Holy Bible

Modern Literal Version

New Testament

2014.1 Beta Update

(The Open Bible Translation)

(The world’s most accurate English translation.)

[Appendix]

This translation leaves present tense unchanged. The Greeks wrote in present tense to give the reader the feeling of ‘being there.’

* (asterisk) are used for universal footnoting of words listed here in the Appendix; also used to shown the difference between one English word being used for two different Greek words, as in Age* below. These are the very few words in Greek that have an expanded thought more than what the English word(s) have or simply have no good English equivalent.

Red Lettering or Bold Lettering (electronic or printed edition) is used for the words of Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit even in an indirect quote as in Acts 26, 1Tim 4. If you do not believe the RED or BOLD should be used in a certain area, please ignore.

Italicized words are the words added by the translators. They do not have a Greek counterpart but may need supplied to help show action, tense, or additional thought or to help make very literal phrases or sentences more readable, as opposed to paraphrasing the Greek. The articles ‘a’ ‘an’ are always supplied though never marked.

Paragraphs are used in this translation with no credence given to chapter or verse numbers. (Verse format or other special formatting takes ideas out of context most often.) Double spaced paragraphs was an attempt to arrange by subject. Single spaced paragraphs are for conversations or for sub topics. We did not put in ‘subject headings’ these would then be our opinions not your ‘Word of God.’

Quotes “ ” are not used in this translation because Greek never had them or a way to know for sure where they should be in English.

- (Hyphen) often represents two English words which were only one Greek word. It is used more for the translators or the in depth studiers and for reference later to the “The Koine Greek Textbook” a Greek Lexicon & English Concordance, maybe available in 2014. Please ignore these.

The curly brackets ( {} ) contains words not in the Bible, such as the reference to the Old Testament, footnotes, and the ‘Harmony of the New Testament’, see below.

The Old Testament reference at the end of the verse in curly brackets {} may be an exact quote or a paraphrase by the inspired writer or simply the location of the historical event. Single quotes ‘ ’ are used at the beginning and end of actual quotes or paraphrases of such. We did not try to translate the Greek in these O.T. quotes to match the Hebrew to English translations.

Footnotes ( {F} ) appear at the end of the chapter. The footnote appears in curly brackets with verse numbers given.

Participles - The Greek is ‘participle crazy’ and are extremely common. Many sentences in Greek have no main verb just participle after participle. We have attempted to render more participles as such verses chopping Greek sentences into pretty little English sentences. (Again, literal vs. paraphrase.)

This translation does not adhere to traditions or theological discussions. John 3:16 is a good example of the ‘pure’ translation principles in the MLV.

Harmony of the Gospels and New Testament is a man-made study help and combines information from the four books of Jesus’ life here on the earth. (The Bible was not written in Encyclopedia format. Not all information on any subject is generally all inclusive in any one area.) Here is an example of the ‘Great Commission’ or better ‘How to Make or Become a Disciple of Christ’ and the way it is represented in the ‘Modern Literal Version’ throughout Mark. In the 2014 Version we also added these to Matthew 24 & Luke 21 because of questions sent in via the Internet.

{Mk 16:15-18 & Mt 28:18-20 & Lk 24:46-47 Mountain in Galilee}

Here is a combination of the above passages as an example, Mark is BOLD, Matthew is black, Luke is gray (the punctuation was fixed to attempt to make it easier to read in English).

And he said to them, As you^* are going (You^* go) into all the world and preach the good-news (thus it has been written, that the Christ must suffer and rise up from the dead the third day), should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem to the whole creation, make disciples of all the nations.

            He who believes and is immersed, (immersing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and that repentance and forgiveness of sins) will be saved; teaching them to observe all things whatever I commanded you^*.

            But he who disbelieves will be condemned.

And behold, I am with you^* all the days, until the end of the world.

Wording & Definitions

(MLV Dictionary in E-Sword)

Age* is very much the way we think of a person’s “age”. The other “age, ages” not marked is a period of time. This “age” is also translated as “world” content determines which word as always. (See also World* below.)

Admonish means to ‘instruct with warning.’

Apostle is a transliterated word. The English equivalent would be ‘one sent’ with the meaning of ‘one sent on a mission.’

Baptism see Immersion.

