The unfoldingWord® Simplified Text (UST) is an open-licensed translation of the Bible based on *A Translation For Translators* by Ellis W. Deibler, Jr., which is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://git.door43.org/Door43/T4T). The UST is intended to provide a simple, clear presentation of the meaning of the Bible without using any figures of speech, English idioms, or difficult grammar.
The unfoldingWord® Simplified Text (UST) is designed to be used in conjunction with the [unfoldingWord® Literal Text (ULT)](https://git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult), the [unfoldingWord® Translation Notes (UTN)](https://git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_tn), and the [unfoldingWord® Translation Words (UTW)](https://git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_tw) as a tool for Bible translation. Unlike the ULT and unlike an end-user Bible, the UST does not use figures of speech, idioms, abstract nouns, or grammatical forms that are difficult to translate into many languages.
The purpose of the UST is to show the plain meaning of all of those things wherever they occur in the ULT. Because the UST 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 target language, but the UST does not use them. By using both the UST and the ULT together as translation sources for an end-user (Other Language) translation, the OL translator will be able to see the figures of speech, idioms, and other forms of the original Bible in the ULT and also see what their meaning is in the UST. Then he can use the figures of speech or other forms from the ULT that are clear and natural in his language. When the forms in the ULT are not clear or natural in his language, then he can choose other forms in his language that have the same meaning as the UST translation or the Notes.
When editing or translating the UST, please do not use those things that it must avoid in the Gateway Language translation. The purpose of the UST is to change all of those problematic forms into more universal ones to make them easier to translate. Also, be sure to include all of the named participants and the information that has been made explicit so that the meaning can be as clear as possible.
The following are examples of ways that the text of the Bible can be unclear for some languages and what the UST does to overcome those problems. When you translate the UST, make sure that your translation of the UST also avoids these problems.
Passive voice is a grammatical construction that is common in Greek and English but it is not used in many other languages, so it can be very confusing. For that reason, it is not used in the UST. In passive voice, the receiver of the action changes places with the actor. In English, the actor normally comes first in the sentence. But in passive voice, the receiver of the action comes first. Often, the actor is left unstated. In that case, the UST will fill in the actor. See "Missing Participants" below.
The action is "dishonor," the actors are "the Gentiles" (non-Jews), and the receiver of the action is "the name of God." The reason for the action is "because of you." The UST rearranges the verse to put the actor and the receiver of the action in a more normal order.
In this verse, the words "praise," "honor," "peace," and "good" are abstract nouns. That is, they are words that refer to things that we cannot see or touch. They are ideas. The ideas that these nouns express are closer to actions or descriptions than they are to things. In many languages, therefore, these ideas must be expressed by verbs or description words, not by nouns.
"1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand by his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was born from the descendants of David according to the flesh."
"1 I, Paul, who serve Christ Jesus, am writing this letter to all of you believers in the city of Rome. God chose me to be an apostle, and he appointed me in order that I shouldproclaim the good news that comes from him. 2 Long before Jesus came to earth, God promised that he would reveal this good news by means of what his prophets wrote in the sacred scriptures. 3 This good news is about his Son. As to his Son's physical nature, he was born a descendant of King David."
The UST often fills in the participants when these are lacking in the original Bible and the ULT. In the original biblical languages, these participants could be left out and still understood by the reader. But in many languages these must be included for the translation to be clear and natural.
In this verse, there is a participant that is left unstated, but still understood. This participant is God. It is God who called Paul to be an apostle and who set him apart for the Gospel. In some languages, this participant must be stated.
"6 Now it came about that while they were there, the time came for her to deliver her baby. 7 She gave birth to a son, her firstborn child, and she wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth. Then she put him in an animal feeding trough, because there was no room for them in a guest room."
In some languages, events need to be told in the order in which they happened, or else the story will be confusing and hard to understand. People might understand from these verses that Mary delivered her baby outside in the street, and then looked for somewhere to stay and, after a long search, ended up putting him in an animal feeding trough. The UST tells these events in the order in which they happened, so that it is clear that Mary was already in the shelter for animals when she gave birth.
"6-7 When they arrived in Bethlehem, there was no place for them to stay in a place where visitors usually stayed. So they had to stay in a place where animals slept overnight. While they were there the time came for Mary to give birth and she gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him in wide strips of cloth and placed him in the feeding place for the animals."
This is a figure of speech called a rhetorical question. It is not a real question that is used to seek an answer. It is used to make a point. In this case, Paul is using it to scold his audience and to condemn their hypocrisy. Many languages do not use rhetorical questions, or they do not use them in this way.
