Everlasting Kingdom: Unraveling the Bible’s Secrets

The Gabriel Bible’s “NT” Index is Here

The Gabriel Bible’s WORD OF ELOHIM “OT” INTRODUCTION

The Torah

The Prophets

The Writings

The INDEX and TEXT of the Word of Elohim [God] Gabriel Bible, (the so-called “Old Testament”) is arranged in the original (Jewish) order. “[T]he sages disagree as to whether Daniel should be included in that list or not”. The original Jewish order is unlike the Septuagint order of over 99.99% of the English Bibles in existence. The Septuagint (LXX), a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures was the first to come up with the present day skewed book arrangement, with the Catholic Bibles also including the Apocrypha in the Septuagint order. What evolved into what is called the Septuagint today is really the work of Origen (almost 200 years after the time of the Messiah). The Scriptures and their order were well established long before Yeshua (Jesus) arrived, contrary to the Council of Jamnia theory!

The Word of Elohim is the real name for the “Old Testament”. Initially the Gabriel Bible was a revision of a prototype of the World English Bible (which was still “in draft form”), which is a revision of the American Standard Version of 1901, that was based on the Revised Version, a British revision of the King James Bible—itself having been revised from the original 1611 version (that does not contain the letter “J”, by the way—no Jesus, no Jehovah). The KJV evolved from the Geneva Bible of 1560, which had been the standard Bible for many years and the first mass produced Bible. We owe that to William Tyndale and Myles Coverdale. Before that there was the Great Bible of 1539, also by Myles Coverdale, based on the works of William Tyndale, an updated version of the quite archaic Coverdale Bible of 1535, again by William Tyndale and Myles Coverdale.

The Gabriel Bible was in the making from 2000 to 2022. Many thousands of changes were word processed into the earliest online Gabriel Bible almost immediately. The Torah (Genesis thru Deuteronomy) was the last part of my Bible to be finished and should be in in print this month, November 2022. But Joshua (Yehoshua) and Judges and First and Second Kings, part of the Prophets, are being of necessity included with the Torah in my print version due to the page limitations of print-on-demand publishing. I now have to keep printed books under 550 pages each, so instead of the four volumes I had been planning on for years, as I go to print, I have to move to five volumes. Because there is no ‘Bible paper’ or ‘onionskin paper’ involved (which I couldn’t possibly afford), you won’t have to lick your fingers to turn the much thicker regular book pages. I am trying to keep my royalties (and your cost) on my four volume Bible and my four topical commentaries as close to zero as possible—often under $20 a year. The cost now also necessitates phasing away from Lulu printing. This is obviously a nonprofit and non prophet endeavor.

These four large volumes will remain in print and online so long as I am able to manage them and there is time left, tho further proof readings are sure to find a few oopses (the third-person singular simple present indicative form of oops.) The Prophets went from only online into print in 2019. The Writings went online and has been in print since late April, 2020. My so called “New Testament” has been online since 2007 and in print since 2011. Originally I was only going to put the “New Testament” in print once I learned that it was originally written in Aramaic and only later translated into Greek (losing some things in the translation), and that there was no really modern version of the Aramaic in English since the 1933 Lamsa Bible. I stopped working on the online Prophets for several years and created The Testimony of Yeshua (Gabriel Version). I had been focused on the Prophets because the remaining 90% of these prophecies are approaching fast! I believe that the “beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24) will begin very soon, as I explain here. My website, EverlastingKingdom.info, has hundreds of live links to give you helpful perspective on many topics, including the difficult times ahead. Who knows when Bible commentary will censored by the corporations online?

There are three primary objectives for creating the Gabriel Bible:

Objective 1: The omission of the names Yehovah and Yeshua, and their replacement with the dubious to pagan LORD, God and Jesus are a misuse of their names, as specified by the third Commandment, He doesn’t tolerate people messing with His name! (Exodus 20:7).

The Leningrad Codex, the basis for all but one or so Bibles, differs from more recent Hebrew Bibles (of the last 900 years) in that it has the vowel points included, “accidentally?’ about 50 times in the Tetragrammaton where it is actually spelled YeHoVaH! (when substituting English letters). [As of JUNE 2018: Nehemiah Gordon has found over 1000 old Hebrew Tanak’s and other ancient sources with YeHoVaH fully spelled out! Zero with Yahweh. Many of these old Hebrew Bibles have never even been examined! Old theories are now dead!]

Objective 2: There are perhaps thousands of live links to the wonderful NASB Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, and hundreds of other relevant sources, so that you aren’t even tempted to just trust my English rendering.

Objective 3: I wanted to create a completely modern version of the entire Bible, with easily read plain wording and accuracy, even easier to read than the modern copyrighted versions, expressing extreme clarity of thought, but free of copyright (for profit) restrictions both online and in print, a version that reads as tho it was originally written in English, and doesn’t constantly remind you that it was translated from Hebrew and Aramaic. There should never be any impediments to the free usage of Scriptures and The Testimony of Yeshua, as explained by the writers of the World English Bible who for many years strived for accuracy, but with wording that is deliberately quite reminiscent of the old ASV— hardly present day English. The Gabriel Bible is classified as Creative Commons, with only “One Right Reserved”, (not really a copyright).

Yeshua and His followers never said anything about an ‘Old Testament’. He always referred to it as either ‘The Word of Elohim’ (Aloha in His native Aramaic, aka God), or ‘the Scriptures’.

Virtually all Christians say that The Word of Elohim (usually ‘Word of God’) is the entire Bible—the ‘Old Testament’ and the ‘New Testament’. Of the 48 places where “the Word of God” is mentioned in the KJV Bible, none of the references show inclusiveness of the Testimony of Yeshua (the so called ‘New Testament’). And of the 76 times that the ‘New Testament’ mentions the ‘Scripture/s’, none of them are referencing the ‘New Testament’ either (most of it hadn’t even been written during the relevant times yet), tho many people interpret 2 Peter 3:16 as if it were an exception. The Word of Elohim is either the ‘Old Testament’—text or spoken, or the person of Yeshua (Jesus) period! So to be precise, this is the Gabriel version of The Word of Elohim. So every Bible contains the Word of Elohim—the translators just don’t seem to know it! The Bible is the Word of Elohim AND the Testimony of Yeshua COMBINED—two separate inspires works:

Revelation 1:1-2, 9 THE Revelation of Yeshua [Jesus] Messiah, that Yehovah gave to Him to show to His servants—certain events that must of necessity take place soon. He revealed these events by sending His messenger to His servant John. He was a witness to the Word of Aloha AND to the Testimony of Yeshua Messiah about everything he saw...9 I John, your Friend and your partner in the tribulation and suffering that are ours in Yeshua Messiah, was on the island called Patmos, because of the Word of Aloha and the Testimony of Yeshua Messiah.

