Naturalness in English Bible versions

Following is a chart which displays the results of my study of naturalness in English Bible versions. An "X" in a column indicates that the version listed for that column has a rendering for that verse and translation issue which is natural in English. Any wording of an utterance is natural if it is in common usage across all segments of society which speak a language and/or it uses a grammatical pattern of the language which is in common usage for the particular words used. Naturalness is determined by empirical study of large corpuses of natural language text and through well-designed comprehension tests administered to a significant number of subjects of all ages and educational levels. A wording is not considered natural if it is familiar or understood only by churched individuals.

Naturalness is a different parameter from accuracy, although the two parameters are closely linked in that if a user of a translation cannot understand from the translation the meaning intended by the author of the original text, the translation is inaccurate at that point. It may also be unnatural. It is, of course, also possible for a wording to be natural in a target language, but exegetically inaccurate.

I used 23 examples which highlighted a number of different translation issues which commonly arise in Bible translation in English and other languages. The percentage of naturalness figures at the bottom of the chart are obtained by dividing the number of natural wording "hits" (X's) within a version column by 23, the total number of examples. It is my impression that the figures obtained align quite closely, in relative terms, anyway, with the subjective impressions that fluent speakers of English who are sensitive to naturalness in translation have for the various versions.

Statistically, the results would become even more accurate and informative as we add other examples which illustrate translation issues. But I believe the number of examples (statistical tokens) used in this chart are accurate for indicating relative naturalness among these different versions.

I would welcome suggestions of other translation issues and verses which illustrate them, which would be good examples for testing translation naturalness.

When I made the chart I was away from home and my library so I did not have access to some other versions for which I wanted to check naturalness, especially the NJB and NAB, which are important translations used today by a significant number of English speakers. I mostly chose examples from the New Testament because one of the versions (the ISV) is not yet complete for the Old Testament. It is important to include Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) translation examples for a more thorough empirical study of naturalness in English Bible versions. UPDATE: There is now an updated version of the chart which appears below. The updated version is in MS Word 7.0 format and adds NJB, TM, JBP (Phillips), and HCSB.

Version abbreviations used are:

KJV = King James Version
NKJV = New King James Version
RSV = Revised Standard Version
NRSV = New Revised Standard Version
NASB = New American Standard Bible
NIV = New International Version
REB = Revised English Bible
NET = New English Translation
ISV = International Standard Version
GW = God's Word
TEV = Today's English Version (also known as Good News for Modern Man)
CEV = Contemporary English Version (commercial title, The Promise)
NCV = New Century Version
LB = Living Bible
NLT = New Living Translation
HCSB = Holman Christian Standard Bible
ESV = English Standard Version CE = Covenant Edition

I welcome feedback on any aspect of the chart, research assumptions, or whatever else comes to your mind from studying these results. Feel free to ask any question about anything which is not clear. I used brief labels to identify the translation issues and several of them may not be clear to many people, so do feel free to ask what something means.

The issue of "Logical relationship" in Luke 22:2 has to do with the adverbial relationship between the activities of the religious leaders who wanted to kill Jesus and their fear of the people. Many translations, when read in the most natural manner by fluent English speakers, prompt the hearer's interpretation that the leaders wanted to kill Jesus because they were afraid of the people, but that is not what Luke meant when he wrote that verse. The correct logical relationship between the two clauses of the verse is that the leaders wanted to kill Jesus ON THE SLY, because they were afraid of the people. In other words, the issue is the adverbial scope of the "because" clause. Only a few verses clearly and naturally indicate the originally intended scope of the "because" (Greek hoti) adverb, that is, that it modifies HOW the leaders wanted to carry out their plot to kill Jesus, not the fact that they wanted to kill Jesus.

For the latest version of the chart in Microsoft Word 7.0 format click here and Save the file to your hard drive.

             KJV NKJV RSV NRSV NASB NIV REB NET ISV GW TEV CEV NCV LB NLT

2 Cor 5.17
dative
in Christ                                X           X  X   X   X  X   X

Phil 4.4
Dative
in the Lord                                             X   X

2 Cor 5.14
Genitive
Christ's
love                                  X              X      X      X   X

1 Thess 5.2
Genitive
day of
the Lord                                                    X   X

Titus 2.13
Granville
Sharp             X    X   X    X    X   X   X   X   X  X   X   X  X   X

Matt 7.6
Chiasmus                                                X   X   X

Philemon 5
Chiasmus                   X                 X       X  X   X   X  X

1 Cor 7.1
Euphemism:
touch = sex                          X       X       X  X   X   X  X   X

1 Cor 11.30
Euphemism
sleep =
death                  X   X             X   X   X  X   X   X   X  X   X

Matt. 1.25
Euphemism
know = sex                 X    X    X   X   X   X  X   X   X   X  X   X

2 Cor 5.17
Gender
man = anyone       X   X   X         X   X   X   X  X   X   X   X  X   X

Matt 5.9
Gender
sons =
children      X            X             X   X   X  X   X   X   X      X

Mark 2.19
Idiom
children
of the
bridechamber      X    X   X    X    X   X   X   X  X   X   X   X  X   X

Pro 23.32
Doublet
serpent =
adder                                                   X   X   X

Rom 12.20
Idiom:
heap coals
of fire                                             X   X          X   X

Matt 21.5
Idiom
daughter
of Zion                                          X  X   X   X   X  X   X

1 Jn 3.18
Doublet
word =
tongue                                              X       X          X

Acts 2.41
Synecdoche
souls =
persons                    X         X   X   X   X  X   X   X   X  X   X

Matt 16.17
Synecdoche
flesh &
blood =
any person                           X   X          X   X   X   X  X   X

Acts 15.21
Metonymy
Moses =
writings of
Moses                                               X   X   X   X  X   X

Luke 22.2
Logical
relationship                                        X   X          X   X

Acts 23.6
Hendiadys
hope in the
resurrection               X         X   X   X   X  X   X   X   X  X   X

2 Tim 1.10
Hendiadys
immortal
life                                                    X   X   X  X   X

23 examples:
             KJV NKJV RSV NRSV NASB NIV REB NET ISV GW TEV CEV NCV LB NLT
Natural %     4   13  17   34   13  39  43  43  39  78 87  91  78  70 83