Definitions

Dueterocanonicals: Those seven books of the Old Testament that were removed by the reformers: Martin Luther, et all. The removal was said to be doctrinal, but was mostly political. The deuterocanonicals are: Baruch, Sirach, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Tobit, Judith, and Wisdom. Also, parts of Esther and Daniel were tossed out. By the way, Luther also wanted to throw out, but was restrained: Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, and Revelation (Apocolypse). The reason that the reformers removed these books was that they tend to support Catholic doctrines, such as purgatory, salvation by grace and works, prayer for the dead, liturgical celebration of the Mass, etc.

Literal Translation: A literal translation attempts to translate the original languages, such as Greek and Hebrew, word for word into English except where idiomatically impossible. Nuances in the original language are usually preserved in the English. Since the translation is literal, the translation is said to be "tight" with very little room for insertion of doctrinal "spins" by the translators. Literal translations are a good choice for serious bible study. The tone of the language of literal translations tends to be powerful and poetic. Examples: Douay-Rheims, King James, New King James, Revised Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, etc.

Dynamic Translation: A dynamic translation carries forth from the original languages the "thought" rather than the exact words. Dynamic translations are written in more "modern" and up-to-date English, and are more "readable" than literal translations. Dynamic translations leave much "room" for doctrinal tinkering by translators because the stress is on the ideas rather than on the words. Examples: New American Bible, New International Version.

Very Dynamic Translation: Very dynamic translations are written in very loose language with an easy-flowing English style. A very dynamic rendering makes no attempt to closely follow the original languages with any accuracy in the translation. Very dynamic translations are easy to read. Examples: Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, The Living Bible, the New Living Bible, The Good News Bible, Today's English Version, etc.

Inclusive: An Inclusive translation is one that renders men as genderless. For example, God is never referred to as "He", and all male pronouns such as "he" and "him", etc. are removed from the text. Even the word "brother" is replaced by generic terms such as "persons". Inclusive translations are an experience in the bizarre to read. Examples: New Revised Standard Version.

Note: Zondervan publishing tried to launch an inclusive version of its famous New International Version (NIV), but was told by the Southern Baptist Convention that none of it's members would buy another product published by them if they did publish an inclusive NIV. Zondervan dropped all plans to publish an inclusive bible. The main impetus of inclusive language translations is feminism and money. Feminism should be self-explanatory; money, because a new version sells, and there is a very large profit in bibles.