You would be hard pressed to find any Gabriel verse, other than the most basic, exactly like that of any other version. When copying and pasting many finished verses from the Gabriel into a search engine “surrounded by quotation marks”, in all but the simplest of verses, you frequently end up back in my Bible, tho now my site seems to be increasingly harder to find!

For example, this was the very first website to use the name Yehovah, and it’s here 7,573 times in the Gabriel Bible alone (also retrofitted into the Testimony of Yeshua {the “NT”} where early Christians deleted it), and repeatedly in my thousands of pages of commentary, yet on a google search for “Yehovah”, I checked out the first 132 references without finding mine, and by then it stopped searching for titles, it was searching for references hidden in the text.

My ‘New Testament’ has been finished since 2011, after having spent 5,000+ hours updating the very obsolete wording found in the two first Aramaic translations, and comparing each word with the Greek equivalents from as many as thirty translations and revisions, and footnoting every significant difference I found.

Is a Paraphrased Bible Less Reliable Than a Translation?

Let’s look at the most basic definitions of the differences.

“Now granted, there is a certain amount of interpretation that comes into play when we translate. We have to move these words from a language and people that is both foreign and ancient to us in the modern-day. However, translation aims to do as little adding and subtracting from that meaning as possible.”

“A paraphrase author, by contrast, is intentionally adding and subtracting words to restate the idea in their own words. They are reshaping the words to explain the concept from their understanding of the text. When we begin paraphrasing, we’ve moved beyond translating and into interpreting.”

So there you have it!

Revelation 22:18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of prophecy in this book: if anyone ADDS [WORDS] to them, Yehovah will ADD to them the catastrophes [plagues] that are described in this book. 19 If anyone REMOVES WORDS from the book containing this prophecy, Yehovah will TAKE AWAY THEIR DESTINY from the Tree of Life and from the 'cherished' city described in this book.

But wait a minute. If you look at all of the English Bible translations since the first one, what you actually see is that they are all actually revisions—each attempting to be better (or more saleable) that its predecessor! Take for example the KJV. It was largely a revision of the Tyndale Bible. (And Tyndale later revised the Tyndale Bible.) He was burned at the stake by the church for his efforts, but that is another story. But the KJV is primarily a revision of te Tyndale. And the KJV as we have it today is far different than the original 1611 version. Note that it is not called the King James Translation! And this has been the case for over four centuries. The NLT is said to be the only original translation, and maybe it is. But it, like almost all of the modern Wescott & Hort translations use what I consider the most unreliable Greek manuscripts available. And as I argue here, they should be using the Aramaic anyway.

My contention is that every Bible version should note every instance where they add clarifying words in italics and footnote anything out of the ordinary, whether or not they call it a translation, paraphrase or version. It’s called transparency. Anyone who knowingly passes off their own ideas as coming from Yehovah is inviting an eternal penalty. I likely missed some italics since few of the many Bibles I used for comparison used them, but I revise my work in real time!

Whenever there are significant differences in the meaning of a verse, there is reason for investigation. Starting here and here is a way I decide on many questionable verses. But my favorite resolution is locating detailed online information I can link to and pass along.

I would add that plagiarism is a sin anywhere, but especially in the Biblical realm. It’s stealing, and I do hear and see it among teachers. The definition includes public domain works, and I would think copyleft, like mine, and thieves end up in the same pit as Bible forgers!

It’s fun to google novel sounding phrases and strings of seemingly unique search phrases and see where they most certainly originated.

METHODOLOGY:

My methodology is simple. Rather than learn Hebrew and do a one man translation. I compared each verse with nine or more translations to form a composite rewording, benefiting from the combined efforts of the many translations, commentaries and lexicons of the last couple of centuries. There are ever so many possible ways to to phrase a verse, since essentially all of the necessary words are already present and common to most modern translations. Usually each verse of the various translations has the same meaning—only the style changes. When all the versions are in agreement I usually just spend time on the style of those verses (unless something seems contradictory to other passages). So in most instances, I simply compose a new and hopefully eloquent way of saying the same thing (as is done with every copyrighted Bible). If there are differences, I first consult the NASB lexicon, based on the Codex Leningrad, the oldest complete Hebrew Bible in existence, to see if there is an apparent reason for the difference. (The NASB, in my opinion, is the most accurate conventional translation of the Hebrew, and the least reliable translation of the Greek due to the extent of reliance on the so-called “earliest and most reliable” Westcott and Hort texts.) In virtually all but the simplest of sentences the wording is uniquely worded to some degree. This resolves most of the remaining differences. Then any time there is still a disparity or doubt, I consult a number of online commentaries, and almost any time there is a dispute, one of these sources gives me a satisfactory resolution. On rare occasions the renderings are all over the map. Whenever that happens, it is usually a sign that the Hebrew wording is unclear. Most of the time in this instance I side with the consensus, if not, I usually provide a footnote. I have discovered instances where most or all of the translations follow traditionally common wordings, when there are very compelling reasons not to. Hebrew does use a lot of redundant phrases to express a single thought, and as is often the case in modern versions, many of them are not repeated here if they add no more information and just seem odd. Hebrew very commonly mentions eyes, ears, tongues, hands and feet doing things that really means seeing, hearing, speaking, doing things (using your whole body) and going places. This version opts to not having body parts seemingly acting on their own as often.

So here for example is a composite from the Gabriel Bible that I pieced together from various sources. First read the rendering as I see it:

Isaiah 37:21-22 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah, that said, “This is what Yehovah, the Elohim of Israel says: Since you’ve prayed to Me about Sennacherib King of Assyria, 22 this is the 'message' that Yehovah has spoken against him. ‘The virgin maiden of Zion despises you and scorns you. The maiden Jerusalem wags her head at your back sides (achar)as you flee!

This is a quote from the account where “the Angel of the Lord” (the pre incarnate Yeshua) killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers to protect Jerusalem.

I can just picture the (metaphoric) virgin maiden defiantly standing in a gate of Jerusalem waging her head at king Sennacherib and taunting a remnant of surviving ‘mighty’ warriors as they are fleeing from little Jerusalem. Head wagging is a frequently used expression of scorn in the Word of Elohim. I believe the Hebrew phrase accompanying this gesture was, “Na na, na na, na na”. I started getting this picture in my mind, and confirmed it to my satisfaction when I saw that the NASB Interlinear translated achar as ‘butt end’, ‘behind’ and ‘rear’ in some contexts! So verse 22 needs some ‘butt ends’ fleeing. Thoughts of the movie Braveheart came to mind—you know the part.

