The New Life Version (NLV) of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

is a simplified English translation by Gleason and Kathryn Ledyard.

History

The translation was born out of the Ledyards'

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

work in the

Canadian Arctic Northern Canada (), colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada, variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories a ...

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

populations, who did not always speak English fluently. The NLV uses a limited vocabulary of about 850 words, not including

proper name A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa''; ''Jupiter''; ''Sarah''; ''Walmart'') as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, pl ...

s. This was done to make the text easier to read and understand, a goal that the Ledyards felt was not adequately met by existing

English translations of the Bible More than 100 complete translations into English languages have been produced. Translations of Biblical books, especially passages read in the Liturgy can be traced back to the late 7th century, including translations into Old and Middle Eng ...

. The NLV uses gender-specific language and uses no contractions. Confusing wording is avoided. Weights and measures are worded so that anyone can understand them; For example, Noah's ark is described as being: "...as long as 150 long steps, as wide as twenty-five long steps, and eight times taller than a man."NLV information, BibleGateway.com
/ref> The translation of the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

was completed in 1969, and the complete NLV Bible with Old and New Testaments was first published in 1986. The NLV Bible is published by Christian Literature International. It can be accessed online.http://www.biblegateway.com Retrieved from http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%203:16&version=NLV.

Examples for comparison

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English Bible translations, Early Modern English translation of the Christianity, Christian Bible for the Church of England, wh ...

of John 3:16-17 : "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." New Life Version of John 3:16-17 : "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Whoever puts his trust in God's Son will not be lost but will have life that lasts forever. For God did not send His Son into the world to say it is guilty. He sent His Son so the world might be saved from the punishment of sin by Him."

of Genesis 1:1-3 : "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." New Life Version of Genesis 1:1-3 : "In the beginning God made from nothing the heavens and the earth. The earth was an empty waste and darkness was over the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was moving over the top of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light."

References

External links

New Life Bible online at Bible Gateway
*http://www.bethelcollege.edu/assets/content/mcarchives/pdfs/v5n2p13_17.pdf *http://www.innvista.com/culture/religion/bible/versions/nlv.htm {{English Bible translation navbox 1986 books Bible translations into English 1986 in Christianity