Introduction

The Gift New Testament gets its name from several ideas: that salvation is a gift, that the Christian community is to be gift-based rather than flesh-based, and of course that the text is absolutely free in electronic form. The central message of the gospel is of course this good news, as opposed to another work-based religion.

Yet this radical message is often obscured by translation choices that seem more loyal to tradition or ideology than accuracy. But it is nearly impossible to achieve technical accuracy while preserving good communication, which includes the use of figures of speech that only make sense in English by using completely different words than the Greek dictionary meanings would allow.

The best solution, at least electronically, seems to be to provide a very technical interlinear alongside a translation focused on good English communication. In that way the reader can go right to the source if desired, and get the technical data without having it forced upon them in the translation. Footnotes are sometimes added to provide some additional information on historical perspective, linguistic issues, and of course conversions for weights and measures. In addition, a commentary is available for each book, as well as a minimal Greek/English dictionary.

No translation can or should last forever, because living languages don't stand still. English is an especially volatile language, hence the need for at least some of the many Bible versions there are. Another factor is that archaeological finds that improve our understanding of Koine Greek vocabulary are not always incorporated in the popular Bible dictionaries, and there have been suspicions of deliberate concession to pressure from special interests to keep some words from being updated, or even to fall back to older definitions even if they are known to be less accurate. So while too many translations can be more confusing than helpful, it seems better to err on the side of having more "eyes" examining this sacred text in order to minimize human bias.

Translation Notes

Format and Terminology

The text is arranged into paragraphs which roughly indicate units of thought. Even among scholars there is no unanimous agreement as to where a paragraph, sentence, or chapter should begin or end. But the usefulness of this format is in two primary areas: English readability and keeping verses in their context. The very word "verses" suggests something more akin to poetry or mysterious writings rather than letters written as any others, inspired though they were. Displaying such writings as individual verses also tends to foster "proof-texting".

Each paragraph begins with a verse range indication for cross-referencing with other translations or study tools. When a paragraph would be too long for English readability, it is broken up into several paragraphs but without a separate verse range indication for each. Paragraphs are also broken up to indicate conversations.

Some abbreviations used in the notes include OT or NT for the old and new Testaments, and LXX for the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the OT that the NT quotes from).

Figures of Speech

The writers of the NT were typically Hebrew thinkers recording Aramaic speech in Greek. Thus we need to be especially careful about interpreting any given expression and considering all the factors involved. All three languages would have their own expressions and colloquialisms, and at times a Hebrew idiom may be expressed in Greek words for example. One such expression is typically "And he spoke to them, saying…", and they are rendered simply as "And he said to them,…".

A similar situation exists concerning Greek word order. Since Greek is inflected (we get almost all grammatical information from word affixes), word order does not affect meaning for the most part. It can, however, indicate emphasis. John 1:1 ends with "and God was the Word", but the order simply emphasizes the divinity of the Word.

Phrases that begin with "son of" often are a Hebrew expression for a member of a group. For example, "son of Israel" means an Israelite, "son of God" means one of the God class of beings, and "son of man" means one of the human class of beings. So when Jesus uses these expressions for himself, he is either emphasizing his divinity or his humanity, and when preceded by the definite article (the) becomes a title, rendered here as The Human or The God-Man.

Koine Greek also tended to use the male gender of words as inclusive; that is, "sons" could be either male or female, while "daughters" were only female. Likewise, "brothers" could also include females. In both cases the male form was used if there was at least one male in the group. It is a term of inclusion, not exclusion. So if the Greek text is ambiguous, the English word "siblings" is used.

Third-Person Pronouns, Proper Names, and Titles

To distinguish between second person singular and plural, the plural is rendered "yous" in the interlinear, rather than "you(pl.)". It is rendered "you" or "you all" in the paragraphs, depending on whether the context clearly indicates whether more than one person is in view.

Also, pronouns are not capitalized, as no special treatement was given them in the Greek. But even though proper names are not capitalized in the Greek text either, this is retained for the translation because English always capitalizes them, even for names of pets. And if an ordinary word such as "father" is preceded by the definite article, it is capitalized to denote a title. Thus, "my father" is not capitalized but "the Father" is, unless the Greek reads "the father of me".

Pronouns and Gender

Grammatical gender refers to classifying nouns as masculine, feminine, or neuter, and has no relationship to biology. In various languages, a desk may be referred to in masculine terms, a ship in feminine terms, or a child in neuter terms. And in such languages the pronoun must match the noun; if the noun is neuter for example, so also must any pronouns associated with it. Again, there is no connection to biology in this, and no disrespect of God or people.

English, unlike Greek, does not have grammatical gender for its nouns, but only biological. And there is no acceptable personal pronoun for someone of unspecified biological gender, which leads to the controversy over the use of the plural pronoun "they". This problem is compounded when we choose English pronouns for members of the Trinity. No one disputes that Jesus was male, or that he referred to another member as his father (or the Father). But there are instances in the Greek NT where non-masculine pronouns are used.

*[For the sake of consistency and propriety, especially in English, it is better to use personal pronouns (he or she) when referring to people or God, and for lack of a suitable substitute, "they" when the text is not clear. Male pronouns are used for the members of the Trinity, even when the Greek may be feminine or neuter (either grammatically or contextually). However, no one should make the mistake of this being any kind of proof of God allegedly having biological gender. Jesus as human is the only member of the Trinity to have human flesh, and thus biological gender.]

