A new New Testament Translation Bonus

I have now read most of "The New Testament - A Translation" by David Bentley Hart (17th February 2019 Post) and it has become my goto translation for study and bed-time reading.

I must say though that Hart's vocabulary far outstrips mine and he uses English words that I have not previously met - both in his translation and in his footnotes, introduction and postscript. So I always keep a dictionary close by whenever I read it.

The author's lengthy INTRODUCTION was most enlightening as it explained his approach to the translation process he adopted and the challenges he faced in translating the Greek writing styles of a wide range of original authors from 2000 years ago.

Here are some snippets ...

Hart attempted to "write a translation of scripture not shaped by later theological and doctrinal history".
"My principal aim is to help awaken readers to mysteries and uncertainties and surprises in the New Testament documents that often lie wholly hidden from view between the layers of received hermeneutical and theological tradition."
"Where the Greek of the original is maladroit, broken, or impenetrable (as it is with some consistency in Paul's letters), so is the English of my translation; where an author has written bad Greek (such as one finds throughout the book of Revelation), I have written bad English. Even then, I have not captured all the idiosyncrasies of the text."

The INTRODUCTION also contained some of Hart's personal experience while on the translation journey.
Here is an example ...

"I know that writing this translation caused me to absorb certain conclusions about the world of the early church at a deeper level than I could have anticipated. Most of them I already knew, admittedly, if often as little more than shadows glimpsed through a veil of conventional habits of thought - for instance, how stark the dualism really is, in Paul's letters and elsewhere in the New Testament, between "flesh" and spirit", or how greatly formulations that seem to imply universal salvation outnumber those very few that appear (and rather nebulously) to threaten an ultimate damnation for the wicked."

All of Hart's INTRODUCTION (and his even lengthier POSTSCRIPT) are informative and worthy of frequent perusal, and are a bonus supplement to the publication.

And of course, to me, his discovery of God's plan of universal reconciliation/salvation just through his non-theological, unbiased translation of the Greek Scriptures was a highlight, and confirmation of the necessity of accurate translations to correctly understand God's plan for His creation, and almost worth the price of the book alone.

Blessings, Barry