The virgin/maiden Jerusalem seems to have left boot tracks on some behinds. See what Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible has to say about the virgin of verse 22:

“the virgin, the daughter of Zion; hath despised thee; and laughed thee to scorn; that, is the inhabitants of Zion, particularly of the fort of Zion, called a ‘virgin’, because it had never been forced, or taken and to show that it was a vain thing in Sennacherib to attempt it, as well as it would have been an injurious one, could he have accomplished it; since God, the Father of this virgin, would carefully keep her from such a rape; and he who was her husband to whom she was espoused as a chaste virgin, would defend and protect her; and the whole is designed to show the impotent malice of the king of Assyria; otherwise, at the time when these words were spoken, the daughter of Zion was in a fearful and trembling condition, and not in a laughing frame; but this declares what she might do now, and would do hereafter, for anything that he could do against her. ... the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee; or “after thee”; by way of scorn and derision; that is when he fled; which shows, that tho these things are spoken as if they were past, after the manner of the prophets, yet were to come, and would be when Sennacherib fled, upon the destruction of his army.”

So to envision this scene as I do we need some “behinds” and some “fleeing”. Without both you don’t get the picture. The ESV, the NASB, the GW and the YLT all attempted to work in a ‘behind’, but they assumed it was the virgin slinking around “behind” the scenes, apparently cowering at the sight of Sennacherib’s fleeing behind! Now let’s do a checklist of various versions of Isaiah 37:22, the behind, I mean the latter part of the verse:

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.) ... the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. No behinds, no implied fleeing.

American King James Version ... the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you. No behinds, no implied fleeing.

American Standard Version ... the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. No behinds, no implied fleeing.

Douay-Rheims Bible ... the daughter of Jerusalem hath wagged the head after [behind] No behinds, no implied fleeing.

Darby Bible Translation ... the daughter of Jerusalem shaketh her head at thee. No behinds, no implied fleeing.

English Revised Version ... the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. No behinds, no implied fleeing.

Webster’s Bible Translation ... the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. No behinds, no implied fleeing.

World English Bible ... The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you. No behinds, no implied fleeing.

Young’s Literal Translation ... Behind thee shaken the head hath the daughter of Jerusalem. Wrong behind, no implied fleeing.

SCORE: Assyrian ‘behinds’—none, 4 misapplied behinds, 11 left out any semblance of the word behind!

implied ‘flee’ 2 out of 15

I also doubt that the more common rendering ‘daughter’ is intended in this verse. It would seem that the infrequent rendering ‘maiden’ is the sense in this verse (aside from just making more sense). The Assyrians and many other regional countries routinely named countries and cities after the wife-goddesses of the particular god of the region. Assyria “the land of Nimrod” (Micah 5:6) was no exception. Nimrod and his wife-mother-goddess Semiramis, later known as Ishtar (pronounced Easter), were worshiped as deities. ‘Maiden’ Jerusalem would have emphasized to the Assyrians that Jerusalem was no one’s wife-goddess.

Without using all of my resources I wouldn’t catch things like this.

There is one other difference in my methodology: I believe that the Creator is directly responsible for the original Hebrew Scriptures, and I have had some life changing miracles happen in my life. As a result, I am not looking for excuses to minimize the miraculous events I am describing, or minimize the Father Himself or His Son.

‘Old Testament’?

The first half of this introduction is very much like the intro to The Testimony of Yeshua, but this is from the Hebrew and that changes things. This introduction reads somewhat like a checklist, and to an extent it is.

Tertullian was probably the first to apply the term ‘New Testament’ to the newer Messianic Texts, and ‘Old Testament’ to the Hebrew Scriptures in an attempt to make the Hebrew Scriptures seem obsolete! It’s a derogatory application of a legitimate term used once in in 2 Corinthians 3:14. This ‘Ancient (Old) Covenant (Contract)’ is really the contract found in Exodus chapters 20-23. In chapter 24:3 ancient Israel accepted the Ancient Contract. ‘Testament’ isn’t a synonym for ‘covenant’ and the ‘New Covenant’ isn’t a book. This terminology implies that the newer Texts are superior to the (Hebrew) Scriptures, rather than the completion of the books. Yet the Messianic Texts are additional Inspired Texts, they complement the Scriptures. Yeshua’s message was the aim and purpose of the Torah (Law). So I seldom use the term ‘New Testament’ except to explain the bias of the phrase’s origin.

Romans 10:4 The Messiah is the aim of the Torah, a means of righteousness for everyone who believes in Him.

“The world has never had a complete Bible of the Old and New Testaments in the original manuscript order of the biblical books. This is a fact! It is almost unbelievable that such a non-manuscript arrangement of the books of the Bible could exist, but all modern translations of the Holy Scriptures do not follow the early manuscripts.” —Restoring the Original Bible, Ernest L. Martin, PhD.

“Our English Bibles follow the order as given in the Latin Vulgate. This order, therefore, depends on the arbitrary judgment of one man, Jerome (A.D. 382–429). All theories based on this order rest on human authority, and are thus without any true foundation.”—Companion Bible, Appendix 95, p.139

Prior to Tertullian’s contrived use of “new covenant” (entirely out of context: Jeremiah 31:31), there was no concept of a deep chasm separating the ‘New Books’ (documents & letters) from the Torah (Hebrew Scriptures), and the newer Texts were not thought to have anti Semitic overtones. I refer to the newer Messianic Texts as “The Testimony of Yeshua” because the envoy (apostle) John called it that six times! He used “the Testimony of Yeshua Messiah” twice to describe the collective words of Yeshua in Revelation 1, thereafter he simply called it the Testimony of Yeshua (four times). He was the last surviving envoy, and evidence indicates that he finished ‘canonizing’ “the Testimony of Yeshua”. (Overwhelming evidence for ‘Apostolic canonization’, rather than Catholic, can be read in Ernest Martin’s above mentioned book). John used the term ‘the Testimony of Yeshua Messiah’ three times and ‘Testimony of Yeshua’ twice after he had established the term.

I believe that what is now called the Bible was meant to be considered two or even four books! The Jews created the acronym Tanak (or Tanakh) from three Hebrew consonants—TNK. ‘TaNaK’ stands for the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings—essentially a series of three books that John collectively called The Word of Aloha (the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew word Elohim), which is called ‘the Scripture/s’ 76 times in the ‘New Testament’. Adding what the Book of Revelation calls The Testimony of Yeshua makes four subdivisions.

The Testimony of Yeshua was prophesied in the Tanak to be written, even tho the disciples themselves didn’t realize it until years after Yeshua had died:

The Torah AND the Testimony!

