Keaster added 6 items to their collection
2 years, 4 months ago
Keaster added 1 item to Read in '22 list
A very fresh and literal translation of the New Testament form original Greek. I most certainly do not identify myself as a Christian, but I did enjoy this book quite a lot, I must say, and I partly do understand its enchantment to so many people across time and space for the last 2000 years. It really is quite a captivating book: the Gospels and the Apocalypse are pretty dang tight poetical prose and they read very, very well, especially in Hart's translation, that indeed does not smooth over stuff as basically every other translation of the book apparently does. My knowledge of ancient Greek is not very extensive, although I do understand a bit of the basics of it and know a few words here and there, and on the basis of that this definitely seems to be a very accurate and truthful rendering of the original. Hart also opens up a lot of difficult phrasings and words in footnotes, and sometimes just leaves them as they are in their incomprehensibleness, which I can appreciate. But man I must say that the Pauline epistles are reeeeeeeaally tiresome and irritating and weary. The dude was apparently in some sort of control-obsessive psychosis, because he repeatedly states that everybody must believe and act as he does and says, anything else being horribly bad, ignorant and wrong. Get real mate, and kindly pull your head out of your ass to see that it's not quite so black-and-white, as easy as it would be if it were true. Well anyways... it's definitely a must-read for anybody who really wants to understand our Graeco-Roman derived Western culture, or for anybody interested in culture and history in general. I especially recommend precisely this translation.
2 years, 4 months ago
Keaster added 8 items to their collection
2 years, 4 months ago
Keaster added 5 items to their collection
2 years, 5 months ago