The other day I read Kelvin Wright's review of the newly published David Bentley Hart translation of the New Testament.
In the strength of that review I ordered my own copy from Amazon.
I might not have done so if I had read Wesley Hill's review first! (H/T Michael Bird on Twitter). Side note: in the next 100 years I do not imagine we will see a state broadcaster in NZ which carries wonderful religion material like the ABC (of Oz, not USA) does.
This morning Bryden Black in a comment alerts us to this First Things review.
Guess I had better read my copy when it comes :)
Something Hart seems to be doing, according to the reviews, in this 500th year of the Reformation, is to reform - at least a little bit - our understanding of the New Testament.
Scot McKnight has also commented on this new translation (at
ReplyDeletehttp://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2017/10/09/david-bentley-harts-new-testament/) with some pertinent comments on "Translation Tribalism". I suspect that this will be a good translation for those who know their bible too well. It is too easy to see in the text what we believe is there.
Eddie Arthur has an interesting post on bible translation here: https://www.kouya.net/?p=8668. Translation needs to evoke the same kind of thoughts in its readers/hearers as the original did in those who read and hear it. This idea suggests that Hart's translation would not be so good for those unfamiliar with the bible and its world.