Introduction
The Open English Translation of the Bible (abbreviated to Open English Translation or OET) is a new series of Bible translation versions just beginning to be created.
It’s starting as the work of an individual, but hopes to involve a worldwide team of translators and checkers once the web software is designed and set into place.
Meanwhile, the design principles of the translation are still being formulated and honed.
The original inspiration for this work came from the World English Bible (WEB) initiated by Michael Paul Johnson.
The WEB is public domain, meaning that it can be freely used and built-upon—not limited to particular uses by any restrictive copyrights.
See also the Frequently Asked Questions.
Note that we are in the process of moving the OET to a new website.
Versions
Most Bible translations consist of only one version, but a number of editions, perhaps with British vs. American spellings, with or without cross-references or study notes, mini-concordance, etc.
However, the Open English Translation of the Bible (OET) comes from the beginning with more than one version with different aims,
but expected to be used together just like a modern builder might use a nail-gun for many tasks, but pick up his hammer for others.
The following things are common to all of the OET versions:
- The misleading terminology Old Testament and New Testament will NOT be used (tentatively The Hebrew accounts and The Messiah accounts)
- The terminology Major Prophets and Minor Prophets is also misleading to many readers and will NOT be used
- Traditional chapter and verse numbers will be there, but will be strongly downplayed to discourage their use
- The word God will be capitalised as a way of acknowledging the Hebrew plural Elohim used as a singular, but other references, e.g., the father, the son, will not be capitalised
- Segments which are not included in the most ancient manuscripts will be removed from the inline text
- Wherever section headings are used (all but the Literal Version), they will be typeset/displayed in such a way so as not to interrupt the flow of the actual Scripture text
- The so-called apocryphal/deuterocanonical books will be included in the OET with a section name yet to be determined (tentatively The other accounts)
- Books that were divided simply due to the length of the scrolls will be recombined,
e.g., 1 & 2 Samuel into just Samuel
- The order that the books will be presented will be changed from the traditional English Christian order,
e.g., the Hebrew scriptures will be organised more chronologically (e.g., with Ezra/Nehemiah at the end),
and the Greek books will begin with John, Matthew, Mark, Luke-Acts, ....
- Each book will have an individual version number,
and each major release will also have an overall version number
- Each version will be available in multiple exported formats for download, including text,
LibreOffice/OpenOffice (ODF), and PDF files (both of individual books and of entire versions),
USFM and
USX files,
and OSIS files,
and Epub electronic book files
- A version with the traditional book contents and order will also be released
for backwards compatibility with Bible software with limited flexibility.
- The OET will be released under a licence that both enables and encourages others to use and build upon this work. (Most likely this will be a Creative Commons BY-SA licence, but other content licences are also being considered, even Public Domain.)
- For more detailed information (for translators), see the (authoritative) common specifications of the OET versions.
The Open English Translation is available in the following versions:
- Literal Version (OET-LV)
- The OET-LV is aimed at readers and students who don’t read the original languages themselves, but want to get a good idea of what they actually say
- It will attempt to follow the original (Hebrew and Greek) Scriptures as closely as possible (at the expense of sounding "wooden" in English)
- This means being as literal as possible -- trying to match pretty much word-for-word (thus idioms and other figurative language won’t be adjusted)
- Any non-trivial words that must be added to the English for understanding will be clearly marked as additions
- Every attempt will be made to make the English glosses consistent (at least for the primary meanings of words)
- Primary and extended meanings of words will be marked using slashes, e.g., (מַלְאָךְ) messenger/angel
- Slashes may also be used to denote an English range of meaning that’s perhaps different from the word in the original language, e.g., sorrow/mourning
- Underscores may be used to join English words coming from a single source language word,
e.g., cause_to_stumble, except that small grammatical features like articles, prepositions, and conjunctions may be exempted from this
- Quotation marks will NOT be used around direct speech
- Where it seems to critically affect the meaning, grammatical features that are not normally in English (such as marking gender or distinguishing between you singular and plural) will be marked
- The divine name (tetragrammaton) will simply be rendered as YHWH
- People and place names will be transliterated more accurately, e.g., Yonah instead of Jonah, Yesous instead of Jesus
(but not going to the trouble of using additional markings to distinguish the long and short vowels, etc.)
