Understanding the Approach: The Handbook
Every translation project needs a baseline. Without one, the same Greek word might be rendered differently in different books, or the translator might silently import meanings that were not available to the original audience. For this project, that baseline is the Handbook – a comprehensive reference document that defines the historical and methodological frame for every stage: translation, commentary, and cross-book analysis.
The Handbook does not tell the translators what to conclude about Jesus, nor does it argue against any later theological tradition. It simply describes the mental furniture of a first-century Jewish audience and provides the common vocabulary, capitalisation conventions, and memory system needed to keep a large multi-book project internally consistent and historically grounded.
The first-century Jewish thought-world
The Handbook catalogues the cultural and theological concepts that were part of the thought-world of any Jewish person living before the destruction of the Temple (70 CE):
The Lord our God, the Lord is one"] ~~~ B["Agency (shaliah)
A representative bears the sender's name and authority"] ~~~ C["Ideal pre-existence
'Before the world' = God's eternal purpose"] ~~~ D["Personification
Wisdom, Word, Spirit spoken of as persons"] ~~~ E["Two-ages framework
This age / the age to come"] ~~~ F["Patronage and allegiance
Grace (benefaction) · Faith (loyalty)"] ~~~ G["Corporate solidarity
In Christ · co-crucified · co-raised"] ~~~ H["Imperial subversion
Gospel · saviour · arrival · peace"] end
These concepts are the background equipment the first hearers brought to the text:
- The Shema (Deut 6:4) – “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” The oneness of God is the non-negotiable bedrock of all interpretation in this project.
- Agency (shaliah) – In first-century practice, an authorised representative could bear the sender’s name and exercise the sender’s authority while remaining a distinct person. This is a widely attested category in rabbinic and Second Temple literature.
- Ideal pre-existence – Language about someone or something existing “before the foundation of the world” was frequently understood as foreordination in God’s eternal plan, not necessarily as personal, conscious existence before birth.
- Personification – Wisdom, Word, and Spirit are sometimes spoken of in personal terms as a literary device, describing God’s own activity and attributes. This is familiar from Proverbs 8, Sirach 24, and the Wisdom of Solomon.
- Two-ages framework – Jewish eschatology divided history between “this age” and “the age to come.” The New Testament writers work with an inaugurated version: the age to come has broken in through the Messiah, yet the present age continues until the consummation.
- Patronage and allegiance – χάρις (“grace”) is the benefaction of a superior; πίστις (“faith”) is the client’s reciprocal loyalty and trust. These words belong to a social world of patrons and clients, not merely to private inner belief.
- Corporate solidarity – Phrases like “in Christ” (ἐν Χριστῷ) and verbs prefixed with σύν- (“co-crucified,” “co-raised”) express a representative, participatory relationship.
- Imperial subversion – Terms used in the Roman imperial cult – gospel (εὐαγγέλιον), saviour (σωτήρ), arrival (παρουσία), peace (εἰρήνη) – are deliberately applied to Jesus and his kingdom, creating a pointed political contrast.
These concepts are not imposed on the text. They are simply the categories its first audience would have used, and the Handbook requires the translation process to honour them – letting the Greek words mean what they would have meant at the time, without importing later categories.
