Sometimes a Bible translator must alter the order of the Greek phrases so the English isn't confusing or miscommunicates. A good example is in 1 Thess 2:14. The majority of even the formal equivalent translations alter the phrase order, which illustrates why formal equivalent translations are not always transparent to the Greek.

This is a common question. People think the Greek New Testament says "brother," and translators therefore add to the Bible when they say "brother and sister." The fact of the matter is that the word "brother' is English, and the New Testament is written in Greek and says ἀδελφός. So the Bible, technically, does not say "brother." The real question is, what does ἀδελφός refer to and how do you convey the meaning in your culture?

Imperfects can be tricky to translate. Do you let the meaning of the word carry the aspect, is it a plain continuous idea, or one of the specialized uses of the imperfect such as the inceptive? Such is the challenge of translating imperfects.

Is there a difference in saying that John has no greater joy than hearing his children are walking “in the truth,” or walking “in truth”? If the Greek article in not in the prepositional phrase, then why do most English translations include it?

We will look at two passages that have the same Greek construction, οὐ μή and an aorist subjunctive verb, and in one passage you can bring the force of the double negation into English using "never," and on one you can't.