Transliteration: Because in some languages, you’re illiterate.

By now you’ve likely learned the bible wasn’t originally written in English. (Although good luck informing certain King James Only folks of this. Most of ’em know better, but there are some holdouts who still think God speaks in King James English.)

The bible was written in three dead languages, languages nobody speaks anymore. The present-day versions of these languages are not the same. Languages evolve.

• Modern Hebrew uses western word order (subject-verb-object, “I go home”), and ancient Hebrew uses middle eastern word order (verb-subject-object “Go I home”). Plus the vocabulary’s way bigger, what with all the loanwords from Yiddish, English, German, Russian, and Arabic. Plus the pronunciation’s different, much like the differences between American English and British English.
• Modern Greek has a new vocabulary, and follows new grammatical rules.
• Syriac speakers love to point out Jesus spoke “Aramaic” like them, but the Babylonian Aramaic of the bible (and the first-century Syrian Aramaic which Jesus spoke) is like saying Geoffrey Chaucer spoke English like us. He did… but when you try to read the Canterbury Tales, it’s obvious he kinda didn’t.

The Old Testament was written in what we call Biblical Hebrew—the older parts in Early Biblical Hebrew, and the Aramaic-influenced later parts in Later Biblical Hebrew. A few chapters were written in Aramaic, the language of the Babylonian Empire—the language Daniel put some of his visions into. After the Jews returned from Babylon, that’s what they spoke, and that’s what Jesus spoke, as demonstrated by the few direct quotes we have of him in the New Testament. As for the NT, it’s in a form of Alexandrian Greek we call Koine Greek, a term which comes from the word κοινή/kiní, “common.”

And I know; most of my readers don’t know these languages. I learned them in seminary, ’cause I wanted to know how to read the original texts of the bible. I wanted to read it unfiltered by a translator. Not that most translators don’t know what they’re doing; not that most English translations aren’t well done. They are. But if I’m gonna seriously study bible, I still wanna read the original, and go through the process of translation myself. That’s why I translate it for TXAB.

In so doing, I often need to talk about the original-language words. So I convert ’em into our alphabet so you can kinda read them. It’s called transliteration. People have always done it. Mark did it in the bible, converting some of Jesus’s Aramaic sayings into Greek characters, like so—

Mark 5.41-42 KWL

41He gripped the child’s hand

and told her, “Talítha kum”

(which is translated, “Get up, I say”)

42and the girl instantly got up, and was walking around—

she was 12 years old.

They were amazed and ecstatic.

—turning the original ܛܠܺܝܬ݂ܳܐ ܩܽܘܡܝ into ταλιθα κουμ for Greek-speakers who couldn’t read the Assyrian alphabet.

Until recently I’ve transliterated everything on this blog, and left the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek out. ’Cause foreign languages intimidate certain people. Throw some Hebrew-alphabet words on a page, and people flinch: “Oh no, he’s writing in Hebrew! I can’t possibly read that. I can’t possibly read anything he’s written; he’ll get too technical for me.” I know; to many of you this sounds ridiculous. But I assure you people really do get that way. And I didn’t wanna alienate readers.

I’ve lately come to realize in so doing, I’m accommodating people’s irrational fears. And shouldn’t. Such fears are wholly inappropriate for Christians. If foreign languages freak you out, you need to get over it. Need to. It ruins your ability to share Jesus with foreigners—and with anybody who has compassion for foreigners. You know, like Jesus, who includes us foreigners in his kingdom. So here on out, I’m gonna include the original text in TXAB—and relax, I’ll still transliterate it for you.

But I’ve received comments from people who aren’t sure I’m transliterating properly. Fr’instance when I write on love, I render the Greek word ἀγάπη as agápi. And they’re pretty sure I’ve done it wrong. Everybody they know spells it “agape,” with an E… and pronounces it ə'gɑ.peɪ, not ɑ'gɑ.pi.

Well, everybody they know is doing it wrong. Modern Greek speakers pronounce it ɑ'gɑ.pi, so I’m going with them.

True, ancient Hebrew and Greek is not modern Hebrew and Greek. Doesn’t matter. Today’s native speakers have the pronunciation way closer than Americans do. And for the most part Americans aren’t even trying to get the pronunciation right. They’re just repeating the way they heard other Christians and scholars say it. They’re following the crowd. Even if they learned how to pronounce these languages properly in seminary; even if they grew up in Israel or Greece! That’s just how corrupting peer pressure can be.

