The New Testament

A Translation

By: David Bentley Hart

Narrated by: Eric Martin

David Bentley Hart undertook this new translation of the New Testament in the spirit of "etsi doctrina non daretur", "as if doctrine is not given". Reproducing the texts' often fragmentary formulations without augmentation or correction, he has produced a pitilessly literal translation, one that captures the texts' impenetrability and unfinished quality while awakening listeners to an uncanniness that often lies hidden beneath doctrinal layers.

The early Christians' sometimes raw, astonished, and halting prose challenges the idea that the New Testament affirms the kind of people we are. Hart reminds us that they were a company of extremists, radical in their rejection of the values and priorities of society not only at its most degenerate, but often at its most reasonable and decent.

"To live as the New Testament language requires," he writes, "Christians would have to become strangers and sojourners on the earth, to have here no enduring city, to belong to a Kingdom truly not of this world. And we surely cannot do that, can we?"

©2017 David Bentley Hart (P)2018 Tantor

Critic reviews

"This necessary, brilliantly presented translation reads like taking a biblical studies class with a provocative professor." (Publishers Weekly)

Excellent translation.

Finally, a translation I feel I can trust.
Of course the book itself is pretty good too. I appreciate it more, the more times I listen to it.

Great Translation

This is a Great Scholarly translation of the Greek New Testament of Our Holy Bible and a look can help someone

Interesting translation and reading

I am not an exert in the new testament but this translation very accessible and the notes useful to make more sense of the context. In a way even if less poetic than other translation its nicer and seems less confusing.

Currently my favorite translation

Makes you think. Rather than be forced into the common translations out there today that are done by committee and driven by evangelical thinking.

A sublime translation

Since this translation of the Bible was written a few short years ago I have not been able to put it down. My faith has grown to depths I didn’t know was possible and (coupled with David Bentley Harts “That all shall be saved”) have grown to heights of seeing I don’t believe I could have done without it. I own a hard cover, a well worn paperback, and now have listened to this reading multiple times. It speaks to the power of the translation that I was able to tolerate the narrator. The entirely of this translation is read with absolute flatness. At most an occasional grammatical note will cause a slight change of infliction or tone. Monotone reins. In some ways this has its charms, nearly a meditative quality (hence an additional star). The only benefit on the whole is that indeed, this audiobook allows you to take in this masterful illumination of the Bible at work, at the gym, cleaning at home, whatever. And for this reason alone I encourage you to buy it.