About this edition

TWMC KJV Greek and Romanized Greek

About This Work

This New Testament working edition currently contains Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and Romans 1–6. Each book includes TWMC, the English KJV, the Byzantine Greek text extracted from the project’s Greek New Testament PDF, and Romanized Greek. Each book begins with its own introduction, including Who, What, Why, When, Where, and How.

This edition is a study aid. Read the TWMC paraphrase for meaning and flow, compare the KJV wording, and then consult the Greek and Romanized Greek. It does not replace a Greek lexicon or grammar or the work of learning the language.

Acts review and study notes

All 28 chapters of Acts are available. The author-approved revisions from the current passage-review batch have been incorporated, including all 40 passages flagged for closer comparison. Acts has been reviewed and cleared by the author for this edition.

TWMC is developed from the project’s Byzantine Greek source. ESV, NASB, and LSB serve as comparison references during review, not as the source wording of the paraphrase. Read the author’s statement of faith for the convictions that guide the work.

The free reader includes brief explanatory notes and travel distances where helpful, including sea journeys. Distances are approximate. Fuller explanations and study notes are retained in the Word master for publication; the website does not reproduce every publication note.

What Is an Interlinear Bible

An interlinear Bible places a source-language text and a reader's language close together so they can be compared. Traditional interlinears often place a short English gloss directly above or below each Greek or Hebrew word. That arrangement is useful for studying individual words, but it can suggest a one-to-one relationship that does not always exist between languages.

This edition is verse-aligned rather than word-for-word. Each complete TWMC verse is followed by the KJV, Greek, and Romanized Greek. Greek word order remains intact. The KJV and the Byzantine Greek used here represent distinct textual editions; differences should not be treated automatically as translation errors.

How to Read This Edition

Every verse appears in the same four-part sequence: TWMC, KJV, Greek, and Romanized Greek.

TWMC. Read the first line for the meaning and flow of the verse in your selected language. This paraphrase may expand an idea that the Greek expresses more compactly. KJV. Read the second line for the exact wording of the King James Version. Italics identify supplied words as marked in the source edition.

Greek. Read the third line as the Greek source text. Repeated names, words, endings, and sentence patterns can become easier to recognize through comparison.

Romanized Greek. Read the fourth line to follow the Greek letters in the Roman alphabet. This is transliteration, not another English translation.

Read the four layers as a single unit. Compare the selected-language paraphrase with the English KJV, then use the Greek and Romanized Greek to explore the source text.

A Note About Romanized Greek

Romanization, also called transliteration, represents Greek letters with Roman letters and marks. In this edition, forms such as ē and ō help distinguish Greek letter values consistently. The Romanized line follows the Greek text; it is not a second English rendering and should not be used as though it were one.

No Romanization system can reproduce every feature of Greek pronunciation. Readers who use Erasmian, reconstructed Koine, or modern Greek pronunciation may sound some words differently. Those differences do not change the purpose of the line: to help the reader identify, follow, and speak the written Greek with greater confidence.

How This Work Should Be Used

Read a passage first for its complete thought. Then return to individual verses and compare all four layers. Record questions and observations and consult reliable study tools.

An interlinear Bible cannot answer every grammatical, textual, historical, or theological question by itself. Its strength is that it places the text and the reader close together. The goal of this work is to make that comparison clear, consistent, and useful while keeping the Greek visible as the source to which every English wording must answer.

Copyright and Rights Notice

THE WORD, MADE CLEAR

Matthew Mark Luke John and Acts

New Testament working edition

Copyright © 2026 James Childers and Bravo Zulu Media. All rights reserved worldwide.

Developed and edited by James Childers. Published by Bravo Zulu Media.

Copyrighted Material

The TWMC English paraphrase and original introductions, explanatory material, transliteration, editorial arrangement, design, and branding remain protected by the existing copyright notice. No copyright claim is made here over the underlying Greek source or KJV text. Free website access does not change the existing permissions policy.

Permissions and Attribution

THE WORD, MADE CLEAR (TWMC) may be quoted without written permission up to 500 verses per work, provided the quotations do not reproduce an entire biblical book, constitute more than 25 percent of the work, or form the principal content of a competing Scripture product.

Suggested attribution: Scripture paraphrase quotations marked TWMC are from THE WORD, MADE CLEAR: A Modern English Paraphrase of the New Testament, developed and edited by James Childers. Copyright © 2026 Bravo Zulu Media. Used by permission. thewordmadeclear.com.

Bulk reproduction, scraping, dataset creation, AI training or fine-tuning, full-corpus embedding, translation, adaptation, or creation of derivative Scripture products requires written permission. For the complete permissions policy, visit thewordmadeclear.com. Rights and permissions requests may be sent to copyrights@jameschilders.com.

KJV Source and Edition

King James Version, standardized 1769 text, eBible.org edition eng-kjv2006, courtesy of CrossWire Bible Society and eBible.org. Wording and supplied-word italics are retained; Strong’s numbers are omitted. Source and rights notice: https://ebible.org/find/show.php?id=eng-kjv2006. Free reading on thewordmadeclear.com does not grant additional rights in TWMC material.

Greek Source Text and Public Domain Notice

Source Citation

The Greek text reproduced in this edition is derived from The Greek New Testament According to the Byzantine Text, with Comparative Apparatuses, edited and prepared by the Guardian Press Editorial Committee; layout and content editor, J. Jeffrey Dodson (Valparaiso, Indiana: Guardian Press, Inc., public release edition, 2026).

The main text is based upon and aligned with Maurice A. Robinson and William G. Pierpont, eds., The New Testament in the Original Greek: Byzantine Textform, 2026. The Greek texts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts have been extracted from the main text and reformatted for this interlinear edition. Chapter and verse divisions are retained; comparative apparatuses, manuscript apparatuses, footnote callers, and other apparatus markings are not reproduced.

Public Domain Status

Guardian Press, Inc. and J. Jeffrey Dodson dedicated The Greek New Testament According to the Byzantine Text to the public domain upon its public release, waiving copyright and related rights to the extent permitted by law. The source expressly permits copying, modification, distribution, performance, reproduction, and commercial use without requesting permission.

No Copyright Claim in the Underlying Greek Text

James Childers and Bravo Zulu Media make no claim of copyright ownership over the underlying public-domain Byzantine Greek New Testament text. Copyright protection in this publication applies to its original English, transliteration, editorial arrangement, design, branding, and other independently created material. The public-domain status of the Greek source does not place those original contributions into the public domain.

Source Disclaimer

The permitted use or reproduction of the Greek text or other material contained within the Guardian Press volume does not imply doctrinal or theological agreement by its editors and publisher with views maintained or promulgated by other publishers.

Its inclusion here does not imply endorsement by Guardian Press, Inc., J. Jeffrey Dodson, Maurice A. Robinson, William G. Pierpont, or the Guardian Press Editorial Committee of the English paraphrase, transliteration, introductions, editorial conclusions, or other original material in this volume. Those contributions were independently developed and edited by James Childers and published by Bravo Zulu Media.

Source Acknowledgment

This edition gratefully acknowledges the decades of scholarly work of Dr. Maurice A. Robinson and the late William G. Pierpont, together with the work of the Guardian Press Editorial Committee in making a modern edition of the Byzantine Greek New Testament freely available for study and use.

What Is the Byzantine Text

The Byzantine Text is the form of the Greek New Testament preserved in the large majority of surviving Greek manuscripts from the medieval Greek-speaking Church. It is a broad and remarkably coherent manuscript tradition, not a modern text invented by one editor or denomination. This edition uses The Greek New Testament According to the Byzantine Text (Guardian Press, 2026), whose main text is aligned with the Robinson–Pierpont Byzantine Textform 2026.

Where It Came From

The Byzantine tradition developed through the ordinary copying and transmission of the New Testament in Greek-speaking churches over many centuries. Earlier scholars sometimes proposed a deliberate fourth-century revision or recension, but no historical evidence for an official recension has been found. Discussion now centers on how the Byzantine text became widespread and internally consistent: some scholars emphasize gradual development through transmission, while defenders of the Byzantine Textform understand that coherence as evidence of faithful preservation of an early text.

The claim that the Byzantine text most closely reflects the original writings is a textual-critical conclusion; it cannot be established simply by counting manuscripts.

How It Differs from Other Greek Texts

No original handwritten copy of a New Testament book survives. Instead, thousands of manuscripts, fragments, quotations, and ancient translations sometimes differ in spelling, word order, individual words, phrases, and, more rarely, larger passages. Modern critical editions such as Nestle–Aland often give significant weight to very early witnesses while also evaluating internal evidence and transmission history.

The Byzantine text should not be confused with the Textus Receptus. They agree frequently because the Textus Receptus was largely derived from later Byzantine manuscripts, but they are not identical. In THE WORD, MADE CLEAR, the Byzantine reading governs wherever textual traditions materially differ.

Reliability and Transparency

The Byzantine tradition is serious, historically important, and highly reliable. That does not mean every scholar considers its reading original at every variant. Manuscript age matters, but it is not the only evidence: a later copy can preserve an ancient reading, and an early copy can contain a scribal error. Most differences among Greek New Testament manuscripts concern spelling, word order, articles, synonyms, or short phrases and do not change Christian doctrine.

This project uses a stable rule: the Byzantine Greek text is the source; other textual traditions are comparison witnesses; and material differences should be identified openly. That keeps every English and Romanized line accountable to a clearly defined Greek text.

Pronunciation and Transliteration Guide

The Romanized line is a readable scholarly transliteration. It represents the Greek letters and words in the Roman alphabet so that readers can follow the source text before they are fluent in the Greek alphabet. It is not an English translation, and the Greek line always remains primary.

Reading the Four Layers

Each verse appears in the same order: the TWMC paraphrase in the selected language, the English KJV, the Byzantine Greek source text, and the same Greek in Roman letters. The Romanized line corresponds directly to the Greek line above it and follows Greek word order. No English meaning is inserted into it.

Example: “A record of the lineage of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” Βίβλος γενέσεως Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ, υἱοῦ Δαυίδ, υἱοῦ Ἀβραάμ. Biblos geneseōs Iēsou Christou, huiou Dauid, huiou Abraam.

How to Read the Romanized Greek Aloud

The spelling is primarily orthographic rather than phonetic. Read each symbol consistently and pronounce every written syllable. Long marks distinguish Greek letters: ē represents eta (η), while e represents epsilon (ε); ō represents omega (ω), while o represents omicron (ο). A rough breathing contributes an initial h, as in ἁμαρτία — hamartia; a smooth breathing normally adds no letter, as in ἀγάπη — agapē.

Scholars differ about the precise pronunciation of Koine Greek across periods and regions. Readers using reconstructed Koine, modern Greek, or traditional Erasmian pronunciation will sound some vowels and consonants differently. This guide therefore helps readers identify and sound out the written forms consistently; it does not claim to reproduce one exact first-century pronunciation.

Vowels

α = a; ε = e; η = ē; ι = i; ο = o; υ = y; ω = ō. Eta and omega retain the long marks so they remain distinguishable from epsilon and omicron.

Common Diphthongs

αι = ai; ει = ei; οι = oi; αυ = au; ευ = eu; ηυ = ēu; ου = ou; υι = ui. These combinations are transliterated consistently rather than respelled to imitate modern English pronunciation.

Consonants

β = b; γ = g; δ = d; ζ = z; θ = th; κ = k; λ = l; μ = m; ν = n; ξ = x; π = p; ρ = r; σ or ς = s; τ = t; φ = ph; χ = ch; ψ = ps.

Special Conventions

Rough breathing is represented by h where appropriate: ἡμέρα — hēmera and υἱός — huios. Initial rho with rough breathing is rh: ῥῆμα — rhēma. Gamma before gamma, kappa, chi, or xi may be nasal and is rendered n where appropriate: ἄγγελος — angelos. The historical iota subscript is omitted in the Romanized line: τῷ — tō rather than tōi.

Greek accents remain in the Greek line but are not reproduced as stress marks in the Romanized line. Greek punctuation is retained in the source line; familiar Roman punctuation may be used in transliteration for readability. Proper names follow their Greek forms: Ἰησοῦς — Iēsous; Ἰωάννης — Iōannēs; Δαυίδ — Dauid; Ἀβραάμ — Abraam; Ματθαῖος — Matthaios.

Transliteration Is Not Translation

The form λόγος — logos identifies the Greek letters; it does not decide whether the word means word, message, statement, account, or another expression in a particular context. Translation asks what the Greek means here. Transliteration asks how the Greek letters are represented in the Roman alphabet.

Editorial Rules

1. The printed Greek governs every Romanized line. 2. The Byzantine main text is preserved. 3. Transliteration never becomes translation. 4. Proper names remain Greek forms. 5. Every displayed Greek word is represented. 6. Greek word order is retained. 7. The conventions remain consistent. 8. Every line is checked against the Greek. 9. Apparatus symbols are excluded from the biblical text. 10. The Greek remains visually primary.

Why This Guide Is Included

Readers who repeatedly encounter θεός — theos, κύριος — kyrios, πίστις — pistis, χάρις — charis, ἁμαρτία — hamartia, δικαιοσύνη — dikaiosynē, μετάνοια — metanoia, and βασιλεία — basileia can begin recognizing important biblical words before mastering the full alphabet or completing a formal Greek course. The guide removes an unnecessary barrier while keeping the source text in view.