Preface
The following paraphrastic translation is neither a strict translation nor a free paraphrase of Matthew chapter five.
In a strict translation, an attempt is made to give a precise rendition of the writer's very words, taken straight from the ancient language he wrote in. Even the thoughtforms of the writer's own ancient culture are then preserved. They are literalistically transferred into their exact verbal equivalent in the modern language concerned. For example: "Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel… Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Matthew 23:24,33)
