David Bentley Hart

Though I am not a practising Christian, I remain fascinated by religions and how they came to be. In particular, I'm very interested in the history of that diverse collection of documents we call the Bible: how those documents were selected, who wrote them, when they were written, how it was decided to include or exclude them, and what those varied authors had to say.

This new translation of the New Testament by David Bentley Hart is truly interesting, because he has attempted what he calls a 'pitilessly literal' translation from the original Greek (you know that all of the New Testament was originally written in Greek, don't you?). In doing this, he says that he has attempted to provide as thin a layer of translation as possible between the modern reader and the original authors of these documents. He carefully documents his treatment of certain words and phrases and explains why he has chosen to translate them in a particular way.

Lest I give you the wrong impression, Hart is a committed Christian, who believes the writings of the Bible were divinely inspired, but that this "must involve an acknowledgement that God speaks through human beings, in all their historical, cultural and personal contingency."

In many cases, though, Hart's literal translation, insisting on focusing on what the actual words of the original Greek say, rather than on what the layers of theological teachings over the centuries demand that it *should* say, demonstrates that much of the latter interpretation is misplaced. For example, there is nothing in the original Greek which supports the concept of original sin, or that of eternal torment in Hell for sinners. Nor was the Apostle Paul the stiff mysogynist some have made him out to be (indeed my respect for Paul has been increased greatly by reading Hart's translation of Paul's letters—you actually begin to get a sense of him as an actual person). There's one passage in one of Paul's letters, a couple of paragraphs condemning women, which Hart demonstrates convincingly is a later, clumsy insertion into Paul's writing, interrupting a logical argument he is setting out about an entirely different issue.

Certainly those Christians who insist that every word of the New Testament is the literal voice of God, but then want to lean on unlikely readings of the text to make it agree with a particular theological stance they hold, will not like Hart's translation. I, though, found it extremely interesting and refreshing.

Hart's foreword, his footnotes about his translation decisions, and his long 'Concluding Scientific Postcript' are worth the price of the book alone.… (mere)