lsayre wrote: ↑Sat May 16, 2020 7:29 am
DCHindley wrote: ↑Sat May 16, 2020 6:01 am
You might consider an "Interlinear" translation (Greek words as in text, with an English gloss directly under each word). Some are better than others. Avoid the ones put out by Fundamentalist and conservative Evangelical presses (interlinear English text will be whatever is in the KJV or NIV) but find one that uses a "concordant" type translation (the English is a gloss that reflects the verbal form or case). There are also free ones available online, as they were all the rage in the 19th century as an alternative way to learn Greek (in conjunction with a grammar book), so they are out of copyright. That also means that the texts are images and not Unicode.
Thanks! Might you point me to a decent "interlinear" translation?
For the NT I use the
Kingdom Interlinear Transation of the Greek Scriptures (c. 1969, and yes, published by the Jehovah's Witnesses). Despite the origins, the base Greek text is that of Westcott & Hort (1880), and the interlinear English glosses follow a concordant method (are consistently the same, very much like the ISA software version I had linked to earlier). There is also the text of their New World Translation in the margin, but personally I never ever use that.
It is an update of Benjamin Wilson's Emphatic Diaglott (1864), who was one of the pioneers of the concordant method of translation, based on the Greisbach's edition of the Greek NT. There is a New English Version in the right margin. FWIW, the JW's bought the printing plates and continue to publish it, but the copyright long ago expired. You can find image scans of this book at
www.archive.org.
I am not a JW personally, and never have been, so if you want to avoid JWs as a source, it will not break my heart. Try downloading the ISA version 3 if you want to read on your computer. There certainly are other Interlinears out there based on the Majority/Byzantine Text or the Textus Receptus with the Interlinear English lifted word for word from the KJV, NKJV or the NIV.
If you are looking for an Interlinear aimed at the more moderately inclined reader find one that uses NA28 as the Greek text and the English will likely be based on the RSV, NRSV or ESV.
Do not get one that actually has the Greek on the left page and the English translation in the opposite page to the right. It's not quite as helpful to me to have to see it that way, although for works by Josephus, Philo & some of the earlier church fathers it is pretty much the norm (e.g., Loeb Classical Library).
Try visiting Mark Goodacres'
NT Gateway webpage. Or do a Google/Yahoo/etc. search on "Bible" and "Interlinear" and see what comes up. The older public domain books sometimes use the word "Interlineal."
There had been a thread on this a while back, so I will look it up. It was here, almost exactly 1 year ago.
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=5124&p=98535&hilit= ... ear#p98535
DCH