Believe in verb, adjective or noun forms are one of those very few Greek words which carry more meaning than the simple ‘believe’ translation. These words carry also the meaning: ‘obey’, ‘had been persuaded’. The antonym of ‘believe’ is ‘disobey’ in the Greek language. See John 3:36 in this translation for both words together.

Believe on literally in the majority of all places in the New Testament means ‘believe upon’.

Believe in literally in the majority of all places in the New Testament means ‘believe into’. Similar expression to Mat 28:19 ‘... into the name... ‘.

Belt is impossible to tell from context if it is a simple belt or a complex series of leather straps used to hold tools, weapons, money, and even protect the body like minor armor. The girdle (belt) was worn across the waist or across the chest.

Bowels are where the Greeks thought the emotions were born; like our ‘heart, gut feeling, nervous stomach.’

Brethren is specifically ‘brothers’ but used more often to describe kinfolk, whether by blood or by the blood of Jesus. Though translated from a Greek masculine noun, the word includes males and females in context.

Charity in the MLV does not mean ‘money.’ It may include money but literally means ‘good, merciful or kind acts.’

Centurions were military commanders of over 100 soldiers. They were the “cream of the crop”; outstanding individuals.

Chief-captains were military commanders of over 1000 soldiers.

Christ is a transliterated Greek adjective that would translate as ‘anointed.’ Messiah is the translation into Hebrew.

Class (a noun) is the priestly service limited to a stated series of days.

Coming (as in Second Coming) from the Greek word “parousia” (Strong’s 3952) has been translated more properly as “presence.” Jesus was here once and we will all know when he comes back (2Th 1:7-10).

Congregation was the original translation by Tyndale in the first English translation done from the Greek and then later changed to 'church' by the Catholics and perpetuated by the Church of England in the King James and American Standard Versions. The word could be translated 'assembly' also, as did Robert Young and a few others. The original Greek word, even in the Bible, carries no special reverence! It is used to describe Jews, a mob, a local congregation, and the congregation of believers worldwide in Matthew 16:18. Using ‘called out’ would be like saying a ‘pineapple’ is an ‘apple produced by a pine tree.’ The word was in use in all Greek writings which meant some form of ‘leaving your home to assemble elsewhere, generally in public for town announcements.’

Cohort is a Roman military term to describe a group of 600 soldiers.

Consequently though an adverb in English is used for a Greek particle that is not exactly ‘therefore’ in English. It means that the previous statement is probably so or will become so.

Containers are used with the volume they contain as a way in the MLV to translate various Greek words as opposed to footnoting and transliterating them. Example ‘Cor’ from a Hebrew word was translated as ‘fifteen-bushel container.’ (Many disagree about the exact sizes of these measurements. We don’t see that makes a real difference to your salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.)

Covenant^* can be translated as ‘Agreement,’ ‘Contract,’ ‘Testament’ or ‘Will’ as in ‘Last Will & Testament’. The underlying Greek word (diatheke and its compounds) was translated uniformly as ‘covenant’ because ‘testament’ has no verb forms in English. It is the Old or New Testament or Old or New Covenant, or just a simple agreement, depending on the context. The Old Testament Law was until the death of Jesus and the New Testament Law is after his death, see Hebrews 9-10 and Galatians 4:4. Actually the entire Hebrew Letter is dealing with why Christians are no longer bound by the laws or traditions of the Old Testament. (Two were reinstated in the New Testament; Mt. 22:37-39.) By rights, the first four books and the first chapter of Acts, as it is commonly called today, are really part of the Old Covenant with God.

Cubit is a forearm’s length. About 20-21 inches depending of which cubit measurement was common to that area.

Dead^* is a Greek word literally translated as ‘ended’ or ‘finished.’

Denarius is the standard money used in the MLV, the break down is as follows:

            1. Denarius is money equivalent to a day's wage of the normal working class. It was a silver coin with Caesar's face on it.

            2. Two Drachmas is worth about 4 denarius, translated as ‘four-denarius.’

            3. Lepton is a bronze coin, translated as ‘bronze coin.’ Two of these is equal to an Assarion or Quadran which are copper coins worth the cost of a dove or 2 sparrows, about a couple of mouthfuls of food. Assarion and Quadran are translated as ‘copper coin’. About 50 cents in US money.

            4. Mina which is translated as ‘200 denarius coin(s)’ is a about 80% of a year's salary in modern terms. In context probably meant a whole years wage.

