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## Overview
The ULB is an open-licensed update of the *The American Standard Version*, intended to provide a ‘form-centric’ understanding of the Bible. It increases the translator’s understanding of the lexical and grammatical composition of the underlying text by adhering closely to the word order and structure of the originals.
The ULB is an open-licensed update of *The American Standard Version*, intended to provide a ‘form-centric’ understanding of the Bible. It increases the translator’s understanding of the lexical and grammatical composition of the underlying text by adhering closely to the word order and structure of the originals.
## Viewing
@ -25,43 +25,32 @@ The ULB (Unlocked Literal Bible) is a form-centric, and thus "literal," version
### Editing the ULB
The Unlocked Literal Bible (ULB) is designed to be used in conjunction with the translationNotes (tN) and the Unlocked Dynamic Bible (UDB) as a tool for Bible translation. It is not an end-user Bible, which seeks to transform all of the structures of the original biblical languages into those that are natural and idiomatic to the target language. Instead, unlike the UDB and unlike an end-user Bible, the ULB is designed to reflect the forms of the source languages, so that the MTT can see what they are. By using the ULB, the OL translator can "look through" it to see how the original Bible expressed the biblical ideas. As you edit or translate the ULB, therefore, you must try to retain the grammatical and syntactic structures of the original as far as the target language (English or other Gateway Language) will allow. If the original structure does not make sense in the target language, then you will need to change it into a structure that does make sense. It does no good to make a translation that the MTT using this tool will not be able to understand. But as far as the target language will allow, retain the structures of the original in your editing or translation of the ULB.
The Unlocked Literal Bible (ULB) is designed to be used in conjunction with the translationNotes (tN) and the Unlocked Dynamic Bible (UDB) as a tool for Bible translation. It is not an end-user Bible, which seeks to transform all of the structures of the original biblical languages into those that are natural and idiomatic in the target language. Instead, unlike the UDB and unlike an end-user Bible, the ULB is designed to reflect the forms of the source languages, so that the MTT can see what they are. By using the ULB, the MTT can "look through" it to see how the original Bible expressed the biblical ideas. As you edit or translate the ULB, therefore, you must try to retain the grammatical and syntactic structures of the original as far as the target language (English or other Gateway Language) will allow. If the original structure does not make sense in the target language, then you will need to change it into a structure that does make sense. It does no good to make a translation that the MTT using this tool will not be able to understand. But as far as the target language will allow, retain the structures of the original in your editing or translation of the ULB. For English, it is often possible to retain nouns as nouns, verbs as verbs, etc., but their order in the original sentence must be changed.
### What are the structures of the original that the ULB needs to retain?
### Retaining Original Structures
The ULB needs to retain the original grammatical forms (as far as is possible), the idioms, and the figures of speech of the original so that the MTT can consider them and use them if they communicate the right thing in the target language (minority or Other Language (OL), not Gateway Language). If those forms are removed in the English or get changed in a Gateway Language (GL) translation of the ULB, then the OL translator will never see them and the translationNotes about them will not make sense. Keep in mind that the ULB and the UDB are complementary translation tools for the use of the OL translator. We want these tools to be as useful as possible. For the ULB, this means that it should retain structures that we would not always retain in an end-user Bible. The English editor and the GL translator must understand that this means that the ULB will often lack naturalness and sometimes also lack clarity because it is aiming at reproducing these original language structures and figures of speech that may not translate well into the GL. Wherever the ULB translation lacks clarity, however, there will also be a translationNote to explain the meaning of the structure for the OL translator, as well as a clear rendering of the original in the UDB. The translationNotes and the UDB will provide the meaning wherever that meaning is in doubt in the ULB. In this way, the tools will work together to provide the OL translator with a full set of information about both the form and the meaning of the original Bible.
