The key characteristic of meaning-based translations is that they give priority to translating the meaning over reproducing the form of the source text. That is, they **change the form of the text as needed in order to make the meaning clear.** The most common types of changes that meaning-based translations make are:
What does a meaning-based translation look like? We will look at how different versions translate the same verse.
In Luke 3:8, *John the Baptist rebukes the self-righteous people who came to be baptized.*
The **Greek** text of the first half of the verse is shown below.
>Ποιήσατε οὖν καρποὺς ἀξίους τῆς μετανοίας
The **English** translation in the same order as each Greek word, with some alternative English words to choose from, is below.
>Do/make/produce therefore fruits fit/appropriate of the repentance
#### Literal
A literal translation would usually follow the words and order of the Greek text as closely as possible, such as the following.
>Produce fruits that are worthy of repentance (Luke 3:8 ULB)
Note that this modified-literal translation retains the words "fruits" and "repentance." The word order is also very similar to the Greek text. This is because the ULB is designed to show translators what is in the original text. But it may not be the natural or clear way to communicate this meaning in your language.
#### Meaning-Based
Meaning-based translations, on the other hand, are more likely to change the words and order if the translators think it will help to clarify the meaning. Consider these three meaning-based translations:
Notice that these translations have changed the word order to be more natural in English. Also, the word "fruits" no longer appears. In fact, the Living Bible translation uses almost none of the words in the ULB translation. Instead, rather than "fruits," the meaning-based translations refer to "deeds" or to "the way you live." "Fruits" in this verse is used as part of a metaphor. The meaning of "fruits" in this metaphor is "the things that a person does." (See [Metaphor](../figs-metaphor/01.md).)
So these translations translated the meaning in context, rather than just the words. They also used more understandable phrases such as "turned from sin" or "turned away from your sinful behavior" rather than the single difficult word "repentance," or they explained the word by saying, "repented of your sins and turned to God." The meaning in all of them is the same, but the form is very different. In the meaning-based translations, the meaning is much clearer.
See in Reader
