Most Accurate Literal English Bibles
Among the hundreds of English versions of the Holy Bible, many are not literal translations. While some deviations from the actual wording or accepted text were done with intentions like making the Bible easier to read, not giving the reader the literal meaning can convey an inaccurate message, crush the beauty of poetical passages or give the reader the impression the Bible is contradicting itself. However, there are translations, when compared with the original languages, that have striven to be literal and accurate.
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Young's Literal Translation
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Scottish theologian Robert Young produced a literal translation that was published in 1862 as Young's Literal Translation (YLT). It was revised in 1898, ten years after his death. Among other things, while some past translations rendered the Tetragrammaton as LORD, the YLT uses "Jehovah." The only drawbacks, if any, are certain words are not spelled as they are today and antiquated terms like "thee" and "thou" are used.
The KJ3 Literal Translation Bible
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This is a work of Jay P. Green who held various degrees from Covenant Theological Seminary, Toronto Baptist Seminary and Washington University in St. Louis. Sovereign Grace Publishers (www.sgpbooks.com) published the work and placed the 2006 edition online. Older words like "thou" are replaced with modern terms, and it uses "Jehovah" for the Tetragrammaton.
The New King James Version
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Experts believed the King James Version, published in 1611, to be true to the original languages as found in the Received Text, but English has changed over the centuries and our knowledge of the usage of some ancient words has been enhanced by the Dead Sea Scrolls. Thomas Nelson, Inc. published the New King James Bible in 1982, developed by a team of 130 translators. The traditional rendering of the covenant name of God as "LORD" was kept along with the literary beauty of the 1611 version.
Other Versions Claiming to be Literal
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Others claim to be accurate, but fall short of the literal meanings in some passages, usually in the New Testament. For example, some use "divorce" instead of "loose" throughout 1 Corinthians 7, the term "Father" is omitted from 1 Corinthians 15:24 and "wife" replaced with "bride" in Revelation 19:6. You can check the accuracy yourself by using the Online Bible Program and clicking on the Strong's Concordance reference numbers of any word in any verse.
When Literal Might Not Be Accurate
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When certain figures of speech are encountered by translators a word-for-word translation will not convey the meaning of the text. For example, a literal translation of Psalm 16:7 would state that the psalmist's kidneys instructed him at night. The YLT renders the verse, "... Also in the nights my reins instruct me." The KJ3 also has "reins" but the NKJV uses "heart."
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