The ULB needs to retain the original grammatical forms (as far as is possible), the idioms, and the figures of speech of the original so that the MTT can consider them and use them if they communicate the right thing in the target language (minority or Other Language (OL), not Gateway Language). If those forms are removed in the English or get changed in a Gateway Language (GL) translation of the ULB, then the OL translator will never see them and the translationNotes about them will not make sense. Keep in mind that the ULB and the UDB are complementary translation tools for the use of the OL translator. We want these tools to be as useful as possible. For the ULB, this means that it should retain structures that we would not always retain in an end-user Bible. The English editor and the GL translator must understand that this means that the ULB will often lack naturalness and sometimes also lack clarity because it is aiming at reproducing these original language structures and figures of speech that the GL may not normally use. Wherever the ULB translation lacks clarity, however, there will also be a translationNote to explain the meaning of the structure for the OL translator, as well as a clear rendering of the original in the UDB. The translationNotes and the UDB will provide the meaning wherever that meaning is in doubt in the ULB. In this way, the tools will work together to provide the OL translator with a full set of information about both the form and the meaning of the original Bible.
#### Examples
The ULB stays closer to language **forms** in the source documents (SD) than does the UDB (Unlocked Dynamic Bible) text. This means that:
##### Grammatical Forms
* the ULB reflects better than the UDB the SD's use of grammatical structures belonging to the biblical languages.
* the ULB reflects better than the UDB the SD's use of parts of speech that belong to the biblical languages. The ULB, for example, is likely to use nouns where the SD uses nouns, adjectives where the SD uses adjectives, and so forth. This is often true right down to the level of the use of many Hebrew and Greek grammatical particles. Thus, for example, the ULB is likely to read, *the kingdom of light* instead of giving some more dynamic rendering such as, *the kingdom where all is light*, etc.
* the ULB is likely to reproduce the form of the SD logical connections more closely than does the UDB. Thus, for example, the ULB will read, *the righteousness of faith*, even though the logical relationship between *righteousness* and *faith* is not further specified (is it the righteousness that comes by faith? is it the righteousness that vindicates faith?) All that *the righteousness of faith* explicitly signals is that there is some close association in the text between *righteousness* and *faith*, and that we can probably rule out **a number of ** conceivable logical relationships between the two concepts, but not **all ** possible relationships, as the foregoing example illustrates. In contrast, the UDB may choose the one logical relationship that seems most likely.
* the ULB is likely to reproduce the linear succession of ideas found in the SD, even when English prefers a different arrangement of the same ideas.
* the ULB presents far less information that is only **implied ** in the SD than does the UDB. For example, in Matt. 26:5 *For they were saying, "Not during the feast, so that a riot does not arise among the people."* the implied information is, "Let us not arrest Jesus [during the feast]." The ULB will not overtly represent this implied information.
* the ULB reflects as much as reasonably possible the SD's written style: it reads, for example, "Paul...to Timothy..." instead of English's preferred, "Dear Timothy, [new paragraph] this is Paul."
* However, the ULB departs from closely representing the SD's structures when it must do so for the sake of clarity in English.
* the ULB is not meant to be a refined, polished English version. It is meant to present the meaning and structure of the original in so far as that can be done clearly and simply, so that it can, in turn, be translated into other languages.
The ULB of Luke 2:47 reproduces a grammatical form from the Greek source language that is also natural in English, but that might not be natural in other languages. When talking about the boy Jesus at the temple, it says, "All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers." The nouns "understanding" and "answers" refer to events, not things, and so must be translated as verbs in many languages.
The UDB of the same verse gives an example of how these nouns can be translated as verbs. It says, "All the people who heard what he said were amazed at how much he understood and how well he answered the questions that the teachers asked."
When editing or translating the ULB, however, nouns should be retained as nouns if that will make sense in the target language.
There remains one over-arching principle for the ULB: even if it sometimes conveys **less ** than the complete sense of the SD (because it seeks to represent SD structures which can be ambiguous in English), **the ULB must never promote to the MTT the wrong sense**.
##### Idioms
### The Text from which the ULB Is Being Adapted
The ULB of Matthew 2:20 reproduces an idiom from the Greek source language. It refers to Herod and his soldiers who were trying to kill the child Jesus as, "those who sought the child's life." In some languages this is clear, and in others it is not.
The UDB of the same verse tries to make the meaning clear by translating this idiom as, "the people who were trying to kill the child." When editing or translating the ULB, however, this idiom should be retained as it is, so that the Other Language translator can consider it and use it if it makes sense. The UDB and the translationNotes will always provide the meaning.
The ULB is an adaptation of the 1901 American Standard Version (ASV). The ASV is a very literal translation, and it has many outdated words. Most of these words are being replaced in the ULB with present-day vocabulary using automatic scripting on the server. The editing team needs to correct any outdated words that remain (as well as any mistakes made by the automated "correction" process), so that the text will be understandable to a modern audience. The editors will also change phrases and the order of phrases of the ASV that are unnatural in modern English, making it easier to understand while still keeping it close to the meaning and structure of the Greek text.
##### Figures of Speech
### Style of the ULB
The ULB of John 1:17 reproduces a figure of speech from the Greek source language. It says, "grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." (This figure of speech is called "personification.") This figure of speech talks as if grace and truth were like people who can come and go, and it talks as if Jesus Christ were like a doorway that they can come through. In some languages this makes sense, but in other languages it does not. The plain meaning is that Jesus Christ acted toward us with grace and taught us true things about God.
The UDB of the same verse tries to make this plain meaning clear by translating it as, "Jesus Christ was kind to us far beyond what we deserved and taught us true things about God."
When translating the ULB, however, this figure of speech should be retained as it is, so that the Other Language translator can consider it and use it if it makes sense. If it does not, the UDB provides an alternative way to translate it.
The ULB will remain fairly literal in style. As much as possible, complex theological terms and other translation issues will be explained in the translation notes that are provided along with the ULB texts. In addition, the ULB will be accompanied by the UDB, which will show alternate ways of expressing the meaning in a more natural way. The translation notes will also offer alternative translation suggestions. Links to explanations for important terms that are repeated throughout the Bible will be provided along with the ULB text. Therefore, it is acceptable for the ULB to retain some of the ASV's specialized terminology, as long as the result makes good sense in modern English. Figures of speech will be retained in the ULB and replaced by plain language in the UDB.
The edit team members will:
* Remove archaic language and replace with modern, clear English.
* Replace most colons and semicolons with commas and periods according to current English style.
* Make sure the text accurately expresses the meaning of the Greek text.
* Check that the English level is easy to understand.
* Retain the basically literal nature of the text–it should complement the "dynamic" UDB rather than be similar to it.
Specific editing guidelines:
### Specific Editing Guidelines
* Only use quotation marks at the beginning and ending of direct speech. Do not put quotation marks at the beginning of each verse, even though the speech may span several verses.
* Do not use contractions.
@ -69,7 +58,8 @@ Specific editing guidelines:
* Capitalization issues: in general, we are following the practice of the 2011 NIV.
* All pronouns are lower case (except when beginning sentences and except for the first singular "I").
* Capitalize titles (Son of Man, King David, the Messiah).
* Try to find other ways to translate the Greek participle. Many languages do not have participles.
* Retain the literal nature of the text–it should complement the "dynamic" UDB rather than be similar to it.
* Where possible, use common vocabulary that is easy to translate into another language.
### Translation Glossary
@ -86,17 +76,16 @@ Preferred English renderings appear in bold type.
* *wayehi* "**It came about,**" "**It happened that...**"
* *hinneh* "**Behold**" (when used in normal narrative passages or in narrative embedded in direct speech, such as when Joseph tells his brothers what happened in his dreams). In conversational passages, translate *hinneh * as, "**look**," "**see**," "**see here**," or something else suitable for signaling that what immediately follows in the text is prominent. Some conversational contexts may make it almost impossible to give any translation at all of *hinneh*. – However, in direct reported speech of God or his angel, you may use "**behold**," especially if it lends more dignity in English to the divine words than "look" or "see," etc., would do.
* *brethren* should be updated to **brothers**. When both genders are indicated by the context, a note from the Notes Team should be expected to appear to that effect. Do not replace the ULB text with "brothers and sisters." That change will appear in the UDB.
* *adam* (ASV: man, men) When referring to humanity in general, use "mankind."
* *adam* (ASV: man, men) When referring to humanity in general, use "**mankind**."
* *Call* in the ASV usage "call his name": update to "**call him ** [+ name]" or "**name him ** [+ name]."
* *Call* in the formula of the type, "he shall be called the Son of the Most High" (Luke 1:32): keep this formula in the ULB, but be aware of the metaphor that is operative here: in this verse, Jesus will not only be *called the Son of the Most High*, but he will be the Son of the Most High.
* *Hand* indicating power or possession: we recommend that you keep this metaphor in the ULB.
* *wehinneh *"**Behold**" (when used in normal narrative passages or in narrative embedded in direct speech). For conversational passages, see the preceding paragraph.
