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Evidence record

Why do translations of the Bible disagree?

Every sentence on the exploration belongs to at least one claim below. Each says what kind of statement it is, what it rests on, what the evidence does not establish, and how far it was checked. Nothing here is a score, and none of it is a verdict on a belief or a theory.

Last checked 23 September 2026.

  • A judgement, not a fact: 18
  • Source checked: 25
  • Partly checked: 2

If something here is wrong, misquoted, out of date or unfair, write to support@unknownoceans.com and give the claim number, which does not change.

What the question takes for granted

A question about translations that can mostly be answered by putting them side by side. What each prints can be checked word for word; why they differ, and how much that matters, is where judgement comes in.

  • The translations really do disagree

    Established

    Established by comparison: the same Greek word is printed as women in one and wives in another, servants in some and slaves in others.

  • The disagreements come from the translators rather than from the Greek

    Contested

    True of the cases on the page, where the Greek word is the same. Elsewhere translations also differ because they translate different Greek texts, as the King James and the World English Bible do at 1 Corinthians 14:34.

  • A first-century meaning exists to be recovered

    Open

    The page argues the evidence for it is partial: lexicons are built from what survives.

How the question is labelled

Claim: What a translation decides

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: Translations

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

The question

Claim: Four places where the English you read was a decision, and the decision is arguable.

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: Anyone reading this book in English is reading a set of choices.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

True by definition of a translation, and said by translators themselves.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Almost nobody reads this book in its own languages, which means almost everybody is reading a set of choices.” An unmeasured claim about all readers, and not true of everyone: Hebrew is read in synagogue and Greek in Greek Orthodox worship. The point the page needs holds for any English reader.

Claim 2 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The choices are documented and several of them change what the passage is about.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

A summary of the four checked cases below.

Claim 3 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: A translation is not a transparent pane.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Claim 4 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Every line of it is somebody deciding what a word does,

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page’s thesis, illustrated by the cases below.

Claim 5 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: and where two decisions are possible the translator takes one and prints it, sometimes with the other in a footnote and often without.

Kind
Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 13, World English Biblefootnote to Mark 13:30

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: The word translated “generation” (genea) could also be translated “race”, “family”, or “people”.

    A choice declared in a footnote.

  • Supports · WEB

    Colossians 3, World English BibleColossians 3:22, and the chapter’s footnotes (none)

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Servants, obey in all things those who are your masters according to the flesh,

    A choice made without one.

What this does not establish

"Often" rests on the cases read here, not on a count.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “and prints it as though it were the text.” The page itself cites a translation that footnotes its choice (the WEB at Mark 13:30), so "as though it were the text" was not true of every case.

Claim 6 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Four of those decisions are already in this ocean, attached to the questions they change. Here they are together, which is a different thing from meeting them one at a time.

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Four decisions you can check

Claim: Four decisions you can check

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Jerome set out the problem in 395, and it has not moved

Claim: Jerome set out the problem in 395,

Kind
Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Claim 9 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: and it has not moved

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

A modern preface frames its choice in the same two terms.

Claim 10 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Defending himself against the charge of mistranslating a letter, Jerome told Pammachius plainly: "I render sense for sense and not word for word."

Kind
Quotes a source. The words of a named text, checked against the source.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · NPNF

    Letter 57, to Pammachius, on the best method of translatingheadnote and § 5

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Charged with having falsified his original he now repudiates the charge ... For I myself not only admit but freely proclaim that in translating from the Greek (except in the case of the holy scriptures where even the order of the words is a mystery ) I render sense for sense and not word for word.

Claim 11 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: He argued the alternative produces something unreadable, and cited Cicero as precedent.

Kind
Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Jerome says “Tully”, the usual English name for Cicero then.

  • Supports · NPNF

    Letter 57, to Pammachius, on the best method of translating§ 5

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: For this course I have the authority of Tully ... let him render Homer word for word into Latin, nay I will go farther still and say, let him render it into Latin prose, and the result will be that the order of the words will seem ridiculous and the most eloquent of poets scarcely articulate.

Claim 12 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: In the same sentence he exempted the one text this page is about: "except in the case of the holy scriptures where even the order of the words is a mystery".

