I am making my own revision/update of the Holy Bible. The New Testament is almost complete. It is called the “Fusion English Version” (FEV). I have posted the Gospel of John on Amazon as a Kindle Book, and it is only 99 cents for a limited time! Check it out here, and your purchase of it will help support this blog, and I would truly appreciate any feedback, comments, suggestions, and critiques.

Notes About This Particular Edition

This Kindle edition of the FEV is the Gospel (Good News) by John the Apostle. Other books of the Bible in the FEV Version will be available in Kindle format soon. Keep checking Amazon.com. Hopefully the entire New Testament will be available by early 2016.

The Goal

The goal of this English Bible, named the “Fusion English  Version” (FEV) or “Fusion Bible” for short, is not to start from scratch on a brand new English Bible translation, but rather, to examine the greatest English Bible versions of the past, and improve them, by creating a “fusion” of the best parts of each great Bible version, along with the best and latest information from Bible scholars, lexicons, dictionaries, commentaries, and scholar notes.

The Starting Point

The basic starting text of the Fusion English Version (FEV) is the public domain “World English Bible” (WEB) version. This Bible version was chosen as my starting point because:

1.  The WEB Bible is in the public domain, and the author of it gives permission to update/change it as long as the update is re-named and no longer called the “WEB Bible.”
2. The WEB Bible is an excellent translation, itself being an update and improvement on the masterful 1901 American Standard Version (ASV).

There is no reason to spend years and years to reinvent the wheel, and retread over the same translation from scratch (directly from the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts) which has already been done by much better experts than myself.

The Greek Texts

I have updated the WEB Bible to reflect the opinion of the majority of Greek experts, and the Manuscripts which they trust most.

With that said, my aim is to make this Bible acceptable and beneficial for ALL Christians to use, and so that is why I am including the disputed passages from the Textus Receptus and/or Majority Text. However, due to the majority of Greek scholars and experts saying that the Textus Receptus/Majority Text is not the most accurate of the Manuscripts, I am placing the words from those Manuscripts in double-brackets with the words inside highlighted in orange text, [[ KJV adds: just like this ]].

Significant Updates

You will notice the following important changes, which bring out the meaning of the words in English much more clearly than the traditional renderings:

• “Christ” and “Messiah” in this edition are “Chosen King” or “Chosen One.”
• “Heaven” is “the Exalted Realm.”
• “Angel” is “exalted messenger” or “messenger.”
• “Baptism” is “immersion.”
• “Worship” is “give homage.”
• “Son of Man” is “The New Adam.”
• “Holy” is “Sacred.”
• “Spirit” is “invisible force,” “invisible Divine Force,” or “invisible inner force.”
• “Soul” is “spark of life.”
• “Sin” is “evil” or “commit evil.”

Colored Text

The words of Jesus are in red letters in this Bible. The words of God are in blue letters.

As noted above, any passages from the traditional Textus Receptus or Majority Text, which are not found in the oldest Greek manuscripts, will be highlighted in orange letters, instead of the normal black text.

Quotations of the Old Testament by writers in the New Testament are in purple letters.

Here’s a helpful little list:

• Red Letters: The words of Jesus
• Blue Letters: The words of God
• Orange Letters: Textus Receptus and Majority Text passages
• Purple Letters: Quotations of the Old Testament

Quotations of the Old Testament found in the New Testament, are also highlighted by bold and italics, followed by the Scripture number for handy reference.

Pronoun Capitalization

Pronouns referring to God and Jesus are not capitalized in this Bible because, even though I personally like that feature in other Bibles (such as the NASB, NKJV):

1. I feel that there is less chance of my error in leaving them all uncapitalized. I would hate to mislead anyone by accidentally misinterpreting who is being referred to in a certain unclear passage. I would rather leave that interpretation up to each reader.
2. Pronouns referring to Deity were not capitalized in the base text I started with (World English Bible).
3. Pronouns referring to Deity had no unique or special markings in the original Hebrew or Greek texts of the Bible.
4. I personally think it looks more stylish and easier on the eyes when pronouns are not capitalized.

With that said, there are certain locations in the Bible where the context makes it clear who is speaking, or being spoken to, or about, and in those cases I have replaced the words “he,” “him,” “she,” “her,” etc. with the name of the individual being referred to.