            5. Slater: a coin equal to 2 drachma or 4 denarius, translated as ‘four-denarius coin.’

            6. Talant is not a coin but about 75 pounds of silver. Equal to about 1 million dollars in US money today; 6000 denarius coins. Has nothing to do with ability, as the KJV and others used a terrible choice ‘talent’ for the transliteration of the Greek word.

Devil was translated to “the Slanderer” in the 2013 version. The Greek word is an adjective used as a noun, a transliteration of Hebrew, which has a perfect English equivalent ‘a slanderer.’ We kept it capitalized to denote “The Evil One or The Adversary” from any other singular or plural forms. This Greek word is where we got “diabolical.” The Bible even uses the Slanderer and the Adversary (previously rendered Satan) together in Rev. 12:9 & 20:2.

Divine* this is the only ‘divine’ (Strong’s 2304) that literally comes from the base word ‘God.’

Different as it occurs 6 times in the MLV is from the Greek word heteros (Strong’s 2087) which is translated as ‘other’ or ‘another.’ In context might mean something added vs. something different or opposite.

Disobedience* is the result of a “refuse to hear” or “refusal to take in what you hear.” The other disobedience is the end result of “disbelieve.”

Enmity has lost some of its meaning in current English usage. Enmity is best described as a blend of hatred, opposition, and be an enemy.

Except* is the improper preposition of ‘plen’ Strong’s number 4133. The other ‘except’ is the interesting one. This ‘except’ is an idiom of the literal “if not” Strong’s number 1508 (1487 & 3361).

Fallen-asleep is from the Greek word ‘koimao’ (Strong’s 2837) which is used as an expression to mean death.

^*For represents the Greek preposition ‘eis’ (Strong’s 1519) that is literally translated as ‘into’, ‘to’ or ‘toward’. It never means ‘because of.’ Sometimes to substitute ‘leading toward’ works very well to get the meaning across and has been used by many translations in some places. This preposition expresses forward action in the Greek verb where the English word ‘for’ can be used with verbs of actions past or future. All Greek words in the ‘Modern Literal Version’ that mean 'because' are translated as 'because'. (SEE the exception below.)

For^* represents the Greek word ‘gar’ (Strong’s 1063). It is a conjunction with no exact English equivalent. It is a mild form of ‘because.’ (See more below.)

For has no true Greek equivalent. ‘To’ is the literal translation in all places in the ‘Modern Literal Version’ excluding the above examples. (Also conjunctions, ‘in/on behalf of’ and ‘because’ Greek word equivalents are translated as such.) To best describe ‘for^*,’ the conjunction, is ‘We put people in jail for^* murder.’ To best describe ‘^*for’ the preposition, is ‘We put people in jail to murder.’)

Forgive* is the verb form of the Greek noun translated as “favor” or “grace.”

Fornication is from the Greek word ‘pornia’ which means any premarital or extramarital sexual acts between two or more people. It also means prostitution with its Greek base word meaning “sell.” Does not mean in anyway ‘lust.’ It means physical sex, including all variations of physical sex. People who have claimed scriptural divorce using Matthew 5:28 need to read the rest of the Bible! Translating this Greek word as ‘sexual immorality’ is an abomination!

Furlong is 1/8 of a mile in English. But in the MLV it is a ‘Stadium’ which is 1/8 of a Roman mile 607 ft. (53 ft. less than an actual furlong).

Gentiles in Greek is also ‘nations.’ The word means all nations which are not Israel or all people who are not Jews.

Gird means to put on your belt, the final act of dressing yourself for the public or for a job. See Belt too.

Godliness* is literally “devoutness” base word is “worship” not “God.” Modern-English uses “devout” in various ways, many have nothing to do with “God.”

Good* is literally ‘well.’ The other ‘good’ are actually two synonyms; (Good in general or Good as outwardly good which also is translated as ‘beautiful.’

Good-news is simply ‘good news’ or is used to mean Jesus and His teaching in general. (1Cor. 15:1-4; 2Thes. 1:8, etc.). Originally in the MLV, the Greek word was translated as ‘gospel’ in the religious context & ‘good news’ in other contexts but was adopted as ‘good-news’ throughout in 2013 to not ‘commentate’.

