Books and eBooks by the Director
This page provides a review of a reference work that was consulted while working on the Analytical-Literal Translation of the New Testament (ALT). To purchase a copy of the third edition, click here.
Interlinear Greek-English New Testament
By George Ricker Berry
Had an important effect on my Bible studies
My experience with the Bible began when my brother gave me a New International Version (NIV) of the Bible in March of 1983. I read though it three times before I became a Christian in the winter of 1986.
But then I purchased an interlinear—George Berry’s Interlinear New Testament to be exact. The Greek text in it is the Textus Receptus (TR). The King James Version (KJV) is in the margin. Using this interlinear did two things for me.
First, it introduced me to the question of textual variants. At the bottom of almost every page are textual variant footnotes. They compare the TR to seven other published Greek texts. Now at first sight this looked like a lot. At least one variant on every page of the Bible! It can’t be that reliable!
However, as I looked at these variants I found that for the most part they were not that significant. There were some that seemed to matter. But overall, the differences were more "nit-picking" to me than anything else. So my previous studies about the textual integrity of the New Testament were confirmed, not hurt by this information.
Second, I began comparing my NIV to Berry’s word-for-word English translation below each Greek word. It did not take very long for me to realize that the NIV simply did not match up with this word-for-word translation.
The preacher of the church I was attending at the time used the New American Standard Bible (NASB). So I purchased the NASB version of Ryrie’s Study Bible. Comparing the NASB with Berry’s translation I found that it did match up much more closely than the NIV.
The above is taken from Chapter One of my book Differences Between Bible Versions. In that chapter I go on to discuss how the use of this and other interlinears convinced me that dynamic equivalence versions like the NIV are not reliable. So I switched to using the NASB.
But as I studied the textual footnotes in this interlinear and the subject of the Greek text-types in general, I became convinced that the Textus Receptus was more accurate than the Critical Text. So I switched to using the NKJV as my primary Bible.
So this interlinear had an important effect on my Bible studies. As such, so I highly recommend it. I detail all of my experiences and conclusions in my Differences Between Bible Versions book.
Review of Interlinear Greek-English New Testament. Copyright (c) 2008 by Gary F. Zeolla.
ALT: Reviews of Reference Works
Consulted
Analytical-Literal Translation: Main Page
ALT: Hardcopy
and eBook Formats
Text
Search Contact Information
Subject
Index Alphabetical List of Pages
Darkness
to Light Home Page
www.zeolla.org/christian