Isaiah 8:13-20 Commander Yehovah is the One you must regard as 'special'. He is the One you should fear. He is the One you should dread. 14 He [Yeshua Jesus] will be a safe haven. But for both houses of Israel, He’ll be a Stone to trip over, and a Rock to stumble over. He’ll be a trap and a snare for the residents of Jerusalem. 15 A great many will stumble over Him, fall, be broken, be snared and captured.” 16 In a time of distress, bind up [2] the Testimony and put a seal on the Torah among My disciples. 17 I’ll wait for Yehovah who has 'turned away' from the House of Jacob, and I’ll eagerly look for Him. 18 I and the children [disciples] who Yehovah has given Me are for signs and miracles in Israel from Commander Yehovah who lives on Mount Zion!” 19 When they tell you to consult with mediums who use ventriloquism and wizards who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t people consult their Elohim? Should they consult the dead regarding the living? 20 To the Torah AND to the Testimony! If people don’t speak in agreement with these Words, it’s because it [the truth] hasn’t dawned on them!

[2] See why the Testimony was written during a time of distress.

(Incidentally the above text is one of those places where a careful reading indicates that Yeshua {v.14} also goes by the name Yehovah {v.13}, (as does

Judges 6, beginning with the footnote!) It is also the only reference to ‘disciples’ in the ‘Old Testament’.)

Revelation 12:17 The Dragon was furiously angry with the woman, and he went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, those who obey the Commandments of Yehovah [TORAH] AND have THE TESTIMONY OF YESHUA.

Revelation 19:10 I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said, “Don’t do that! I’m a fellow servant, I’m your brother who also adheres to THE TESTIMONY OF YESHUA [His ‘written statements’]. Worship Yehovah, because THE TESTIMONY OF YESHUA is spirit inspired utterances [or ‘the spirit of prophecy’].” (also: Revelation 1:2 & 9).

Revelation 6:9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the bodies of those who were slain because of the Word of Aloha and for the Testimony of the Lamb that they had.

Isaiah 8:20 To the Torah AND to the Testimony! If people don’t speak in agreement with these Words, it’s because it [the truth] hasn’t dawned on them!

The footnotes in most Bibles reflect easily verified historical and archaeological points and popular theology that is readily accepted (sold), and cross referenced. The footnotes in the Gabriel reflect more controversial points of doctrine that I believe are being overlooked. For brevity no disclaimers are made or contrary views noted. Consider them things to research for yourself.

Have you ever read the copyright statement in your Bible? Some of them bind the Inspired Texts with heavier chains than others, but always to make a few shekels. Here is what one Aramaic ‘New Testament’ copyright has to say:

“All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.”

This is a serious situation. Imagine what the ultimate penalty might be for putting a lock on Father’s truths! I want to completely move away from versions that restrict quotations.

A burning issue is the idea of paraphrasing. In essence all translating is paraphrasing—taking a foreign word or phrase and replacing it with what is, hopefully, the equivalent words or thoughts in another language. The major obvious difference is the flavor! Using obsolete words to flavor a translation adds credibility in the minds of many, but is that logical? Another flavor is using the original sentence structuring—the sequence of the words. Unusual word order, foreign to your language doesn’t necessarily add anything that the Bible was intended to reveal either. The Bible was written in the language of the day. And so far as I know there isn’t a single bit of theological jargon in the Bible, so there really isn’t any in the Gabriel. But when paraphrasing adds new meanings or takes away from the original thoughts, it becomes an error at best! The best translation would answer the question, “What would Yeshua (Jesus) do”. A version can be very accurate without being word for word ‘literal’. Word for word is actually a poor method of translating, if the objective is more than simply to convey isolated facts. Precise thought for thought is what counts. A ‘version’ like the King James Version is not really a new translation. Over 80% of the King James New Testament was taken (without acknowledgment) from William Tyndale’s translation. The translators were improving and modernizing the language (with some strongly pressured rephrasing to emphasize the Church of England’s hierarchy)! And rephrasing is what I am doing with the Gabriel Bible. There is always a choice, translators can either accurately translate into present day language, or they can choose to translate into something else!

Biblish is a language that was never used in any culture at any time. Is a disservice to the reader:

“Biblish is a colloquial term used to refer to the dialect of English found in many English Bible versions. This dialect of English is usually only spoken by church people who are familiar with the Bible and the ‘sacred language’ which is found in some versions of the Bible and in the church environment. Biblish includes vocabulary found in Bible versions which use this ‘sacred language,’ rather than ordinary English, as well as non-English syntax which is borrowed from the original Hebrew and Greek [should be Aramaic] biblical languages. Biblish contrasts with the use of vocabulary, syntax, and discourse patterns which are Natural in the translation language.”—Navigating the Horizons in Bible Translations

Significant words that have been added, strictly as suggestions for translational clarity, are placed in italics like this, as was done in the KJV, an extraordinary idea. The Word of Elohim Gabriel Bible continues the use of italicization. Italicized words are used to help thoughts flow in English and should be viewed as such since they are not actually present in the Hebrew and Aramaic texts, tho they can certainly be implied. Simple connecting words aren’t usually marked in translations that mark clarifying words because there are so many. Unfortunately, the use of italics is a convention largely dropped in the modern translations. They were intended to smooth out the rough places that arise of necessity from translating, and help the thoughts flow into English. Sarcasm is occasionally noted with “quotation marks”. Simple connecting words aren’t usually italicized in translations that mark clarifying words because there are so many. Italicization has not been a high priority. Perhaps I’ll live long enough to check each verse.

While it is quite helpful and honest to indicate when a clarifying word is totally missing in the original Hebrew, by italicizing those words, I believe that it is also important to indicate the words and phrases that are difficult to translate or just awkward; words that have been interpreted or paraphrased. So a unique feature of the Gabriel Bible is that in situations where the most literal wording would be unclear in English, quotation marks 'like these' indicate that the word or wording has been interpreted or paraphrased from an existing Hebrew word. So for example “He who walks righteously” would become “He who 'lives' righteously”. When literal translations attempt to translate idioms they can end up with a jumble of words. Idioms seldom translate, that’s why they’re called idioms! It actually isn’t uncommon to find English idioms that appear to have been coined by someone in the past who understood the Hebrew or Aramaic idioms (or else they really were in use all along but the origin was lost). With a bit of tweeking some of these idioms have been salvaged, rather than making generic substitutions.

