There is a new translation of the New Testament which has just come out.
It is by an Orthodox* scholar called David Bentley Hart. If you Google him, you will see that he looks very serious and has a totally theological beard.
See what I mean?
Anyway, he has worked very hard to translate the New Testament into English, sticking as closely as possible to the original Greek in the context of the First century understanding. As an Orthodox theologian, this has meant heavy research into the Early Church Father’s understanding of words and phrases. The result is pretty radical – and I mean radical in the true sense of the word, which is “getting back to the original meaning”.
Here is an example. The word aionios is normally translated as eternal which we understand means everlasting. The root of the word is aion which means “an age”. In the ancient world the only time aionios meant everlasting was when it was used in conjunction with God (Everlasting God). Whenever else it was used, it meant of the Age. The Jews believed that we live in the present evil age and that when the Messiah came, that would be the day when all the evil is banished and the “Age to come” will begin. So, for example, “eternal life” meant life of the age, which means the life that we will have in the future age, right now. In other words aionios was a quality of life, not a timing of life. When we read “eternal life” in our translations, we read everlasting life or life after death, which is never what it meant. Hart translates eternal life as “life of the Age” which is far closer to what the first readers would have understood.
Here is another example. The word that most translations translate as “worship” is proskuneo. But proskuneo literally means to prostrate yourself or to bow down or to pay homage to. It is more than a physical act because it involves pledging and showing your allegiance to a king. When we read worship, we read it through our western, charismatic, evangelical lenses and read “singing songs”, but the problem is that every occurrence of proskuneo refers to someone literally bowing down and paying homage. Not once, is it ever linked with singing songs (but we digress into one of my hobby horses!) Hart translates it as “make obeisance to”. (I know! I had to look it up too. Then I had to look up how to actually say it (its obay-sance, by the way)).
NT Wright criticises Hart for using words like this because they are archaic and no one knows what they mean, but I am beginning to see why he does. “Bow down” is not enough, because I can bow down to anyone and not mean it, but “make obeisance” means “bowing down to show allegiance and obedience to” which is a far fuller and richer meaning and much closer to the original.
That was not the only word I had to look up!
When you read it, it brings a real depth to passages that have lost their meaning or have been unclear. When you read that the wise men came to make obeisance to Jesus, it makes more sense and you get a more accurate picture of what was happening.
Anyway, enough of my yakking.
Get this translation. It is awesome (but still read the Old Testament as well).
*By Orthodox, I mean a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church. For a fuller and awesome explanation of what this means, then I really recommend this Nomad Podcast interview with Brad Jersak.
2 Comments
Hi Matt has David Bentley Hart done a translation of the Hebrew or Aramic of the Old Testament and if not whose translation do you recommend?
Hi Andy,
He is a New Testament theologian primarily so I don’t think he has.
I am not sure who to recommend.
Matt