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Comment by Luker88 | Hacker News Reader

Where do I find a literal translation of the bible?

I would like one that does not force a meaning on words that are not known. I think have read enough fiction with made up words to be able to understand something anyway.

Also, maybe not based on Latin? Latin was not the original language anyway, and I got fed up with the mistranslations that we keep repeating as correct.

I gave up after searching and learning the history of the text, but maybe something exists, even if it is not recognized by this or that church?

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Off the cuff, I would say ESV is probably the most mainstream translation that fits your requirements. The translation style attempts to be literal and the source texts are based on the original Greek and Hebrew, not Latin translations.

How literal you want to get beyond that is kind of a deep rabbit hole, that probably ends with learning ancient Hebrew and Greek.

> I would like one that does not force a meaning on words that are not known.

A study edition or commentary would help with that.

> I would like one that does not force a meaning on words that are not known.

The Amplified Bible offers several alternative meanings for a lot of words to try to get some more nuance across. This does make for harder reading.

Yeah I've heard the ESV jokingly described as "English as you've never heard it before" because of the lengths it goes to in order to preserve ordering and meaning to the words while still technically being grammatically correct English.

Almost no translations are based on the Latin. Possibly some Catholic ones are, I don't know.

Some translators might have looked at the Latin, particularly in hopes of clarifying some of the Hebrew, since we have almost no non-Biblical texts in ancient Hebrew. I guess the assumption there--if anyone did do this--would be that Jerome (the main translator into Latin) was closer to the time that ancient Hebrew was spoken, and might therefore have had access to a better understanding of its meaning. But this idea is mostly speculation on my part.

Of the unencumbered versions, Young's Literal is popular, although stilted. He used the Textus Receptus and Masoretic Text. Its age means it hasn't kept up with modern discoveries, however. If you have some facility with the original languages, you can find critical editions that highlight significant variants.

Translation is a hard problem, even in modern language. Rendering a figure of speech literally often means finding a comparable phrase in the target language, for example. Word-for-word is not the same as literal!

The most literal English translation that is yet still readable English is the New American Standard Bible. ESV is very good, too, but at some times is more "literary" than literal.

If you want more literal, you might try the American Standard Version, which never gained much traction but it's a good formal, if older, translation.

Try the YLT, Young's Literal Translation, https://biblehub.com/ylt/genesis/1.htm

I've become fond of https://ebible.org/t4t/

Check out the ESV

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