Bible in Basic English

A pioneering controlled-vocabulary Bible designed for readers with limited English, the Bible in Basic English covers the complete Bible, translated from Hebrew and Greek and working directly from the original-language texts. It belongs to the family of fresh translations rather than revisions of earlier English versions, and its guiding philosophy is that of a controlled-vocabulary functional translation: meaning is rendered in the simplest available terms rather than word for word. Its distinctive feature is an intentionally restricted vocabulary, drawn from the Basic English scheme developed in the earlier twentieth century as a simplified form of the language for international and educational use; where a limited word stock cannot supply an exact equivalent, the translation sometimes requires explanatory circumlocution. Produced in Britain in the mid-twentieth century, it stands among the first sustained attempts to make the whole of Scripture accessible to non-native speakers and to readers of modest reading ability.