Kind
Quotes a source. The words of a named text, checked against the source.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · NPNF

    Letter 57, to Pammachius, on the best method of translating§ 5

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: in translating from the Greek (except in the case of the holy scriptures where even the order of the words is a mystery ) I render sense for sense and not word for word.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Then he exempted the one text this page is about: "except in the case of the holy scriptures, where even the order of the words is a mystery".” The exemption is a parenthesis inside the sentence quoted before it, not a later statement, and the translation has no comma after "scriptures".

Claim 13 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The rest of the letter qualifies even that, arguing that the evangelists and apostles, quoting the Hebrew scriptures, gave the meaning rather than the words.

Kind
Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · NPNF

    Letter 57, to Pammachius, on the best method of translating§§ 7 and 9

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: the translators of the Septuagint , the evangelists , and the apostles , have done the same in dealing with the sacred writings. ... From all these passages it is clear that the apostles and evangelists in translating the old testament scriptures have sought to give the meaning rather than the words

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “” Quoting only the exemption made it look absolute. Jerome spends §§ 7 to 11 showing that the Septuagint, the evangelists and the apostles rendered scripture by sense, so the exemption is less than it sounds.

Claim 14 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: That is the whole field. Every translation since sits somewhere on the line between those two, and where it sits is a decision made before a single verse is rendered.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page’s framing; the ESV preface describes its own place on the same line.

Claim 15 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

A word rendered both servant and slave

Claim: A word rendered both servant and slave

Kind
About a word. What a word in the original language means, or how it is translated.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Colossians 3, World English BibleColossians 3:22

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Servants, obey in all things those who are your masters according to the flesh,

  • Supports

    Preface to the English Standard Version: translation philosophyThe Translation of Specialized Terms, third

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Such is the case in the translation of ‘ebed (Hebrew) and doulos (Greek), terms which are often rendered “slave.”

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “A word that means both servant and slave” The passage under the heading says the word is the ordinary one for a slave and that servant describes a different relationship, so "means both" contradicted it. What can be shown is that it is rendered both ways.

Claim 16 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The household codes tell douloi to obey their masters.

Kind
Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · Greek (SBLGNT)

    Colossians 3, SBL Greek New TestamentColossians 3:22

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: οἱ δοῦλοι, ὑπακούετε κατὰ πάντα τοῖς κατὰ σάρκα κυρίοις,

What this does not establish

Only Colossians 3:22 was cited and read here; Ephesians 6:5 has the same instruction.

Claim 17 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The word is the ordinary Greek one for a slave.

Kind
About a word. What a word in the original language means, or how it is translated.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · English (LSJ)

    doulos, in A Greek-English Lexicon (Liddell, Scott and Jones)δοῦλος (A), I

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: born bondman or slave, opp. one made a slave ... then, generally, bondman, slave, opp. δεσπότης

What this does not establish

LSJ is a lexicon of classical Greek; it does not treat New Testament usage separately.

Claim 18 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Many English Bibles render it servant,

Kind
About a word. What a word in the original language means, or how it is translated.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · KJV

    Colossians 3, King James VersionColossians 3:22

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh;

  • Supports · ASV

    Colossians 3, American Standard VersionColossians 3:22

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Servants, obey in all things them that are your masters according to the flesh;

  • Supports · WEB

    Colossians 3, World English BibleColossians 3:22

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Servants, obey in all things those who are your masters according to the flesh,

What this does not establish

Three translations were read here, all older or free ones.

Claim 19 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: which describes a different relationship and a different ethical question.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

A servant can leave; a slave is owned. The instruction reads differently to each.

Claim 20 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Neither rendering is a mistake in the narrow sense,

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

In older English "servant" covered bond service, and translators defend it on grounds of context (next claim).

Claim 21 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: and translators who prefer servant or bondservant argue that the word covered a range of relationships and should be rendered by context.

Kind
Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports

    Preface to the English Standard Version: translation philosophyThe Translation of Specialized Terms, third

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: These terms, however, actually cover a range of relationships that requires a range of renderings ... depending on the context.

What this does not establish

That the preface argues this is a fact about the preface. Its further claim, that a New Testament doulos was often under a seven-year contract, is not checked here.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “” The page gave only one side of a disputed rendering. The ESV preface, already cited on this page, argues the other.

Claim 22 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Only one of the renderings lets a reader see that the instruction is addressed to people who were owned.

Kind
Disputed. A contested point, where the page reports a side or the disagreement.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page’s side of the dispute, stated after the other side.

  • Supports · English (LSJ)

    doulos, in A Greek-English Lexicon (Liddell, Scott and Jones)δοῦλος (A), I

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: then, generally, bondman, slave, opp. δεσπότης

  • Qualifies

    Preface to the English Standard Version: translation philosophyThe Translation of Specialized Terms, third

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Where absolute ownership by a master is envisaged (as in Romans 6 ), “slave” is used

    The ESV grants the point where it judges ownership is in view; it disputes how often that is.

Other readings

Translators who render by context hold that not every doulos was owned outright and that "slave" imports associations from modern slavery.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Only one of them lets a reader see what is being instructed.” Says what "slave" makes visible rather than implying that "servant" hides the whole instruction.

Claim 23 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

A word that means both women and wives

Claim: A word that means both women and wives

Kind
About a word. What a word in the original language means, or how it is translated.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Claim 24 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The Greek word covers both, as Liddell, Scott and Jones set out under separate senses,

Kind
About a word. What a word in the original language means, or how it is translated.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · English (LSJ)

    gyne, in A Greek-English Lexicon (Liddell, Scott and Jones)γυνή, I and II

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: woman, opp. man, Il.15.683 , etc. ... II. wife, spouse, Il.6.160

  • Supports · Greek (SBLGNT)

    1 Corinthians 14, SBL Greek New Testament1 Corinthians 14:34

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Αἱ ⸀γυναῖκες ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις σιγάτωσαν,

    The ⸀ is the edition’s mark of a textual variant on the noun.

What this does not establish

LSJ is a lexicon of classical Greek; it does not treat New Testament usage separately.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “as the lexicon of record sets out under separate senses,” LSJ is the standard lexicon of classical Greek; for New Testament Greek another lexicon is usually treated as the reference, so "the lexicon of record" claimed more than the cited work is. Naming it says exactly what was read.

Claim 25 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: and 1 Corinthians 14 has been printed for centuries as an instruction to women,

Kind
Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · KJV

    1 Corinthians 14, King James Version1 Corinthians 14:34

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Let your women keep silence in the churches:

What this does not establish

The King James (1611) is the example read. Its Greek text adds ὑμῶν, “your”, which the modern critical text lacks; the noun is the same.

Claim 26 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: which is a rule about half a congregation, and is printed in the translation cited throughout this site as an instruction to wives, which is a rule about a marriage.

Kind
Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

That each rendering makes a different rule is the page’s reading; verse 35’s “their own husbands” is what the WEB’s choice leans on.

  • Supports · WEB

    1 Corinthians 14, World English Bible1 Corinthians 14:34-35

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Let the wives be quiet in the assemblies, for it has not been permitted for them to be talking except in submission, as the law also says, if they desire to learn anything. “Let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is shameful for a wife to be talking in the assembly.”

Claim 27 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The Greek word is the same in both cases. The English is not.

Kind
About a word. What a word in the original language means, or how it is translated.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · Greek (SBLGNT)

    1 Corinthians 14, SBL Greek New Testament1 Corinthians 14:34-35

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: ἐν οἴκῳ τοὺς ἰδίους ἄνδρας ἐπερωτάτωσαν, αἰσχρὸν γάρ ἐστιν γυναικὶ

    γυναῖκες in 14:34 and γυναικί in 14:35: one word, printed “women” in both verses of the KJV and “wives” and “wife” in the WEB.

  • Supports · KJV

    1 Corinthians 14, King James Version1 Corinthians 14:34-35

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Let your women keep silence in the churches: ... for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.

  • Supports · WEB

    1 Corinthians 14, World English Bible1 Corinthians 14:34-35

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Let the wives be quiet in the assemblies, ... for it is shameful for a wife to be talking in the assembly.