Some verses are clarified by the Aramaic Targums. They are the oldest known Scriptures. They were translated from the most ancient Hebrew texts for generations of Jews who spoke Aramaic after the diaspora. The Targums were written to be read side by side with the Hebrew Scriptures in the synagogues for Jews who were using the Hebrew out of respect, not as a spoken language. They were a teaching tool. And since they were sister languages using the same alphabet it was quite efficient, especially since they are paraphrased for clarity. “This custom continues today in Yemenite Jewish synagogues.”

I make very little use of the Septuagint “What is called the Septuagint today is the work of Origen (almost 200 years after the time of Christ).” Tho at times it comes in handy, since at least Orign had access to older manuscripts that no longer exist.

So many Bible wordings are tied up with copyright restrictions that the best ways to state something are sometimes already ‘in use’.

Reading the Bible should be so overwhelming that it is literally to die for! Being willing to both live and die for your convictions requires emotional maturity. Do you feel multiple passions while reading Father’s very words? If you are tripping over awkward phraseology you lose much of the emotional impact that should be inseparable from the facts.

Bible reading shouldn’t be like reading something from a stodgy academic linguistic puzzle, fitting together individual words retrieved from a cave from a nearly dead language. The Bible is “full of life and active” (Hebrews 4:12). It is for all time, inspired and sent to you from heaven by our very living Father! I see no reason to sprinkle the text with to many Hebrew words, except as references, so long as an English word without a pagan etymology can be used. What is the motive?

Understanding the Bible doesn’t require understanding foreign language word structures, so long as the translation is HONEST! It is only by checking the more critical words in a lexicon that you can usually determine the honesty. Using a lexicon can be better than learning Aramaic or Hebrew as your second language. How many times do we use words in our own language correctly, knowing all of the possible nuances of our less often used words? Even using proper English requires knowing your way around a dictionary.

Some modern translations stress that they are not revisions, that they were not influenced by previous translations and revisions. It is quite true that all the older versions are strikingly similar. Conversely, the newer versions strive for uniqueness; few verses being worded exactly the same as any other modern versions (like the Gabriel Bible). The primary reason for this is copyright law. Were all of the older translators just too lazy to change things, or were they reluctant to make changes to wording that had held up to scrutiny for generations? I’m convinced that they had no interest in change just for the sake of change! But some newer versions prefer to ignore the input of generations of interpreters. My take on the old adage: “Those who don't know history are doomed...”. I prefer to benefit from everything from the oldest Bibles, from the Aramaic Targums to the newest fresh online translations, lexicons and commentaries, every question targetable with precision via internet sources. The Gabriel Bible is entirely based on the findings of hundreds of other truth seekers—expressed in English. I saw no need to spend years attempting to get up to speed on the original languages myself when so many hundreds of people have already done that spanning hundreds of years.

There is an interesting website devoted to translation theory. While their perspective assumes the need for “church hierarchy” and Greek originality (supremacy), it is still interesting, at least for me, to consider the goals of the mainstream translators. The most literal translations are termed “formal equivalence”. Those appearing as loose paraphrases are termed “dynamic equivalence translations”, regardless of their accuracy. Note these comments from the site:

“Translations can be located on a spectrum, which would have, at one extreme, rigid adherence to the form of the original language (formal equivalence)...

At the other extreme:

“There are problems, however, with dynamic equivalence translations. Since the translator is ‘freer’ from the grammatical forms of the original language, they are more likely to exceed the bounds of an accurate translation, in an effort to speak naturally in the native language. That is, the dynamic equivalence translations are capable of being more natural and more precise than are formal equivalence translations, but they are also more capable of being precisely wrong.”

Another commentator who prefers the term ‘Functional’ over ‘Dynamic’ says:

“[T]he main flaw that people generally have with Functional [Dynamic] translation is that it looks suspiciously like paraphrase rather than translation. This isn’t a methodological criticism. As a method, Functional translation says, languages are different, but that they all have the potential for conveying the same meanings. What these meanings look like, whether they are at a word level, phrase level, clause level, or paragraph level depends on the grammar of the target language, not on the source language. And what people often don’t realize about this is that by no means are formal [literal] properties excluded from the application of functional methodology. That’s because as long as meaning isn’t violated and the language of the target translation is still natural, formal properties are allowed to be maintained.”

It is interesting to note that the very first translation of the Scriptures, that being from the Hebrew into its sister language, the Aramaic, is the Targums. And the Targums utilized Dynamic equivalence or paraphrasing! This was a highly respected mode of teaching in the synagogues once Aramaic became the spoken language of the Jews. There was absolutely no restriction against adding a few ‘italicized words’ (so to speak) to clarify a point!

The Word of Elohim, Gabriel Bible strives for ‘Dynamic’ accuracy as well as ease of reading, but don’t think that the simplicity of the text has to diminish the accuracy. Almost anything can be explained, given enough simple terms. Yet anywhere that a technical understanding is beneficial, I don’t hesitate to jump into the technical mode, accompanied by a live lexicon or research link. Many of the more important doctrinal points found in the Gabriel are linked to my online books in the Mysteries of the Everlasting Kingdom series.)

“Sadly, English Bible translators have an unfortunate tendency to sacrifice comprehension and clarity in a misguided attempt at ‘literal accuracy’—an oxymoron, more often than not.”

Two of the most important word replacements are these:

Yehovah replaces the pseudonym ‘LORD’ in every instance. After all, as the very first source on the internet praising and endorsing His name, I find it equally important to literally praise His name all 6,519 times in the Tanak.

Secondly, ‘Elohim’ replaces ‘God’. It is the generic Hebrew word for ‘God’, or ‘god’ and is used when His personal name isn’t being referenced. It appears 2,736 or so times. God likely was the actual name of a pagan deity that has replaced the title Elohim, the title used in the Word of Elohim (‘OT’) 2,736 times.

A hyperlinked word or phrase obviously links to a source that elaborates on the thought. The linking shows up in the written texts in case someone reading from a book can check it out online.

A ‘biblehub.com’ link is to a Strong’s numbered word in a lexicon.

Latinized names of people and places remain almost entirely intact so that their names remain recognizable. I’m content to rid the Scriptures of paganized vocabulary in reference to Elohim, as illustrated by my Glossary, without putting people off by using a lot of Hebrew terms just because they are Hebrew terms.

I have leaned toward rendering a bit more thought for thought in the Word of Elohim than I did in the Testimony of Yeshua. Somehow it seems to be more necessary for clarity. One rule I followed is that every sentence must make sense and there are no true contradictions. Occasional verses are translated several ways when various versions are compared. Often the older literal versions, while striving for accuracy make no sense! The context is the best reference in these instances. I look at these until a light bulb comes on.

