Why NLT

Another approach emphasizes that meaning in language is conveyed by groups of words working together. This approach, often called functional equivalence or meaning-based translation, tries less to find the single meaning of each word in the original, and more to understand and convey the meaning of entire phrases, clauses and sentences.  To use an example from a modern language, the Spanish phrase ¿Como se llama?, translated literally, would be something like “How yourself call?” This would be a poor translation. A more accurate, though less literal, rendering would be “What’s your name?” Meaning-based translation theory claims this situation occurs frequently in all translation, including in translation of the biblical languages.  From introduction to The [expanded] Bible