About the Translation

Canon, Sources and Review Register · documented scope, source declarations and pending independent review.

This is Vincent Melli’s selected seventy-book working edition: the familiar sixty-six-book lineup together with 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon and Sirach. It contains 43 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books. The seven divisions are this project’s reading arrangement, not a canon shared by all churches. Barnabas and Hermas are preserved separately in the Scholarly Companion. The Saints Gospel is an editorial harmony; Instructions and devotional emblems are editorial aids.

What smooth-literal means

Every book is translated independently from its declared source text — not adapted from a familiar English Bible, and not blended from Hebrew and Greek. The English preserves clauses, negatives, speakers, subjects and objects, grammatical person, verbal force, names, quantities, units, meaningful repetition and genuine ambiguity, while English grammar and word order are adjusted so that the text reads naturally aloud. Words required by English grammar are supplied; explanatory expansions are kept out of the sentence and belong in notes.

The reading edition is continuous Saints-priority English in source order. Chapter and verse labels follow the selected source, including lettered references, combined ranges, numbered gaps and textual additions, so a reference may differ from familiar English numbering; each book’s editorial guide explains the significant differences. Square and double brackets carried in the text signal textual or translation qualifications. Nothing is silently filled in to match another Bible.

Hebrew and Greek compared

The comparison library gathers paired Hebrew–Greek editions and single-source study editions. In paired editions, independently rendered readings are compared using the five categories below. Greek-only studies do not receive a Hebrew–Greek classification. Textual notes explain the source readings; reception notes attribute later quotations, interpretations and uses to their authors. A parallel is identified separately from evidence that a later writer received this particular text. Coverage and verification vary by book and verse; a source heading or an empty note is not proof of verified reception.

Category	Working criterion
Same	Corresponding meaning and content, allowing ordinary differences between languages.
Similar	The essentials agree, with a modest difference in expression, idiom or emphasis.
Different	A meaningful difference in a particular detail, name, number, action, participant or image.
Divergent	Added, omitted or substantially rearranged material between the readings.
Disparate	A major difference in meaning or consequence: legal scope, ritual requirement, agency, narrative assertion, theological portrayal or cumulative force.

Choose a book in the comparison library, then a chapter or study section. Use its source guide for editions, reference codes and review limitations. The reading directory leads to the continuous reading edition. These are two routes through related material, with different purposes.

Sources and citation practice

• Hebrew: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, fifth corrected edition (1997). Publisher’s description of BHS.
• Greek Old Testament: Septuaginta, Rahlfs–Hanhart, second revised edition (2006), with book-specific Göttingen evidence where directly available. Daniel follows the Old Greek, including its additions; Greek Esther and Psalm 151 remain inside their books.
• New Testament: The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition, ed. Michael W. Holmes (2010), retaining its textual qualifications and verse labels, with an editorial exception: Mark’s unnumbered shorter ending is excluded from the continuous reading edition and the Saints Gospel harmony. The longer ending, Mark 16:9–20, remains with its textual qualification. Any shorter-ending material in comparison notes is evidence of an excluded variant, not part of the reading text.
• Epistle of Barnabas and Shepherd of Hermas: Kirsopp Lake, The Apostolic Fathers, vols. I–II (1912, 1917); digitized copies: volume I and volume II (scan imprint and reprint dates may differ); Hermas keeps its Greek-to-Latin transition.
• Terms: YHWH for the Hebrew divine name and Lord for Greek kyrios when divine; clear divine pronouns capitalized; named weights, measures and coins retained rather than modernized.

These links identify editions and provide routes to their texts; they do not certify every translation or note on this site. To cite a reception claim, use the named author, work, exact book/chapter/section and edition or translation, together with a direct source link where available. An unverified note remains unverified. Book-specific source guides take precedence where they identify a different witness or a Greek-to-Latin transition.

The seventy books

Order	Division	Books
1–43	Old Testament	43
1–5	Law: Hebrew narrative: the Book of Moses	5
6–20	Judgement: Israel narrative: Joshua to Job	15
21–27	Wisdom: Psalms, Proverbs, poetry, Wisdom of Solomon and Sirach	7
28–43	Providence: The Prophets, major and minor	16
44–70	New Testament	27
44–47	Salvation: The Gospel	4
48–69	Discipleship: Acts and the Epistles, Acts through Jude	22
70	Glory: Revelation	1
1–70	Selected study collection	70

The full register, with the books now readable online, is on The Holy Bible page.

Where the work stands

The reading directory contains 70 selected books in seven divisions: 43 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books. Wisdom of Solomon and Sirach belong to Division III. Read the editorial change log.

Working study edition · independent specialist review pending. Sources and review status.

All seven divisions have book pages in the seventy-book directory. Open a book to see its available reading sections, editorial guidance and companion studies. The Comparison Library links to the available source studies; each study retains its own textual qualifications.

About the translator

The Saints Translation is the work of Vincent Melli. Read more on the About Vincent page, or get in touch.