* *YHWH* , * Jehovah, LORD * (when referring to YHWH) " ** Yahweh ** " (The ASV uses "Jehovah," but we will not.)
* *Hand* indicating power or possession: keep this metaphor in the ULB.
* *YHWH* ** Yahweh ** " (The ASV uses "Jehovah," but we will not.)
* *Meshiach* "***Messiah**" (almost always, "**the Messiah**," since "Messiah" is a title)
* Sentence-initial or preverbal *and* of the type, "and Joseph said," "and it came about," etc.: translate these without supplying "and." These occurrences of "and" in the ASV and its derivatives usually occur where the ASV translates the preverbal Greek particle *kai* or the Hebrew *vav * in the *wayyiqtol * verb form. The Greek particle *kai* was usually a Hebraism on the part of the New Testament writers that reflected their understanding that the Hebrew *wayyiqtol * form contained the conjunctive *vav* 'and.' This, however, was a misunderstanding, for modern scholarship has shown that the *wayyiqtol* form was a frozen form with parallels in cognate Semitic languages; it was the preferred Hebrew verb form for signaling event verbs in Hebrew narration. In some cases, good English style may require a preverbal "and." When it does, you are free to supply it. In most cases, however, English style does not require this "and." Note that the ASV very often supplies preverbal "and" even when there is no * kai * ​ in Greek, and even when Greek has the particle * de * , and, in fact, often when there is no Greek connective at all between clauses.
* Expressions of the type, "he knew his wife" or "he went into his wife": try to use acceptable English euphemisms such as, " ** he slept with his wife ** ," " ** he made love to his wife ** ," or even " ** they came together as man and wife ** ." Every language has its own euphemisms for these ideas, and our English usage is simply to encourage them to employ their own. This general rule is as true for the UDB as for the ULB. To express a crime of this nature, try using, " ** he forced himself on her ** ."
* Sentence-initial or preverbal *and* of the type, "and Joseph said," "and it came about," etc.: translate these without supplying "and." These occurrences of "and" in the ASV and its derivatives usually occur where the ASV translates the preverbal Greek particle *kai* or the Hebrew *vav * in the *wayyiqtol * verb form. The Greek particle *kai* was usually a Hebraism on the part of the New Testament writers that reflected their understanding that the Hebrew *wayyiqtol * form contained the conjunctive *vav* 'and.' This, however, was a misunderstanding, for modern scholarship has shown that the *wayyiqtol* form was a frozen form with parallels in cognate Semitic languages; it was the preferred Hebrew verb form for signaling event verbs in Hebrew narration. Good English style does not normally allow sentences to begin with "and." Only rarely is it allowable in the ULB, for dramatic effect. Otherwise, when you are tempted to start a sentence with "and," change the preceding period to a comma.
* Expressions of the type, "he knew his wife" or "he went into his wife" should be reproduced as is. The context makes their meaning clear.
* ** Shall ** vs. ** will ** : in English future expressions in general, use " ** will ** " instead of "shall," e.g., "he is a prophet, and he <del>shall</del> ** will ** pray for you" (Gen 20:7). Note that some ASV future expressions are better updated into today's English by using the present tense, e.g., "I shall not drink from...the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come" (Luke 22:18) can be updated to "I ** will ** not drink...until the kingdom of God ** comes**." Cases in which "shall" expresses obligation can usually be restructured, e.g., "You shall not steal" becomes " ** Do ** not steal," and "Shall I go and smite these Philistines?" (1 Sam. 23:2) becomes "**Should ** I go and attack these Philistines?" This general preference for "will" probably conforms to the instincts of most English native speakers. However, in genres such as prophecies, blessings, curses, and in other passages focusing on the expression of the speaker's intentionality, retain the use of "shall" in the ULB, e.g., "Yahweh said, **'Shall ** I hide from Abraham what I am about to do...?'" (Gen 18:17), " A deliverer **shall ** come to Zion," "every mountain and hill **shall ** be made low."
* In speech introductions that use two verbs instead of one such as, "he answered and said," please retain this formula in the ULB. This will provide a model for languages which also separate the mode of speech from the act of speech, as does Biblical Hebrew. See the UDB for the same issue, however, where only one verb will be used.
