Features of the ISV®
What
makes the International Standard Version®
different from other Bibles?
by the Committee on Translation
for the International Standard Version®
With so many English language Bible
translations available today, the reader is faced with an important question: "What
distinguishes the ISV® from other English language translations?" The
ISV® offers four
features that distinguish it from other recent English language translations:
1. The ISV® is a New Translation, Not a Revision.
The
ISV® is a totally new work translated
directly from the original languages of Scripture and derived from no other English
translation. The ISV® was produced by Bible scholars who believe that "All Scripture
is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for
training in righteousness." (2 Timothy 3:16 ISV) The ISV® takes advantage not only of
the most ancient manuscripts available, but also of the most recent archaeological
discoveries. The translators of the
ISV® have selected the
English equivalent that most closely reflects the meaning of the original Hebrew, Aramaic,
and Greek texts. For a more detailed account of how the English speaking world received
its Bible, see the article by ISV Committee on Translation member Dr. Ronald Rietveld
entitled
How Our English Bible Came to Us.
2. The
ISV® is a Computer-Friendly Translation
The ISV® is the first English Bible conceived, designed, translated, and
formatted primarily for a computer-literate generation. It is being produced
entirely in a computer aided media (CAM) format. In its electronic format,
the ISV® is the first Bible translation ever published with version numbers. Printed copies of the
ISV® also contain version numbers.
3. The
ISV® is Sensitive to Poetic Forms in the Original Text
The
ISV® treats subtle nuances of the original
texts with special care. For example, several passages of the Bible appear to have been
rendered in poetic form when first penned by their authors. The ISV® has meticulously
crafted these original passages as true poems—thus communicating a sense of their
original literary form as well as translating the original intent of the New Testament
author. As a result, passages that would have been
read as poetry by first century readers actually appear in poetic form in the
ISV®. For
example, see Christ’s complaint to the Pharisees recorded in Luke 7:32-35, the Christ
Hymn of Philippians 2:6-11, the Apostle Paul’s description of love in 1 Corinthians
13, the Common Confession of 1 Timothy 3:16, Paul’s Hymn to Christ in Titus 3:4-7),
Paul’s witty quote of the ancient Greek poet Epimenides in Titus 1:12, and the
"faithful sayings" of Paul in 1 Timothy 1:15, 1 Timothy 3:1, 1 Timothy 4:8, and
2 Timothy 2:11. For a more detailed analysis of how the ISV® renders Greek
poetry, see New Testament Editor Dr. David Alan Black's essay entitled
The Poetry of the International Standard Version New
Testament.
4. The
ISV® is
Sensitive to Literary Forms in the Original Text
The ISV treats
synoptic parallels with special sensitivity. For example, historical
narratives in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke were carefully examined
in the original Greek text in order to compare each occurrence in the text
where the narratives appeared to describe similar instances. Unlike all
other English language translations available today, the ISV translates each
separate synoptic instance with exact translational parity in each textual
occurrence. In those parallel passages where the Greek text occurs with
word-for-word synoptic identity, readers will discover that the ISV
translates these passages into word-for-word English equivalents. In those
parallel passages where the Greek text in the parallel passages approaches,
but does not reach, a word-for-word identity, the ISV has adjusted the
English language translation to reflect the similar, but not exact, nature
of the parallel passages. Similar attention to detail has been adhered to in
the synoptic pre-exilic Old Testament history books of Chronicles, Kings,
and Samuel. To the best of our knowledge and belief, this level of
translational accuracy has never been attained in any English language
translation produced to date.
The reader will
notice—particularly in the Bible’s historical narratives, in the four
Gospels, and in the Book of Acts—that the ISV usually shifts its style of
English composition in order to utilize contractions when translating quoted
words of a speaker, even though the ISV generally avoids the use of
contractions when rendering historical narratives or written correspondence.
The Committee intended that a sense of the informal be communicated when
people are speaking and that a sense of the formal be communicated when
people are writing.
