Second Testament

The Second Testament is a fresh translation of the New Testament, rendered from the Greek on the basis of the Greek New Testament, that intentionally allows each author's syntax and cultural distance to remain visible to the reader. Rather than smoothing the diverse voices of the New Testament writers into a uniform modern idiom, its approach is form-sensitive and deliberately unfamiliar, inviting readers to notice the strangeness of an ancient collection of letters, gospels, and other writings composed in Greek in the early centuries of the Christian movement. In this it belongs to a long tradition of English renderings that weigh closeness to the source language against readability. The volume is designed as a conceptual companion to Goldingay's First Testament, which treats the Hebrew scriptures in a similar spirit, though The Second Testament is the work of a different translator and is made from Greek rather than Hebrew.