Harlot is a sexually promiscuous individual or a prostitute or both, primarily female. Context is not always certain which meaning should be used. (A vulgar English word does fit perfectly.)

Heart^* is literally the intestines. The Greeks thought emotions were born there, like we often feel emotions in our gut.

Helper^* is from a Greek masculine noun that is a ‘person called to help.’

Hosanna is a Hebrew word meaning ‘Save me, I pray.’ or ‘Please deliver me.’

Immerse^* or ‘dipping’ is a translation of the Greek verb ‘baptizo’ and its variations which all mean to submerge completely. Baptize, a transliterated word (in other words, not translated), has been retained by most translations due to denominational influences. Tyndale himself kept it, even though he knew it meant ‘immerse’ having studied under Luther. Baptism is NOT used in the ‘Modern Literal Version.’ In 1999 until baptism was changed to immersion in about 2002 over 75% of the comments for revision of the Modern Literal Version from readers or visitors to the Christian Library were ‘make baptism immersion.’ This word has a perfect English equivalent and so has been used. For a Bible definition read Romans 6:1-6. The Greek word was common to the Greeks and was used to describe a ‘bath,’ ‘washing dishes,’ ‘ceremonial washing’ and ‘Christian baptism.’ See Footnoting in Mark 7; other Bible passages Romans 6, Mark 16:16, Colossians 2:12-14, etc. This word never meant ‘shower’. There is a Greek word for ‘sprinkling’ and it is used in the New Testament also.

Iota (subscript) and serif are the smallest punctuation or accent marks of Greek.

Irreproachable can be simply a person not under an accusation by an enemy or legal system. But more likely a person with an extremely good reputation. If someone was to say, “He is a thief.” The reaction would be “No he is not.” and the conversation would be over.

Jude and Judas are both from the same Greek word. Judas is retained except in the title of the Book of Jude. Judas the Apostle (son of James) could be the same as Judas, Jesus' half brother, the brother of James, the writer of the Book of Jude but probably not.

Keep in the MLV is one of those very few Greek words which carry more meanings than the simple ‘keep’ translation. The word carries with it: to guard and/or watch over.

Like literally is ‘as.’ Common to their language, slang in English.

Love^* is Christian love. This word in religious writings had an intensified meaning, sacrificial love, from the same Greek spoken outside of the Bible, love of people. The Greeks had different words for different kinds of love, unlike English. This word is ‘agapao’ in Greek.

May, Might, Should see Subjunctive Mood below.

Messenger in many translations is angel, a transliterated word, in simple terms– not translated. But the word is also translated as its English equivalent ‘messenger.’ Only context can determine if the messenger was from God or man or the Evil One. To stay with our “Modern Literal Version” guidelines we uniformly used “messenger” starting in 2013.

Minister^*, Ministry^*, are synonyms of the other Greek words rendered minister, ministry, etc. These and their various verb, adjective and noun forms are more of a public servant, public service or serving publicly. Romans 13:6 is a good example.

Never* would be best rendered as “in absolutely no way!” An emphatic NO or NOT! But is just way too wordy to fit into some verses. When never* occurs with the subjunctive mood verb, “may never,” does not mean “will not” there is a slight possibility this could happen. This has been a Tyndale tradition replicated over and over for the past 600 years. We refuse to honor an uninspired man. We also refuse to translate to “will not” because it “sounds better,” especially since modern-English “will” no longer carries a “conditional aspect.” (Ironic, since a future anything is never guaranteed except ‘death.’)

Obey*, obedient*, obedience* are from Strong’s 5218 & 5219. Literally is how those under you listen: “Children, obey^* your^* parents.” “Children, listen to your^* parents.” The other “obey” words come from the same root word as “believe.” See Believe.

Of^* literally means ‘out of’ used only in John & 1 John. This probably is just how John spoke.

Offend and Offense literally means to ‘snare’, 'caused to stumble' or a 'cause of stumbling.'

Only begotten which literally means ‘only born of’ or ‘only born by’ would be a contradiction in the Bible since ‘we are all sons of God through Christ Jesus’ and Mary gave birth to multiple children. Its Greek synonym is ‘firstborn’ which too is a contradiction since Abraham had two sons and the ‘only born of’ was the second son. Others have used ‘one and only,’ ‘only,’ ‘only born.’ All of these are contradictions also. One other translation used ‘only unique,’ but this removes the ‘born’ part. The way to think of this is that the physical ‘firstborn’ had special rights or privileges. ‘Only special born’ would then settle all instances in the New Testament and would still fit the Greek. It is the figurative ‘firstborn’ in respect to special privileges or rights.