*[] This may change, even at the risk of some being offended that the Holy Spirit is called "it" in the Greek; see next paragraph.

But what about the Holy Spirit? The pronoun in Hebrew is always feminine (she), while in Greek it is always neuter (it), and only masculine when referring to the Comforter for example. But while some will insist that only a prior belief in the Trinity requires us to understand the Holy Spirit as a person, there are enough scriptures to show his personhood without it. For example, the Spirit can be grieved (Eph. 4:30), and some were struck down dead for lying to him (Acts 5:3). The only real question, then, is whether it is more proper to use the masculine or the feminine pronoun.

Regardless of the translation choice for these pronouns, in no way is the honor of God impugned. God is spirit (John 4:24) and thus not flesh, or we make nonsense out of Col. 1:19 which tells us that the fullness of God took up residence in Jesus. If we insist upon assigning biological traits to that which is not biological, we come closer to pagan myth than scriptural fact. For this reason it is just as wrong to think of God as male as it is to think of God as female or an impersonal force. We use masculine terms in English, not because God is male, but because of the lack of a respectful neuter pronoun and the awkwardness of something like "he, she, or it" or dispensing with pronouns completely.

Faith/Belief/Trust

The phrase "believe in someone" carries the connotation of blind faith, as one might believe in the tooth fairy. The phrase "believe someone" means to mentally agree with something they said. But "to have faith in someone" or "to trust someone" adds the meaning of personal conviction, of mental assent plus emotional attachment and dedication. That is why the word "trust" was preferred in this translation, since the Koine Greek of the first century did not have our English concept of merely "believing in" someone's existance without additional contextual information, such as that used in James chapter two. It also avoids the connotation of "faith" as is seen in some Christian communities, who seem to view it almost as a force or power to be maniuplated.

Eternal

The Greek words translated "eternal" means a time of unknown duration, not necessarily an endless time. The extent of that duration can only be determined by context, if at all.

Cross or Stake?

The Greek word traditionally rendered "cross" referred to an upright stake or pole. But there is a separate word for the actual cross-piece, the board upon which the outstretched arms of the victim were nailed at the wrists. So the net result is the familiar "cross" shape. This translation uses separate words for the separate pieces.

Church

The Greek word ekklesia is rendered "Congregation" when referring to the body of believers, but uncapitalized when referring to some other gathering.

Greek Grammar

I have adopted the "simple is better" view found at a site called New Testament Greek. The site also included an online Greek NT without any of the added markings, which can influence interpretation. Unfortunately the site no longer exists. Other material has been gleaned from various sources, including New Testament Greek and NTGreek In Session, which is more formal and takes a more classical approach. Please use these references for in-depth grammatical study; what follows is just a quick reference.

Alphabet and Pronunciation

There are several views on pronunciation, but please read the article Here for discussion on pronunciation errors that have been carried into modern times, as well as the chart Here. I used to prefer a pronunciation that aided with spelling, but have now decided to use the modern pronunciation which has the advantage of being understandable by current speakers of Greek. In any case, what I have below is my attempt to convey the modern pronunciation. The key is for when you are typing in a Greek font.

There is an excellent audio pronunciation guide for "ethnic" or modern Greek Here, and you can hear a native speaker of Greek pronounce the alphabet Here.

Diphthongs (vowel combinations)

*(1st is as pronunced before vowel or β,γ,δ,ζ,λ,μ,ν,ρ; 2nd as before all other consonants)

γ-nasal (sound changes when γ precedes γ, κ, or χ)

Declension

Declension refers to the paradigm (pattern) of changes in endings for a word depending upon its case. In Greek there are three types of declensions:

The stem is the "root" or base of a word.

Within a declension there are three different paradigms, according to gender:

In this way, any particular delcension can be designated like so:

Declensions are also divided into two colums by number: singular and plural. Here are the paradigm charts:

There is a special paradigm for the article (Greek has only one, "the"):

The lexical form (dictionary entry) of a word is always the nom-masc-sing form. So, for example, the lexical form of the article by itself would be ὁ. (But if the article is not by itself, i.e. it appears before a noun, it is parsed according to the noun only, and not the other two genders.) To parse a word is to break it down into its grammatical components: case, gender, number, and lexical form.

Personal Pronouns (I, you, he/she/it, we, you, they)

Reflexive Pronouns (myself, yourself, him-her-itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves)

Punctuation

Some words can also be used as a substitute for punctuation, since Greek uses very little or none in the form of characters. For example, the word και can be used as a comma, a dash, or a period. The word λεγον can introduce a quote: Jesus said to them, saying come with me would be translated Jesus said to them, "Come with me".

Also, the "h" sound is not a separate letter but simply a rough breathing mark over a vowel (to the left for capitals), and is shaped like a reverse apostrophe: υἱος. The only other mark is a dieresis, which is two dots over a vowel (such as in προϊστημι,) to indicate that it is to be pronounced separately, that is, not as part of a diphthong. It may or may not also add the "h" sound; we can't tell from the word itself.