On gender neutrality: Wherever ‘man’ is used but ‘humanity’ is in fact the intent, language inclusive of women is used (otherwise women could get away with murder or miss out on all kinds of things:

Genesis 1:27 So Elohim created mankind in His own image. In the image of Elohim He created them. He created them male and female.

Gender neutrality shouldn’t be a big issue. It’s a smokescreen covering the real issues!

Pronouns referring to Yeshua and His Father are capitalized. Very few are really in dispute.

My footnotes are in numbered brackets, like this: [1].

My 4 books, the Mysteries of the Everlasting Kingdom series uses quotations from the Gabriel Bible, unless noted.

Why would a [now retired] house painter with no ‘orthodox credentials’ create a new version of the Bible? The idea came as a surprise to me too. In 2007 I discovered that the ‘New Testament’ was really written in Aramaic, not Greek, and that at the time the only accurate versions of it that I am aware of were printed in 1849 and 1851, and in very obsolete English. So I set out to create a new version of the Testimony of Yeshua (what the apostle John called it.) That took me several years and 5,000+ hours. It was part of a life long desire to understand the mysteries of the Bible. So far as I know, there are copyright restrictions on every English version of the Bible written in contemporary English. So rather than break any laws quoting from copyright protected material, I decided to create an entire free version, not just using my own rendering of the verses I quote from.

The primary thing that really pushed me most into beginning The Word of Elohim, Gabriel Bible is the 7,038 references (in this version; including the Testimony) to Yehovah, that were missing in all other translations. I simply got tired of seeing fake names of the Father and the Son in my Bible. If that were the only change I made it would be well worth it.

Before explaining the details of the methodology of the Gabriel Tanakay (my suggested alternative to the word Bible—not steming from the port city of Phonesia), I’d like to reference the heritage of English Bibles:

Timeline of English Bible Translations

1384: Wycliffe’s Bibles were the first hand written copies of the entire Bible. It also included the Apocrypha.

1455: Gutenberg invented the Printing Press. Books could now be mass produced instead of being handwritten. The first book ever Printed was Gutenberg’s Bible in Latin.

1526: William Tyndale’s New Testament was the first ‘New Testament’ printed in the English language.

1535: Myles Coverdale’s Bible was the first complete Bible printed in English. It included the Apocrypha. It utilized Luther’s German text and the Latin as sources.

1537: The Matthews Bible was the second complete Bible printed in English. It was a composite of Tyndale’s Pentateuch and New Testament (1534-1535 edition) and Coverdale’s Bible, and some of Roger’s own translation.

1539: The “Great Bible” was the first English language Bible legally authorized for public use. It incorporated much from the Tyndale Bible with the “objectionable features” revised (like condemnation of the word “church”). As the Tyndale Bible was incomplete, Coverdale translated the remaining books of the Tanak (Old Testament) from the Latin Vulgate and German translations, rather than working from Aramaic, Hebrew or even Greek texts. It strongly influenced the KJV. (Cromwell & Coverdale were my kind of guys!)

1560: The Geneva Bible was the first English language Bible in print to add verse numbers to each chapter. The Geneva Bible was translated from the Greek ‘New Testament’ and the Hebrew Scriptures. The English rendering was substantially based on the earlier translations by William Tyndale and Myles Coverdale (more than 80 percent of the language in the Genevan Bible is from Tyndale). However, the Geneva Bible was the first English version in which the entire Tanak was translated directly from the Hebrew.

1568: The Bishops Bible: The translators of the King James Version were instructed to use the 1602 edition of the Bishops’ Bible as their basis, although several other existing translations were taken into account.

1611: After the King James Version was published it soon took the Bishops’ Bible’s place as the de facto standard of the Church of England. Also called Authorized Version, “under the auspices of King James I of England. The translation had a marked influence on English literary style and was generally accepted as the standard English Bible from the mid-17th to the early 20th century.”—Encyclopedia Britannica

1782: Robert Aitken’s Bible was the first English language Bible to be Printed in America. It was a King James Version, without the Apocrypha.

1833: Noah Webster’s Bible, a revision of the King James Bible was made after his famous dictionary.

1849 The J. W. Etheridge ‘New Testament’ is a very literal translation from the Aramaic, the language that Yeshua actually spoke in and that the Testimony of Yeshua (NT) was originally penned in.

1851 James Murdock’s ‘New Testament’ is another very literal translation from the Syriac {Aramaic} Peshito Version. As with the Etheridge, it’s literal to a fault.

From this point in time on, virtually every translation of the ‘New Testament’ has been based on very defective Greek texts. Most of the modern translations controversy goes away once people realize that the New Testament, (Testimony of Yeshua) was really originally written in Aramaic All of the early translations of the Bible, until the late 19th century relied on the Textus Receptus, that is quite similar to the vast majority of Greek texts that have been gathering dust since 1881, beginning with the translation of the Revised Version in England in 1881-1885 using Westcott and Hort’s Greek Text. Twentieth century Bible translations other than KJV updated versions contain many errors, tho none of them would cost someone their salvation.

1881-1885: The English Revised Version of the Bible was the First major English revision of the KJV. “The revisers were charged with introducing alterations only if they were deemed necessary to be more accurate and faithful to the Original [as in the corrupt Sinaiticus/Vaticanus Mss] Greek and Hebrew texts. In the New Testament alone more than 30,000 changes were made, over 5,000 on the basis of what was [fraudulently] considered better Greek manuscripts. The work was begun in 1879, with the entire work completed in 1885.”

1901: The American Standard Version was the first major American revision of the KJV. The Basis of the ‘NT’ is also the corrupted Sinaiticus/Vaticanus Mss. The ASV was the basis of four other revisions. They were the Revised Standard Version (1946-1952/1971), the Amplified Bible (1965), the New American Standard Bible (1971, and revised in 1995), and the Recovery Version (1999). A fifth revision was recently completed, the World English Bible: “primarily an update of the 1901 edition”. The ASV was also the basis for Kenneth N. Taylor’s Bible paraphrase, The Living Bible, that was published in 1971. [Lon’s note: I find the NASB to be incredibly faithful to the Hebrew, and the most incredibly faithful to the CORRUPTED Greek versions!]

1971 AD (updated in 1995): The New American Standard Bible: “While preserving the literal accuracy of the 1901 ASV, the NASB has sought to render grammar and terminology in contemporary English. Special attention has been given to the rendering of verb tenses to give the English reader a rendering as close as possible to the sense of the original Greek and Hebrew texts. In 1995, the text of the NASB was updated for greater understanding and smoother reading. The New American Standard Bible present on the Bible Gateway matches the 1995 printing.” “A comparison of the textual and stylistic choices of twenty translations against 15,000 variant readings shows the following rank of agreement with the Nestle-Aland 27th edition ...” The conclusion is that the NASB and the ‘Old’ ASB were most ‘faithful to’ the distorted Greek Westcott and Hort texts, while the Murdock Peshitta translation, the New King James Bible and the King James Version were the furthest from it, (in fact unrelated). On the other hand, the NASB is an extremely faithful rendition of the Hebrew Scriptures.

