The Pure Word provides a unique approach that utilizes a newly developed Greek to English concordance that directly converted the Greek Text to remove potential personal biases and assumption that could affect interpretation.
Pastors that are looking for an English conversion of the Greek Text.
Scholars interested in a direct Word-for-Word English conversion of the Textas Receptus Text, using the single primary meaning for each Greek root word.
Students looking to compare and contrast additional New Testament conversions.
The Pure word was created by Dr. Miller and Brent Miller.
The project director, Dr. Harry Miller (M.D.), graduated from Indiana University Medical School in 1957. He completed a general surgical residency and then received a fellowship at Cleveland Clinic in pulmonary and open-heart surgery. Since retiring as a practicing surgeon in 1991, after decades of being face to face with the fragility of life, he devoted all of his time to studying biblical theology and church history. After years researching which English Bibles were the most accurate, in order to personally ensure the clarity of God's Word in his own life, he came to understand just how English Bible translations over the course of hundreds of years have become impacted by interpretations founded on personal biases, culture and law.
Dr. Miller began a venture to see if it was possible to create an English conversion of the New Testament that could avoid these interpretation pitfalls. Early on in the project, Dr. Miller collaborated with his son, Brent Miller, to complete this nearly twenty year long venture. The two became the soul founders of One Path Publishing which would be used to release the completed conversion.
Why did Dr. Miller have to collaborate to complete the project? His project partner, Brent Miller (Sr) pursued a degree in Softweare Engineering and Electrical Engineering; beginning his career as an engineer for Hamilton Standard (the original company founded in 1919) in which Brent was assigned to a team that developed updates to US missile guidance system in the early 1980's. Later, he received recognition in 1988 for advancements in computer image-to-text translation that began to be utilized by various hospitals. Brent's contribution was one step in a long history of software advancements made by numerous individuals and companies that has led to the digital record systems the medical industry uses today. Brent later became the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) for a division of Bates International which was a fortune-500 company in the 1990s.
To complete The Pure Word, Dr. Miller needed a newly completed Greek to English concordance to be digitalized for the final conversion in a manner that would be coherent for a modern day reader. This is where Brent’s history with software development would be most utilized.
Dr. Miller and Brent Miller are now retired and reside in Nevada, but they continue to perosnally research Hermeneutics to gain a deeper understanding of scripture.
The name comes from work completed with a unique monadic approach for the conversion. "Pure", meaning that each Greek work was defined as having a single intended meaning that could not be misinterpreted when translated correctly into other languages. This approach is founded upon the notion that each Word of God is indeed Pure as God said, and is without mixture of meaning or shared by another word. (Psa 12:6; Prov 30:5)
After years of studying Greek to English translations through various concordances, it was believed that each Greek word in virtually all English translations had been assigned more varied meanings than necessary - depending on the verse. In order to understand the extent of how many English words are assigned to certain Greek words, a list of some utilizations in the Bible can be found at The Pure Word Greek Definition Examples. Most languages that exist can usually condense each word to a primary meaning that can be used to communicate to other languages (with the possibility of two or three additional meanings with certain words, but this is rare). For example, the English word "plane" has 3 different meanings. No language appears to have over five, and up to twelve, different meanings assigned to a significant portion of the words in their language (can you imagine how difficult it would be to communicate?), but this is precisely what most New Testament English translations appear to have done. The Pure Word attempts to eliminate this possible issue by assigning a single primary meaning to each Greek word (whenever possible), and then applies the accepted parsing for each word (a process the creators refer to as Monadic Hermeneutics). The key to The Pure Word is the simplicity in the conversion. As a result, the conversation can be difficult to read, so it's best used alongside your favorite version of the Bible for the purpose of comparing and contrasting.
No. Since the release of the first edition in 2017, The Pure Word has been primarily promoted as a reference tool to be used alongside your favorite version of the Bible.
Changes in word definitions over time introduce interpretations that could lead to misunderstanding of scripture. For example, many of our English words no longer have the same meaning that they had when the KJV scholars used them over 400 years ago. So, these English words have been updated in modern versions of the New Testament in order to match the originally intended meaning of the Greek words. One of the many changes is the definition of the Greek word "pisteuw" (strong #4100) which the KJV scholars correctly stated as "Believe" in 1604. In the 16th century however, the word "believe" had a completely different meaning than it does today. Back then it meant to "Commit to" or "dedicate your life to" or even "give your life for". It was an action verb. Therefore, when the King James scholars used the word "believeth" in John 3:16 as follows...
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (KJV)
They understood that they were stating that an individual must "commit their very lives to Christ". The Pure Word shows the original meaning of "pisteuw" by using today's understood concept of "Committing." in order to clearify the intended Greek. you can see this is the following Pure Word verse...
"Because, God has Loved in such a manner the satan's world, so that He Gave His Son, the Only Begotten Risen Christ, in order that whoever is Continuously by his choice Committing for the Result and Purpose of Him, should not perish, but definitely should, by his choice, be Continuously Having Eternal Life." (TPW)
In this example, both the KJV and The Pure Word naturally present the same message regarding the gift of Salvation through Jesus Christ; however, the Greek to English translation found in The Pure Word may provide more depth regarding the meaning of "believeth" as it was intended in the first century. You will also notice that each word's parsings, which exists in the original Greek, have been incorporated which brings a deeper understanding of this important verse.
Although the creators are confident that the work provides unprecedented depth and accuracy compared to most other English New Testaments today, no English conversion or translation of the New Testament is considered to be perfect by most biblical scholars. The Pure Word is no exception. Ultimately, scriptural understanding is provided by the Holy Spirit, but the creators pray that this work will be used as a tool for pastors, scholars and students to help bring forth more depth where it may be beneficial.