GOD'S WORD^® was produced to meet the need for a Bible that is bothaccurate by scholarly standards and written in readable, natural,everyday English. Unfortunately, some Bible translations are very scholarly in theirapproach to translation but use a form of English that requiresreaders to understand words, sentences, and phrases in ways thatare not natural to the way in which American English is spokenor written. Equally unfortunate is the fact that other translationshave sacrificed accuracy in their attempt to be easy to read andunderstand.

GOD'S WORD^®, however, was produced using a theory of translationthat emphasizes both accuracy and readability. This theory iscalled "closest natural equivalence." In short, closestnatural equivalence concentrates on accurately translating themeaning of the original languages into natural English. At thesame time, closest natural equivalence retains as many of theunique characteristics of the original text as possible withoutmaking the English translation unnatural or harder to understandthan the text was in the original languages.

The following pages explain "closest natural equivalence"and how closest natural equivalence is achieved. Also revealedare some specific challenges faced by the translation team asthey produced GOD'S WORD^®.