Pentecost is a transliterated word which literal means ‘50th’ as in the 50th day after Passover, always a Sunday.

Rabbi and Rabboni is teacher in the Hebrew language.

Recognize is also translated as “fully know” or “know fully.”

Rejected^* is better thought of as ‘they tested it, didn’t like it and then rejected it.’

Quadran is under Denarius.

Quarternions are companies of four soldiers and is translated as “companies of four” in Acts 12:11.

Satan is a transliterated word translated to “the Adversary” in 2013. It is kept capitalized to denote: the Evil One, the Devil, the Slanderer, the fallen angel (messenger) vs. just a simple ‘enemy’ or ‘adversary’ used elsewhere in the Modern Literal Version. The Bible even uses the Slanderer (previously rendered Devil) and the Adversary together in Rev. 12:9 & 20:2.

Separate* is from “border or boundary” which would be “border off” or a much lighter meaning of “quarantine off”. The other “separate” is “make room between.”

Serve^* is the verb form of bond-slave, best described as to serve in or under bondage, could be either voluntarily or not. Moses was a bond-slave (how he gained his wife).

Should, May, Might see Subjunctive Mood below.

Sound* is also translated as “healthy.”

Spirit is retained in capitalized form from the ASV. If you as the reader believe Spirit is not the Holy Spirit just ignore the capital ‘S.’ In fact all capitalization is man made, please ignore any you feel is wrong. ‘The Spirit of the truth” as it occurs in the Greek 3 times in John 14-16 & maybe once in 1 John 4 could be a title, “Spirit of Truth.”

Spirit* is literally “soul.” It is we just don’t speak that way; “good in soul.” All of these compounds occur only in Philippians 2.

Standard as in a yardstick in U.S. terms. A round straight piece of wood or metal used as a standard of measure to measure the length or distance of something. It is used figuratively in most New Testament instances.

Stewardship means to manage the house or household or to manage the affairs of others.

Subjunctive Mood verbs “usually state a thing as conditional, possible (but not accomplished) or something merely entertained as a thought. It may be a statement viewed emotionally, as desired, doubted, or wished.” (Roberts Grammar, pg. 130.) Subjunctive mood verbs have always been a problem in translations in the past and have plagued the MLV as well. These verbs are denoted by the words “should, may or might” and are added in front of them. These subjunctive mood verbs in Greek are most often preceded by a ‘conditional particle’ or some other part of speech (see Strong’s numbers 302, 1437, 1437a, 1875, 2579, 3752). These conditional statements, when translated into English, begin with words like “if, whoever, whatever, whenever” and the “should, may or might” is usually dropped, (too wordy and confusing for modern-English). Some of these conditional statements are denoted at the beginning with “^*that” (Strong’s number 3705), “that^*” or “in order that”(Strong’s number 2443). We have translated all of these in places like Mark 4:27 for the sake of remaining as literal as possible even though modern-English would abbreviate the sentence down to only the first “should”.

In Greek translation places where subjunctive mood verbs occur with Strong’s number 3661 are generally changed to imperative mood (this determined by context). An example of this is the ending of Mark 5:7 where the demon is speaking to Jesus and says: “do not torment me” where subjunctive mood would be meaningless: “you may not torment me.” Even though a conditional statement does carry a future tense feeling, the improper use of “shall” and “will” was dropped. (“Shall” is Old English present tense of “should” as well as first person future tense.) Even though, “may never” and “should we give?” might sound better as “will never” or “shall we give?” we opted to keep subjunctive mood as such versus making them future tense.

Talant is listed under Denarius.

Than though marked as supplied, is most often a translation of a genitive Greek word when next to a comparative or superlative adjective or adverb; a Greek idiom. Example ‘he is greater of me’ would be ‘he is greater than I.’

^*That is Strong’s number 3705 which is stronger than modern-English “that.” A mild “in order that” not as below.

That^* in Greek is ‘hina,’ Strong’s number 2443, which literally means ‘in order that’ but is just too wordy for some English sentences.

