Much of the rationale behind the proliferation of modern English Bible translations is that (if you'll pardon the expression) all the other ones suck.  While most Christians wouldn't put it that way, that is effectively what they mean when they say things like "the Most Readable and Accurate English Translation of the Bible Ever Produced" - all of the other ones by contrast are less readable and/or less accurate.

I have a reasonably large collection of different Bible translations myself (between 60 & 70 at last count, not counting different editions of the same translation), and i don't think there is a single one that is not deficient in some way.  The converse is usually true also: there are very few that are not outstanding in some way.

If you don't agree with me that the proliferation of these versions is a luxury, an embarassment, and perhaps even an outrage, given that nearly 2/3 of the world's languages have no Scriptures, then this page probably won't be of much interest to you.

Here are some of the main areas in which translations differ:

• Choice of original text - usually stated as Byzantine text vs. critical text
• Translational style - usually stated as word for word vs. meaning for meaning
• Use of gender-neutral language - usually stated as complementarian vs. egalitarian

Each of the above points is a vast oversimplification, and volumes have been written for all sides on each point, usually accompanied by much controversy and name-calling.

The Free Software community is in a unique position to sidestep much of this controversy. What i would like to propose is an electronic Bible translation that provides end-user control of translational choices at runtime.  This translation would offer a mechanism for addressing perceived shortcomings in many translations, and possibly even reduce the need for many of them (e.g. there are numerous variants of the KJV available from crosswire.org that surely share a large amount of common source material).

I really hope that a translation (really a meta-translation) like this would be a rallying point around which Christians could concentrate on what they have in common, not what they disagree about.

The types of parameters which i feel should be user-adjustable are:

• Source text: Choice of major text families, with sub-families and additional variants available as options.
• Translational style: word-for-word, meaning-for-meaning, hybrid (borderline between the previous two), or paraphrased; additional variants given for specific translations?
• Approach to masculine pronouns: traditional (complementarian), gender-neutral (egalitarian), rewording (e.g. as a plural or to avoid a specific referent), or using an artificial common pronoun.

I don't know whether a translation like this would be feasible, or even possible, but the idea is very appealing to me, and i think it would make a very interesting research project. The World English Bible would probably be a good basis for such a project, as it is a modern text in the public domain based on known original source texts.