NetBible

The Translation Philosophy of the NET Bible

When translating any text from one language to another, the translator has to make decisions every step of the way that affect the end result. Issues can be small, such as how to handle a particular grammatical structure in the original language, but they can also be big, for example, whether to reproduce the cadence of poetry inherent in the original. The translators and editors of the NET Bible had to make many decisions about what the translation was going to be like, from how to translate the divine name to how to typeset poetry. Over all of these decisions, however, was a governing principle that the Executive Steering Committee adopted early on that encapsulated key concepts for this translation. In a nutshell, the NET Bible is a translation that seeks to be accurate, readable, and elegant.

When translating any text from one language to another, the translator has to make decisions every step of the way that affect the end result. Issues can be small, such as how to handle a particular grammatical structure in the original language, but they can also be big, for example, whether to reproduce the cadence of poetry inherent in the original. The translators and editors of the NET Bible had to make many decisions about what the translation was going to be like, from how to translate the divine name to how to typeset poetry. Over all of these decisions, however, was a governing principle that the Executive Steering Committee adopted early on that encapsulated key concepts for this translation. In a nutshell, the NET Bible is a translation that seeks to be accurate, readable, and elegant.

 
Accuracy is a difficult concept to define when it comes to translation. Essentially we regard a translation to be accurate when it conveys in the new language what the original author wanted to convey in the original language. For example, imagine the Apostle Paul were with us today and spoke English. If he read the NET Bible translation of his epistle to the Romans and said, “You have conveyed what I intended to convey,” we would have an accurate translation. But unfortunately accuracy is difficult to obtain for a variety of reasons. The Koine Greek of the New Testament is a dead language, so sometimes it is hard to understand what certain words or phrases mean. Sometimes it is difficult to understand the cultural issues behind certain writings. For these and other reasons, scholarship has to be brought to bear on any translation of the Bible. The NET Bible from the beginning has been committed to informing the translation with the best of biblical scholarship. This is a primary way we have made an accurate translation.
 
We have also worked to make the NET Bible “readable.” When working on a translation, the translator must always keep in mind that there are two languages in play: the original language of the text, and the current language of the translation. What works in one language may not work in the other. The translation must be a useable, natural text in the translation language, otherwise it will not communicate well. Our goal in producing the NET Bible was to make an English translation that people would read comfortably and naturally. We want it to sound like English and communicate as English to contemporary readers.
 
The final characteristic is “elegant.” Like accuracy, elegance is hard to define. We have generally regarded it as a quality of language which marks it as enjoyable, memorable, and powerful. This characteristic was important to the Executive Steering Committee because the Bible is used in so many different contexts. It is used privately and publicly. It is used in liturgical worship and in personal reading. It is used with adults and children. To cover all the different situations where English Bible is used, the committee decided that “elegant” would be the best characteristic to emphasize. We want the NET Bible to be not just a good English translation, but a quality translation that serves its readers well.