Open any verse on this site and a panel opens beside it. What you see there is the verse’s reasoning record. It is the heart of the project, and it is worth knowing what is in it.

One record per sentence

A record covers one sentence of the original, not one verse. Verse numbers were added to the Bible centuries after it was written, and they do not always fall at the ends of sentences. Philippians 4:5 holds two sentences, so it has two records; John 1:12–13 is one long sentence across two verses, so it has one.

What a record holds

  • The original words, loaded from a fixed edition of the source text. For the New Testament that is the SBL Greek New Testament, with word-by-word grammar from the MACULA project. Tap a Greek word in the panel to see its dictionary form, its grammar and a gloss.
  • A literal gloss: the words in the original order, as near word for word as English allows. It is not meant to read well. It lets you see the shape of the sentence.
  • The translation at three levels, Literal, Balanced and Readable, in each language. See Three levels, one meaning.
  • The decisions. Each one names the words it is about, the choice made, the alternatives considered, and the reason, in plain language.

Two kinds of decision

Decisions come in two layers.

Meaning decisions say what the original means. They are made once and shared by every language and every level. In John 1:1, for example, the record decides that θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος means “the Word was God”, and explains why “a god” and “divine” were rejected. That decision holds whether you read in English or Spanish, Literal or Readable.

Rendering decisions say how one language puts that meaning into words. The Spanish record for John 1:1 explains why it says el Verbo rather than la Palabra; the English Readable record explains why it adds “already there”. These are choices about wording, and they belong to one language only.

Keeping the layers apart matters. It means a new language never has to decide again what the Greek means. It starts from the shared meaning and makes only its own wording choices, so every translation says the same thing.

Marked as uncertain

Some decisions are close calls. Where the evidence is evenly balanced, the record says so and marks the decision uncertain, and the reader shows a label. The article Grace upon grace looks at one.