in its time, but now it is archaic, the meanings of some words have changed, and some phrases and words are poor translations. A more modern version will give you access to a greater range of documents and the benefit of another 400+ years of textual analysis and research.

It should be a clarified that the title "Textus Receptus" (Received Text") was a title given by men, not by God. it means no more and no less that any other title referencing a translation. It confers no special status. It was good for its time. I wouldn't use the title for anything other than an interesting moment in the whole history of bible translation.
Jeff
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Re: Which English Bible is best translation to other languag

Post by Jeff »

God's word is not ever evolving.

Strange how people who think you can't understand "archaic" English think today's enlightened scholars can understand ancient Hebrew/Greek/Aramaic, etc. in ever changing new texts in ways that those who came before them never could.

In the end, men no longer believe in an inerrant, preserved Bible.

Whatever you call the received texts, they are, in fact, the texts that were passed down through the church age, and that men accepted as the word of God. It should be clarified that biblical scholars today base their "facts" on certain assumptions, much as evolutionists or climate scientists do.

Perhaps the newer versions could be used in the same way as commentaries could. But then, any good KJV study Bible, or decent commentaries, would point out the very few "archaic" words and such that have changed meaning. In fact you could find a list and the few affected verses probably just by searching.
Jeff


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mathetes
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Re: Which English Bible is best translation to other languag

Post by mathetes »

Whatever you call the received texts, they are, in fact, the texts that were passed down through the church age, and that men accepted as the word of God.
That would be the Majority Text, also referred to as the Byzantine Textform, of which what has been called the Textus Receptus, or the "received text," is a subset.
DiegoS
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Re: Which English Bible is best translation to other languag

Post by DiegoS »

kdz wrote:Hello everyone!

There are hard restrictions from bible society to freely use bible texts in bible softwares and paper books. One idea is to make public domain text translating english bible to local language and in this job can help many people, because english is common language.

I want to understand which english version is best for translation to other language (in my case latvian).
I mean the best from text view and from copyrights view!
I think about KJV, because it is in public domain and probably there is no need permisions.

Can you give smart advice about this all!

Karlis, from Latvia.
I think you want should consider to use the translationStudio from https://unfoldingword.org/ts/. This tool provides two open source English Bible translations and many other helps to enable a bilingual person to translate the Bible to his/her own language.
therapon
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Re: Which English Bible is best translation to other languag

Post by therapon »

Karlis, is the Bībele latviešu valodā 1965 edition in copyright?
Jacob11
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Re: Which English Bible is best translation to other language?

Post by Jacob11 »

For translation, the best free software is paratext.org, and it provides many English and non-English versions freely in it. If you are a part of some translation organization then you get even more number of versions in it that are copyrighted, but for solo users, the free versions are sufficient. You can consult other versions on other sites.
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jonathangkoehn
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Re: Which English Bible is best translation to other language?

Post by jonathangkoehn »

There is an excellent translation software built by Rubio called iBiblia.
It works well as a companion software to theWord.


Here is the help file: https://github.com/rubiot/ibiblia/wiki/ ... -(English)
Releases/download: https://github.com/rubiot/ibiblia/releases

To download scroll down looking for Assets then download the iBiblia….zip file and extract it to a folder on your computer.
The program is ran using iBiblia.exe. See the Help file above for use.
Jonathan Koehn @ https://www.thewordbooks.com
TotheWord make resources for theWord
2 Timothy 2:15 “Make every effort to present yourself before God as a proven worker who does not need to be ashamed, teaching the message of truth accurately.” NET2
UBC4ME
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Re: Which English Bible is best translation to other language?

Post by UBC4ME »

Jonathan,

Thank you for the help link. I have downloaded iBiblia before and attempted to work with it, but failed. Some how I missed or could not find the help file.
Dave
Gods gifts comes wrapped many different ways.
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jonathangkoehn
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Re: Which English Bible is best translation to other language?

Post by jonathangkoehn »

Thank you for the help link. I have downloaded iBiblia before and attempted to work with it, but failed. Some how I missed or could not find the help file.
Ah here these video tutorials help: https://github.com/rubiot/ibiblia/discussions/84
Jonathan Koehn @ https://www.thewordbooks.com
TotheWord make resources for theWord
2 Timothy 2:15 “Make every effort to present yourself before God as a proven worker who does not need to be ashamed, teaching the message of truth accurately.” NET2
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