An Analysis

For the English reader, the Mickelson Clarified Translation provides a fully precise and unabridged translation of the biblical Greek text, the clarified Textus Receptus (the 1550 Stephanus-2018 Mickelson).

A Unique Word Form expresses a concept and may occasionally express several unrelated concepts, such as the English word "bat".
A Distinct Word Form communicates a specific concept within a given context with a single word form. It is a contextual use of a Unique Word Form, such as "a wooden bat".
Overlapping Word Forms occur in a given text when a Unique Word Form expresses more than one Distinct Word Form within that text.

For example, "A bat was flying around the stadium. A player was up to bat and hit a home run. The crowd erupted as his bat went flying, and the bat flew away." This overlapping use of the word form "bat" requires diligent attention of behalf of the reader to discern what concept is expressed with each and every use. "Up to bat" and "his bat" are contextual uses of the same fundamental concept, a wooden stick used in sport. The other "bat," a flying mammal, is a completely unrelated concept sharing the same unique word form. Thus, there is overlap.

These concepts regarding word forms are critical components to understanding the outward (and measurable) quality and accuracy of a translation.

The contextual evaluation of quality and accuracy is an inseparable and intimate part of translation as well, and it requires an in-depth, firsthand review.

The 1550 Stephanus contains 17,534 unique Greek words (or word forms). A tiny number of these Greek word forms are used for two unrelated concepts. This is similar to how the English word "bat" may describe a wooden stick used in sports or may describe a flying nocturnal mammal. The word "bat" is one unique word form, but it represents two distinct concepts or "distinct word forms." The 1550 Stephanus contains 17,602 distinct word forms. This creates 68 overlapping word forms which requires the reader to determine proper context to know which concept is being expressed.

In English, it can take a few discrete or individual English words combined together to properly express one Greek word. The English sentence, "He was speaking," contains three discrete English words which are expressed by one Greek word form "ἐλάλει." Thus, the combined form "He·was·speaking" is the corresponding English word form for the Greek word form "ἐλάλει." To properly express the Greek text in English, it requires more English word forms than exist in the Greek scriptures due to changes of context and their proper expression in English.

The King James Version uses approximately 32,000 distinct word forms and more than 23,200 unique word forms in the New Testament. This is an 81% increase of distinct word forms in English over the Greek text itself, while only using 5,965 individual English words. At first glance, this would indicate expressing almost twice as many concepts than actually reside in the Greek text. An in-depth analysis shows that while extraneous concepts are expressed, the majority of the Greek concepts are merely inconsistently expressed due to poetic license of English expression, sometimes at odds with the original Greek text. In essence, the King James Version is much more of a poetic adaption of the Greek scriptures than a literal or a consistent translation. Although it served its purpose in its day, it impedes proper correlation of Scripture.

Correlation shows how one passage of Scripture relates and corresponds to another passage. Correlation is critically important in understanding the Scripture both as a whole and in detail. King James provides the overall message well enough for a general understanding and application, but it is not suitable for the more skillful and accurate comprehension of Scripture, let alone critical application or precise exegesis of various passages.

Noah Webster (of dictionary fame and prowess) greatly improved on the King James with his revision in 1833. Webster's Revised New Testament translation contains 27,635 distinct word forms and 19,724 unique word forms with an overlap of 7,911 words. This is only 57% more distinct word forms, a 29.8% improvement. A definite and measurable improvement of English clarity and discreteness of concepts expressed from the Greek text.

The Mickelson Clarified Translation (MCT) of the New Testament Greek vastly and measurably improves translation of Scripture to modern English by verifiably reconciling the Hebraic-Koine Greek biblical vocabulary to English. The MCT contains 20,840 distinct word forms and 19,111 unique words forms with an overlap of 1,729 words. This is a mere 18.4% increase of distinct word forms, which is much more reasonable for an accurate English translation that still expresses each “Concept for concept, Context for context, and Word for word.”^®

By comparison, this is an 80.0% improvement of consistency and clarity over the King James and a 78.1% improvement over the Revised Webster's translation. But this measurement alone does not show the further increase of conceptual and contextual clarity that the MCT provides. There is a larger vocabulary of English words used to clearly denote each Greek word or concept. There was an old saying, "The Greeks had a word for it" - and now the MCT has a matching and consistent word form for each context switch as well, in Modern English.

This graph shows the additional word forms used in these three English reference translations.

My ongoing analysis of the Greek New Testament shows that an accurate and consistent English translation should contain an additional 18%-23% distinct word forms. Any less, and concepts are being lost and obscured; any more, and concepts are being added and also obscured. These additional distinct word forms are required due to the differences between Greek and English expression of the same or contextually similar concepts.

This chart shows the number of word forms that are duplicated in English while representing different Greek words in Scripture. This is a measure of obscurity. In these instances, one cannot discern in English which Greek word is actually being expressed (such as when the English word “strength” is used to properly express “ἰσχύς,” but also to improperly express “κράτος,” “δύναμις,” “ἐξουσία,” and “στερεός”). While no duplication is desirable, it is not truly feasible since Greek is more finely detailed and expressive of thought than English. And as the decades and centuries keep passing, English speakers are continuing to dilute and diminish the English language such that, presently, the common public English vocabulary is insufficient to comprehend and communicate the full expression found in the Greek New Testament. Fortunately, the English words lacking from the general public vocabulary are still found within the higher levels of general college vocabulary.

The Overlapping Words Forms on the chart represents a different measure of obscurity. These occur in a given text when a Unique Word Form expresses more than one Distinct Word Form within that text. For example, in English, "bat" properly expresses a wooden stick, a swinging motion, and a nocturnal flying mammal. Thus the word form "bat" overlaps three concepts in this example. The lower the count of Overlapping Word Forms, the higher the distinct English clarity of vocabulary. The higher the count, the more typically a word form is used as a synonym or simplified word rather than a properly distinct word required by the Greek text (such as “wooden bat,” “batting,” and “flying bat,” for example). Overlapping word forms are natural in the Romanic languages (such as English, Portuguese, French, and Romanian), as very few languages function in the manner of Hebraic-Koine Greek.

This chart shows two loosely related items. Discrete Words are the individual English words used used within a translation, such as "speak, spoke, was speaking, spoken." There are five discrete English words within those quotes. These discrete English words can be used alone or be combined to match the meaning of each Greek word in the New Testament.

The higher number of discrete English word usage in the MCT enables it to clearly express discrete concepts and contextual meanings without obscuring and overlapping similar, though distinct, Greek words and thoughts.

Secondly, the "Grammar Clarifiers" is a count of how many times an English word or phrase is inserted into the English translation to clarify in English what is naturally understood in the Hebraic use of the Koine Greek language. These are the italicized words that should appear in an English translation.

English lends itself to express and follow two trains of thought at one time in a given passage. The practice and mode of thinking by the biblical Hebraic-Koine Greek writers enabled them to easily handle three or more trains of thought with ease in Greek. This is why some Greek passages are difficult for the English-only speaker. It can be quite a challenge to readily comprehend the original Greek text or a verbatim, literal English translation. Some Greek passages extend beyond three trains of thought, and others, like some of Peter's writings, almost beg to be paraphrased or summarized in English, rather than be translated. But his expression is deserving of being translated and carefully worked through by the reader.

Hopefully, dear reader, you will comprehend why I found it necessary to undertake all that was required to bring this work to its present state of fruition. This work is a primary English translation for the remaining generations that follow, and it adds an incredible measure of clarity and consistency not found elsewhere.

Jonathan K. Mickelson
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