Young used the Textus Receptus (TR) and the Masoretic Text (MT) as the basis for his translation.

He wrote in the preface to the first edition, "It has been no part of the Translator's plan to attempt to form a New Hebrew or Greek Text—he has therefore somewhat rigidly adhered to the received ones.

The Preface to the Second Edition states: If a translation gives a present tense when the original gives a past, or a past when it has a present; a perfect for a future, or a future for a perfect; an a for a the, or a the for an a; an imperative for a subjunctive, or a subjunctive for an imperative; a verb for a noun, or a noun for a verb, it is clear that verbal inspiration is as much overlooked as if it had no existence.

[2] Young's Literal Translation in the 1898 edition also consistently renders the Hebrew tetragrammaton (divine name) throughout the Old Testament as "Jehovah", instead of the traditional practice of representing the tetragrammaton in English as "LORD" in small capitals, but editions prior to 1898 do say "LORD" in small capitals.

The Revised Standard Version (RSV), which is based on Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, for example, treats verses 1–3 in this way: 1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

It renders one passage as "And on the first of the Sabbaths" while it translates another as "And on the first of the week" even though the two phrases are identical in the Greek texts.

To quote the preface, "Every effort has been made to secure a comparative degree of uniformity in rendering the original words and phrases.

"), which is rendered by the King James' translators in sixty-seven different ways... has been restricted and reduced to ten, and so with many others.

[6] Proponents of universal reconciliation point out that this has significant implications for soteriology and the problem of hell.

[10][page needed] Compare the following passages, quoted from YLT with words corresponding to "age" or "age-enduring" emphasised: 25And to Him who is able to establish you, according to my good news, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the secret, in the times of the ages having been kept silent, 26and now having been made manifest, also, through prophetic writings, according to a command of the age-enduring God, having been made known to all the nations for obedience of faith— 27to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to him [be] glory to the ages.

13And mayest Thou not lead us to temptation, but deliver us from the evil, because Thine is the reign, and the power, and the glory—to the ages.