I strive for accuracy. So should we all. So I’ll include my transliteration scheme here, for transparency’s sake. And of course you can compare it with your favorite Greek or Hebrew dictionaries… including the mangled way they sometimes pronounce these words, which likewise bear no relation to how native speakers properly do it.

Transliterating Greek.

Since I tend to quote the New Testament more often than the Old, I tend to explain Greek words more often than Hebrew. So let’s start with Greek.

People often transliterate Greek following an older customary system. It’s why β/víta tends to be converted into B; after all, don’t they look alike? But the letter’s pronounced v, and should therefore be converted into V’s.

Desiderus Erasmus, the medieval scholar who put together the Textus Receptus, tends to get blamed for that customary system. Many biblical Greek professors claim they’re following “Erasmean pronunciation,” and Erasmus’s system. But to me they look far too much like they’re mimicking the way their own American professors pronounced (or mispronounced) everything. In any event I’m still following modern Greek, not Erasmus. (He likewise converted β’s into B’s.)

Every so often you’re gonna find people convert η/íta into H, or ω/oméga into W. It has nothing to do with pronunciation: It’s because Apple created a font back in the 1980s called Symbol, and if you wanted to type an η you had to type H—and some people still think the letters are related. They’re not. Greek has sounds in their alphabet which we don’t represent by single letters, and vice-versa.

So here’s how I convert their alphabet to ours.

(And just a reminder: All the vowels are pronounced like Spanish, French, Italian, and pretty much every language but English. An I isn’t pronounced like pie, but pizza.)

GREEK	NAME	ENGLISH	SOUND (IPA)
Α α	álfa	a	ɑ as in ma mɑ
αι		e	ɛ as in end ɛnd
αυ		af av	ɑf as in toffee 'tɑf.fi ɑv as in avocado ɑv.ə'kɑ.doʊ
Β β	víta	v	v as in vet vɛt
Γ γ	ghámma	y gh	j as in yam jæm g as in gum gəm
γγ		ngh	ŋg as in angle 'æŋ.gəl
γκ		ngh	ŋg as in angle 'æŋg.əl
γχ		nkh	ŋk as in ankle 'æŋk.əl
γξ		nx	ŋks as in lynx lɪŋks
Δ δ	délta	d	ð as in that ðæt
Ε ε	épsilon	e	ɛ as in pet pɛt
ει		i	i as in see si
ευ		ef ev	ɛf as in left lɛft ɛv as in ever ɛvər
Ζ ζ	zíta	z	z as in zit zɪt
Η η	íta	i	i as in see si
Θ θ	thíta	th	θ as in thin θɪn
Ι ι	yóta	i, y	i as in see si
ιη		yi	ji as in ye ji
Κ κ	káppa	k	k as in ark ɑrk
Λ λ	lámda	l	l as in log lɔg
Μ μ	mi	m	m as in mud məd
μβ		m	m as in mud məd
Ν ν	ni	n	n as in no noʊ
ντ		d	d as in do du
Ξ ξ	xi	x	ks as in box bɑks
Ο ο	ómikron	o	ɔ as in off ɔf
oυ		u	u as in you ju
Π π	pi	p	p as in up əp
πν		n	n as in no noʊ
Ρ ρ	ro	r	r as in burro 'bʊ.roʊ (trilled a bit)
Σ σ c ς	sígma	s	s as in so soʊ
Τ τ	tav	t	t as in at æt
Υ υ	ýpsilon	y	i as in see si
Φ φ	fi	f	f as in fit fɪt
Χ χ	hi	h, kh	x as in loch lɑx
Ψ ψ	psi	ps	ps as in rips rɪps
Ω ω	oméga	o	ɔ as in off ɔf

Transliterating Hebrew.

The “Hebrew alphabet” is really the Assyrian alphabet. Before the neo-Babylonian Empire moved in, there used to be a different alphabet, usually called “paleo Hebrew,” which looked a bit different—but you’re not gonna find it in Hebrew-language bibles. Just ancient inscriptions, and sometimes on Israeli sheqels. Don’t worry about it.

There’s a myth Hebrew is nothing but consonants. Nope. Like our letter Y, sometimes they’re vowels. But because Hebrew was a dead language for nearly 24 centuries, the Masoretes (the folks who made copies of the bible throughout the middle ages) added niqqúd, marks above, below, and inside the letters to indicate pronunciation—whether a letter was a vowel or consonant, whether vowels oughta be included in the pronunciation, where the syllables were, and so forth. I transliterate the niqqúd too, so they’re on the chart.

