Publisher Description:
As of this writing there are approximately nine hundred English translations of the Bible in whole or in part. That is a glut. So what is the point of yet another version of the Glad Tidings of the Emissary John? I desire to let the facts of Johns' writings make a fresh impression in the minds and hearts of all who love the Lord and His Written Word. To that end it is my intention to be as precise as possible and as free of religious gobbledygook as practicable and more so than any other translation I have ever read. Much of the Bible is obscured by words that have become vague or utterly religious. Others are obscured because the words were never translated but were merely transliterated.Also, most modern versions of the Bible have been purposely downgraded to a childs' reading level by using the most imprecise and overlapping words available. The Scriptures in Common Greek display a healthy and precise vocabulary that is usually not reflected in the popular versions. I do not follow this trend.
I have given each Koine Greek word its own exact and exclusive English counterpart and I engage very little in dynamic equivalence. If the reader cherishes a particular translation as if it is the actual God-Breathed original this version will only annoy and frustrate. However, if the reader wishes to uncover and understand the truths of the Christian Scriptures as God Himself breathed them to us, this version will bring enjoyment, instruction, and satisfaction. One will learn much and be quite surprised and edified by the actual words of Holy Scripture precisely and truthfully translated. Such is not the case with most versions because most were translated by those with a commitment to the creeds and confessions of Christendom. Which of course strongly colors their translations.
In any language meaning is determined by usage. We let the various contexts in which we find a word add the proper nuances. When reading the Christian Scriptures in Common Greek that is what one does. So it only makes sense to do the same in a translation rather than supply synonyms with nuances not conveyed by the actual God-breathed contexts. This turns the translator into an interpreter and makes technical Bible study nearly impossible as laymen try to trace the original term through a dizzying maze of verbiage. For example the Hebrew word nephesh (soul) is translated in the KJV as any, appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, deadly, desire, discontented, fish, ghost, greedy, he, hearty, life, lust, man, me, mind, mortality, one, own, person, pleasure, herself, himself, myself, thyself, themselves, yourselves, slay, soul, tablet, they, thing, she, will, would have it. Will and soul are not isolated incidents of baffling bad translation in the KJV alone but of most English translations. In this work such an irrational and unreasonable approach has been eschewed.
(For more, read the Introduction in the "Look Inside" feature that Amazon provides.)
Nathaniel Merritt was born in Flint Michigan in 1953. Nathaniel studied for the ministry with the Evangelical Church Alliance International and was ordained as a pastor at age 27. Nathaniel is now retired and living in Richfield, Utah with his wife of twelve years. This is his first translation of a book of the Bible.
keywords: Bible. Gospel of John. Jesus Christ. Universal Reconciliation. Love. Salvation.
Whore of Babylon. Antichrist. God. End Times. |
