Concordant Literal Version

The Concordant Version is an English translation of the Bible compiled by the Concordant Publishing Concern (CPC), which was founded by Adolph Ernst Knoch in 1909. The principal works of the CPC are the Concordant Literal New Testament with Keyword Concordance ("CLNT") and the Concordant Version of the Old Testament ("CVOT"). A. E. Knoch designed the Concordant Version in such a way as to put the English reader who lacks a formal knowledge of Koine Greek in possession of all the vital facts of the most ancient codices: Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, and Codex Alexandrinus. The CPC's efforts yielded a restored Greek text, titled The Concordant Greek Text, containing all of the important variant readings found in the codices mentioned above. This was done with the intent of conforming, as far as possible, to the original autograph manuscripts. An utterly consistent hyper-literal sub-linear based upon a standard English equivalent for each Greek element is to be found beneath each Greek word. The Concordant Greek Text forms the basis of the Concordant Literal New Testament, which is more idiomatic in its English than the hyper-literal sublinear. The Concordant Literal New Testament and the Concordant Greek Text are linked together and correlated for the English reader by means of an English concordance—the Keyword Concordance—and a complementary list of the Greek elements.

With the use of the Concordant method of translation the CPC endeavored to recognize the importance of the vocabulary of Scripture, keeping distinct the words used in the original languages by giving each Greek word—as far as is possible—its own unique and consistent English equivalent. While acknowledging that absolute consistency cannot be achieved in the making of an idiomatic English version, the introduction to the Sixth edition of the Concordant Literal New Testament states that the CLNT, by being harmonious with the original texts, keeps to a minimum the confusion resulting from translating different Greek words with the same English word, or one Greek word with many English words. It is this principle of consistent or "concordant" translation which was also employed in the compilation of the Concordant Version of the Old Testament (CVOT), now completed. Therefore, with the exception of occasional idiomatic variants, each English word in the Concordant Version does exclusive duty for a single Greek or Hebrew word. Thus, according to the CPC, a substantial formal correspondence is maintained between the source languages and the receptor language.

The CPC describes what distinguishes its work from that of others in an article titled About the Concordant Publishing Concern, published on its website: