It’s no surprise that the TEV and NLT have the most words, since these are both paraphrases.
For example, the Greek New Testament has about 138,000–140,000 words, depending on which edition one is using. In fact, this is sometimes just a spin on the first notion. Similar to the first point is that a literal translation is the best version. And precisely because of this, it was hardly English.Ģ. Although translated from the Latin Vulgate, it was a slavishly literal translation to that text. Perhaps the most word-for-word translation of the Bible in English is Wycliffe’s, done in the 1380s. Yet, ironically, even some biblical scholars who should know better continue to tout word-for-word translations as though they were the best. Anyone who is conversant in more than one language recognizes that a word-for-word translation is simply not possible if one is going to communicate in an understandable way in the receptor language. Perhaps the number one myth about Bible translation is that a word-for-word translation is the best kind.