The, the definite article occurs in Greek same as English with one major exception, ‘the’ is used with proper nouns. ‘Paul’ is ‘the Paul.’ We have tried to include all definite articles other than those with proper nouns. Many would say they should be dropped in some places but our opinion in this matter is if the inspired writers included ‘the’ then we should put it there in English whenever possible. The inspired writers could have left ‘the’ out in most of these questionable places and it still would have been ‘good Greek grammar’, especially in Paul’s & Luke’s writings who were fluent speaking Greeks.

Truly^* literally is ‘amen’ which basically means “so be it.” But Jesus said the amen to what he was saying beforehand.

Vehemently is an intensified verb of the Greek word ‘ekperissos’ translated as ‘exceedingly’. There really is no English better than ‘exceedingly.’ This word is what the 149 scholars of the KJV & ASV chose to use so we just kept it, having no option, in the actual 5 places it occurs in the Majority Text.

View is a stronger “see” or “look.” Means to ‘view as a spectator’ or like our expression ‘view from the side lines.’ View is to pay more attention to what you see or look at.

Washing^* or immersion or immerse for verb form. See Immerse.

World^* means primarily the Roman Empire, in their way of thinking or ‘the inhabited earth,’ can be difficult to tell even from the context how far the ‘world^* ’ extends.

You^*, your^*, represents the Greek word or word form that means plural ‘you’ in English. By keeping these you will find something in the MLV that no other modern-English translations shows, Jesus is talking with one person, but then you will see he is talking with a plural you^* amount. Many simple teachings have been lost due to the fact plural and singular “you” are not denoted.

Your^* represents the Greek word or word form that means plural ‘your’ in English.

Wormwood is a person or thing and an actual substance which is bitter tasting. We translated it, let the Bible students figure it out and so elsewhere with God’s word.

Read the New Testament in Better Ways

To read the New Testament in chronological order, go to Mark chapter 1 and start reading.

For better understanding, go in this order: Mark, Matthew, John, Luke, Acts, Galatians, Romans to Revelation or even better...

This is the way the New Testament should have been arranged and is closer to chronological order: Mark, Matthew, John, Luke, Acts, James, 1&2 Thessalonians, 1&2 Corinthians, Galatians, other books from Romans - Colossians, 1&2 Peter, 1 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Jude, Hebrews, 2 Timothy, 1-3 John, Revelation. (A reading chart is in Appendix II.)

This is dedicated to God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. To who else would we dedicate it to? To Him is the glory, the power and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

[APPENDIX II]

Simple Reading Schedule

(2 months, 20 minutes a day. Empty your mind, don’t try and understand everything; just read the New Testament like a child would. This is arranged for better understanding by letting books build on each other. Best to not go faster; allow it to sink in for a day.)

Use Sundays to catch up on days you could not spend 20 minutes with the Word of God. Never read the Old Testament & New Testament together, two totally different sets of God’s laws one for Christians, one for Jews. If you have never read the Bible, always start with the New Testament. The New Testament is what you will be judge by, not the Old Testament.

Notes to Translators of Foreign Language Bibles

This translation is so faithful to the original language in English that it has been used as a medium from which to translate a foreign language New Testament. Many languages of the world have no translation available and many have extremely poor translations. Missionaries who do not know Greek but know English and the native tongue can make a translation available quickly. Even though this results in a paraphrase, it is still better, more accurate and a faster way to deliver the Word of God to someone than trying to teach English. In the future we hope that Christians from that country would create their own translation from the original Greek Majority Text.

We can supply you with a list of all the English words which occur in the Modern Literal Version. You type the equivalent ‘native’ word next to them. We can then computer generate your ‘native tongue’ translation. You will still need to rearrange English word order (subject verb object) to the native tongue sentence structure.

All that is asked is that you make sure the reader knows this is a translation from the English “Modern Literal Version” to ‘Native Tongue’ not directly from the original Greek language.

Greek History During New Testament Times

In the first century, the entire known world was under Roman rule and the universal language was Koine Greek (common Greek). The language became dead two centuries later (nevermore to change). Even though many have tried to make the Greek language ‘change’ with new theologies, only translation principles have changed.