HEBREW	NAME	ENGLISH	SOUND (IPA)
א	álef	(glottal open)	whichever vowel is indicated by the niqqúd
ב	vet	v	v as in vet vɛt
בּ	bet	b	b as in bet bɛt
ג	gímel	g, gh	g as in go goʊ
ד	dálet	d	d as in do dʊ
ה	he	h, a	h as in hi haɪ, ə as in ago ə'goʊ
ו	vav	v, w	v as in vet vɛt, u as in too tu
וֹ	hólam vav	o	o as in owe oʊ
וּ	šúruk vav	u	u as in too tu
ז	záyin	z	z as in zit zɪt
ח	khet	kh	x as in loch lɑx
ט	tet	t	t as in at æt
י	yod	y, i	j as in yam jæm, i as in see si
ך כ	kaf	k	k as in ark ɑrk
ךּ כּ	khaf	kh	x as in loch lɑx
ל	lámed	l	l as in log lɔg
ם מ	mem	m	m as in mud məd
ן נ	nun	n	n as in no noʊ
ס	sámekh	c	s as in so soʊ
ע	áyin	(glottal stop)	whichever vowel is indicated by the niqqúd
ף פ	pe	p	p as in pin pɪn
ףּ פּ	fe	f	f as in fin fɪn
ץ צ	chádi	ch	tʃ as in chin tʃɪn, ts as in tsunami tsu'nɑ.mi
ק	qof	q	k as in ark ɑrk
ר	reš	r	r as in row roʊ
שׁ	š	šin	ʃ as in shin ʃɪn
שׂ	s	sin	s as in sin sɪn
ת	tav, taf	t, th	t as in at æt
ְo	shva	e	ə as in ago ə'goʊ (or as a syllabic break)
ִo	híriq	i	i as in see si
ֵo	chérë	e	e as in prey preɪ
ֶo	segól	e	ɛ as in pen pɛn
ַo	patákh	a	æ as in pan pæn
ָo	kamáts	a, o	ɔ as in awe ɔ, oʊ as in owe oʊ
ֹo	hólam	o	o as in owe oʊ
ֻo	kubúch	u	u as in too tu

Some Hebrew letters have a dot, or dageš, in them. Sometimes that switches the consonant, as it does with vet, kaf, and pe (turning them into bet, khaf, and fe); sometimes it doubles the consonant.

Accents work the same way they do in Spanish, or other languages where they actually bother to use the accents: That’s the syllable you emphasize. (English occasionally ignores this rule, and uses accents to indicate non-silent E’s.)

And if there are two vowels right next to one another which you’re meant to pronounce separately (like in “Hawaii”) sometimes I use an umlaut (like in “noël”) and sometimes an H, because you know how English-speakers tend to ignore umlauts.

Any deviations I make from this system are either mistakes on my part, or because native speakers pronounce it way differently than it’s spelled. You know, like English speakers occasionally do. It happens.

Transliterating Aramaic/Syriac.

When bible scholars quote Aramaic, most of the time they write it in the Assyrian alphabet. I don’t; I use the Syriac alphabet as used in the Peshitta. It’s not quite the same pronunciation as Hebrew, and it’s easier to not mix that up when you’re not using the same alphabet.

Same as Hebrew, some of these “consonants” are sometimes vowels, and have vowel-marks which indicate their sound.

ARAMAIC	NAME	ENGLISH	SOUND (IPA)
ܐ	álap	(glottal stop) a	ɑ as in lager 'lɑɡ.ər
ܒ	bet	v b	v as in vet vɛt b as in bet bɛt
ܓ	gámal	g, gh	g as in go goʊ
ܕ	dálat	d	d as in do dʊ
ܗ	he	h e	h as in hi haɪ e as in prey preː
ܘ	waw	w	u as in too tu
ܙ	záin	z	z as in zit zɪt
ܚ	khet	kh	x as in loch lɑx
ܛ	tet	t	t as in at æt
ܝ	yod	y i	j as in yam jæm i as in see si
ܟ ܟ	kap	k kh	k as in ark ɑrk x as in loch lɑx
ܠ	lámad	l	l as in log lɔg
ܡ ܡ	mem	m	m as in mud məd
ܢ	nun	n	n as in no noʊ
ܣ	sámek	c	s as in so soʊ
ܥ	e	(fricative)	lengthens the previous sound
ܦ	pe	p f	p as in pin pɪn f as in fin fɪn
ܨ	sáde	ch	tʃ as in chin tʃɪn ts as in tsunami tsu'nɑ.mi
ܩ	qop	q	k as in ark ɑrk
ܪ	reš	r	r as in row roʊ
ܫ	š	šin	ʃ as in shin ʃɪn
ܬ	taw	t, th	t as in at æt