Translation Philosophies

One family, two translations

The scriptures have been translated and retranslated for centuries, not because the text itself changes, but because language does. Each generation receives the biblical witness anew, entrusted with rendering ancient words faithfully for contemporary ears while resisting the temptation to refashion the message itself. Translation, at its best, is an act of listening—attentive to the text as it has been received, and accountable to the communities that hear it.

TSW · Study & Discuss keeps more of the source text’s wording, literary shape, repetition, tension, and meaningful ambiguity visible. Fluent · Read & Reflect carries the sense and movement of Scripture in direct, natural contemporary English. Fluent is not a simplified rewrite of TSW; both are translated independently from biblical-language sources.

TSW: form-conscious attention

This translation is undertaken in service of the church’s worship, teaching, and study. Its aim is to present the biblical text in clear and dignified English, attentive to the form and force of the original languages, and marked by restraint in interpretation. It stands within the long tradition of form-conscious translations that seek to let scripture speak with its own cadence, complexity, and authority.

Textual Foundations

The Old Testament is translated primarily from the Masoretic Text, with careful attention to ancient witnesses such as the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls where they illuminate difficult readings. The New Testament is translated from a critical Greek text reflecting the best available manuscript evidence. Significant textual variants are addressed in notes, allowing readers to see where the textual tradition itself invites discernment rather than concealment.

Translation Philosophy

This translation follows a form-conscious approach. Care has been taken to preserve grammatical structure, rhetorical patterning, and literary features wherever these convey meaning. Hebrew and Greek word order is not reproduced mechanically, but neither is it routinely smoothed for ease. Clarity is pursued without paraphrase.

Repetition, cadence, and tension—hallmarks of the biblical writings—are generally retained. Long sentences, particularly in epistolary material, are preserved where English usage allows, and shortened only when intelligibility requires it. Vocabulary favors common English words arranged with precision, avoiding both archaic forms and contemporary idiom. Traditional theological terms are retained where they carry established meaning in the life of the church.

Ambiguity and Interpretation

The biblical text frequently permits more than one plausible reading. Where ambiguity exists in the original languages, this translation seeks to preserve it rather than resolve it prematurely. Interpretive decisions are addressed in notes when necessary, allowing readers and communities to engage the text directly.

Scripture itself is not diminished by the limits of human language or by the church’s imperfect use of it; rather, the need for humility in translation arises from the conviction that God’s self-revelation exceeds every grammatical form, metaphor, and theological system through which it is received.

Accordingly, this translation does not aim to harmonize parallel passages or to anticipate later theological developments. Its purpose is not to explain scripture, but to render it faithfully.

Gendered Language

This translation approaches gendered language with historical awareness, theological humility, and pastoral care, recognizing both the power of scripture’s language and the ways that language has been heard and used in the life of the church.

The biblical texts were composed in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek—languages that employ grammatical gender as a basic feature of speech. In these languages, masculine forms often function as defaults, particularly in reference to God. Over time, exclusively masculine language has sometimes been treated not as a feature of ancient grammar or metaphor, but as a description of God’s nature itself. This translation acknowledges that history and seeks to respond with attentiveness rather than reaction.

In the Hebrew scriptures, God is most frequently referred to using masculine grammatical forms, even as the primary term for God, Elohim, is grammatically plural while functioning with singular verbs and referents. Scripture also employs a wide and sometimes surprising range of imagery for God. Alongside metaphors of fatherhood, kingship, and lordship stand images of God as a woman in labor, a nursing mother, a midwife, an eagle sheltering its young, a source of nourishment, refuge, and life. These images coexist without harmonization, stretching language toward God without claiming that any single metaphor can contain the divine reality.

In light of these realities, this translation does not attempt to resolve the tension between scripture’s grammatical conventions, its expansive imagery, and contemporary questions of gender. When the biblical text refers to specific persons, gendered language is translated as written. When the text clearly intends a collective or generic reference, gender-inclusive language is used. These decisions are made contextually rather than mechanically.

