Belinda: Ay, but you know we must return good for evil.

Lady Brute: That may be a mistake in the translation.

I take up this work with the purpose to read it for the first time as I should any other work, – as far at least as I can or dare. For I neither can, not dare, throw off a strong and awful prepossession in its favour – certain as I am that a large part of the light and life, in which and by which I see, love, and embrace the truths and the strengths co-organised into a living body of faith and knowledge … has been directly or indirectly derived to me from this sacred volume, – and unable to determine what I do not owe to its influences.

The primary concern of the translators has been to provide a faithful translation of the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Their first task was to understand correctly the meaning of the original … the translators' next task was to express that meaning in a manner and form easily understood by the readers … Every effort has been made to use language that is natural, clear, simple, and unambiguous.