GOD'S WORD Translation

GOD'S WORD Translation, published in 1995, is a complete English Bible rendered from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, working from modern critical editions of the original-language texts. It emerged after the sponsoring society set aside an earlier revision project and undertook instead a fresh translation. The publisher describes its guiding philosophy as "closest natural equivalence," an approach aimed at conveying the meaning of the original in readily understood contemporary English rather than reproducing the source languages word for word. Although earlier work associated with Beck and the GWN provided organizational background, the final text was retranslated, and the version is accordingly classed as a fresh translation rather than a revision. It belongs to the broad stream of twentieth-century English Bibles produced in the wake of the Revised Standard Version and its successors, when readability for general audiences became a central concern of translators.