What is the OET?

It’s the Open English Translation of the Bible. It doesn’t have ‘Bible’ in its name (e.g., like ‘New American Standard Bible’), because it’s an English translation of the scriptures. (If you want to read the actual ‘Bible’ manuscripts, then you have to learn Hebrew and Greek, and a little Aramaic.)

Because it’s open, it doesn’t begin with a page telling you that you’re only permitted to use a certain number of verses, or that the Bible text must only be a certain small percentage of your web page or publication. It’s free for everyone to use—you could even print your own copies and sell them in your church or give them away on the street—after all, it’s often called ‘God’s word’ isn’t it?

And then it’s English. Modern English. Not five-hundred year old English like ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ (Jn 3:16, KJB 1769) It’s not even the English of the NIV or the ESV. How often do you start a sentence with ‘For’ in your regular conversations? Then ‘so’ in that sentence doesn’t mean ‘so much’ (it means ‘like that’, referring to v14-15), and ‘only begotten’ doesn’t mean ‘one and only’ (it means ‘the only one conceived in a woman and then born as a baby’—from ‘begat’). And much, much, more…

Yes, this is a radical, new Bible translation that isn’t bound to centuries of tradition where errors have been propagated from version to version as they were reluctant to make changes resulting from better scholarship. (You see, we don’t have a marketing department saying, ‘That will never sell.’)

Won’t that make it hard to read? Yes, for long-term Christians who’ve had so many decades living with Christian jargon that they don’t even realise that saying ‘Great is thy faithfulness’ is speaking backwards from how normal people talk. But the OET speaks modern English and struggles with the text to consider how we would say the same thing in words that you would be comfortable to use in the office, yes, that ‘glorious cup of coffee that made you rejoice’. Not! (Hat tip: sometimes we’ve failed in that aim because subjects like ‘sin’ might never be mentioned in a modern office, yet we have to discuss it.)

Anyway, if you’ve got a weak heart, stop here. Or if you’re already angry, then the OET’s not for you. But if you’ve always wanted to communicate the ‘good message’ more effectively to the person on the street, please read on…

Robert Hunt, 1 September 2023