1973: The New International Version is in a class by itself. It was published by Zondervan as a "Modern and Accurate Phrase for Phrase English Translation" of the Bible. The New Testament was released in 1973 and the full Bible in 1978. It underwent a minor revision in 1984 and a major revision in 2010. The text used for the Tanak (Old Testament) was the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia Masoretic Hebrew Text. Other ancient texts consulted were the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, the Latin Vulgate, the Syriac Peshitta, the Aramaic Targum, and for the Psalms the Juxta Hebraica of Jerome. The text used in translating the [Testimony] New Testament was the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament [Westcott and Hort’s Greek Text]. According to Zondervan, publisher of the NIV, the translation has become the most popular modern English translation of the Bible, having sold more than 215 million copies worldwide. A quick overview of the differences between the Minority texts and the Majority texts can be found here. The controversy is almost always framed as the KJV vs the modern versions. Why the stark differences? See why here! The controversy over gender names is a joke, compared to what is really at stake! Zondervan Publishers also owns Harper Collins, the publishers of The Satanic Bible and The Joy of Gay Sex.

1982: The New King James Version states that “The aim of its translators was to update the vocabulary and grammar of the King James Version, while preserving the classic style and literary beauty of the original 1611 KJV version. Finally, a modern Bible based on the Majority Texts! The 130 translators believed in unyielding faithfulness to the original [as they presumed] Greek, Aramaic [in Daniel], and Hebrew texts including the Dead Sea Scrolls. Also agreed upon for most New King James Bibles was, easier event descriptions, history of each book, and added dictionary and updated concordance.” “According to the preface of the New King James Version (p. v-vi), the NKJV uses the 1967/1977 Stuttgart edition of the Biblia Hebraica for the Old Testament, with frequent comparisons made to the Ben Hayyim edition of the Mikraot Gedolot published by Bomberg in 1524–25, which was used for the King James Version. Both the Old Testament text of the NKJV and that of the KJV come from the ben Asher text (known as the Masoretic Text). However, the 1967/1977 Stuttgart edition of the Biblia Hebraica used by the NKJV uses an earlier manuscript (the Leningrad Manuscript B19a) than that of the KJV. [The Leningrad codex is the oldest complete copy of the Scriptures. It also ‘accidentally’ includes Father’s complete name (Yehovah), about 50 times, with all three vowel points included, tho generally the o is omitted to help prevent any Jews from accidentally praising His name. So the other 6,000 references spell His name Yehvah “The New King James Version also uses the Textus Receptus (‘Received Text’) for the New Testament, just as the King James Version had used. The translators have also sought to follow the principles of translation used in the original King James Version, which the NKJV revisers call ‘complete equivalence’ in contrast to ‘dynamic equivalence’ used by many other modern translations.” Some of the KJV only crowd have made a stink over the NKJV claiming corruptions. On this site, for example, the translators are harshly chastised for changing the word ‘corrupt’ to ‘peddling’ in 2 Corinthians 2:17. The difference is that the NKJV uses the primary Greek definition of kapeleuo, while the KJV used the secondary definition. I find it difficult to fault the NKJV translators in the translation of a word used only once in the Greek text, with their opting for the primary meaning. However the Aramaic word is more precise than either. It refers to ‘mixing’ or ‘diluting’, which in this case implies syncretism: slanting pagan philosophy into a translation, a practice that began very early on. Their many other criticisms don’t appear to me to be valid either.

1989: The New Revised Standard Version and the RSV (1952) claim to “... have a ‘history’; they are direct descendants of Tyndale and AV. [Glossing over the fact that a totally different Greek text base was substituted]. Just as the AV was, strictly, a revision rather than a new translation (taking its lineage from Tyndale and Coverdale, via the Great Bible and the Bishop’s Bible), so was the RSV a revision of the American Standard Version (1901) which in its turn was a revision of the AV via the Revised Version (1881 &: 1885). This may explain why the RSV has found a place in so many hearts. The preface ‘To the Reader’ of the NRSV restates much of the earlier Preface to the RSV. It explains the philosophy of both versions and the reasons why a new revision had been deemed necessary. It acknowledges their debt to the King James Version which has been termed ‘the noblest monument of English prose’, but shows how the continuing discoveries of older manuscripts [as in the corrupt Sinaiticus/Vaticanus Mss] and ongoing investigations into linguistic features of the text have prompted the proliferation of new translations into English. ‘Following the publication of the RSV Old Testament in 1952, significant advances were made in the discovery and interpretation of documents in Semitic languages related to Hebrew. In addition to the information that had become available in the late 1940s from the Dead Sea texts of Isaiah and Habakkuk, subsequent acquisitions from the same area brought to light many other early copies of all the books of the Hebrew Scriptures (except Esther), tho most of these copies are fragmentary. During the same period early Greek manuscript copies of books of the New Testament also became available.’”

2001: The English Standard Version was, first and foremost, a revision of the 1971 edition of the Revised Standard Version, and even so only about 5%–10% of the RSV text was changed in the ESV. Many corrections were made to satisfy objections to some of the RSV’s interpretations that conservative Protestants had considered as theologically liberal, for example, reverting from ‘young woman’ back to ‘virgin’ in Isaiah 7:14. The language was modernized to remove ‘thou’ and ‘thee’ and replace obsolete words (e.g., ‘jug’ for ‘cruse’). Aside from using fraudulent texts for the Testimony of Yeshua, see other reasons, “Why the English Standard Version (ESV) should not become the Standard English Version”, by Mark Strauss.

2004: The New Living Bible is online here. “The New Living Translation (NLT) is a translation of the Bible into modern English. Originally starting out as an effort to revise The Living Bible, the project evolved into a new English translation from Hebrew and Greek texts. Some stylistic influences of The Living Bible remained in the first edition (1996), but these are less evident in the second edition (2004, 2007)... The New Living Translation used translators from a variety of denominations. The methodology combined an attempt to translate the original texts simply and literally with a dynamic equivalence approach used to convey the thoughts behind the text where a literal translation may have been difficult to understand or even misleading to modern readers... The Old Testament translation was based on the Masoretic Text (Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia) and was further compared to other sources such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint, Greek manuscripts, Samaritan Pentateuch, Syriac Peshitta, and Latin Vulgate. The New Testament translation was based on the two [corrupted] standard editions of the Greek New Testament (the UBS 4th revised edition and the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece 27th edition).”