- The translation will be rendered into English sentence-by-sentence (with ambiguities marked in footnotes), i.e., the 19th sentence of the English New Testament should match the generally accepted 19th sentence of the Greek
- There will be no section headers or paragraph markings—it will generally be displayed by sentence
- Only original measurements will be used, e.g., cubits not metres
- There will be extensive footnotes about variants (and missing or unclear sections) in the early manuscripts
- It is hoped that the web-based publication can also provide live links to the original language versions.
- Preliminary sample text: Jonah (UTF-8 USFM text file) or PDF.
- For more detailed information (for translators), see the (authoritative) specifications of the OET-LV.
- Readers’ Version (OET-RV)
- The OET-RV is aimed at readers (including second-language English readers) who want to easily read the text and understand the overall message without being distracted by too many footnotes
- It will attempt to give an easily-readable, natural English text with normal contemporary English punctuation
- It will attempt to replace Christian jargon / archaic terminology with language that is more likely to be found in modern newspapers, magazines, and books
- Implied linguistic or cultural background information may be integrated into the text
- Some Hebrew parallelism may be dropped if it appears to add little to the context, especially if English seems to lack suitable natural sounding synonyms
- Additions to the text which are necessary to translate the meaning or helpful in giving cultural context will not be marked in any special way (so as not to distract the reader)
- The divine name (tetragrammaton) will be rendered as Yahweh
- Traditional English spellings will be used for people and place names,
but possibly the more accurate transliteration will be added in parenthesis for major names where the name is first used in any book
- Paragraph breaks and section headings will be added to the text, along with indentations for poetry and quotations
- Only modern measurements will be used (the original measurements will not be included)
- There will be a minimum of footnotes
- It is hoped that the web-based publication will also provide live links to the OET-LV.
- Preliminary sample text: Jonah (UTF-8 USFM text file) or PDF.
- Colloquial Version (OET-CV)
- The OET-CV is aimed at readers (especially younger readers) who want to easily read the text
in the modern language that they are used to,
and to understand the overall message without being distracted by too many footnotes
- It will attempt to give an easily-readable, natural English text with normal contemporary English punctuation
- It will attempt to replace Christian jargon / archaic terminology with language that is more likely to be found in modern newspapers, magazines, and books
- Implied linguistic or cultural background information may be integrated into the text
- Some Hebrew parallelism may be dropped if it appears to add little to the context, especially if English seems to lack suitable natural sounding synonyms
- Additions to the text which are necessary to translate the meaning or helpful in giving cultural context will not be marked in any special way (so as not to distract the reader)
- The divine name (tetragrammaton) will be rendered as Yahweh
- Traditional English spellings will be used for people and place names,
but possibly the more accurate transliteration will be added in parenthesis for major names where the name is first used in any book
- Paragraph breaks and section headings will be added to the text, along with indentations for poetry and quotations
- Only modern measurements will be used (the original measurements will not be included)
- There will be a minimum of footnotes
- It is hoped that the web-based publication will also provide live links to the OET-LV.
- Study Version (OET-SV)
- The OET-SV is aimed at preachers / students who want to study the text carefully in English
- It will attempt to give a readable English text with normal contemporary English punctuation
- Additions to the text which are necessary to translate the meaning will be clearly marked (using different colours where available)
- The divine name (tetragrammaton) will be rendered as Yahweh
- People and place names will be transliterated more accurately,
e.g., Yonah instead of Jonah, Yesous instead of Jesus, but the traditional spelling will be added in parenthesis where the name is first used in any book
- Paragraph breaks and section headings will be added to the text, along with indentations for poetry and quotations and a method of explicitly indicating Hebrew parallelism
- Modern measurements will be used in the text but the original measurements will also be noted (parenthesis or footnotes -- to be decided)
- There will extensive cross-referencing and footnotes (but only using transliterations of Hebrew/Greek words),
including notes on the more important variants in the ancient manuscripts and also where ambiguities in the original were not able to be preserved in the translation
- It is hoped that the web-based publication will also provide live links to the OET-LV.