* In speech introductions that use two verbs instead of one such as, "he answered and said," please retain this formula in the ULB. This will provide a model for languages which also separate the mode of speech from the act of speech, as does Biblical Hebrew. In the UDB for the same issue, only one verb will be used.
#### Translation Glossary for the New Testament ULB
@ -104,59 +93,39 @@ Preferred English renderings appear in bold type.
* *nomikos* "**expert in the Jewish law**"
* *brethren* should be updated to **brothers**. When both genders are indicated by the context, a note from the Notes Team should be expected to appear to that effect. Do not replace the ULB text with "brothers and sisters." That change will appear in the UDB.
* *Call* in the ASV usage "call his name": update to "call him [+ name]" or "name him [+ name]."
* *Call* in the ASV usage "call his name": update to "**call him** [+ name]" or "**name him** [+ name]."
* *Call* in the formula of the type, "he shall be called the Son of the Most High" (Luke 1:32): keep this formula in the ULB, but be aware of the metaphor that is operative here: in this verse, Jesus will not only be *called the Son of the Most High*, but he will be the Son of the Most High.
* *grammateus* "**scribe**"
* *Hand* indicating power or possession: we recommend that you keep this metaphor in the ULB.
* *Hand* indicating power or possession: keep this metaphor in the ULB.
* *egeneto de*, *kai egeneto * "**It came about**" (See: "Sentence-initial or preverbal *and***"*below)**.*
* *idou*" ** Behold ** " (when used in normal narrative passages or in narrative embedded in direct speech. In conversational passages, translate *idou preferably * as, " ** look ** ," " ** see ** ," " ** see here ** ," or at need as something else suitable for signaling that what immediately follows in the text is prominent. Some conversational contexts may make it almost impossible to give any translation at all of *idou.*
* *Messiah* This term sometimes appears in the NT in transliterated Greek. You will have to evaluate each case, but in general this term should be translated, " ** Messiah ** ."
* *Xristos* "**Christ**" or "**the Christ**" (if the term is being clearly used as a title; Paul often seems to use *Xristos * as a second name for Jesus, but at times he clearly uses it as a title).
* Sentence-initial or preverbal *and* of the type, "and Joseph said," "and it came about," etc.: translate these without supplying "and." – These occurrences of "and" in the ASV and its derivatives usually occur where the ASV translates the preverbal Greek particle *kai* or the Hebrew *vav * in the *wayyiqtol * verb form. The Greek particle *kai* was usually a Hebraism on the part of the New Testament writers that reflected their understanding that the Hebrew *wayyiqtol * form contained the conjunctive *vav* 'and'. This, however, was a misunderstanding, for modern scholarship has shown that the *wayyiqtol* form was a frozen form with parallels in cognate Semitic languages; it was the preferred Hebrew verb form for signaling event verbs in Hebrew narration. – In some cases, good English style may require a preverbal "and." When it does, you are free to supply it. In most cases, however, English style does not require this "and." – Note that the ASV very often supplies preverbal "and" even when their is no * kai * ​ in Greek, and even when Greek has the particle * de * , and, in fact, often when there is no Greek connective at all between clauses.
* Expressions of the type, "he knew his wife" or "he went into his wife": try to use acceptable English euphemisms such as, "he slept with his wife" or even "they came together as man and wife." Every language has its own euphemisms for these ideas, and our English usage is simply to encourage them to employ their own. This general rule is as true for the UDB as for the ULB.
* *idou*" ** Behold ** " (when used in normal narrative passages or in narrative embedded in direct speech. In conversational passages, translate *idou preferably * as, " ** look ** ," " ** see ** ," " ** see here ** ," or at need as something else suitable for signaling that what immediately follows in the text is prominent. Some conversational contexts may make it almost impossible to give any translation at all of *idou.* – However, in direct reported speech of God or his angel, you may use "**behold**," especially if it lends more dignity in English to the divine words than "look" or "see," etc., would do.
* *Messiah* This term sometimes appears in the NT in transliterated Greek. In this case, this term should be translated, " ** Messiah ** ."
* *Xristos* "**Christ**" or "**the Christ**" (the definite article is appropriate if the term is being clearly used as a title; Paul often seems to use *Xristos * as a second name for Jesus, but at times he clearly uses it as a title).
