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Translations and Copyright Information
These are most, if not all, of the translations I have used in these articles. Additional
information (including purchasing information) can be found at the links
provided.
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ASV - Scripture quoted from the American Standard Version of 1901
(public domain).
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ESV - Scriptures quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
(www.gnpcb.org)
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GW - GOD'S WORD®
is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations. Quotations are used
by permission. Copyright 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. All rights
reserved.
(www.godsword.org)
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KJV - Scriptures quoted from The Holy Bible, King James Version,
public domain. [Note: The KJV is not public domain in Great
Britain. Also, most people don't realize that they use the 1769
revision, rather than the original 1611 version, which is almost
unintelligible to modern readers!]
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NAS - Scriptures quoted from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
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NIV - Scripture quoted from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
(www.zondervanbibles.com)
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NLT - Scripture quoted from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
(www.newlivingtranslation.com)
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NRS - Scripture quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
(http://www.ncccusa.org/newbtu/permiss.html)
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WEB - Scripture quoted from the World English Bible (public domain).
(www.ebible.org)
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My own translation
You may notice that I tend to not use certain translations. Sometimes, this may be due to the poor
quality of the translation (in comparison to others). More often, however, it is because of the copyright restrictions.
(In some instances, I can't even quote one verse without getting written permission and discussing royalties!)
Why do I
sometimes make my own translation?
There are a variety of reasons. Sometimes, I might just want to do
it. But more often, it is out of necessity.
The copyright restrictions of many translations will place limits on
the number of verses that can be quoted in an article. The specific
limitations will vary with different translations, but here are some typical
examples:
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The total number of verses, such as "500 verses." (So far, this
has not been a problem in any of the articles on this website... and
it probably won't be a problem in the future.)
- The amount that is quoted from any one book in the Bible,
such as "50% of a book." (This is rarely a problem with
the larger books, but when it comes to short books such as Jude or 3
John, problems can occur.)
- The percentage of the article that involves Scripture quotes,
such as 25% of the article. (Several of my articles have "too
much Bible"!)
- Some translations have some rather quirky restrictions, when it
comes to the internet. There may be time limits on how long you can place an article on the web, when their translation
is quoted.
(If you plan to keep an article on the web indefinitely, then you basically can't use
such a translation.) Or they may restrict the total number of verses
you can use on the web, regardless of how many articles you have.
- Some publishing companies are very "user-unfriendly." There are some
copyright owners who won't allow people to copy even one scripture
verse without written permission... and they won't discuss whether or not we
have to pay royalties until after the permission is granted! [Don't be
surprised at this. Many Bible translations are owned by non-Christian
publishing companies, who have discovered that selling Bibles is a great
money-making venture. They have very little interest in the fact that it is
God's Word... but only in the fact that they can make a dollar
(actually, lots of dollars).]
If I keep within the above limits, I don't have too much of a problem (at least
with the translations that are more "user-friendly"). However, I sometimes
write something that has "too much Bible." (Can you imagine someone
complaining that I am using "too much Bible," when I'm trying to communicate
what the Bible says!)
So I've come up with the following solutions to these problems:
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Use the translation and get special permission (unlikely) or
pay royalties (and somehow keep people from making copies of
the articles?). This is not a good option. Royalties could cost thousands of
dollars per year. (I checked.) [Note: It's not necessarily the
translators who are pocketing the money. Normally the copyright is owned
by a publishing company, instead.]
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Use several translations in the same article, to keep the total
number of verses from each translation below the limits. I've done this on occasion, but it takes a
lot of effort trying to keep track of what verse is where - since I have to
include all that information in the copyright notices.
- Use the King James Version. This is public domain in the
United States (but not in Great Britain). Many people like this version, but those who aren't
used to it may find it very difficult to read (because of the
"oldness" of the language). It is nearly useless for people
who use English as a secondary language. There is the additional
problem that some of the word definitions have changed, thus creating
the potential for a faulty interpretation of some passages, even by
people who think they understand it.
- Use another "public domain" translation. Sometimes I
do that, but some of them are still difficult to read - especially if
they are trying to imitate the old English of the King James Version.
The "World English Bible" seems to be more readable, and I do use
it sometimes.
- "Modernize" an older "public domain" translation. Sometimes I will base a translation on one of the
older public domain versions, but will "modernize" the language. For example, in one article, I started with the American Standard Version of 1901, which is now public domain
(and difficult to read). I ran it through my grammar checking and spell checking software, modernized the "old English" way of saying things, replaced obscure words with more common words, broke up the sentences into shorter ones, and ran it through the grammar checker again, etc. In some places, the final results might look quite different from the original ASV. By the time I'm done, the translation may be close to becoming my own translation - the option mentioned below - but it probably took less time for me to do it.
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Translate it myself. This may be anything from a
"literal" translation to a paraphrase, depending on my
purpose. Sometimes I may need exacting detail; at other times, the
general message of the verse will suffice. Either way, it is my goal
to avoid any mistranslation of the verse. (Even the New
Testament authors varied in the way they quoted the Old Testament -
anything from exacting literalness to a paraphrase!)
A WARNING for anyone who might attempt to translate a passage or
"modernize" a public domain translation: Make sure that your final
result doesn't look too much like any one specific copyrighted translation!
Who knows what would happen if some publishing company became convinced that
you were plagiarizing or "stealing" their translation? As for me, I don't
want to find out!
- [I think this would be a problem only if you had enough passages
translated, that they could prove a "trend" or something. Passages which are
commonly translated the same way in many translations would probably not be
capable of proving anything. But some passages can be translated several
ways and still communicate a similar message... and in these cases, make
sure you don't always resemble any specific translation.]
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