- Preliminary sample text (not done yet): Jonah (UTF-8 USFM text file)
- Extended Version (OET-EV)
- The OET-EV is aimed at lecturers, Bible translators and other technical people who want to study the text in English but in great detail
- The text itself will mostly follow the Study Version (these two will be the closest OET versions in terms of the actual text),
so only the differences from the OET-SV are listed below
- The divine name (tetragrammaton) will be rendered as YHWH
- Modern measurements will be used in the text but the original measurements will also be noted (parenthesis or footnotes -- to be decided -- might be different from the OET-SV)
- There will extensive notes on variants in the original manuscripts (similar to the OET-LV)
- Raw idioms will also be brought through from the Literal Version (parenthesis or footnotes -- to be decided) where the Study Version rendering differs
- There will be extra grammatical notes, including the explicit marking of singular/dual/plural and other grammatical features brought through from the original languages
- Ambiguities in interpreting the original texts will be highlighted and multiple renderings offered
- Extra exegetical and translation notes will be added
- Hebrew and Greek words (fonts) will be used in the notes (with transliterations in parentheses)
- Preliminary sample text (not done yet): Jonah (UTF-8 USFM text file)
Of course, it will also be possible to offer additional editions such as Men’s Study Edition or Young Readers’ Illustrated Edition.
Note that the OET also includes grammatical and semantic tagging.
A full list of tags and special characters can be found here.
The tagged files are provided on the Downloads Page.
See also the Frequently Asked Questions.
Further design questions yet to be decided
- What format will be the definitive format? (Currently ESFM. Is there a free OSIS editor available?)
- Exactly what will be our names for the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books?
- Will we use a traditional order for the Old Testament books? What books will we recombine (e.g., 1&2Samuel -> Samuel) since we’re not limited these days by the size of the scroll?
- What book order will be used for the New Testament. Certainly it seems sensible to put Luke and Acts together
- Should the base spelling be British or American?
- How should we handle the English word "pray". It has become standard religious jargon, but the original word seems to mean "to intercede". Can we use a more generic word than "pray" in the OET?
Version numbers
Each book will contain an internal version number of the form Vx.x.xx. These will roughly follow the following series:
| Version | Explanation |
| 0.1.00 | Fill-in base version adapted from another version -- the ASV in the case of the Literal Version, then the Readers’ Version from the Literal Version, and so forth. |
| 0.2.00 | First completed draft of the text and section headings |
| 0.3.00 | Checked draft of the text and section headings |
| 0.4.00 | First completed draft of the text with headings and notes |
| 0.5.00 | Checked draft of the text with headings and notes |
| 0.6.00 | Checked for consistency of style and key terms |
| 0.7.00 | Checked for consistency and accuracy |
| 0.8.00 | Ready for external review |
| 0.9.00 | This book is waiting ready to be included in a formal release |
| 1.0.00 | Finished book released as part of a larger version release |
Each release of each of the five OET versions will contain an overall version number of the form Vx.x.xx. These will roughly follow the following series:
| Version | Explanation |
| 0.1.00 | Prerelease of certain completed books and portions |
| 0.2.00 | Second prerelease |
| 0.3.00 | Third prerelease |
| 0.4.00 | Fourth prerelease |
| 0.5.00 | Complete New Testament prerelease with some Old Testament books |
| 0.6.00 | Complete New Testament prerelease with the Torah and some other Old Testament books |
| 0.7.00 | Complete New Testament prerelease with approx. 50% of the Old Testament |
| 0.8.00 | Complete New and Old Testament prerelease |
| 0.9.00 | Prerelease of full Old and New Testaments with Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books |
| 1.0.00 | First release of full Old and New Testaments with Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books |
It is intended that each release be a complete Old and New Testament, even if some of the included books are only fill-in base versions.
See also the Frequently Asked Questions.
