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<aside> 💡 This page walks you through drafting the simplified text translation resource for 3 John. You could follow the same process for any book of the Bible. Click here for a recommended order of translation and the reasoning behind it. There will be similar step-by-step examples for 4 other easier books of the Bible and Open Bible Stories.
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Before you start drafting the Simplified Text translation resource, you will want to give the team general instructions about the kind of translation resource they are going to make. A full explanation can be found **here in the Gateway Language Manual.** We highly recommend your entire team read the section in the manual on drafting a Simplified Text before they begin.
Just like the Literal Text translation resource, the Simplified Text is not a Bible translation. It is not designed to be read in church or used for daily devotions. It is a translation resource that enables other languages to clearly understand the meaning of the original Biblical texts.
“…the Simplified Text does not use figures of speech, idioms, abstract nouns, or grammatical forms that are difficult to translate into many languages. The purpose of the Simplified Text is to show the plain meaning of all of those things wherever they occur in the Literal Text. Because the Simplified Text lacks these things, it is not a beautiful end-user Bible. An end-user Bible will use the figures of speech and idioms that speak naturally and beautifully in the Gateway/Strategic/Resource language, but the Simplified Text does not use them.”
“As the Bible translator uses both the Simplified Text and the Literal Text together as his translation source, he will be able to see the figures of speech, idioms, and other forms of the original Bible in the Literal Text and also see what their meaning is in the Simplified Text. Then he can use the figures of speech or other forms from the Literal Text that are clear and natural in his language. When the forms in the Literal Text are not clear or natural in his language, then he can choose other forms in his language that have the same meaning as the Simplified Text translation or the Notes. When translating the Simplified Text, please do not use idioms, figures of speech, or difficult grammatical forms in the Gateway Language translation. The purpose of the Simplified Text is to change all of these problematic grammatical forms into more universal ones to make them easier to translate, and to make the meaning as clear as possible.”
Print off a copy of the Simplified text of 3 John for each person who is participating. Also have the Simplified Text guidelines in a form so everyone can read them.
The best way to get experience is to practice. It also helps to be able to compare your work and decide as a team what your standards and practices will be. We recommend each person make their own draft of 3 John 1:1-3 separately. Give a set amount of time to try to finish, you can extend the time if you see it is needed. Make sure everyone is understands the guidelines for the Simplified text before they start drafting because they are very different and can be difficult at first.
The primary goal of the UST is to express the meaning of the Bible as clearly as possible. In order to do this, it follows these guidelines.
The UST must avoid:
