People read the Bible for different reasons. A student comparing a verse with the Greek wants to see its structure. Someone reading a chapter aloud in church wants natural English. A new reader, or a child, wants plain words. One translation cannot serve all three equally well, so Open Word Bible gives every sentence at three levels.
The three levels
Literal follows the original’s wording and order wherever English allows. Words that English needs but the original does not have are shown in [brackets], so you can see exactly what was added.
Balanced reads like ordinary modern English while staying close to the original. It is the default.
Readable uses plain language, short sentences and everyday words, at about a 6th to 8th grade reading level. It explains idioms rather than reproducing them.
One sentence, three ways
Here is Philippians 4:4 at each level.
Literal: Rejoice in [the] Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
Balanced: Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice!
Readable: Always be full of joy in the Lord. I’ll say it again: be full of joy!
The Readable level says “be full of joy” because “rejoice” has become mostly church language. The record explains that choice, as it explains every other.
The rule that holds them together
The levels may differ in how much they say, but never in what they mean. Readable may spell out what Literal leaves implicit. A level may keep an ambiguity that the original has. But no level may choose a different reading from the others. If the Greek could mean two things and we have decided it means one, all three levels follow that decision; the note gives the other.
Key terms such as grace, glory and truth also stay the same at every level, so that a reader moving between levels is never left wondering whether a different word means a different idea.
You can switch levels at any time in the reader, and the switch is remembered.