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I began the Literal Idiomatic Translation (LIT) about 18-20 years ago after being baffled by the many differences between a dozen or so most popular translations. I found this to be a situation like a house of distorted mirrors, wondering which "translation" is reflecting back a true rendering of exactly what the ancient biblical writers wrote. After several years of comparing them, and then beginning to compare them to the ancient Greek texts of the Bible, I began discovering many liberal paraphrases which seemed to me to be grave deviations from what the ancient writers wrote. I began doubting whether any of them were true all the way through, compared to what the ancient writers actually wrote.

I began looking for a straight translation, one which simply quoted what the ancient writers wrote, using their exact words, in their exact grammatical forms, with no theologically-based word-smithing, paraphrasing, or "synonyming". Why were those "translations" in so many places saying something different in English than what the ancient writers wrote in the Greek texts?

Why were those translators and/or translation committees adding, and/or changing, and/or deleting various morphological components of words (not to mention whole words, clauses, phrases, and sentences themselves), and thereby altering the meanings of those passages, in a "translation" process? To me, inserting opinionated paraphrasing in place of translating exactly what the ancient writers wrote seems quite dishonest, especially when allowing the reader to believe those liberal paraphrases and "synonyms" in their Bibles are what an ancient writer actually wrote. I call that theological fudging of the ancient texts.

Is regularly ignoring the actual words in the ancient Greek texts a legitimate part of an honest translation process? I don't believe so. We were warned about this, the corruption of the communication of God's Word, in the sense that it would remain by and large the status quo in the world as it was in the days of Jesus' earthly ministry (See Mat. 15:9; Rom. 1:21-22; 2 Cor. 10:5-6; 11:13-15; Eph. 5:6-12; Col. 2:8; 2 Tim. 3:13; Tit. 1:10-14).

This is why I started the LIT. This was the only way I could discover exactly what did the ancient writers of the Bible exactly write and say. Through the pains-taking and much time-consuming process of researching, for almost 20 years now, each and every word in the Greek texts to discover its exact meaning, for well over 13,000 unique morphologies now, I have discovered, and sadly still learning how ego-maniacally chocked full of mortal-made theological inventions are most all popular English translations.

I must often do subject matter studies in the verification and substantiation process of the meaning or meanings or words or phrases. I post some of those studies here at this site as well. I don't claim that either my studies, or the conclusions and beliefs that I have come to for myself are yet complete or thorough, since I have not yet exhausted the translation of all of the ancient texts of God's Word. And so therefore I'm still and always learning more, and my own opinions and beliefs change slightly day by day as I continue translating. I'm not to egomaniacal to question my own beliefs, or change them to be more pleasing to my heavenly Father, as I learn more of exactly what the ancient writers of God's Word actually wrote.

The LIT's lexically, grammatically, and morphologically standardized wording in an interlinear style translation, is based upon a formal equivalency translation methodology. This method allows no place for theological paraphrases, nor the forging of the English rendering of words into non-correspondence with their original language text source words. Following these tight translation guidelines in the production of my Literal Interlinear Translation (LIT) is exactly what exposes the abundance of theological bias "translated" into most all existing English translations, as I document in many of my studies which I've posted here.

I am making my translation for me, and absolutely not to satisfy or substantiate any denomination's mortal-made traditional theological theories of any kind. Whatever theological points are self-evident in the Greek text (UBS4) of God's Word, those are the ones I shall eventually discover and learn as I continue to translate my way through it, word by word and line by line. God's big enough to make Himself clear and explicit. Whatever is in God's Word I am certain to discover it, about which I have His promise (John 6:45; 1 Thes. 4:9). I believe the UBS4 is a good eclectic text, but it is not the last word in determining the authenticity of what the ancient writers actually wrote.

Some who are uninformed about translation issues, commenting on translation issues, claim that a literal translation cannot simultaneously be an idiomatic translation. They claim that language idioms/colloquialisms and figures of speech cannot be literally reproduced word for word into another language. Yes, they absolutely can, as I demonstrate with hundreds of examples in my Literal Idiomatic Translation, and explain in its companion work, the Literal Idiomatic Translation Glossary!

As with any vocation, a disciplined study of all of its essential components must be done, and to some extent must remain an ongoing process, in order for one to first gain, and then keep on building, one's skill level and proficiency in it. Likewise, as a reader practices becoming familiar with the "feel" of the way the ancient writers of God's Word actually thought, and subsequently spoke, wrote and acted (as they were carried along under holy Spirit), a reader, through simply reading what the ancient writers wrote, will quickly learn to recognize and understand many of their common colloquialisms, idioms, and figures of speaking, on sight.

I believe the majority of occurrences of Koine Greek idioms can be immediately understood by most all readers whose native language is English. This is because many of our modern English colloquialisms, idioms, and figures of speech have come down to us from the Greek language; and not only centuries ago, but in many cases millenniums ago!  Many modern language idioms, in English as well as other languages, come directly from ancient Greek idioms.

What is "literal" about my translation is I strive to reproduce in English a word for word rendering of the meanings of the words in the original language text, which is the United Bible Societies v4 eclectic Greek text, commonly known as the UBS4/NA26 text. My translation is literally a quote of both exactly WHAT the writers wrote, and exactly HOW they wrote it, i.e., HOW they said what they said, which has very much to do with exactly what they meant.

In the paraphrased translations (which is virtually all "translations") in which "synonyms" are heavily used, paraphrases literally disassociate various passages from one another when the same Greek word or words and sentence structures are used in those passages. Because of the use of dissimilar "synonyms" and paraphrases, the identical points being made, or subject being explained across those various passages, may not appear to be related to one another. A literal quote translation completely removes this traditional and persistent obfuscation of what the ancient writers actually wrote. Literally quoting exactly what the writers wrote is a very strong guard against theological bias which is abundantly "translated" into virtually all English translations using "synonyms" and paraphrases.

What is "idiomatic" about my translation is that I allow all of the colorful colloquialisms in the UBS4 text to flow through into the English, word for word, verbatim. This means I preserve in the English translation the peculiar idioms, colloquialisms and figures of speech in the original language text, so the reader not only sees the meaning of what the speaker said or the writer wrote, but exactly HOW they said or wrote it. HOW they expressed their minds, their thoughts, has almost everything to do with determining and understanding exactly WHAT they meant. In an English translation, this is exactly what must be made explicit for the reader. Because this is how is preserved for the reader the literal meanings of what the ancient writers actually wrote, which is exactly what the holy Spirit desired to be written (2 Pet. 1:20-21). This translation process is Sola Scriptura!

Paraphrasing, which simply pre-interprets for the reader the meaning of everything in the text, has no place in my translation. I believe the reader has the right, and according to God's Word, has the responsibility to interpret for himself, with God's Spirit working in him, what God's Word means to him or her, based upon exactly WHAT and HOW the ancient writers spoke and wrote their thoughts. I believe God's Word is not meant by God to be simply read but TO BE STUDIED as a vocation, the vocation of disciples of Jesus Christ.

As you may have guessed, allowing the idioms and figures of speech to pass through into the English sometimes produces phrases, clauses and sentences which sound a bit strange to our English ears which have been trained to the sounds of English language sentence structures as they relate to our Western patterns of thinking and communicating thoughts as dictated by Hollywood. And so reading a "literal idiomatic" translation is a bit like listening to a Middle Easterner speaking English with a Middle Eastern accent. But when reading the LIT you'll see that the meanings in it are much more accurate to the original language texts than is possible to be for paraphrased "translations" .

I present my Biblical studies and ongoing Literal Interlinear Translation (LIT) here, along with its companion the Literal Idiomatic Translation Glossary (LITG), which is a glossary of idiomatic terms used by the ancient writers of the texts of the new covenant writings. In the LIT I show the exact UBS4 Greek text word morphology in parentheses, ( ), following the English word into which it has been translated. In this way any reader can check the accuracy of the LIT translation (if they wish) using their own language reference resources such as Smyth, Mounce, S. Zodhiates’ CWD, B. Newman, T. Robertson, K. Wuest, BDB, Strong’s, Vine’s, etc., and most importantly through thoroughly studying the various and sometimes very numerous contexts in which a word is used, which is by far much more difficult, and usually neglected by students who say they "study" the Bible. Of course, doing this with virtually all English "translations" is impossible. This can only be done based upon the actual Greek word morphologies given in the ancient texts.

This website puts both the LIT and the LITG on the table openly and honestly for all to see, the LIT being based upon the exact Greek text morphologies and their equivalent English wording and meaning. In this way other English translations can be compared to it for the possible insertion into them of more modern mortal-made theological ideas and opinions by way of the awesome abundance of paraphrases and "synonyms". Dozens if not hundreds of somewhat popular modern theological ideas and opinions have been invented over the last 2,000 years, especially the mortal-made theological invention conjured up in the 4th century by a religious cartel, many of, or parts of which , have found their ways into virtually all English translations.

I take a firm position against the modern liberal practice of doing post-history revision of the meanings the ancient writers conveyed in the ancient texts, which is shamelessly done through modern "translation process". Using the translation process to inject into English "translations" various mortal-made theological inventions which came along hundreds of years after the completion of the writings of the ancient Biblical writers, to sculpt an English translation which makes it appear as though those theological inventions were already in the minds of the ancient Biblical writers at the time they wrote, must be viewed as being dishonest to say the very least. I believe everyone should have the chance to see for themselves, first-hand, in English, exactly what the ancient writers of the Biblical texts wrote, without the injection of any subsequent mortal-made theological inventions.

Two thousand years ago in Jerusalem, on the day of Pentecost, about 3,000 believers in the precious name of JESUS, the CHRIST, received salvation; a baptism from Christ Jesus (Mat. 3:11) in God’s promised gift of holy Spirit, which gave them a new birth above (Acts 2). The fact that it happened THEN, BEFORE and ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT THE SUBSEQUENT NEED FOR any mortal-made theological inventions and addendums to what Jesus Christ and his apostles taught, and what the hearers heard, and believed, and practiced, speaks volumes!