How to Read the Translation for Translators — and Why It Is Worth the Effort

The first time most people encounter the Translation for Translators, they find it unsettling.

The sentences are longer than they expect. There are brackets in the middle of verses. Strange abbreviations appear — [MET], [MTY], [IDM] — with no explanation. Triangles surround whole phrases: ◄like this►.

It looks cluttered. It reads awkwardly. It does not feel like what a Bible is supposed to feel like.

That is because it is not trying to be a Bible in the devotional sense. It is trying to do something more precise — and once you understand what it is doing, it becomes one of the most illuminating translations on the site.

What T4T actually is

The Translation for Translators was produced by Ellis W. Deibler Jr. under the auspices of Wycliffe Bible Translators. It was not designed for Sunday morning reading. It was designed for a specific and urgent purpose: to help translators working in minority languages — languages that may have no Bible, no scholarly tradition, no existing theological vocabulary — understand what the Greek and Hebrew text actually means before they try to render it in their own language.

Imagine you are translating the Bible into a language spoken by 40,000 people in a remote valley. You need to know not just what the English says but what the Greek behind the English is doing — whether a phrase is a metaphor or a literal statement, whether a word is an idiom that cannot be translated directly, whether there are two ways the sentence could be read. You need that information made explicit before you make your translation choices.

That is what T4T gives you. Every piece of information a translator might need to make a good decision is surfaced in the text. The result reads strangely in English because it was not written for English readers. It was written for people who would use it as a working document on the way to producing something else entirely.

This site includes T4T alongside BSB and Goodspeed because it does something neither of them does: it makes the implicit explicit. Where BSB and Goodspeed make translation choices quietly, T4T shows you the choices being made.

T4T does not hide what other translations quietly decide. It puts the decision in front of you.

What the abbreviations mean

The [brackets] in T4T text are translation markers. They tell you something specific about the nature of the language at that point in the verse.

[MET] — Metaphor

The language at this point is figurative, not literal. T4T flags metaphors because what is a natural figure of speech in Greek may be meaningless or confusing in another language. A translator needs to know this is a metaphor so they can find a natural equivalent in their target language rather than translating literally into nonsense.

When you see [MET] on this site, hover over it. The tooltip will tell you what kind of figurative language it is and why it matters.

[MTY] — Metonymy

One thing represents another. The classic example is using "hand" to mean power or authority — "the hand of God" does not mean God has a physical hand. T4T flags metonymy so translators do not render the representation as if it were literal.

[IDM] — Idiom

An expression whose meaning is different from its literal words. Every language has idioms. The Greek idioms of the first century do not transfer directly into other languages. T4T makes the actual meaning explicit so translators can find a natural equivalent idiom in their own language.

[SYN] — Synecdoche

A part stands for the whole, or the whole for a part. "All Jerusalem came out to see him" does not mean literally every person in the city. T4T flags this so translators know what the text is actually saying.

[HYP] — Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration for emphasis. What is a natural rhetorical device in Greek may read as a factual claim in a language without that convention. T4T flags hyperbole so translators can render the emphasis rather than the exaggeration.

[DOU] — Doublet

Two expressions that mean essentially the same thing, placed together for emphasis. Hebrew poetry does this constantly. Languages that do not use doublets need to know both expressions carry the same meaning so they can choose which to use.

[EUP] — Euphemism

A mild or indirect expression used in place of a more direct one. T4T makes the literal meaning explicit so translators can decide whether to use a euphemism in their target language or be direct.

What the triangles mean

The ◄ and ► triangles are T4T's way of showing alternative translations — options the translator can choose between depending on what works in their target language.

The text inside the triangles is an alternative rendering or an explanatory expansion. T4T is saying: the text could be translated this way or that way, and here are both options.

So when you read:

The one who expresses [MET] ◄God's character / what God is like► has always existed

T4T is saying: the Greek word logos here is being treated as a metaphor [MET] and it can be translated as either "God's character" or "what God is like" — whichever works better in your target language.

This is exactly the kind of decision that most translations make invisibly. The BSB chooses "the Word" and presents it as the natural rendering. T4T shows you the choice being made and gives you both options.

Why T4T is theologically interesting

T4T was produced within a mainstream evangelical framework — Wycliffe Bible Translators works within broadly orthodox Christian assumptions. But because its goal is to surface meaning rather than defend tradition, it sometimes produces renderings that are more honest about what the Greek says than translations produced within a more explicitly theological framework.

The John 1:1 example above is telling. T4T renders the logos as a metaphor for God's character or what God is like — not as a separate divine person who is co-equal with the Father. That is not a departure from orthodoxy by T4T's own standards. It is T4T doing what it always does: making the implicit meaning of the Greek explicit.

On this site we find that T4T often illuminates the Pioneer Christology precisely because it is trying to make meaning explicit rather than protect a theological position. When T4T says "God's Son existed before and ranks above everything that God has created" for Colossians 1:15 — that is T4T making explicit what the Greek of protokos (firstborn) actually means. He ranks above. He does not become co-equal. He is first in rank among all that the Father made.

How to read T4T on this site

On scripture comparison pages, the T4T column displays the translation with all its abbreviations and triangles intact. Hover over any [abbreviation] in gold brackets to see a tooltip explaining what it means. Hover over the ◄ triangles to see an explanation of the alternative rendering system.

The info icon ⓘ in the T4T column header links back to this article.

T4T is not the most readable translation on the site for devotional use. BSB reads more naturally. Goodspeed has more literary grace. But T4T does something neither of them does — it shows you what the translator decided, rather than hiding the decision inside a smooth English sentence.

That is worth the extra effort of learning to read the brackets.