What this does not establish

The word is the same; the Greek texts behind the two translations are not quite, since the KJV’s adds “your”.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “The manuscript is identical in both cases.” The Greek texts behind the KJV and the WEB differ slightly at 14:34 (the Textus Receptus adds “your”), and the manuscripts differ on where 14:34-35 stands. What is the same is the word.

Claim 28 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

A name, and a generation

Claim: A name, and a generation

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: Junia, greeted by Paul as notable among the apostles,

Kind
Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Romans 16, World English BibleRomans 16:7

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and my fellow prisoners, who are notable among the apostles, who were also in Christ before me.

Other readings

The phrase can also be read as “well known to the apostles” rather than counted among them; that reading has its own defenders.

Claim 30 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: is a single Greek form, IOYNIAN, that could be a woman’s name or a man’s.

Kind
About a word. What a word in the original language means, or how it is translated.
Review
Partly checked. Only part of the source could be read. What was not read is listed.

What this does not establish

Read as an abstract. The article concludes that only the female reading is supported by the evidence; the form is ambiguous, the evidence is not.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “is a single Greek form whose accents do not settle whether the name is a woman’s or a man’s.” Accents are what would settle it, and the ambiguity is in the unaccented form. The cited article describes IOYNIAN as a form whose grammatical gender could be either.

Claim 31 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: A nineteenth-century proposal that it was a shortened masculine name took hold, and Junia left the printed editions and the scholarly conversation for generations before the reading was challenged and reversed.

Kind
Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review
Partly checked. Only part of the source could be read. What was not read is listed.

What this does not establish

The Open Theology article was read as an abstract only.

Claim 32 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: That was an editorial decision as much as a translator’s, and it worked the same way.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The nineteenth-century change was made in the printed Greek editions, but a translation (Luther’s) is among the earlier answers the article traces.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “That was not a translation decision but an editorial one,” The article lists Luther’s translation among the influential early answers, and English versions carried the masculine name. The editions and the translations both made the choice.

Claim 33 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: And Mark has Jesus say "this generation will not pass away until all these things happen",

Kind
Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 13, World English BibleMark 13:30

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: Most certainly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things happen.

Claim 34 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: where the translation quoted here footnotes that the word could also be rendered race, family or people.

Kind
About a word. What a word in the original language means, or how it is translated.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · WEB

    Mark 13, World English Biblefootnote to Mark 13:30

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: The word translated “generation” (genea) could also be translated “race”, “family”, or “people”.

Claim 35 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: A deadline or a description, depending on which is chosen.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

“Generation” sets a time limit on “all these things”; “race” or “people” describes who will still be there.

Claim 36 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Who decides, and how

Claim: Who decides, and how

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: The Greek word is the same in every one of these cases. The English is not.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Each case compares renderings of one Greek word: doulos, gyne, IOYNIAN, genea. The Greek texts around them sometimes differ; the word does not.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “The manuscript is identical in every one of these cases.” There is no single manuscript, and the Greek texts behind different translations are not identical (1 Corinthians 14:34 differs between the Textus Receptus and the critical text). The claim that holds is that the word is the same.

Claim 37 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Where a translator’s theology gets in

Claim: Where a translator’s theology gets in

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: Translators are not neutral instruments, and students of translation increasingly say so.

Kind
What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Translators are not neutral instruments and the serious ones say so.” The one translation preface read says the opposite of itself (it aims to be "transparent to the original") and attributes interpretive bias to other kinds of translation. What the sources carry is that scholars of translation say it.

Claim 40 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The committee behind the version quoted below describes itself as drawn from many denominations, and sets out its philosophy in its preface.

Kind
Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports

    Preface to the English Standard Version: translation philosophyPublishing Team; Translation Philosophy

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: This hundred-plus-member team shares a common commitment to the truth of God’s Word and to historic Christian orthodoxy and is international in scope, including leaders in many denominations.

  • Context

    English Versions since 1611, in The Cambridge History of the BibleCrossref record, pp. 361 to 382

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Catalogue record only, 23 September 2026

    On the committees of the earlier English versions; record only, and it ends before the modern translations.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Committees are assembled from traditions, work to a declared philosophy, and publish it in the preface, which almost nobody reads.” A generalisation about all committees resting on one preface read, and "which almost nobody reads" is a claim about readers with no source. Narrowed to what the ESV preface says of itself.

