Category: New Living Translation

By Mark D. Taylor, NLT Bible Translation Committee The words of a Bible text are vitally important, but there are other elements that play a role in how we understand the meaning of any text. Think, for instance, of punctuation. The original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts of the Bible did not use punctuation. As a […]

Hebrew:  עָנָה נֶפֶשׁ (‘anah nephesh), כָּפַר (kaphar)English:   deny yourselves, make right by Jonathan W. Bryant, PhD, Senior Editor, Tyndale Bibles In late September or early October, the Jewish people celebrate Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This holiest day of the Jewish calendar, in which the Jewish people abstain from various practices, including eating, drinking, […]

by Mark D. Taylor, NLT Bible Translation Committee If you compare two or more Bible translations, you will occasionally find differences in the breakup of paragraphs or major sections of the text. What’s going on? For starters, we need to recognize that the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts upon which our translations are based did not […]

Greek:      παράκλητος (paraklētos)English:     Advocate, Helper, Counselor by Jonathan W. Bryant, PhD, Senior Editor, Tyndale Bibles Sometimes when a word is being translated from one language to another, it can be difficult to find a direct correspondence in a single word. In such cases, the word in the source language (e.g., ancient Greek) carries a meaning […]

Greek:      διαθήκη (diathēkē)English:     covenant, agreement, will, testament by Mark D. Taylor, NLT Bible Translation Committee The Greek word diathēkē (pronounced dee-ah-THAY-kay, with a soft TH, as in “thaw”) appears thirty-three times in the New Testament. In English translations, it is usually rendered as “covenant,” even though that word is not used much in everyday speech. […]

Greek:      Χριστός (Christos) English: Christ, Messiah by Jonathan W. Bryant, Senior Editor, Tyndale Bibles The Greek word Christos appears in the New Testament over five hundred times—not surprising given the association of the term with the New Testament’s central character, Jesus. Upon seeing the English transliteration of the word (Christos), it might seem obvious that […]

The New Living Translation and Tyndale House Publishers family mourns the loss of Dr. Philip W. Comfort who passed away on December 31, 2022, at the age of 72. Phil (as he was fondly known by all who knew him) was a member of the Bible Translation Committee for the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, […]

Greek:      μάγος (magos)English:    magi, wise man, sorcerer by Mark D. Taylor, NLT Bible Translation Committee The New Testament uses the term magos in two different contexts: In Matthew 2, it refers to the magi from the east who came to visit the young Jesus, and in Acts 13, it is used to describe a sorcerer […]

Greek:      σάρξ (sarx)English:     flesh, human body, earthly body, sinful human nature by Mark D. Taylor, NLT Bible Translation Committee The New Testament’s use of the Greek word sarx is both straightforward and complicated. The NLT uses a variety of words to translate sarx. In this article, these different English translations of sarx are marked with […]

by Mark D. Taylor, NLT Bible Translation Committee Greek:      κοιμάω (koimaō) English: fall asleep; die The verb koimaō is used eighteen times in the New Testament. The literal meaning of the word is “to fall asleep.” An example of this usage is found in Luke 22:45, where Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane: […]