The Divine Name of God

The Divine Name, YHWH, is obviously important to God and the Bible writers, since it was used about 7,000 times in the Old Testament. Therefore, in this FEV Bible, it is rendered as “Lord Jehovah Yahweh” in order to bring out the full impact, significance, and traditional forms of the Name.

Most modern Bible translations follow an ancient Jewish tradition of replacing the Divine Name with “LORD” or “The Eternal” instead. While I appreciate that this is done out of respect, reverence, and fear of misusing the Sacred Name, I believe it to be misguided.

If God didn’t want His Name to be written or spoken, He wouldn’t have inspired the Bible writers to include it almost 7,000 times in the Old Testament.

Scholars disagree on the precise pronunciation and spelling, but “Yahweh” is the most commonly accepted form among experts, and “Jehovah” is the traditional English translation, therefore, I have rendered “YHWH” as “Lord Jehovah Yahweh” in this version.

Full disclaimer:

The FEV is an update of the WEB Bible, however, it is not being done by the same people. The translators of the WEB Bible have no connection to this version, other than the fact that they made an outstanding Bible translation and thankfully decided to place it in the Public Domain.

This FEV Bible is a project done by one person (myself). I am not an expert on the Hebrew or Greek languages. I rely on the lexicons, dictionaries, commentaries, and Bible study notes from a wide-range of scholars and experts, to inform my decisions on making and updating the FEV Bible.

A Preacher’s Bible

Have you ever given a sermon at church, or spoken to someone in-person, teaching from the Bible, and you find yourself “correcting” the text by examining dictionaries, lexicons, commentaries, etc., and then saying “The Greek actually says such-and-such?” Well, that’s what I’ve already done for you with the FEV. That’s why this Bible can accurately be referred to as a “Preacher’s Bible” — it is already pre-corrected with the very best and most accurate information from many of the Bible scholars and experts.

One example: When you read John 3:16 to your flock, you no longer have to explain that many scholars now believe the Greek word “monogenes” doesn’t mean “only-begotten,” but instead “unique,” because the latter phrase is right there in the main Bible text. The FEV’s choice of “unique” is also more accurate and easy-to-understand than referring to Jesus as God’s “only” Son, since the Scriptures make it clear that God has other sons besides Christ.

A Layperson’s Bible

One feature of this version of the Bible is that, instead of including many difficult or archaic words and then providing a dictionary or footnotes to help the reader, the easier-to-understand “lay” definitions are rendered right in the main Scripture text. There’s no point in making Bible reading more difficult than it has to be.

This way the average church-goer (layperson) can understand much more of the Holy Word without having to do tons of research in dictionaries, or have their pastor explain it to them. (There will obviously still be some difficult spots in the Bible where deeper research is required. But this shouldn’t be necessary in every verse)

Translation Philosophy

First, I want to quote the translation philosophy of the WEB Bible (the original text that this Fusion Version was based off of):

“Bible translation (as with any natural language translation) is a balancing act, where the translators seek to preserve the following:

* The meaning of each thought or sentence.
* The meanings of individual words in their context.
* The shades of meaning implied by word forms, tense, etc.
* The impact and tone of each passage.
* The style of the original authors who were inspired by the Holy Spirit.
* Faithfulness to the target language (English, in this case).

Note that some of the above goals are at odds with one another, like preservation of the original style vs. faithfulness to the target language, and expressing the last bit of the shades of meaning vs. preserving the impact. Still, it is possible to retain a good balance.

Different balance points are chosen by different translation committees. Indeed, many translations can be characterized by the weight the translators gave to each of the above items.

For example, The Amplified Bible excels at getting the meaning across, but falls down hard on impact, style preservation, and faithfulness to the target language. The New Living Translation excels at preserving the meanings of entire thoughts, impact, and faithfulness to the target language, but loses some of the style and shades of meaning. The New International Version excels at most of the above, but loses some elements of style and some of the subtleties of wording. The World English Bible attempts to balance all of the above with a fairly literal translation.

Some people like to use the terms “formal equivalent” and “dynamic equivalent.” Neither of these exactly describe what we are doing, since we have borrowed ideas from both, but I suppose that we are closer to formal equivalence than dynamic equivalence.”

The FEV is my update to the WEB. I have clarified and explained words, and in some cases, I’ve improved the wording of whole sentences and paragraphs. I have also brought many Bible verses into harmony with the latest understandings of Bible scholars and experts.

May God be glorified by this version of His Holy Word, and may the Lord bless you as you read and study His Scriptures.