The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. – Psalm 12:6 KJV
• The Bible is unique. It must be translated as the very words God chose to reveal. It is disrespectful to the Author of the Bible to translate it in the same way as other literature – as if it were a human creation.
• The translation must conform to the unchanging texts (received texts, i.e., the Masoretic Text of the Old Testament and Textus Receptus of the New Testament) rather than the ever-changing texts (critical texts and any statistically-derived text).
• The translation must be honest with the underlying text.
• The translation must not be unnecessarily interpretative. (All translation involves interpretation, but the translation should preserve as much of the ambiguity in the original text as can be done without violation of other principles.)
• The translation must not promote false doctrine (i.e. anything which the Bible’s close or far context negates).
• The translation should show a willingness to use newly coined terms if there is no known word in the receptor language that is appropriate.
• The translation should exhibit grammatical excellence, while evidencing a willingness to preserve unusual grammatical constructions that better reflect the source text.