Claim 41 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: What is argued is how far that shapes the result. The strong version, that renderings track the translators’ doctrine, is easy to assert and hard to demonstrate across a whole Bible.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page’s framing of the question; it names no one who holds the strong version.

Claim 42 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The weak version, that it shapes the contested passages where a choice has to be made, is easier to show: a study of gender in New Testament translation finds it in how Phoebe’s title is rendered, and the cases on this page are more of the same.

Kind
What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

What this does not establish

One study’s argument about one set of passages; it shows the effect where it looks, not how often it occurs.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “The weak version, that it shapes the handful of contested passages where a choice has to be made, is not seriously disputed.” "Not seriously disputed" is a claim about a field, and the only source cited was a 1963 chapter read as a record. The corrected sentence points at a readable study that shows the effect, and drops "handful", which nothing measured.

Claim 43 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Which approach is better

Claim: Which approach is better

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: Some translations say which end of Jerome’s line they are working from, and they say it in the preface.

Kind
Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports

    Preface to the English Standard Version: translation philosophyTranslation Philosophy

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: The ESV is an “essentially literal” translation that seeks as far as possible to reproduce the precise wording of the original text and the personal style of each Bible writer.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Translations say which end of Jerome’s line they are working from,” One preface was read; the sentence generalised to all translations.

Claim 45 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: One describes itself as an “essentially literal” translation emphasising “word-for-word” correspondence, so that a reader can see “the structure and exact force of the original”, and names the alternative it is defining itself against: versions that follow “thought-for-thought” rather than word-for-word, “emphasizing dynamic equivalence”.

Kind
Quotes a source. The words of a named text, checked against the source.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

In the source, only “dynamic equivalence” is in quotation marks; “emphasizing” is the preface’s word outside them.

  • Supports

    Preface to the English Standard Version: translation philosophyTranslation Philosophy

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: The ESV is an “essentially literal” translation

  • Supports

    Preface to the English Standard Version: translation philosophyTranslation Philosophy

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: its emphasis is on “word-for-word” correspondence ... letting the reader see as directly as possible the structure and exact force of the original. In contrast to the ESV, some Bible versions have followed a “thought-for-thought” rather than “word-for-word” translation philosophy, emphasizing “dynamic equivalence”

Claim 46 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Both are answering the question "what is this translation for", and they have different answers because they are doing different things with the book.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The ESV ties its method to a purpose, study, which is the page’s point.

Claim 47 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Which traditions line up behind which answer is the part this page does not have a document for, so it does not say.

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

What cannot be asked

Claim: What cannot be asked

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

What the words meant to the first hearers

Claim: What the words meant to the first hearers

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: Every one of these decisions would be easier if anyone could ask a first-century speaker what the word carried. Meaning is not only definition: it is what a word summons, which is exactly what dies with the people who used it.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

A reflection on the limits of the evidence, in the section filed as unknown.

Claim 51 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Lexicons are built from surviving usage, and surviving usage is a fraction of what was said.

Kind
What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review
Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

  • Supports · English (LSJ)

    gyne, in A Greek-English Lexicon (Liddell, Scott and Jones)γυνή

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: woman, opp. man, Il.15.683 , etc. ... II. wife, spouse, Il.6.160 , Od.8.523 , Hdt.1.34 , etc.

    Each sense rests on citations of surviving texts.

What this does not establish

The lexicon shows its method; the proportion of what survives is not measurable.

Claim 52 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

What follows from it

Claim: What follows from it

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

What this does and does not undermine

Claim: What this does and does not undermine

Kind
Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: None of this shows the text is unreliable.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Disagreement between translations is disagreement about rendering a text, not evidence about the text itself.

Claim 55 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The places where a decision changes the sense are argued over in public by people who mark their working, sometimes in a footnote on the page, which is close to the opposite of a text nobody can pin down.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Follows from the documented cases above.

