Hi, I'm Abner Chow, one of the translators for the Legacy Standard Bible. We've been laboring and praying over this translation, and we've been encouraged because the Lord has graciously even begun to answer our prayers through you because of your response, and we've been encouraged by your heart and love for the Word of God and the God of the Word.

And along with your responses, you've raised some really good questions, and we're very thankful for that because it reflects the heart that seeks after the Word of God, and it provides us some opportunity for edification, and that's what we like to do at this time. I've been asked to answer some of these questions in a little bit more casual, a little bit more personal environment, and so I'm in my office right now, one of the locations where I have worked on this translation to deal with and to respond to some of your questions, and I hope that this time will be one of great edification and learning.

So without further ado, let's walk through four questions that you all have posed to us. Here's the first one. Why does the Legacy Standard Bible italicize certain words? Well, that's a really important question. That's a very, very vital question because any translation, including the Legacy Standard Bible, it's a tool.

It's an instrument that we use to study God's Word more, and so we want to know how to use it. And in light of that, the whole purpose, the whole design of the tool of the Legacy Standard Bible is to understand what was originally written in Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew.

It is supposed to be a window into the original languages, and so the words and the phrases found in the Legacy Standard Bible are designed to correspond exactly with the words and grammatical features of the original languages, and that's where italics comes in. Words that are in italics are telling you that while this word is inferred by the original text and needed to make sense of things in English, the word itself in italics does not inherently correspond to a word found in the original language or grammatical feature therein.

That's what italicized words indicate, something that is there and has a function to help make sense of something in English but not found in the original. And that's important for Bible study because we don't want to base our theology or make a huge point on italicized words. They have a purpose, but it's not that.

Here's a second question that has come across my desk, and that is, "Why does the Legacy Standard Bible put Old Testament quotations in small caps?" That's another really excellent question because, again, it helps us to understand how to use this resource, the Legacy Standard Bible, better. As you probably know, the Legacy Standard Bible, even by its name, is designed to preserve the New American Standard Bible, and that translation upheld the notion of putting Old Testament quotes in small caps because in Greek New Testaments that modern-day scholars use, we designate and delineate Old Testament quotations in one way or another, and so the New American Standard, and by extension, the Legacy Standard Bible, brings that over to the English reader.

And that really has two benefits. Fundamentally, it has the benefit of alerting us as readers when the Old Testament is being quoted by the New Testament so that we catch some very important cross-references and connections and we see how the new is connected with the old and importing the theology from old to new.

We might not be able to detect these normally otherwise, and so this is just a helpful tool for us to make those important and vital associations. And secondly, what we call "typography," the different typesetting, helps us to quickly locate certain passages. You might think, "Oh yeah, I was looking for this one verse and I remember there's this Old Testament quote nearby, it's in small caps," and that helps us to find texts faster.

So those are some tools and tips for you. Here's a third question. Why does the Legacy Standard Bible capitalize pronouns referring to deity? That's another great question, and again, it goes back to preserving what the New American Standard Bible did. The Legacy Standard Bible is not the only translation that does this, and it does this for two reasons.

One is because we want to show honor, in at least a very small way, we want to show honor to our God, who is far greater than man. And second, it helps you to track along with what the original author intended. The author might have, and does often, clearly delineate grammatically that a pronoun refers to God, and so we wanted to show that so you know when this pronoun is talking about God, and when a pronoun is not talking about God, it's talking about man.

So when it was grammatically clear and unambiguous, we capitalized pronouns that referred to deity. When there was any debate or possibility otherwise, we wanted to be safer than sorry, so we left it lowercase but designated it by a footnote. A final question, the fourth and final question, and this is a longer and more involved question, but it's an excellent question, and it's this.

Why does the Legacy Standard Bible retain "only begotten" in its translation of John 3:16? Like I said, this is a really great question, and I empathize with it, because we know how the cults have abused and misused the phraseology of "only begotten" to wrongly insinuate that Jesus is created or made.

That is completely false. And so I can understand our desire to want to translate it something like "one and only" or "the only one." That's a quick and clear conclusion that you can draw from a translation, and there's definitely room for that for that very reason. But part of what is in translation, and particularly with the Legacy Standard Bible, is to communicate what the text says, and also through that to be a window into why it says fully what it says.

It's a platform for theology in that way. And to be clear, research has demonstrated without a shadow of a doubt that the word "only begotten" in Greek does not inherently and certainly does not always denote creation or being made. There are plenty of times when the Greek Old Testament translates using this word for "only begotten" a Hebrew word which means "only one," "exclusive," "one and only." And so to be sure, the Greek word does not necessarily or inherently mean creation at all.

That's a false implication. It does move toward uniqueness. But it's not just good enough to say what a word does not imply or does not mean. We need to know what it does mean and means fully. And recent research, say in the last five to ten years, has really brought this forth once again.

For instance, we know that in John, he makes a big deal about birth. John chapter 3, "born again." That's the very context of John 3, 16. And in 1 John, we have the language of "having been born of God." John really does, as the apostle, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, emphasize the notion of birth.

And that matters because that ties into the notion of begotten. And we need to recover this notion. And a good illustration of that is found in Psalm chapter 2, Psalm 2. And that passage says, "Today I have begotten you." Now the background of that passage, the historical background of the whole text and the whole concept of begetting, comes from coronation, coronation, a son becoming king because he's begotten of his father.

Now think about this with me. How do sons become kings? It's because their dad was a king. Because they share the same family heritage. Because they're of the same genealogical line. Because they have the same royal blood flowing through their veins. And so the declaration of begetting is a declaration, "Son, we share something together.

We're united in something. And that's why you have the same status that I do, even though we're distinct persons, father and son." It's unity even though there is distinction. Well what makes then Jesus so unique, so exclusive in John 3:16? It is because he perfectly shares, he absolutely shares with his father the exact same nature and essence because they are one in nature and essence.

That is what is going on with the idea of begetting even as they are distinct persons. They perfectly share, they are perfectly in union in their essence even as they are distinct persons. That is the notion of begetting and we need that. We need that. Remember, John talks a lot about the new birth, about birth.

How are we born again? Why and how can we be changed so that we can share in God's holiness and commune with him? It is because God always, internal to himself, eternally, forever, has shared himself with his son. They are one in essence, one in nature, even as they are distinct persons.

And it is because God has always done that internally and eternally to himself that you can have the conceptualization for why God can do that in a derivative way with those who are created actually and external to God. That would be like you and me. And so, only begotten, there is a lot of theology in there.

It not only affirms wholeheartedly the deity of Christ, maybe counter to our first instinctive reactions, but that is what it says, union between the two even as distinct persons, the connection and union and sharing absolutely between Father and Son, but it also tells us why that matters, why we need it.

Because if you don't have that Trinitarian interaction, then there's no platform, there's no foundation, no conceptualization for how we are saved and we can relate to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and the entire Godhead. Put it simply, God's relationship eternally with his Son is the only reason why we can have a relationship with God himself.

And so it shows us that every word of Scripture matters and your questions are great because they remind us of that. And so along that line, while we definitely encourage you to read the preface to the Legacy Standard Bible and visit our FAQs on the website, which can answer a bunch of questions.

If you or your friends or a bunch of you have a question, please get in contact with us through the Contact Us part of the LSB website and send us your questions so that we can have more opportunities for edification. Well, I hope that's exactly what has happened. Thank you for your questions.

Thank you for investing yourself in the Scripture and I hope to learn more with you all soon.