Liberal Translation of the New Testament

The Harwood New Testament is a distinctive attempt to render the New Testament in the polished literary English of the eighteenth century. Its scope is limited to the New Testament, translated from Greek on the basis of the Greek New Testament, and it is classed as a fresh translation rather than a revision of earlier versions, guided by a highly literary, classical philosophy. Among its distinctive features is an elevated style that often expands or embellishes simple Greek, replacing plain wording with more ornate periphrasis. The work belongs to a period in which the authority of the King James Version was increasingly tested by independent English renderings, and in which translators experimented with contemporary taste and idiom. It is chiefly remembered today as an illustration of that experimental impulse, and its manner has more often drawn comment than emulation among later translators.