Published 1862 (revised 1887, 1898)
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
Robert Young's translation is famous for its extreme literalness: Hebrew and Greek verb tenses are mapped onto English continuous and perfect forms even when the result reads strangely. It is a study Bible, not a devotional one — invaluable for tracing what the original languages actually say.
"for God did so love the world, that His Son — the only begotten — He gave, that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life age-during."
Translators
Robert Young, a self-taught Scottish biblical scholar
Source text
Hebrew Masoretic Text (Old Testament) and the Textus Receptus (New Testament), translated as literally as possible — verb tenses and word order included.
Language
Mid-19th-century English with deliberately preserved Hebrew/Greek grammar
Copyright
Public domain — free to read, share, and quote.
History
- 1862 — Robert Young publishes the first edition, prefacing it with a treatise on biblical translation.
- 1887 — A revised second edition is issued.
- 1898 — The third edition (the standard YLT text used today) is published posthumously.
Strengths
- Closest to a word-for-word, tense-for-tense rendering available in English.
- Useful for comparing English wording back to Hebrew and Greek constructions.
- Public domain in all jurisdictions.
Notes for readers
- Prose can feel jarring — present-tense narratives, unusual word order, and the divine name 'Jehovah' throughout the Old Testament.
- Best used alongside a more idiomatic translation rather than on its own.
Compare with
World English Bible (WEB)
The World English Bible is a freely-distributable, modern-English revision of the ASV. It keeps the literal, formal-equivalence approach of its parent translation while replacing archaic 'thee/thou' language with contemporary speech.
King James Version (KJV)
Commissioned by King James I of England in 1604 and published in 1611, the King James Version (also called the Authorized Version) is the most influential English Bible ever produced. Its rhythms shaped English literature for four centuries.
American Standard Version (ASV)
The American Standard Version is the American counterpart to the English Revised Version (1881–1885). It became the most widely-used scholarly translation of the early 20th century and is the parent text of the RSV, NASB, and WEB.
Bible in Basic English (BBE)
The Bible in Basic English uses a deliberately small vocabulary so that readers with limited English — children, English-as-a-second-language students, and the visually impaired who rely on read-aloud — can follow the whole biblical narrative without stumbling over rare words.
Douay-Rheims (Challoner Revision) (DRA)
The Douay-Rheims is the historic Catholic English Bible. Translated from the Latin Vulgate by English exiles in France, it predates the King James Version and was the standard Catholic English text for centuries. The widely-read modern form is Bishop Challoner's mid-1700s revision.
Darby Bible (DBY)
John Nelson Darby — the founder of the Plymouth Brethren and an influential dispensationalist — produced a careful, scholarly translation aimed at serious students who could not read the original languages. His footnotes are unusually detailed for a single-translator project.