The word "apple" here does not refer to a kind of fruit, but instead refers to the pupil, the dark center of a person's eye. The phrase "the apple of his eye" is an idiom that refers to anything that is extremely precious to a person, or the one thing that is the most precious to a person. In many languages this idiom makes no sense, but they have other idioms that have this meaning. The Other Language translator should use one of these idioms from the target language in the OL translation, but there should be no idiom in the translation of the UST.
The Notes add another way to translate this that makes the meaning clear. It says, "He protected the people of Israel as something most valuable and precious."
Here Abraham refers to himself in the third person as "your servant." To make it clear that Abraham is referring to himself, the UST adds the first person pronoun "me."
When editing or translating the UST, be sure to include the indications of the first person that are there in these passages of the UST so that it can be as clear as possible.
He said to him, "Be sure to say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."
This was all that Jesus needed to say to the man whom he had just healed of leprosy, because the man was Jewish and knew all about the laws concerning being clean and unclean. But most modern readers of our Bible translations do not know that information. For that reason, the UST makes this information explicit that was left implied in the text. This information is indicated in italics below.
UST: He said, "Do not tell anyone *what just happened*. Instead, go to a priest and show yourself to him *in order that he may examine you and see that you no longer have leprosy*. Then make the offering that Moses commanded *for people whom God has healed from leprosy*. This will be the testimony to the *community that you are healed*."
When editing or translating the UST, be sure to include all of the implied information that is there in the UST so that it can be as clear as possible.
Both Biblical Hebrew and Koiné Greek utilize different word forms to indicate grammatical gender, which may or may not correspond to the actual gender of a person or object. For example, the Hebrew phrase *beney yisrael* ("sons of Israel") sometimes literally means "male children of the man named Israel" (Gen 42:5). However, most of the time in the Old Testament this phrase refers figuratively to the entire Israelite nation as a whole, both men and women. In a similar way, the Greek term *adelphoi* ("brothers") can sometimes literally mean "a male person who has the same father and/or mother" (Mark 3:32), but most of the time in the New Testament refers figuratively to Christian believers, both men and women. In both Hebrew and Greek, the meaning of "engendered language" is not always clear. This linguistic feature of "engendered language" poses significant problems for translation; the meaning of the original Hebrew or Greek text is not always clear; also, some languages do not use engendered language, which makes the translation of gender very difficult.
The ULT translates the Hebrew and Greek terms as literally as possible according to linguistic form, always retaining the specific gender of terms. On the other hand, the UST translates engendered language as accurately as possible according to contextual meaning. As a general rule, the UST selects gender-neutral language except in cases where a specific gender is implied from the context. However, there are exceptions to this rule; and in these cases, the translation will be explained in a footnote.
* Only use quotation marks at the beginning and ending of direct speech. Do not put quotation marks at the beginning of each verse, even though the speech may span several verses.
* Do not use contractions.
* Punctuation marks go inside the quote marks.
* Capitalization issues: in general, we are following the practice of the 2011 NIV.
* All pronouns are lower case (except when beginning sentences and except for the first singular "I").
* Capitalize titles (Son of Man, King David, the Messiah).
* Metaphors may be transformed into similies or substituted with the plain meaning of the metaphor. Similies may be the preferred option when the metaphor is extended over several clauses or verses.
A list of decisions as to how to translate some senses of the source language words and phrases into another language is called a Translation Glossary (TG). Such a device is especially useful when more than one person works on the same project, because it helps keep everyone using the same English terms.
However, a TG cannot be foolproof, because the source will often use some words to signal more than one sense, depending on context. A TG is therefore a glossary of word senses, not a glossary of words. Check back often to this page, because this TG is likely to develop for the entire life of the unfoldingWord project.
Note that occasionally, the TG's specified translation will not be suitable. As always, the text editors must remain in control of the decision-making process. The TG is to guide you as much as is possible. If you must depart from the TG guidelines, do so and insert a note to that effect.
* *adelphoi* The ULT will use *brothers*. Since this term usually refers figuratively to Christian believers, the UST will most often use "**believers**" or "**fellow-believers**."
* *grace* The ULT will use "grace" while the UST will rework the grammar to use the adjective "**gracious**" or will use a form such as "**God will be kind**."
* *peace* The UST will rework the grammar to use the adjective "**peaceful [spirit, etc.]**" or an adjectival phrase such as "**at peace**."
* *glory* the UST will rework the grammar to use the adjective "**glorious**" or an equivalent description such as "**who is so great**."
* *law* The UST will expand to "**law of Moses**" or "**Jewish law**."
* A few abstract nouns are allowed because of the awkwardness or inadequacy of any English circumlocution. These include "**authority**" (when used of a person),"**sin**," "**behavior**," "**work**," "**thing**," "**time**," "**resource**," "**kingdom**," "**relationship**," and some nouns referring to speech ("**message**," "**saying**," etc.), although it is often possible to use a verb instead.
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