The nine hermeneutical rules
The Handbook distills its method into nine practical rules:
| Rule | Summary |
|---|---|
| 1. Immediate context | Before translating, survey the surrounding verses and the discourse logic. |
| 2. Semantic range | A chosen English gloss must be attested in pre-70 CE Jewish or koine Greek sources. Later ecclesiastical senses are excluded. |
| 3. Analogy of faith | The Old Testament monotheism foundation is the fixed boundary; internal consistency is maintained through the decision log. |
| 4. Historical background | Lexical and syntactic decisions must honour patronage, corporate identity, and imperial pressure. |
| 5. Authorial consistency | If a biblical author develops a distinctive use of a word, every occurrence in that book must receive the same English gloss. Elegant variation is not permitted. |
| 6. No contradiction | A translation of one pericope must never create an internal contradiction with what precedes or follows. |
| 7. Genre sensitivity | Genre governs figurative language and conventions, but never overrides plain-sense grammar. |
| 8. The Shema test | “Would a first-century Jewish hearer have understood this statement as violating the oneness of God or collapsing the Creator-creature distinction?” If yes, the reading is historically anachronistic and must be re-examined. |
| 9. Canonical trajectory | The Old Testament narrative expects a human Messiah who is exalted by God. Exaltation is investiture and delegation, not a revelation of a second deity. |
The capitalisation map
One of the most visible features of the whole project is its capitalisation. The convention is simple, and it is applied without exception:
| Referent | Capitalisation |
|---|---|
| The one God of Israel (the Father) | God, Father, Almighty, Most High, Lord God; and He, Him, His |
| Jesus / the spirit (titles and pronouns) | lowercase – lord, son of God, son of the man, saviour, lamb, word, king, spirit, holy spirit, paraclete; he, him, who, it |
| Proper names (Jesus, Peter, Galilee) | Capitalised |
| Anarthrous θεός | god (lowercase) |
refer to the one God of Israel
(the Father)?"} Start -->|Yes| Cap["Capitals
God · Father · He · Him · His"] Start -->|No| Lower["Lowercase
lord · son · spirit · he · him · it"] Start -->|Proper name| PN["Capitalised normally
Jesus · Peter · Galilee"]
This capitalisation does not encode a verdict about who Jesus is. It does what the Hebrew Scriptures do with the divine name YHWH: it reserves a unique visual marker for the one God. When a reader sees a capital-G “God” or “He,” the referent is the Father. When they see a lowercased “lord” or “spirit,” no inference is being made about whether that referent is human, angelic, instrumentally divine, or something else – merely that it is not the one God.
Lexical defaults
Many Greek words have a range of meanings, and some meanings emerged only in later centuries through theological debates the first writers could not have anticipated. The Handbook provides a short list of approved pre-70 CE senses that the translators must work within:
| Greek term | Approved pre-70 CE senses |
|---|---|
| θεός | When articular (ὁ θεός), regularly “God” (the one God). When anarthrous, qualitative (“god,” “a divine being”), or in some contexts a proper name within a monotheistic formula. |
| κύριος | “master,” “sir,” “lord.” In the Septuagint, renders YHWH; elsewhere, refers to human superiors or representatives of God. |
| προσκυνέω | “to do obeisance,” “to pay homage” – the standard term for prostration before a king or superior. |
| λατρεύω | “to render cultic service” – in New Testament usage, offered to God. |
| πνεῦμα ἅγιον | “holy spirit.” The noun is neuter; the phrase regularly denotes God’s empowering presence. |
| ἐκκλησία | “assembly” – the standard Greek term for a gathered community; used in the Septuagint for the congregation of Israel. |
| πίστις | “faith,” “faithfulness,” or “allegiance,” depending on whether the context invokes a patron-client dynamic. |
| χάρις | “grace,” “favour,” “benefaction.” |
These defaults are not a cage; they are a starting point. If a particular passage demands a different nuance, the translator may adopt it – but must record the reason in the decision log.
The two-pillar memory system (YAML)
A book-length translation cannot be completed in a single session. The process works in batches, chapter by chapter. To prevent contradictions, every stage outputs a structured decision log – a YAML block – at the end of each batch. This log tracks:
- lexical choices (Greek word → English gloss, with justification)
- resolved Old Testament citations
- text-critical decisions
- idiomatic notes and contested-passage analysis
- catchword chains and macro-structural patterns
- thematic trajectories and polemical threads
When the next batch begins, the translator reads the previous YAML, so it never forgets what was decided ten chapters earlier.
After the whole book is translated, a “reconciliation” phase checks every pericope against the final master YAML and corrects any early inconsistencies.
Summary
The Handbook is not an argument. It is a reference work. It says: “If you are going to translate a first-century text, use first-century meanings. Respect the grammar. Keep capitalisation consistent so the reader can see who is being spoken about. Log your decisions so you don’t contradict yourself.”
What the text concludes about Jesus – whether it presents him as a human agent, an exalted figure who bears the divine name, or something else – is a question the process is designed to discover, not to impose. The Handbook simply removes centuries of later interpretive sediment so that the Greek text can be heard afresh, in its own voice.
Suggested reading order, (and >where< you are): begin at the Home page, then follow the chapters in order: >Understanding the Approach< → Hybrid Interlinear → Concept‑Language Inventory → English Translation → Commentary → Annotated Hybrid & Cross‑Book Analysis → Meta‑Analysis & Summary → Quick Reference.