4. The
ISV® is
Sensitive to Conservative, Modern Textual Scholarship
The ISV includes the latest scholarly analysis of the
Dead Sea Scrolls and is the first modern English language translation to
contain an exhaustive treatment of catalogued Dead Sea Scrolls materials
produced courtesy of Dr. Peter Flint and Dr. Eugene Ulrich, two authorities
on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Every major variant from the Masoretic text of the
Hebrew Scriptures contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint was
carefully examined and catalogued for the ISV by a special team of scholars
under the direction of Dr. Peter Flint. All significant departures from
traditional understandings of various Old Testament readings were carefully
analyzed and are presented for the reader’s consideration in footnotes. The
present release of the ISV contains these analyses only for the Psalms and
Proverbs. A future version release of the ISV will contain an analysis for
the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures. The ISV’s book of Isaiah was translated
by Dr. Peter W. Flint directly from the text of the Great Isaiah Scroll
(1QIsa), which was found among the Qumran Cave 1 collection of Dead Sea
Scrolls manuscripts.
6. The
ISV® is a Literal-Idiomatic Translation
The translation theory behind the
ISV® is
different from theories employed in previous Bible translations. Traditionally, two basic
methods of Bible translation have been used. The older method (and for many centuries
practically the only method used) has been labeled "literal" or "formal
equivalent." This type of translation allows readers to identify as fully as possible
with the source languages of Scripture and to understand as much as they can of the
Bible’s customs, manners of thought, and means of expression.
The other method is termed
"idiomatic" or "functional equivalent." The goal of an idiomatic
translation is to achieve the closest natural equivalent in modern language to match the
ideas of the original text. Idiomatic translations have little or no concern for
maintaining the grammatical forms, sentence structure, and consistency of word usage of
the source languages.
All major translations of the Bible fall
somewhere on a scale between complete formal equivalence and complete functional
equivalence. Some of these translations are quite literal (e.g., the King James Version
(KJV), the New King James Version (NKJV®), the American Standard Version of 1901 (ASV),
the New American Standard Bible (NASB®), the Revised Standard Version (RSV®), and the
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV®). Other translations lean toward the idiomatic end of
the spectrum (e.g., the New International Version (NIV®), the New English Bible (NEB®),
the Revised English Bible (REB®), the Good News Bible (GNB®), the New Living Translation
(NLT®), and the Contemporary English Version (CEV®).
It is clear that each of these methods of
Bible translation has its weaknesses. Competent Bible translators have always recognized
that a strictly literal translation of the words of Scripture can be misleading. For
example, "the wicked will not stand in the judgment" might be interpreted as
proving that evil people actually would not be judged. Hence literalness is not always
equivalent to accuracy.
On the other hand, the limitations of
idiomatic translations are also obvious. Such translations frequently tend to cast the
words of Scripture into new molds that convey the ideas in a significantly different
spirit or emphasis. Idiomatic translations have, in a sense, a commentary built into them;
they represent a choice made by the translators as to what the translators think a passage
means. For that reason, an idiomatic translation is easier to read but less reliable for
careful study.
A good translation will steer a careful
course between word-for-word translation and interpretation under the guise of
translating. In other words, a good translation will be both reliable and readable. The
best translation, then, is one that is both accurate and idiomatic at the same time. It
will make every effort to reproduce the culture and exact meaning of the text without
sacrificing readability. The ISV Foundation calls this type of translation
"literal-idiomatic."
Of these three basic types of
translation—literal, literal-idiomatic, and idiomatic—the translators of the
ISV® have, without hesitation, opted for the second. This is not because it happens to be the
middle option, simply avoiding extremes, but because the literal-idiomatic translation is
the only choice that avoids the dangers of over-literalness and of over-interpretation
discussed above. Teaching biblical truth demands extreme fidelity to the original text of
Scripture. However, a translation of the Bible need not sacrifice English clarity in order
to maintain a close correspondence to the source languages. The goal of the
ISV®,
therefore, has been both accuracy and excellence in communication. |