2021 The Berean Study Bible: From a quick looking over, there is a lot to like with this one on the collegial (interactive) front. And I’d like to get a chance to read it, but it is unlikely this late in the game. But I believe that next to the Aramaic Peshitta the Majority text versions (the KJV, NKJV and the WEB below) are definitely more accurate. For example, and this one is obviously salvational (according to Yeshua): the Wescott & Hort versions of Revelation (most modern versions) inexcusably substitutes “wash your robes” for “obey The Commandments”, unlike Matthew 19:16-19.

2022 Updated: The World English Bible is a public domain translation of the Bible (Meaning no copyright—read this and be shocked!). It is said to be based on the American Standard Version of the Bible, first published in 1901, using the Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensa for the ‘Old Testament. But while commending the Wescott and Hort texts, the NIV in particular, the translators have rather quietly reverted to the much better Greek Majority Texts for their ‘New Testament’. I had to check Matthew 20 for any deletions to be sure. It’s the first version (of any size) in modern history being produced without a profit motive. Work on the World English Bible began in 1997, it evolved over years. I’m not sure when it was actually finished. The World English Bible project was started to produce a modern version of Bible in English without the archaic English, but deliberately not updating to contemporary English. Instead of transliterating the Tetragrammaton, as the American Standard Version had done, they substituted the popular Samaritan ‘Yahweh’, rather than the nearly correct Jehovah that the ASV utilized. (There was no letter J in any language until about 500 years ago—no Jesus, no Jehovah.) Being public domain means that you can freely copy it in any form, including electronic and print formats.

Many of the arguments of the KJV-only crowd, concerning the Minority texts, are quite accurate and compelling. Breaking into the middle of one such KJV-only writers commentary illustrates this. After viewing the vast majority of modern “New Testaments” being based on 3 or so flawed Greek copies, you can easily see why some people are suspicious of every modern version. Where I differ with the KJV-only people is that some good lesser known versions are available without all of the archaic language—right now, just over 400 years after the original 1611 KJV REvision was made.

WHY ME? How can a person who doesn’t read Hebrew create a version of the Bible? I’m glad you asked. First, calling it a version implies that it isn’t a direct translation. But then I don’t suppose there is an English translation anywhere that hasn’t been based on a preceding version from this long history of English Translation predecessors, other than of course the NIV’s ‘New Testament’, mentioned above.

The difference with the Gabriel Bible is that like the first English language Bible, the “Great Bible” of 1539 AD, rather than learn Hebrew myself, I reviewed the collective renderings and conclusions of as many Hebrew translators as I could, one verse at a time. The collective wisdom of virtually every Hebrew scholar is available to view (but not necessarily quote) free on the internet. So this version (not translation) is almost entirely based on free internet Bibles, lexicons (dictionaries) and commentaries, and includes many hundreds of linked references. I viewed every single verse in at least nine modern versions side by side before rewording the Gabriel Bible. Most verses imply the same thing, no matter which translation is used! Verse after verse the translations seldom differ except in the way they are worded. It is amazing how many ways a statement can be made with nearly all the same words, with the same end result. When there are actual differences, I like to explain my rendering with a link. (Reading from paper is so 20th century.) The style is the biggest difference between all of the versions, old or new, with only a minority of verses in any version actually coming to different conclusions—a different meaning, (but this minority needs to be taken very seriously). So coming up with a new version for most verses is “only” a matter of rewording! As I study the various versions, I see that most of them have a few excellent renderings. No one modern translation in my view consistently outdoes the others. Then there are the phrases; often single phrases that are clearly superior in one version over the others, so a composite of all of the best phrases would look really good. But I am being as careful as possible to create entirely unique verses as often as humanly possible. Other than for the most basic verses, it isn’t that difficult to be somewhat unique with every verse—just very time consuming.

But consider that, “The [English] vocabulary has grown from the 50,000 to 60,000 words in Old English to the tremendous number of entries — 650,000 to 750,000—in an unabridged dictionary of today”, not counting the technical terms that put it at over two million.” Compare this with a mere 5,000 words used in the entire Hebrew Scriptures! There is an abundance of room for English synonyms to be used. So for every single Biblical Hebrew word we have 150 nuanced words in English! To make matters worse, when a person consults a Hebrew lexicon it is easy to see that the few words present aren’t used very creatively. I believe that there are a lot of nuances lost due to traditional renderings. Few translators are willing to rock the boat and be a little more expressive with the alternative possible renderings lying there undisturbed in the lexicons. While as a non Hebrew speaker I can’t do much with sentence structure, and rely on comparisons with a wide variety of actual translations for that, I do feel at liberty to draw from the wealth of English synonyms based on logic and context accompanied by live links.

There are some things that put me in a different class than many of the translators—I believe Biblical truths that others don’t dare mention for fear of rocking a boat load of traditions, like this one:

How to Inherit Eternal Life!

Matthew 19:16-19 Someone came to Him and asked, “Good Master, what good thing should I do to have eternal Life?” 17 He replied, “Why are you calling Me good? No one is good but One, namely Aloha [God]. But if you want to enter into eternal Life, OBEY THE COMMANDMENTS” [1]. 18 Then he asked, “Which ones?” So Yeshua told him, “Never murder. Never commit adultery. Never steal. Never give false testimony, 19 honor your father and your mother, and you must love your neighbor as yourself”.

The majority say you can’t do ANYTHING to accomplish that, but this is the world’s most important question! Yet virtually no one believes His answer, even tho it is repeated in Mark 10:17-22 & Luke 18:18-23! These are the six “love your neighbor” Commandments, (counting covetousness, vss.21-22). The first four Commandments are the “love your Aloha” Commandments, while the last six Commandments apply to human relationships. There is a greatly overlooked means of obtaining eternal Life for righteous people who are ignorant of the Bible, as explained in Are the “unsaved” Lost?.

I also know who Israel really is, and the final outcome. Genesis introduces the 12 tribes of Israel and Revelation ends with a massive New Jerusalem descending to earth, Revelation 21:12...with twelve gates. The names of the twelve tribes descended from Israel were inscribed on them”.

The prototype online edition of the entire Word of Elohim was made available on 1/7/2011, and changed almost daily 11/1/22 when I completed it.

“One Right Reserved” Unlimited quotations from The Word of Elohim, ranging from a verse to the entire book may be freely distributed in any medium, so long as a link to everlastingkingdom.info is provided and —GB follows each quotation (tho for two of the four partitions it still needs lots of work.

Matthew 10:8...Freely you have received, freely give.

Lon Martin, zech14@proton.me