H3 Bible version test

As you take this test it is important to remember that we are not testing your knowledge of the Bible. We are, instead, trying to determine if the Bible version being tested here has wordings which sound like good quality, current English and which make sense. Please do not try to make sense of a test wording if it really doesn't make much sense to you. Also please try to evaluate the test wordings from the viewpoint of good quality standard English, not a unique dialect of English that you may also be familiar with. It is more valuable for the test results and of greater benefit to the English translation committee for this version if you answer as objectively as possible, so that the committee can make necessary revisions based on objective feedback from readers like you. If a test sentence sounds like it is not expressed in good quality English, or does not make good sense to you, it is better to give an answer such as "not good English" or "meaningless" than to try to get a meaning from the test wording which most English speakers might have difficulty understanding.


1. Consider this wording: "And a man who was lame from his
mother's womb was carried there and placed every day at the
temple gate called Beautiful, so he could beg from those entering
the temple complex." If the wording says, how long had the man
been lame?

2. What kinds of English speakers, if any, would you expect to
use the words "from his mother's womb"?

3. If you can think of a more standard way of expressing the
meaning of "from his mother's womb," write it in the following
space.

4. Consider this wording: "the virgin will be with child and give
birth to a son." What do you think it means to "be with child"?

5. If you can think of a wording which has the same meaning as
"be with child," but is more commonly used in standard, good
quality English today, please write it in the following space.

6. Consider the following sentence: "The days are coming when
you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you
won't see it." What meaning, if any, would you get from the
words if you heard someone say that they longed "to see a day"
of someone?

7. How often have you heard current speakers of standard
English refer to "seeing one of the days of" someone?

8. If you can think of a wording which you believe might have the
same meaning as "you will long to see one of the days of the Son
of Man," please write it in the following space.

9. Consider the following sentences: "The days are coming when
you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you
won't see it. They will say to you, 'Look there!' or 'Look here!'
Don't follow or run after them. For as the lightning flashes from
horizon to horizon and lights up the sky, so the Son of Man will be
in His day." If it is in the meaning of the words of these
sentences, what is the similarity between lightning and the Son
of Man in His day?

10. Consider these sentences: ""Therefore, from among the men
who have accompanied us during the whole time the Lord Jesus
went in and out among us--beginning from the baptism of John
until the day He was taken up from us--from among these, it is
necessary that one become a witness with us of His
resurrection." Just from these words, what do you think it might
mean when it says that the Lord Jesus "went in and out among us"?

11. What kinds of people have you ever heard say that someone
"went in and out among us"?

12. What other words, more commonly spoken or written today,
might you use to mean the same thing as "went in and out
among us"?

13. Were you already familiar with the meaning of the test
wordings before you took this test?

14. Do you think that most speakers of good quality standard
English today understand the meaning of the wordings tested in
the preceding questions?

15. Do you think that the quality of English Bible versions could be
improved if their translators would do field testing of specific
translation wordings, as has been done in this test?

16. Optional: What is your name?

17. Optional: What is your email address?




Return to the Bible translation surveys page