The Lexham English Bible (LEB) New Testament

Summary

The Lexham English Bible (LEB) New Testament was published and released by Logos Bible Software in October 2010. It lists as General Editor W. Hall Harris, III. The Old Testament translation was completed in 2011.

According to its foreword, the translator’s intent was to achieve:

“unparalleled…transparency with the original language text…. It was produced with the specific purpose of being used alongside the original language text of the Bible. Existing translations, however excellent they may be in terms of English style and idiom, are frequently so far removed from the original language texts of scripture that straightforward comparison is difficult for the average user…. The ability to make such comparisons easily in software formats…makes the need for an English translation specifically designed for such comparison even more acute.”

The LEB is relatively literal and was derived from an interlinear translation of the Greek NT. An unusual feature of the LEB is the use of corner brackets to mark idioms in the English translation. Italics are used to indicate words supplied by the translator with no direct equivalent in the underlying Greek.
At its release, it only included the New Testament and was simultaneously offered for free use for Logos users as well as other popular software suites, including freeware such as e-Sword and The SWORD Project. These have since been updated to include the Old Testament. It can also be accessed in its entirety on websites listed below. The LEB is available under a very permissive license which allows royalty-free commercial and non-commercial use.

Download

Download: Lexham English Bible [LEB]

Lighthouse Bible [LHB]

Summary

The Lighthouse Bible preserves the meaning, style, and words of the King James Version as far as possible while modernizing the language. Occasionally old words like “ye” and “thou” are left in. Verses that are in the KJV but left out in many modern versions have been included. This translation was done using the e-Sword software as well as online dictionaries of the English language. Factors taken into account in the translation process were the definitions of words in the KJV as found in old dictionaries, the way in which words and expressions are used elsewhere in the KJV, the underlying Hebrew and Greek and their English translations, and the context of the passage. Also, five Bible commentaries, those of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Barnes, Wesley, Clarke, and Matthew Henry, as well as the 1599 Geneva Bible Translation Notes, were frequently consulted for insight into the meaning of the passage.
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