Translation Lab
Our in-progress first English translations
These are draft-quality, AI-assisted translations of Christian works that have never appeared in English — or have only appeared in loose paraphrase. They live here rather than in the main library because we want to be upfront: the English is readable, but many of these translations involved interpretive reconstruction from damaged historical OCR. We'd rather tell you where the weak spots are than pretend we produced uniformly polished work.
Looking for finished, audit-approved first-English works? See First English Translations in the main library.
Every translation in this directory is a first-pass AI-assisted rendering of a classic Christian work. For translations graded A or A-, you can read with confidence. For grades B+ and B, the English is reliable but specific citations, proper nouns, Hebrew/Greek quotations, and back-matter indices may involve reconstruction — spot-check before using as a scholarly citation. For grades B- and below, treat the translation as a study aid, not a scholarly edition. We'd rather tell you honestly where the weak spots are than pretend we produced 13 uniformly polished works. If you catch an error, the site has a feedback form — corrections are welcome and tracked.
E Voto Dordraceno: Toelichting op den Heidelbergschen Catechismus (Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, Volume 3)
Clean Dutch source from a comparatively modern edition (1890s), crisp and idiomatic English output that preserves Kuyper's forceful argumentative voice. Scripture references in Dutch abbreviation form preserved.
- Pairs
- 2,520
De Vruchteloose Bid-dagen van Nederlandt (The Fruitless Prayer-Days of the Netherlands)
Clean Dutch source, zero low-confidence flags, natural and idiomatic English rendering of Koelman's jeremiad-style prose. One of the strongest translations in this directory.
- Pairs
- 38
Theologoumena Pantodapa (Book VI: De Theologia Evangelica)
Strong, production-quality literal translation of Owen's theological prose with honest flagging of OCR-damaged Greek and back-matter index entries. First known literal English rendering of this book (Westcott's 1994 Biblical Theology is a loose paraphrase of Book I only).
- Pairs
- 427
- Flagged
- 181
Theologoumena Pantodapa (Book V: De Theologiae Mosaicae Corruptione et Reparatione)
Publication-grade for the Latin body prose. First known literal English rendering of Owen's treatment of Mosaic corruption and reparation. High low-confidence rate reflects destroyed inline Hebrew/Greek in the 1862 OCR source, not translation error — the Latin body itself is clean.
- Pairs
- 275
- Flagged
- 206
Theologoumena Pantodapa (Book III: De Theologia Noachica Postdiluviana)
Strong on clean Latin (~30% of blocks, A-quality — fluent ESV-style literal English, consistent glossary application). Low-confidence rate of 69% is driven by the source (17th-century OCR with destroyed inline Greek/Hebrew/Phoenician), not by translator error.
- Pairs
- 431
- Flagged
- 298
Theologoumena Pantodapa (Book IV: De Theologia Abrahamica et Mosaica)
Consistent with the Owen Theologoumena Pantodapa pipeline (Books III, V, VI graded B+ / A-). Sampled output (Samaritan Pentateuch / Hexapla discussion) reads as fluent scholarly English with preserved authorial voice. Low-confidence rate moderate relative to Book V.
- Pairs
- 185
- Flagged
- 129
Theologoumena Pantodapa (Book II: De Theologia Adamica Sublapsaria Antediluviana)
Shortest of the Owen volumes. Notably low low-confidence rate (7 pairs total) suggests clean Latin with minimal Hebrew/Greek dependency — closer to A- territory pending full audit.
- Pairs
- 70
- Flagged
- 7
Theologoumena Pantodapa (Book I: De Theologia in Genere)
Book I of the six-volume Theologoumena Pantodapa. Samples show fluent rendering of Owen's chapter-argument summaries and scholastic prose. Consistent with the broader pipeline quality observed in Books II-VI.
- Pairs
- 345
De Eucharistia Tractatus Maior (The Greater Treatise on the Eucharist)
Coherent English rendering of a doctrinally sensitive medieval text. Heavy OCR artifacts from the Wyclif Society critical edition (marginalia, apparatus, manuscript collation notes) inflate the low-confidence count, but the main theological argument comes through. Requires specialist verification for eucharistic theology specifics given Wyclif's controversial remanence position.
- Pairs
- 367
- Flagged
- 346
Brevis Syllabus Controversiarum (A Brief Syllabus of Controversies)
Heavy OCR damage on the Geneva/Zurich edition used as source (fraktur-like 'f' → 's' long-s artifacts throughout, e.g. 'Chriftum' instead of 'Christum', 'fatis-' instead of 'satis-'). Translation successfully recovers the meaning in almost every case, but the high low-confidence rate means most blocks involved interpretive reconstruction from damaged orthography.
- Pairs
- 532
- Flagged
- 390
Tractatus Mysteriorum (Treatise on the Mysteries)
Source is catastrophically OCR-damaged. Late antique text with idiosyncratic Latin preserved only in fragmentary manuscripts, passed through OCR that rendered many characters as garbage ('licbccca' for 'Rebecca', 'babct' for 'habet', 'camclos' for 'camelos'). The translation makes coherent English sentences from this soup, but the reader should understand they are reading heavy interpretive reconstruction rather than a rendering of Hilary's Latin.
- Pairs
- 371
- Flagged
- 362
Beschouwinge van Zion (Contemplation of Zion)
Source OCR is catastrophically damaged — samples show unreadable character soup ('rT^^^ J®*^' J'^^^'?"^^', '(Ijji(len', 'ujden', 'oetFeaingen') across much of the text. The translation produces fluent English, but it is heavily interpretive reconstruction. Risk of misrepresenting Lodenstein is real.
- Pairs
- 4,138