* Sentence-initial or preverbal *and* of the type, "and Joseph said," "and it came about," etc.: translate these without supplying "and." – These occurrences of "and" in the ASV and its derivatives usually occur where the ASV translates the preverbal Greek particle *kai* or the Hebrew *vav * in the *wayyiqtol * verb form. The Greek particle *kai* was usually a Hebraism on the part of the New Testament writers that reflected their understanding that the Hebrew *wayyiqtol * form contained the conjunctive *vav* 'and'. This, however, was a misunderstanding, for modern scholarship has shown that the *wayyiqtol* form was a frozen form with parallels in cognate Semitic languages; it was the preferred Hebrew verb form for signaling event verbs in Hebrew narration. Good English style does not normally allow sentences to begin with "and." Only rarely is it allowable in the ULB, for dramatic effect. Otherwise, when you are tempted to start a sentence with "and," change the preceding period to a comma.
* Expressions of the type, "he knew his wife" or "he went into his wife" should be reproduced as is. The context makes their meaning clear.
* ** Shall ** vs. ** will ** : in English future expressions in general, use " ** will ** " instead of "shall," e.g., "he is a prophet, and he **will ** pray for you" (Gen 20:7). Note that some ASV future expressions are better updated into today's English by using the present tense, e.g., "I shall not drink from...the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come" (Luke 22:18) can be updated to "I ** will ** not drink...until the kingdom of God ** comes**." Cases in which "shall" expresses obligation can usually be restructured, e.g., "You shall not steal" becomes "**Do ** not steal," and "Shall I go and smite these Philistines?" (1 Sam. 23:2) becomes "**Should ** I go and attack these Philistines?" This general preference for "will" probably conforms to the instincts of most English native speakers. However, in genres such as prophecies, blessings, curses, and in other passages focusing on the expression of the speaker's intentionality, retain the use of "shall," e.g., "Yahweh said, **'Shall ** I hide from Abraham what I am about to do...?'" (Gen 18:17), "A deliverer **shall ** come to Zion," "every mountain and hill **shall ** be made low."
### Notes regarding drafting ULB and UDB texts
### Notes About Making a "Literal" Translation
1. The system we are using to draft these texts involves editors being able to edit the texts simultaneously. That means that what one editor deleted or added may be changed by another editor. However all the previous edits are preserved and can be viewed by using the timeline. The final editor will make decisions regarding what edits will be used for the final draft. Discussion about the edits or about alternate suggestions for the final editor to consider can be made in the chat boxes.
1. It is not possible to maintain a one-for-one correspondence between words in translation. One word from the source language may require a phrase for its translation in the target language, and vice-versa.
2. Even though the ULB is a "literal" text, that does not mean that every word from the original language will be translated in the same way each time it occurs. We will always seek to use the meaning that the word has in its context, using whatever English word or phrase is closest to that meaning.
3. Both Greek and Hebrew can make a sentence without using a verb, while English cannot. For the ULB to make sense, the verb will always be supplied (usually "is").
4. Greek makes abundant use of participial clauses. For the English of the ULB to make sense, often this must be changed to a relative or adverbial clause.
5. The general rule is, retain the structures of the original unless English sense does not allow it. If not, make the adjustments necessary.
2. Although we are drafting these source texts in English, they will also be translated into other major languages (such as Spanish, French and others) to serve as source texts for people who know those languages and who will use these texts to translate into their own languages. Therefore the source texts have to be fairly easy to understand in order to be translated into the major languages, which in turn will need to be in a form that is easy to understand. Having them in natural English will set an example of naturalness that these other major languages can follow.
3. Translating from one language to another will involve changes in structure and differences in vocabulary. For example, one word in the first language may require two or more in the second language. The opposite will also be true, where the first language uses several words but the second language has to say it using only one word. Sometimes it is more natural in a language to omit a word like "is" (ex. Greek or Indonesian) whereas another language requires it (ex. English or French). The meaning is exactly the same but the way of expressing that meaning will be different depending on the language.
### The ULB Contrasted with the UDB
4. Strict adherence to certain words or structures at the expense of meaning results in a "translation" that does not preserve the meaning of the original text. So as these texts are drafted, we need to keep in mind that our aim is to faithfully communicate the meaning of the Greek and Hebrew text. A translation that does not make sense in the second language is not being faithful to the original text (which was written for the purpose of communicating a message). A stilted, unnatural translation obscures meaning, which is the opposite of what a translation should do.
The ULB stays closer to language **forms** in the source documents (SD) than does the UDB (Unlocked Dynamic Bible) text. This means that:
5. Words will not always be translated exactly the same way every time they occur in the text since in every language, some words will have more than one meaning. One example in Greek is the word that can mean either "sky" or "heaven" depending on the context. In French the word for "dear" can also mean "expensive." The word "run" in English can have many different meanings. There are many more examples like these in other languages. In these cases, the meaning of the word is usually made clear by the other words and sentences surrounding it.
* the ULB reflects better than the UDB the SD's use of grammatical structures belonging to the biblical languages.
* the ULB reflects better than the UDB the SD's use of parts of speech that belong to the biblical languages. The ULB, for example, is likely to use nouns where the SD uses nouns, adjectives where the SD uses adjectives, and so forth. This is often true right down to the level of the use of many Hebrew and Greek grammatical particles. Thus, for example, the ULB is likely to read, *the kingdom of light* instead of giving some more dynamic rendering such as, *the kingdom where all is light*, etc.
* the ULB is likely to reproduce the form of the SD logical connections more closely than does the UDB. Thus, for example, the ULB will read, *the righteousness of faith*, even though the logical relationship between *righteousness* and *faith* is not further specified (is it the righteousness that comes by faith? is it the righteousness that vindicates faith?) All that *the righteousness of faith* explicitly signals is that there is some close association in the text between *righteousness* and *faith*, and that we can probably rule out **a number of ** conceivable logical relationships between the two concepts, but not **all ** possible relationships, as the foregoing example illustrates. In contrast, the UDB may choose the one logical relationship that seems most likely.
* the ULB is likely to reproduce the linear succession of ideas found in the SD, even when English prefers a different arrangement of the same ideas.
* the ULB presents far less information that is only **implied ** in the SD than does the UDB. For example, in Matt. 26:5 *For they were saying, "Not during the feast, so that a riot does not arise among the people."* the implied information is, "Let us not arrest Jesus [during the feast]." The ULB will not overtly represent this implied information.
* the ULB reflects as much as reasonably possible the SD's written style: it reads, for example, "Paul...to Timothy..." instead of English's preferred, "Dear Timothy, [new paragraph] this is Paul."
* However, the ULB departs from closely representing the SD's structures when it must do so for the sake of clarity in English.
* the ULB is not meant to be a refined, polished English version. It is meant to present the meaning and structure of the original in so far as that can be done clearly and simply, so that it can, in turn, be translated into other languages.
6. The goal of both the ULB and UDB texts is to accurately communicate the meaning of the Greek and Hebrew text. The ULB will also strive to keep as closely as possible to the Greek and Hebrew words and language structures as long as doing so does not change the meaning or make it hard to understand. The UDB will allow more flexibility so as to produce an even more natural English text that communicates the same meaning in a more dynamic way.
There remains one over-arching principle for the ULB: even if it sometimes conveys **less ** than the complete sense of the SD (because it seeks to represent SD structures which can be ambiguous in English), **the ULB must never promote to the MTT the wrong sense**.
### Draft of a sample portion of ULB text
#### Types of edits to look for
* awkward phrasing
* outdated or low frequency vocabulary (and outdated spellings)
* wrong punctuation
* extraneous implied information
* unclear or unnatural use of pronouns or conjunctions
* wording that could cause a translation issue
* implied information that is important for comprehension
* original information lost
#### ULB Luke 12:1-3
Original, ASV text:
v. 1 In the meantime, when the many thousands of the multitude were gathered together, insomuch that they trod one upon another, he began to say to his disciples first of all, Beware you of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
v. 2 But there is nothing covered up, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
v. 3 Wherefore whatever you have said in the darkness shall be heard in the light; and what you have spoken in the ear in the inner chambers shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.
Edited ULB text:
v. 1 Meanwhile, while many thousands of people were crowding together so much that they were stepping on each other, Jesus began to say to his disciples first of all, "Be on guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy."
v. 2 But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and nothing hidden that will not be known.
v. 3 Therefore, whatever you say in the darkness will be heard in the light and whatever you have spoken in someone"s ear in a closet will be proclaimed from the roof of a house.