Translation & Commentary

Overall, this translation is formally equivalent (that is, “literal”). However, this translation not only attempts to make an understandable reproduction of the meaning of Greek words and clauses, but to reproduce its form and force as much as possible as well. The Apostles who authored the New Testament did not just have something specific that they wanted to say, but a specific way in which they wanted to say it. For example, throughout the New Testament, the Apostles use the present tense (even right beside the same verb being used in the past tense). So, despite the clunky and odd feeling one gets reading it in English, I have intentionally left such verbs in the present tense. I have also formatted my translation in verse with indentations to aid the reader to see parallelism and the relationship between lines within verses in general. Being a Texan, I have also insisted on using “y’all” (and “you all” in more formal passages) to distinguish between second-person plural and the singular. The end goal of this is all that the original authors’ diction and syntax will be as apparent in power as in purpose.
As the anonymous author of 2 Maccabees put it:

If it is well told and to the point, that is what I myself desired; if it is poorly done and mediocre, that was the best I could do. For just as it is harmful to drink wine alone or, again, to drink water alone, while wine already mixed with water is delicious and enhances one’s enjoyment, so also the style of the story delights the ears of those who read the work. (2 Maccabees 15:38-39 NRSVue)

Of course, as with all translations, there is the untranslatable. No two languages can connect or be translated on a one-for-one basis. It simply is not possible - Especially not between a rapidly-evolving worldwide English and ancient, inflected, Koine Greek that developed on the other end of the European continent with an entirely different alphabet. Anyone who has read or watched something in two different languages knows this. Even I, being an initiate in Koine Greek, have felt quite unsatisfied with much of my hard work to render even somewhat simple Greek into English. Again, 2 Maccabees’ author puts it well even though he actually speaks about compiling and condensing history into a single account:

For us who have undertaken the toil of abbreviating, it is no light matter but calls for sweat and loss of sleep, just as it is not easy for one who prepares a banquet and seeks the benefit of others. Nevertheless, to secure the gratitude of many we will gladly endure the uncomfortable toil. (2:26-27)

So, knowing I will look back on this work in disgust sometime later (perhaps even soon), the following principal principles make up my philosophy of translation:

1. Leave no language un-anglicized.

2. Translate, don’t transliterate - Unless the original is already a transliteration.

3. Air on the side of ambiguity.

4. Use as few English words for one Greek word throughout the New Testament.

5. Follow the syntax of the original in its emphasis in as much as is possible.

In the end, I hope and pray that my translation and commentary will open the minds of many to see the resurrected Jesus for who he really is (Luke 24:13-48).

THE APOSTLE'S CREED: The Reason for the Resurrection