  • Context · WEB

    Mark 13, World English Biblefootnote to Mark 13:30

    Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026

    The source reads: The word translated “generation” (genea) could also be translated “race”, “family”, or “people”.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “The places where a decision changes the sense are a small and well-mapped set, argued over in public by people who mark their working,” "A small and well-mapped set" is a measurement nobody on the page made. What the cases show is that the arguments are public and sometimes marked on the page itself.

Claim 56 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: What it does show is that reading a translation is reading with somebody.

Kind
This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review
A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page’s conclusion from the four cases, and now the last sentence of the passage.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “What it does show is that reading a translation is reading with somebody. How much that matters is itself a question about where authority sits: in the words, in the church that reads them, or in the reader.” Owner’s rule: only what a credible source verifies is shown. The sentence after this one (retired as claim 58) assigned the authority of a translated Bible to three loci without any church document read, and was marked for a theologian. It was removed, and the passage now ends here.

Claim 57 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

What was read

  • gyne, in A Greek-English Lexicon (Liddell, Scott and Jones)Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University · Liddell, Scott and Jones (1940), entry γυνή, PerseusThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
  • Junia, a Woman Lost in Translation: the name IOYNIAN in Romans 16:7 and its history of interpretationOpen Theology 6, pages 646 to 660 · Abstract via the DOAJ and CORE records; Open Theology 6 (2020) 646 to 660Abstract only, 23 September 2026 · CC BY 4.0The publisher’s PDF (degruyter.com) answered with a bot check (HTTP 202, empty); CORE and Semantic Scholar hold no full text; Europe PMC search was unavailable.
  • Letter 57, to Pammachius, on the best method of translatingJerome, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers series II volume 6, New Advent · Tr. W. H. Fremantle et al., NPNF series II vol. 6, New Advent, Letter 57 with its headnoteRead in full, 23 September 2026 · Public domain translation
  • Colossians 3, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.org, with its footnotes (none to 3:22)The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
  • 1 Corinthians 14, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
  • Romans 16, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
  • Mark 13, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.org, with its footnote to 13:30The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
  • Preface to the English Standard Version: translation philosophyCrossway · Preface to the English Standard Version, esv.org, read in fullRead in full, 23 September 2026 · Copyright 2001-2026 Crossway; preface prose quoted briefly. Crossway’s stated permission (esv.org copyright page) covers quotation of the ESV text up to 500 consecutive verses; no ESV Bible text is quoted on this page.
  • English Versions since 1611, in The Cambridge History of the BibleLuther A. Weigle and C. F. D. Moule, Cambridge University PressCatalogue record only, 23 September 2026Crossref record only: Weigle and Moule, “English Versions since 1611”, The Cambridge History of the Bible, pp. 361 to 382, 1963. No abstract.
  • doulos, in A Greek-English Lexicon (Liddell, Scott and Jones)Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University · Liddell, Scott and Jones (1940), entry δοῦλος (A), PerseusThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
  • Colossians 3, SBL Greek New TestamentSociety of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, eBible.org · SBL Greek New Testament (2010), eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Copyright 2010 Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software; CC BY 4.0 (eBible.org copyright page); quoted brieflyText-critical sigla (⸀) in the eBible text are left out of excerpts.
  • 1 Corinthians 14, SBL Greek New TestamentSociety of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, eBible.org · SBL Greek New Testament (2010), eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Copyright 2010 Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software; CC BY 4.0 (eBible.org copyright page); quoted brieflyThe eBible text carries text-critical sigla (⸀), kept where they fall inside an excerpt. The Textus Receptus on eBible (grctr) was also read at 14:34.
  • Colossians 3, King James VersioneBible.org · King James Version, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain outside the United Kingdom; Crown copyright in the UK, one verse quoted
  • Colossians 3, American Standard VersioneBible.org, public domain · American Standard Version (1901), eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
  • 1 Corinthians 14, King James VersioneBible.org · King James Version, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain outside the United Kingdom; Crown copyright in the UK, one verse quoted
  • (Con)figuring gender in Bible translation: Cultural, translational and gender critical intersectionsJeremy Punt, HTS Teologiese Studies 70(1), open access · Publisher PDF, HTS 70(1), art. 2051, 10 pagesRead in full, 23 September 2026 · Open access; quoted brieflyRead from the PDF text layer.