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New Living Translation

By Joe Felim

This translation follows a combination of formal equivalence (or word-for-word) and dynamic equivalence (or thought-for-thought) methods of translation. The translators set out to render the meaning and style of the original texts in clear, contemporary English. The words and phrases are translated as simply and literally as possible. If the literal approach resulted in a translation that was hard to understand or was misleading, a more dynamic approach was used. Metaphors are translated literally if the natural meaning is communicated clearly in English. But metaphors and other figures of speech are rendered more dynamically if necessary to ensure clear transmission of the original meaning. From the NLT introduction: “The translators’ goal was to be both faithful to the ancient texts and eminently readable. The result is a translation that is both exegetically accurate and idiomatically powerful.”

Following the success of The Living Bible (40 million copies sold over 30 years), a decision for revision was made that began in 1989 with ninety translators. The New Living Translation was completed and published seven years later in 1996. Soon after the publication of the first edition, the NLT Bible Translation Committee began a further review and revision of the translation. Their goal was “to increase the level of precision without sacrificing the text’s easy-to-understand quality.” The Second Edition of the NLT (also called the NLTse) was released in 2004. It reflects a translation style that is slightly less dynamic than the first edition in many places, yet it still retains natural contemporary English. The second edition also brought a poetic format to many passages, especially that of the prophetic writing in the Old Testament.

Another minor revision was completed in 2007 with minor textual and footnote changes.

First and second edition text may be identified by looking at the dates on the copyright page or simply by reference to the NLT logo. A square logo indicates a first edition (1996) text, while a diamond logo indicates a second edition (2004 or 2007) text.