Table of Contents

• The Work
• The Basis
• The Texts of the Bible Used
• Principles of Translation
• The Need
• The Support

The Work

Since 1831 the Trinitarian Bible Society has been engaged in the publication and distribution of faithful and trustworthy versions of the Holy Scriptures in many languages throughout the world. The Society desires to ensure that believers everywhere have reliable Bibles. Ministers, missionaries and Christian workers in more than one hundred countries look to the Society for regular supplies of complete Bibles, New Testaments, Gospels, Scripture booklets, leaflets, and text cards. Many of the Scriptures supplied are offered, in cases of need, free of charge or at prices well below the cost of production.

The Basis

The Society, as its name clearly implies, maintains a belief in the doctrine of the Trinity. There are three Persons in the eternal Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, one God in three Persons, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

Additionally, the Society makes clear acknowledgement of the miraculous virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, His sinless humanity, His substitutionary death on the cross, the atoning power of His precious blood, His physical resurrection and ascension into heaven where He is seated until He returns to judge all men, both the living and the dead, at the last day. Thus the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, the only begotten Son of God, is the only Saviour of sinners.

As the guiding principle of its work and witness, the Society acknowledges the whole Bible as the inspired, inerrant Word of God, the sole, supreme, and infallible rule of faith and practice, providentially preserved by God, and able to make men wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

The Society’s publications contain the Word of God alone without note or comment beyond references, headings, chapter summaries, and Metrical Psalms, and do not use pictures of Bible characters or the sign of the cross. 

The work of the Society is maintained under a solemn conviction that no true union can exist in any religious institution unless its principles be derived from the unerring Word of God, and its laws founded in accordance with the Word.

While perfection is not claimed for the Authorised Version (known in some countries as the King James Version), or for any other version, it is known that the translators of the Authorised Version acknowledged the Divine inspiration, authority and inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures; the fruitful use of their translation for nearly 400 years is evidence of the Lord’s blessing upon their work. It is the most accurate and trustworthy translation into English available and is the only English version published by the Society.

The Society acknowledges its dependence upon God for His provision in the continuance of the work and for His blessing upon His Word to make it effectual in the salvation of the lost.

The Texts of the Bible

The Hebrew Text: The Society uses the Hebrew Masoretic Text as the textual basis for the Old Testament in its translations. Great care was taken by the Jews over the centuries to preserve the Hebrew text in its purest form; their work produced what is commonly called the Masoretic Text. This text has been the standard Hebrew text for centuries. When translating the Hebrew into other languages, occasionally ancient translations are consulted because of the difficulty of the Hebrew. But, because God gave the text originally in Hebrew, these ancient translations must be treated as secondary to the Hebrew. The Masoretic Text is the most reliable form of the text of the Old Testament, and is the basis of all of the Society’s Old Testament publications.

The Greek Text: The Society uses the form of the Greek text of the New Testament known as the Textus Receptus or Received Text. This is the text which underlies the New Testament of the Authorised Version and the other Reformation translations. It is a faithful representation of the text which the church in different parts of the world has used for centuries. It is the result of the textual studies of conservative scholars during the years both before and after the Reformation, and represents for the most part over 5,000 available Greek manuscripts. The Society believes this text is superior to the texts used by the United Bible Societies and other Bible publishers, which texts have as their basis a relatively few seriously defective manuscripts from the fourth century and which have been compiled using twentieth century rationalistic principles of scholarship.

Principles of Translation

In today’s world, people are far more concerned with having the Scriptures in a form which is easy to read, a form which is sometimes already interpreted or paraphrased so that it reads like a storybook. Thus many Bible societies follow a principle known as ‘dynamic equivalence’ in translation. The underlying principle in dynamic equivalence is an attempt to reproduce in the receptor language the same effect which the original Scriptures had on those to whom they were first addressed; the dynamic equivalence translators seek to give the same thoughts or ideas to present-day readers that the Bible would have given to its first readers. This is a noble goal; however, it is attempted with little regard for the wording of the Greek and Hebrew texts. The actual words are no longer considered to be as important as the thoughts or ideas behind them. The question must be asked, How can the thoughts of a first-century writer be known or conveyed if not through his words?