The New Testament makes mention of three different Judea rulers under Greek authority named Herod. Herod the Great reigned from 39 BC to 4 BC. He expanded the Temple to include the royal family’s wing. His son Herod Archelaus from 4 BC to 6 AD. Augustus judged him incompetent and reorganized the territories under the other son, Herod Antipas from 4 BC to 39 AD.

Guards, Sentries, etc. - If a guard lost his prisoner(s) his life was forfeited in exchange (and not a quick death) that is why many guards committed suicide. (Various examples in Acts.)

When you were called back to Rome, you were given the ‘suicide’ option or be killed.

Jews did not speak to Samarians or women in public (John 4).

Ninth hour is 3:00 PM.

The soldiers were also the police.

Part of a day to the Jews, meant a whole day and night. In modern terms the Bible contradicts itself in Jesus saying he will be buried three days and three nights (Mt 12:40) but not by Jewish thinking or custom. Jesus was buried Friday (Day of Preparation; Day 1). He was in the tomb from 6:00 PM Friday to 6:00 PM Saturday (The Sabbath; Day 2). He arose sometime around dawn Sunday (the first day of the week; Day 3).

Women and Bond-slaves under Roman rule had the same rights in court. A widow or single woman without close male family was an easy target by just about anyone who wanted to take advantage of her (James 1:27). Lydia and her group was probably like a ‘gang’ to stay safe in Acts 16.

Modern Literal Version New Testament Bible Accuracy Chart

In order to highlight some of the issues we have found with translation accuracy in various bibles, we have compiled a chart that compares the amount of English words translated from the Greek words. We have picked some of Strong's numbers randomly between 1 & 5624, (using a number generator), and added the worst Greek verb we know (1096). We hope this will illustrate our faithfulness to our own guidelines in making the MLV as literal as possible:

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.

Specifically, we compare the MLV to the KJV and the NASB. This is simply because they are the only bibles that have an easily accessible English to Greek Lexicon and a Greek to English concordance that we need to compile this chart, not because they are "the most" inaccurate. We are in the process of making a similar concordance for the MLV (God willing, “The Koine Greek Textbook”.)

Modern bibles claim to be accurate, but most do not even italicize, or otherwise highlight, supplied words, (words that are not in the Greek, but are implied by context). The reader should be able to decide for him or herself, whether or not to include the words of man in the Word of God. The reader is unable to do this in any so-called "accurate" bible translation that does not highlight supplied words.

We believe that the translators should translate the Greek into English as literally as possible (within the scope of readability) and should not commentate, that is, insert the translator's opinion on what the verse means. For example,

John 3:16:

For^* God so loved^* the world, that he gave his Son, the only begotten, in order that everyone who is believing in him may not perish, but may have eternal life. (MLV)

"For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” (Holman Christian Study Bible)

The translators of the HCSB made a conditional statement into a 'proof positive' statement by a simple verb tense change and they are not the only ones to have done this (NASB, NIV, etc.).

To keep the chart below simple, only one of the main base words have been kept; not the various tenses or plurals or leading verbs. (For example, BE for all of the: be, is, was, were, and being.)

Comparison Chart of Greek Words to English Renderings                

Note: because the MLV concordance is not a finished work we have added a 10% error to the final MLV total.

If you have any other translation information to add to this chart please send it along to the email address below.

Conclusion:

The King James Version uses almost 3 times as many words or phrases for the corresponding Greek words than the Modern Literal Version does and the New American Standard Bible 1995 uses over 4 times as many. As literal as the King James Version was, Jay P. Green Sr. in his revision of the Englishman’s Concordance showed the English word ‘will’ (not future tense) was used for 69 different Greek words. So the Modern Literal Version does meet its claim to be the 'world's most accurate bible translation.'

The MLV is NOT under the control of any denomination or publishing company and is not the current work of any either. Remember the MLV is OPEN TO ALL who have "thus saith the Greek" fixes. Submit them to create an even more accurate MLV. Anyone who wants to help in various others ways is always welcome. To volunteer or to send corrections for the Modern Literal Version, please contact one of us at: mlvbible (at) gmail (dot) com

C.W. a proofreader October 1, 2012. Copyright 2012. Freely copy & distribute the section named “Modern Literal Version New Testament Bible Accuracy Chart” to everyone.

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KJV & NASB stats were from concordances.org. MLV stats are from the prep work of the Modern Literal Version Concordance Cross Reference to Greek.