In references to God, the translation generally prefers proper names and titles—such as “God” or “the LORD”—over repeated use of masculine pronouns. Masculine pronouns are retained where they are grammatically necessary for coherence, rhetorically necessary for poetic or relational force, or integral to the imagery of the text. Artificial constructions and novel pronouns have been avoided.

Illustrative Examples

In poetic and liturgical texts, pronoun use is handled with particular care:

The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Here, a pronoun is unnecessary. In other contexts, pronouns remain essential:

The LORD upholds all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.

The eyes of all look to the LORD,
and he gives them their food in due season.

Maternal imagery is retained without qualification:

As one whom a mother comforts,
so I will comfort you.

In narrative prose, grammatical clarity governs decisions:

God spoke to Moses and showed him the land that had been promised.

Living with the Tension

The scriptures speak of God in language that is at once personal and elusive—intimate, yet resistant to final definition. This translation does not seek to manage that tension through modern categories. Instead, it invites readers to live within it.

The aim is not to settle debates through translation, but to provide a text that can be prayed, proclaimed, studied, and wrestled with together. Faithful reading has always required patience, humility, and trust. This translation is offered in that same spirit.

Such an approach is faithful both to scripture and to the Reformed tradition in which this work stands. In the biblical witness itself, tension is often left unresolved. Jacob wrestles through the night, yet the text does not finally determine whether he contends with God, a human being, or an angel. The ambiguity is preserved, and it shapes the meaning of the encounter. Scripture allows mystery to remain, trusting that faith is formed not only through clarity, but through uncertainty.

Likewise, the church’s confessions bear witness to a faith received and articulated across centuries. Their differences are not failures to be resolved, but gifts that invite conversation and formation—personal and communal.

Tension, in this sense, is not a problem to be eliminated. It is a discipline that preserves the mystery of God, resists overconfidence, and calls the church to humility in its reading, theology, and service. This translation seeks to honor that discipline, trusting that reverent restraint is itself a form of faithfulness.

Poetry and Literary Form

Poetic texts are presented with attention to lineation and parallelism. Metaphor is retained even where it remains challenging. Narrative, legal, prophetic, and epistolary materials are translated with sensitivity to their distinct literary conventions.

Intended Use

This translation is intended for public reading, private devotion, and communal study. It assumes an attentive reader and does not seek to shield readers from difficulty or tension. Scripture has always demanded patient listening, and this translation is offered in that same spirit.

Fluent: sustained movement

Fluent is made for natural, sustained reading. It seeks contemporary English that can be heard aloud without sounding mechanical while retaining the source text’s meaning, relationships, literary character, and consequential ambiguity. Narrative moves as narrative, poetry remains poetry, and letters retain their argument and pastoral force.

Fluent may make syntax or implied relationships more explicit when natural English requires it, but it does not aim to paraphrase, summarize, or replace interpretation with devotional explanation. Its purpose is to help readers follow whole passages and books, recognize recurring language, pray and worship with Scripture, and grow in biblical fluency.

AI use, human judgment, and transparency

Artificial intelligence has contributed substantially to the drafting and refinement of both TSW and Fluent. AI-assisted tools support original-language comparisons, proposed renderings, textual and lexical questions, consistency checks, and revisions. These are aids to translation and review, not substitutes for scholarly expertise or human judgment. AI can make mistakes, miss important distinctions, and reproduce familiar language; neither an AI-generated answer nor a passed technical audit should be mistaken for independent editorial verification.

Matthew J. Skolnik directs the translation philosophies and editorial standards and retains responsibility for editorial decisions. The two translations cover all 66 books but remain provisional. Their texts and accompanying notes continue to be reviewed carefully, bit by bit, passage by passage and book by book. The extensive automated checks already completed are different from qualified independent human language review; independent review and final signoff remain outstanding. The work under review is the English translations, not the authority of Scripture.

More detailed methods and accountability commitments are documented in the TSW translation philosophy, the Fluent translation philosophy, and the public project repository. These documents and review records should distinguish completed checks from work still awaiting human examination.

A Final Word

No translation is final. Each represents a faithful attempt to hear and render ancient testimony for the present moment. This work is offered to the church with humility before the text that stands over every generation, and with confidence that careful, restrained translation continues to serve the life of faith.