Modern man does not have the thoughts of the writers of Scripture; we do, however, have their words, and must faithfully render those words into the languages of the peoples of the world. The Society, believing in the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, that the very words of the Bible and not merely the thoughts or ideas are inspired and inerrant, uses the principle of translation known as ‘formal equivalence’. This means that, whenever possible, the grammar, form, vocabulary, and syntax of the Greek and Hebrew are followed. The Society seeks to follow the principle ‘as literal as possible, as free as necessary’, so that every word of the text is taken into account in translation. These are the normal, traditional principles of translation, the principles used in the translation of Scripture and of the great works of literature throughout the ages.

The Society seeks to understand the norms and problems both of the original languages and the languages into which God’s Word is being translated. Thus idioms, figures of speech and difficult vocabulary are translated carefully and with reverence. The Bible is, after all, the holy Word of God, and must be treated as such.

The Society seeks to follow the traditional principle of retaining the use of italics in the text. This principle, first used in 1534, is a helpful device to ensure that the reader is aware of any words or phrases which were added to the text. These words would include both the words which are demanded or implied by the original language and context and also other ‘helper’ words which complete the sense of the text.

A common practice in translation which is avoided by the Society’s translators is the substitution of names where the Greek or Hebrew text has a pronoun—‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’. Thus the reader has the opportunity of interpreting the Bible for himself without the subjective opinions of translators. Until recently this non-interpretative rendering of the pronoun was a standard practice in translation.

The Society believes that the Bible is God’s Book, given by Divine inspiration to reveal Himself and the gospel of His grace to sinful mankind. As such it is not to be added to, subtracted from, changed to appeal to unbelievers, or modified to avoid offending modern man.

Today the aim of the Society’s translators is to translate from the Greek and Hebrew texts. This is important. Other societies may use a trade language such as English or French or a simplified language version as the basis for their translation. The Society believes that people in every country and of every tongue should have the right and privilege of having the Bible translated from the original tongues rather than having it ‘filtered’ or ‘sifted’ through a third language.

In summary, the Society seeks to produce God-honouring, literal, idiomatic, trustworthy translations from the original languages.

The Need

Bible-believing Christians in many parts of the world are expressing growing concern at the liberal and ecumenical tendencies of many of the organisations engaged in the publication and distribution of the Holy Scriptures. No longer are the inerrancy and authority of the Bible being upheld by these organisations, nor is their chief aim the glory and honour of God. Instead, they work to produce Bibles which are ‘understandable’ by the masses. Because they no longer hold the Bible to be inerrant, they feel free to translate in any way that they deem expedient. This often takes the form of paraphrase, of dynamic equivalence, and of co-operation with Roman Catholics, Unitarians, and Jews in the production of ‘Common Bibles’ for general use. The effect of this is that this type of Bible is no longer the Word of God as God gave it; these Bibles are now the Word of God as men have interpreted it. Too often this interpretation is opposed to the true doctrine of the Word of God. Often, these modern versions weaken the testimony of the Holy Scriptures to the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ in many important passages, and fall far short of the standard of accuracy and faithfulness which should be required in translating the Word of God.

More than one hundred Bible translation projects are being carried out by ecumenically aligned Bible Societies, and many evangelical Christians will feel that they cannot conscientiously join in such schemes or support the societies which promote them. The Society finds itself constrained to remain in the true Reformed tradition and to avoid the mere outward appearance of a ‘unity’ which can be achieved only by compromise. There is no desire to disparage what is good in the work of any other society or organisation, but these are vital issues and matters of important principle which make it impossible to integrate the work of the Society with the United Bible Societies or with any liberal ecumenical movement. The need for a clear and uncompromising testimony to the Divine inspiration, inerrancy and authority of the Holy Scriptures has never been greater than at the present time. The vital importance of preserving the purity of the Word of God and promoting the production and distribution of trustworthy translations is what underlies the need for the witness maintained by the Society.

The Support

The Society has always been supported by congregations and individuals who stand where the Protestant Reformation martyrs stood in their affection for the pure doctrine of the Bible.

No doubt there are many discerning believers to whom matters of Scriptural truth and principles are vital who are not yet associated with the Society. The Society desires to have fellowship with Bible-loving Christians in every part of the world who share its reverent regard for the Holy Scriptures as the Divinely inspired, inerrant and authoritative Word of God. It is also the Society’s desire to co-ordinate the resources and efforts of those who are burdened with a sense of the world’s great need of the pure Word of God.

The Society is devoted to these beliefs and to these tasks. This introduction is issued in the hope that many who earnestly desire to ‘contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints’ (Jude 3) will become members of the Society and support it by their prayers and by their gifts.

Copyright © 1992 Trinitarian Bible Society with Editorial amendments. Last updated 1 October 2024.